Page 19 of Brandishing Balance (Devil’s Psychos MC #3)

Nico

R elief washed over me as I took my seat in the recliner besides Maya. She had woken up and spoken to us. She was all right.

All right may have been a relative term, but she was alive and with us. She would pull through his. I knew it. I would make sure of it.

Marcos and Jason both let out a heavy sigh of relief as Maya’s hands grew lax and she drifted off to sleep again. The heart rate monitor, slowly returned to normal, and I glanced at the doorway to find the daytime nurse Jaylin watching from afar.

I flashed her a thumbs up and she smiled and nodded. I knew she was monitoring everything from her computers out in the nurses stand, but the check in was always nice. Even though there wasn’t much she could do for her.

Griff was scheduled to come in a couple hours.

He would check her over and give an update on weaning her off the pain meds.

After the last time she woke up, they took her off the ventilator and took out the breathing tube.

He had scaled back her meds a little after that, but warned that she would still be in a lot of pain.

Thankfully, she was no longer sepsis. The antibiotics were doing their thing to fight off the infection.

It really was just a waiting game, as Griffin had told us. Maya needed the time to rest and heal before she woke up.

I was an impatient bastard though.

So I started doing things that would encourage her to wake up, like reading to her. Only once I started reading, Jason snatched the book away that I had chosen—a popular romantasy series—and replaced it with her favorite Why Choose novel. And instead of letting me read it, Jason took over reading.

Jason took a seat on the hard-as-nails chair across the bed from me and settled into read.

Jenna had said that it was good for her, to hear our voices. It was the one thing she had agreed with since she arrived the day before. Jenna was as feisty as her sister and had ripped Griffin a new one after Maya had woken up with the breathing tube still in her throat.

Things had finally calmed down since then, but the two doctors often debated her care.

It made me happy that they were both giving their best efforts, and when Jenna agreed with something Griffin did or said, it reassured me that we had the best care for Maya.

The fiery woman was a carbon copy of her sister, but with black pin straight hair that was cut into a no-nonsense bob. She had laid us all out on our asses when she walked into the room the day before.

We were still licking their wounds while we waited for Maya to wake up.

Nico

Three days later, Maya was still unconscious.

It had been a full six days since her rescue, and I was growing impatient.

Griffin had said it was up to her at this point, but I couldn’t help but want to shake her ass awake.

I needed to see her beautiful amber eyes.

I needed to know that she was still in there.

I was sitting with her alone on a Friday night while Marcos and Jason were making an appearance at the clubhouse for the usual Friday night party. Neither man had wanted to go, but as VP, I had pointed out that either me or Marcos needed to put in an appearance, and I wasn’t leaving her side.

Marcos had grumbled about it, but when Jason agreed, they left the room, vowing to only be gone an hour. It was just the opening I needed, both men left after Jenna headed back to her mother’s house for the night, leaving me alone with Maya.

“Maya, my Little Dreamer, I need you need to wake up. I’m going crazy here without you. I need to see your eyes, hear your voice. I need to know you’re still with me.” I kissed her knuckles and squeezed her hand.

There was a faint squeeze back and Maya’s eyelids fluttered open.

“Hey, there, Little Dreamer.”

“Hi.” Her voice was soft, barely a breath.

“Welcome back. I was told if you wake, we need to try to get you to eat.”

Maya’s lips twitched in the corner of her lips. “Jello?”

“Good ole hospital Jello,” I smirked. “Maybe some ice cream too, but I’m sure the nurses want you to eat some protein shake. It’s been a week since you’ve been here.”

Maya frowned. “How…long…was…I…gone?” She was panting with the effort it took for her to get the words out, but she did so well.

“You were gone a full week.”

“And…it’s been…”

“And it’s been six days since your rescue,” I said, filling in the gaps.

Maya gasped softly.

“Don’t worry about that right now,” I said, waving my hand away. “Let’s worry about getting you some food. Do you want to sit up a bit?”

Maya nodded.

I smiled and raised the head of the bed up with the remote. Then I pressed the call button for Darla, our friendly night-shift nurse. I was just getting Maya’s pillows situated when Darla walked smiling. “Well, there’s my pretty patient finally awake. How we doing?”

“Okaaaay,” Maya said, speaking softly.

Darla grinned. “Alright. Doc said we need to get you eating. How about we start with a protein shake and see how you do? Then we get some Jello in a bit.”

“Told you so,” I chuckled.

Maya rolled her eyes, a faint smile pulling at her lips.

Twenty minutes later, we had the TV playing some car action movie we’d both seen a million times, while Maya sucked back a protein shake. It almost felt normal, though we both knew it was far from it.

“Where are…Marcos…and Jason?” Maya asked.

“They had left right before you woke up. It’s Friday night. They had to make an appearance at the clubhouse.”

Maya wrinkled her nose.

I chuckled. “Yeah. They’ve been here as much as they can. Marcos is president though, so he’s still needed, and I kicked Jason out. He kept reading to you, when it was my idea.”

Maya’s mouth dropped open in shock. “His…voice…”

“Yeah, I bet you heard his voice. It was why he did it. Took my idea and ran with it, because he knows you love his damn voice.” I laughed and shook my head. “So he read you spicy romance in that sultry voice of his.”

Maya laughed, and at first, I thought she was coughing, so I leaned forward to help her, only to realize that she was silently laughing, her shoulders shaking with glee.

My heart swelled in my chest; fucking pounded as I saw her beautiful smile. God, that was a sight for sore eyes. “Yeah, you love that shit.” I smirked and shook my head.

Darla came in to check on things when Maya’s heart-rate monitor started beeping like crazy again. She smiled when she saw Maya laughing and came over and shut the monitor off. “I think we’re good on this for a while. How’s that shake doing?”

Maya gave her a thumbs up and a grin.

My heart felt lighter than it had in the last two weeks. Shit, it felt lighter than it had in months. I knew the road to recovery would be hard for Maya, but I hoped that this was a good sign at least.