Page 14 of Brandishing Betrayals (Devil’s Psychos MC #2)

Maya

I woke the next morning to the alarm on my phone blaring from the nightstand. I tried to roll over, only to roll into a hard body. I froze, startled.

“Easy, Little Dreamer,” Nico’s deep voice muttered in my ear.

I relaxed slightly, only for the memory of Jason’s hand wrapped tightly around my neck, to crash over me.

I shimmied out of Nico’s hold and leaned over him to grab my annoying phone off the nightstand on Nico’s side of the bed.

It was five a.m. I snoozed the alarm and clutched my phone to my chest as I rolled back over.

Nico curled around my back again and held me tight. “When do you have to leave?”

“I start at seven,” I responded, my voice hoarse.

My throat hurt, it was dry and scratchy and sore.

“We have to leave by six-fifteen so I can drop Luke by the day camp at six-thirty, and still make it to work by seven.” I whispered the words, not wanting to break the moment, but also because it helped my throat.

I loved every minute wrapped up in Nico’s arms, even knowing I didn’t deserve it.

It hurt to speak though, everything felt raw.

Nico hummed softly and held me tighter, like he knew exactly what I was thinking. “Call into work today, take Luke to camp and we’ll hang out at my place.”

I sighed. “I don’t have many sick days. I can’t.”

“Baby, your voice sounds like you ate glass,” he muttered.

I grunted. He was right, and my throat fucking hurt, but I did not have the time off to spare. “I have five sick days left for the year. I can’t afford to use them, not with my dad being how he is and school starting next month. Luke gets sick every fall with the back-to-school ick.”

Nico hummed again, and my phone alarm started going off again.

I sighed and extracted myself from his arms and got out of bed and headed for the bathroom.

I had to shower still, since I didn’t wash my hair last night.

I had to make Luke lunch for camp, and I had to— “Shit,” I swore, when I looked in the bathroom mirror.

The bruising around my neck was already dark red and purple.

“Fuck, Dreamer,” Nico cursed as he walked into the bathroom, blinking at the light. “That’s not good.”

Tears welled in my eyes as I took in the red and purple fingerprints around my neck.

Blood welled under the skin. I looked rough.

“Fuck,” I whimpered. I couldn’t go to work like looking like this.

I worked in a women’s health clinic; my boss and coworkers would know immediately that there were handprint bruises around my neck.

I wouldn’t be able to explain them away.

Nico immediately turned me away from the mirror and pulled me into his arms. “Take the day, baby,” he said softly in my ear. “Take the day. You have us now. If Luke gets sick in the fall, we can be with him.”

I frowned and leaned into his chest. Would they really be there if Luke was sick? Yes, yeah, they would. I knew in my heart that Marcos would drop everything if he knew his son was sick, and if he couldn’t, Nico would.

I thought I would have been able to include Jason on the list of people that would drop everything for my son, but after last night, I wasn’t so sure.

Jason had never physically hurt me like that before, even when he used to punish me in the past, he had never left lasting marks anywhere other than my ass.

Would he drop everything for Luke? I didn’t know, and I wasn’t sure I wanted him around my son.

“Call in, baby. We’ll go to my place for the day. I’ll take the day off, too.” Nico rubbed up and down my back soothingly as he spoke softly.

“Do you live with them?” I shifted in his arms, pulling away slightly to look up at him.

Nico frowned and a shadow passed over his blue eyes. “No,” he shook his head. “We have our own places now.”

I saw it in his eyes, what he wasn’t saying. I saw the pain and heartbreak there. The pain and heartbreak that I put there. “Nic,” I spoke softly.

“Don’t.” He shook his head.

I didn’t listen, though. “How long has it been since you’ve lived with them?” I pressed him. I needed to know, even though I had a feeling I already knew the answer.

He gave me a tight look. “Since the rental house…since you left.” Nico ran a hand through his shoulder-length blond hair, musing the messy locks.

I gasped, my mouth dropping open in shock, even though I had known it in my gut. “Nic,” I murmured.

He shook his head sadly, “We fell apart after you left, Maya.”

Tears welled in my eyes and I had to look away from his beautiful face.

“Maybe if we knew why you left in the first place,” he said softly, running a knuckle over her cheekbone.

I could see what he was doing, how he was hoping to lead into that conversation, but I couldn’t do it. Not yet… not today. I needed more time. I shook my head sadly and stepped away from him, letting his hand drop from my face. “I can’t, Nic. I can’t.”

“One day, Little Dreamer, you’re going to have to tell me. Even if it rips out my heart, you’re going to have to tell us why.” He spoke gently, but firmly. His voice was deep and melodic as it rolled over me.

I knew he was right, but I couldn’t tell him. One day maybe, but not today.

“Alright babe, take your shower. Get ready for the day, I’ll get Luke up.” Nico left the bathroom after that, closing the door behind him.

I sighed and turned to the shower. I didn’t have any more time for self-pity. I needed to get in the shower and get moving. I needed the morning routine to appear as normal as possible to my mother. The last thing I needed was my mother screeching on about ‘those boys are bad news’.

Maya

“Bye Mom!” Luke yelled as he jumped out of my car at day camp.

“Bye, love you!” I called after him, before the back door slammed. I wondered if he even heard me, as he ran toward his friends near the elementary school the day camp was held.

A horn honked behind me and I cursed and drove forward. “Alright, alright,” I grumbled.

“This is intense.” Nic commented with a laugh as he glanced around the coned-off area that was the drop off lane.

“You should see it during the school year. It’s a cut-throat business, drop-off line,” I smirked.

“I bet,” Nic laughed. “Is this his school too?”

“Yep.”

“He looks like he made friends pretty easily.”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “Moving here in January might have helped. It was the middle of the school year, so he was able to meet people. We got lucky that he was in the same class as a couple of the kids from the neighborhood. It was the mom of one of his friends that told me about the day camp, which was godsend, because my mom really isn’t able to do much more than take care of my dad… Luke would have been so bored at home.”

“I’m glad you’re back,” Nic said, as I slowly pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street.

I gave him a tight smile and nodded once. “Me too.”

Nic reached over the center console of my Civic and rested his hand on my thigh. He gave it a gentle squeeze and left it there. It was a warm weight on my leg that made concentrating on anything, let alone traffic, more difficult.

“Make a stop at Buttin’s, will ya?” Nic asked, referring to the local grocery store.

I nodded and pulled into the parking lot.

“Great. I won’t be long,” Nic said as I found a parking spot. “Stay here.”

I nodded absently and waited, my mind playing over the events of the night before for the hundredth time.

How Jason’s gray eyes had glared at me with such hatred and contempt.

How he hadn’t batted an eye when I had tears running down my face, and how it took me stabbing him with a goddamned fork, for him to not kill me.

For the thousandth time, I wondered if I made the right choice a decade ago, if I had stayed, what would have happened? There was a flash out of the corner of my eye, and glanced to my left. When I didn’t see anything, I looked away, messing with the radio.

It was another ten minutes in the car, before Nico finally walked out of the grocery store, his arms laden down with plastic grocery bags. I popped the trunk for him to load everything into, listening to the bags rustle as he set everything down.

A moment later he was climbing back in the passenger seat again and had a bright ass smile on his face. I raised an eyebrow at his jovial expression, not really feeling it myself. “Ready?” I asked.

“Absolutely, Little Dreamer. Let’s go!” He slid his hand onto my thigh again, as I started up the Civic.

I rolled my eyes and backed out. “Where am I going?” I asked, as I drove through the parking lot toward an exit.

Ten minutes later, I pulled into the parking of an upscale townhouse complex. The kind where the garage was on the main level, and everything was built above it. It looked new and modern from the outside. “Park in front of the garage,” Nic directed me.

As I put the car in park, Nic got out and walked up to the garage door. On the side of the frame, I eyed a keypad. He punched in the code and a moment later the door started to open.

I popped the trunk and shut off the car, before I gathered my phone, keys, and purse. Once I had my stuff, I climbed out. Nico was already grabbing the bags from the trunk. “Come on,” he called, shutting the trunk before I could help.

I locked the car and followed him inside the empty garage. His motorcycle was back at my place, and knowing Nico, his truck was probably at the clubhouse until winter.

He led me up a set of carpeted stairs to the main level. It was an open concept living, dining and kitchen area. In the back corner, tucked behind the kitchen was a door that was opened to the bathroom. The stairs turned and continued up to a third floor, where I assumed the bedrooms were.

Everything was new and modern, masculine in shades of gray and black. Not much in the way of art or décor, but there was massive plush sectional that dominated the living room, centered around a massive TV that took up half the wall.

For the first time that morning, I smiled. “Very nice,” I told Nico, glancing at him as I headed for the couch.

He beamed brightly at me and I had to fight back the surge of butterflies in my belly at seeing that sexy ass grin aimed my way. Instead, I settled onto the fluffy couch and got comfortable. I had a solid eight hours of free time and I was going to use every minute it.

I grabbed the remote off the coffee table and flipped on the TV. I had shows to catch up on.