Page 3 of Brandishing Betrayals (Devil’s Psychos MC #2)

Three months later

Maya

S eeing Jason with that woman had haunted me for days, even months later, the hurt and anger warred within me.

I knew I didn’t have a claim to him; knew he’d probably been with hundreds of women in the last ten years.

I had no right to feel this pain, not after I walked away from him—from all three of them.

Still, it tore through me and kept me up at night.

I had done what I had to ten years ago. Now I would have to live with those consequences. I couldn’t let them near me to find out the real reason I left.

“Mom,” Lucas pulled me out of my thoughts. “I’m thinking of joining the football team.”

“What football team?” I asked, looking up from the book I was reading.

“There’s one through the park district, I think? Or it’s a travel team? I don’t know, but a lot of the guys at camp were talking about it,” Luke explained.

“What’s the name of it?” I picked up my phone, prepared to google.

“Panthers.”

I typed in Panther football Mourningside, IL into google and quickly found the website. I spent the next ten minutes looking into the registration details and scheduling. “Practice is three nights a week in the evening with games every Saturday. Practice is from four to six—oh.”

“Oh,” Luke frowned, realizing the same thing.

I worked till four-thirty every day. I wouldn’t be able to get him there.

“Would Grandma be able to drive me?” Luke asked, his voice dejected, because he already knew the answer.

I shook my head sadly. “I’m sorry baby. You know she can’t drive right now.”

Luke huffed out a heavy sigh and turned back to the TV.

My heart broke as the disappointment settled on Luke’s beautiful face. “Let me ask your dad, alright?”

Luke perked up at and grinned.

I slowly typed out a text message to Marcos.

Maya :

Luke wants to sign up for football through the Panthers travel team. Practices would be every tues, wed, thurs, from 4-6 pm. Is there any way you can take him to practice on those days? I would be able to pick him up.

I sent the message and exited the messaging app. I sighed internally, knowing that Marcos had been working his ass off the last several months, trying to save up to buy a house, so he could have a place for Luke to stay with him on the weekends.

My phone pinged a moment later. I opened the message app and saw Marcos’s reply.

Marcos :

Yep.

Straight to the point, as usual with Marcos. I forced down my disappointment from his one-word answer. I was grateful he was willing to do anything for Luke, but the distance Marcos put between the two of us hurt.

I shoved down the pain and disappointment and forced a smile on my face. “Your dad said he could take you.”

“Yes!” Luke shouted and jumped off the couch, pumping a fist into the air in excitement. “Heck yeah!”

His enthusiasm was infectious. I laughed and jumped off recliner to hug him. “Thanks mom!” He wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug.

I hugged him back, savoring his happiness. “No problem honey.” I held him a moment longer before he pulled away, bouncing over to the couch.

“I can’t wait to tell the guys tomorrow!”

I grinned and picked up my phone. “I’m gonna jump on the computer to register you, OK?”

Luke just nodded, already enthralled in the TV program.

I walked down the hall to my old childhood bedroom. Not much had changed in the room since I’d gone off to college. I hadn’t spent much time at my parents’ house after college. I had moved in with Marcos, Jason, and Nico almost right away.

I settled on the full-sized mattress and pulled my secondhand laptop off the nightstand. I pulled up the website info again and opened the registration page and paused—registration was six-hundred and fifty dollars.

My heart sank, clenching in my chest. It was too expensive.

How was I going to pull this off, plus pay for my student loans, and help my parents with their bills?

Things were tight enough as it was before I moved back to Mourningside.

I thought of how happy and excited Luke had just been—the happiest I’d seen him since learning we were leaving our home in Chicago.

I couldn’t take that away from him, even if it meant I went without something else.

I sighed and reached for my purse on the floor.

I pulled out my wallet, taking out my credit card, and prayed there would be enough on the balance to pay for this—already calculating how much gas was in my car and how much food was in the house.

My parents’ car accident had eaten away at their savings and mine. Medicare didn’t cover a home nurse and state-run care facilities were horrible. I would do everything I could to keep my father home for as long as possible.

My father’s injuries had been extensive. He had already been slowly losing his mind to dementia before the accident, but since the accident, he mostly lived in his own world. He was bedridden and required a full-time nurse.

Thankfully my mother’s injuries weren’t as extensive.

I counted my blessings that my mother was still able to move around, mostly on her own, and that she still had her mind.

Though she was homebound now, no longer able to drive since the accident, she was able to help put dinner on the table most evenings, if she was up to it.

Her energy levels were not what they used to be though; the accident had just taken too much from her body—she was frail.

I paid the fee for football and let out a deep breath when I received the payment confirmation. Thank God, I thought. I wouldn’t be crushing my son’s dreams and wouldn’t have to have an embarrassing conversation with Marcos where I begged him for money.