Page 30 of Brandishing Betrayals (Devil’s Psychos MC #2)

Taking another sip from of wine to think over my answer, I frowned slightly.

If all of this was his plan—and knowing it Nico, it was—then I’d walked right into his hands.

Why? Why go through this whole elaborate sham of a date, if he was just going to get me drunk?

And I’d only drank so much because I was nervous of being alone with him.

He also knew that—knew how I had to keep my guard up around them.

Maybe I should go with him back to his house. I could call him out for his elaborate plan. I shook my head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I hedged.

Nico grinned devilishly. Putting both elbows on the table, clearly having zero qualms about table manners and etiquette, he leaned toward me. “Come on, Little Dreamer, me and you still have plans tonight.”

He pulled away and stood up before I could say another word. I pursed my lips and grabbed my wine glass, gulping down another massive sip of wine. When Nico turned away, I scrambled to my feet. “Fuck you, Nic.”

Laughing, Nico reached back for my hand and wrapped his fingers around my wrist. He pulled me toward the door and I briefly wondered if he was going to pay or not.

When he got to the ma?tre d’ at the door, I watched him shake his hand and the other man smiled graciously as he closed his hand around a wad of cash.

That sneaky motherfucker , I thought as I was dragged away by Nico.

Nico

I didn’t drive Maya home. No, I wasn’t going to give her an out, not now. Yeah, I was playing dirty, purposely getting her drunk in the hopes of loosening her tongue so she would finally fucking talk to me, but I didn’t care. I wanted answers and I wanted them now.

Pulling into my two-car garage, I parked my car next to my Harley.

I shut off the engine and got out, all before Maya could explode.

She had been silently stewing the whole drive home.

Her fingers had dug into the leather seats when she first noticed I was driving away from her mother’s house and instead headed across town to my townhouse.

Heading upstairs, I didn’t bother to stop on the main floor where the kitchen and living rooms were, instead I headed straight up to the second floor where my bedroom was.

Maya was hot on my heels, dying to rip me a new one, I was sure, but she didn’t even stop to realize that she had followed me right into my bedroom.

I turned to face her once she was fully in the room and grinned. “Well, go on,” I smirked. “Let me have it.”

She narrowed her eyes in a glare. “You tricky motherfucker,” she started immediately.

My blood rushed to my cock immediately as her passion fired up. God, she was fucking beautiful .

“You got me fucking drunk, just so you could lure me back to your place? This the whole reason you couldn’t spend the weekend with the guys? Someone had to stay back and seduce me? That your fucking plan, Nicolai?”

I fucking groaned as my full name came out of her mouth, dancing across her lips in a sensual cadence. She’s never said my full fucking name. I almost wondered if she even knew it. But this? Holy fuck. This was fucking hot.

“Say it again,” I breathed, moving toward her.

She glared at me, crossing her arms over her chest. “No.”

Standing in front of her, I reached out and grabbed both of her hips and pulled her closer to me. “Little Dreamer,” I murmured softly. “Please?” I was not above begging.

Maya sighed and rested her hands on my chest, rubbing them back and forth slightly, almost absentmindedly. “Nicolai.”

Squeezing my eyes closed, my hands gripped her hips gently. I opened my eyes slowly and leaned my face closer to hers. “I’m sorry for my part in what happened that night.”

Confusion furrows her brow. “What night?”

“The night we punished you, before you chose to leave us. The night we strung you up in the woods.”

Like fucking clockwork, I watched as the walls to Maya’s soul slam shut. Her eyes narrow on me as her body shuddered in my grasp.

I continued before she could shut me out completely. “We broke your trust and I should have used my own safe-word that night. For that, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that we took things too far and that you felt you couldn’t trust us.”

Tears begin to well her steely gaze and I knew I was getting through to her. Until she abruptly and forcefully pulled away from me, shoving me backwards. “No,” she snapped. “You don’t get to fucking apologize for that night. Not ten fucking years later!”

I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders, preparing for the fight I was about to instigate. I needed her caught unaware and off guard. I needed to break through her carefully crafted shields and let me fucking in . I needed answers. The truth!

I needed her to break, so I could put her back together, piece by piece.

“Maya. I’ve thought of that night every single day for the last ten years.

We took things too far that night. I almost ended the scene several times because I thought Marcos was taking things too far—being too over the top with your punishment.

I regret that more than anything. I should have made your safety a number one priority. ”

A shuddering sob rocked her body as she stepped away from me. Her hand covered her mouth and she shook her head vehemently. “Fuck you, Nico.” Taking a shaking breath, she quickly wiped her face and glared at me. “Fuck you for saying that to me now.”

I watched as she walked away from me, pacing my bedroom like a caged lion.

“Stop fucking trying to make me talk!” she finally yelled.

I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back against the bedroom wall, waiting patiently. “You will. One day.” I nodded at her.

Again, her eyes narrowed down to slits as she glared at me.

“Like I fucking told Stone!” She spat his road name in disgust. “I fucking left you, because I didn’t want you anymore!

Stop making this out to be anything more that!

” She stalked closer to me, her eyes ablaze. “I don’t fucking love you anymore.”

I laughed through the pain that engulfed my heart. “You keep telling yourself that, sweetheart.”

“You know I had to go see a sex therapist after that night? You know I have issues with being restrained?”

“Hard to know if you weren’t. Fucking. Here.” It was a cheap shot, but I’d do anything to break through her walls. I needed her to crumble.

Pain flashed across her face for but a moment, before she quickly slammed her walls back into place. “No.” Shaking her head she walked away from me again, continuing her pacing across my bedroom.

“You found out you were pregnant and you took our child away from us.” I hit harder.

She faltered momentarily and I knew I had her.

I would get the truth on if she knew she was pregnant before or after.

It could change everything. “You’re right,” she snapped, turning back to me.

She walked closer, looked me dead in the eye and fucking lied .

“I did know I was pregnant. I found out I was pregnant before I left.

That morning, before you guys strung me up in the cold, I found out I was pregnant.

Then I cleaned your house and you guys strung me up and punished me for breaking one of your inane rules —and I got hypothermia.

“I woke alone and so dehydrated I had to give myself IV fluids. Luckily, I had medical training, huh? Why the fuck would I stay? The three of you lost my respect that night as my Dom’s. You really think I would stay? Raise a child in that environment?”

My heart broke all over again. I knew this wasn’t her, though. She was lashing out. I would need to push her more. I laughed in her face and leaned down, getting closer. “You gave yourself to us, begged us to be our whore.”

I registered the resounding smack of her slapping me, before I registered the pain radiating out across my face as my head was pushed to the side.

“Fuck you, Nico.”

I laughed again—softly—a low menacing laugh that had her eyes widening in fear.

I lashed out and wrapped a hand around the back of her neck and yanked her to me, her body falling against mine.

Her hands splayed across my chest as she caught herself.

“Don’t you dare fucking lie to me, Maya.

” I slid my fingers through the hair at her nape and twisted it around my fist. “You consented to everything, don’t fucking lie and act like those two years weren’t everything you fucking wanted. ”

“Until they weren’t,” she muttered. “Reevaluate and renegotiate, right Nic?”

Stunned and confused, I abruptly let her go.

She only stumbled back a foot or so, but the distance was enough.

Reevaluate and renegotiate. Those were the words she had written on her note all those years ago—along with her safe-word.

I still didn’t understand what they meant. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“Ask Marcos.”

I shook my head and pushed off the wall, getting into her space again. “I’m fucking asking you. You wrote those words in that note. You fucking left us. You fucking ripped out my damn heart that day.”

A gasp startled out of her and her eyes widened as she stared up at me looming over her.

I hoped that she could read the pain on my face as clearly as I could read the lies on hers.

“Nico,” she murmured. She raised her hand, as if to touch my chest, but thought better of it and dropped it back to her side.

“Stop fucking LYING!” I shouted.

“I CAN’T FUCKING TELL YOU!” she screamed back.

Fucking finally! Finally, we were getting somewhere, I thought.

“Why? Is someone threatening you? Was it Trish and Hillcrest? The fucking Las Serpientes?” I demanded.

Her eyes widened for a fraction of a second before she shook her head vehemently. “I don’t know the fuck you’re talking about. I don’t know who that is.”

I laughed and got in her face again, wrapping my hand around her jaw—I held her face still. “Your lies are getting old, Maya.”