Page 36 of Brandishing Betrayals (Devil’s Psychos MC #2)

Jason

A fter Luke was soundly sleeping in Marcos’s bedroom, Nico and I pace around Marcos’s small living room while the guy sits, staring at the blank wall, lost in thought. “You can’t give him back to her,” I pressured. “If she’s dating Hillcrest, it’s not safe.”

“This isn’t what it looks like.” Nico shook his head and ran his hand through his shoulder length blond hair. “I was with her all weekend. She admitted she still loves me.”

“She a master manipulator,” I shot back, over Nico’s fucking naivety.

“I straight out asked her if Dax Hillcrest was threatening her and she clammed up and wouldn’t answer me. She got fucking scared. I guarantee what you saw, wasn’t what truly happened.” Nico spoke so adamantly, I wanted to believe him.

“You weren’t there, man. She was into the kiss, she pressed against him and moaned and she wasn’t fucking playing around,” I said.

“She was fucking terrified when I brought up Trish and Hillcrest. I straight out asked her if he was threatening her and she immediately started hyperventilating and crying. I’m telling you, she’s not willingly with him!” Nico yelled.

Marcos blinked out of his daze and looked at Nico. “You think he’s threatening her?”

“Yes, and I think he has something over her. And whatever it is, it’s enough for her to think she can’t come to us.

” Nico took a deep breath. “You didn’t see her man.

She was almost inconsolable; she couldn’t calm down.

I’ve never seen her so upset. The way her eyes widened when I said Trish and Hillcrest’s names—I’m telling you man, Hillcrest is up to something. ”

I ground my molars as I watched Marcos listen to Nico, looking for all the world like he believed what he was hearing. I didn’t think Nico was lying…I just thought that Maya was a lying whore, and there was no telling what the truth really was.

Marcos sighed and hung his head. “Fuck,” he groaned. “I’m gonna call Kara.” He slowly got to his feet and patted the inside of his cut. He pulled out a joint and his lighter and headed for the front door of the small apartment. “Stay with Luke.”

I ran a hand over my short hair and let out a deep breath as Marcos closed the door behind him.

“You don’t believe me,” Nico immediately turned on me.

I shook my head. “I believe you. I don’t believe her. I think she’s twisting your feelings for her.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “You weren’t there.

You didn’t see her, hear her. She’s fucking terrified of someone.

Luke even confirmed that with the damn flowers.

Why is it so hard for you to believe that maybe Hillcrest fucking threatened her right before you walked in that house, and maybe she was just trying to save herself or her son?

Hillcrest could be holding Luke against her, threatening to kill him if she doesn’t cooperate.

Don’t you think that Maya would do anything she could to protect her son? ”

Nico was making too much sense, and I didn’t like it.

“She admitted she still loves us, man. She said leaving back then wasn’t her choice—she didn’t want to leave us, but she had to. That’s how she worded it.”

I took a seat on Marcos’s couch and sighed heavily.

Resting my elbows on my knees, I cradled my head in my hands and thought about what Nico was saying.

It made sense…or we were stretching for the truth.

“Luke said that Maya never brought a guy around, that she didn’t have time between work, football practice and taking care of her parents. ” I admitted.

Nico nodded slowly, “We’re with her at most of those football practices. Three nights a week, she comes straight from work to football. You’ve seen her calendar, how packed it is with doctor appointments and things for her parents.”

“Yeah.”

“Just think about it man. I don’t think this is what it looked like.”

“Did you sleep with her?” I asked, dropping my arms. I raised my head to meet my brother’s gaze.

Nico’s bright blue eyes were dark with worry. He blew out a breath and ran his hand through his messy blond hair. “Yeah.”

I huffed out a laugh and shook my head in disbelief.

“Maya’s not a cheater. She never would have slept with me if she was with someone else.” Nico spoke softly, almost as if he was trying to convince himself as well as me.

“We don’t know her anymore.” I spoke just as softly, not wanting to fight anymore. “It’s been ten years. We never thought she would have left us back then either, but she did. It’s been ten years. People change.”

“Not like that,” Nico said. “She still loves us.”

“She tell you that while you were fucking her?”

“Fuck you, man.” Nico walked toward the apartment door. “Believe what you want, but I’m fucking telling you, she was terrified when I mentioned Hillcrest and Trish. He’s threatening her. I guarantee it.”

The door closed softly behind Nico, leaving me in the small quiet apartment, alone with my thoughts while Luke slept in the other room.

Marcos

I slowly smoked my joint while I dialed my sister’s phone number and pressed the phone to my ear.

“Hey, Marquitos,” Kara answered the phone.

“Hola, Manita.” I smiled immediately upon hearing my little sister’s voice.

“Uh oh, I know that tone. What’s going on?” Kara asked, getting right to business.

“Have you talked to Maya at all lately?”

“No, I’m sorry. I’ve been so busy with the baby and the case with my dad, I haven’t reached out. Is she ok?”

I sighed and ran a hand over my buzzed head. The fucking case with Vincent Carmichael was still on going—directly impacted by the fucking Las Serpientes—another thing weighing on my mind. “I don’t know. I think she’s in trouble,” I admitted.

“What do you mean?”

“I walked in her house tonight and Dax fucking Hillcrest of Las Serpientes had her pressed against the wall, fucking making out and shit.”

“Whaa?” Kara’s shocked tone had me wondering if Nico was right. The more people thought Maya’s behavior was unusual, the more confident I grew in agreeing with Nic.

“Yeah, it was strange. And like Luke mentioned last weekend that someone was leaving Maya flowers and whenever she found them, she became super upset. He said she was seeing a therapist for it.”

“Damn. You think it’s Hillcrest?”

“I don’t know what to think,” I admitted.

“Nico confronted her this weekend while Stone and I were away with Luke, and he said that she immediately began freaking out when he asked her outright about Hillcrest and Trish—his girlfriend from ten years ago that came into the clubhouse. Nic said Maya became inconsolable or some shit.”

Kara gasped.

“Nico couldn’t get a straight answer out of her, he said she refused to answer, but he seemed pretty convinced that Hillcrest has been threatening her all this time and that’s the reason she left.”

“Holy shit,” Kara breathed the words softly.

“Has she said anything to you?” I needed answers.

“No,” Kara sighed. “I haven’t really been pressing to be friends with her again, though. It hurt me too, when she left you. Even though back then, me and her weren’t really talking that often, because I wasn’t really talking to you at the time so it put a strain on our relationship too.”

“Yeah.” I huffed out a breath. The past was fucking filled with drama.

“I can reach out to Slade, I know she still talks to Maya. I could ask her what she knows?” Kara offered.

“Nico already went to Slade. It’s why he’s so adamant. Slade knows something, said to look deeper with Maya, and said something along the lines of ‘why would someone like Maya need to see a therapist if there wasn’t something going on?’ Then told him to look deeper.”

Kara gasped again. “Yeah, that sounds like there’s something going on.”

“I took Luke home with me.” I changed the subject. “I was supposed to drop him off after my weekend with him, but that fucking scum bag was there and I left with Luke still in the truck.”

“Fuck, Marcos.” Kara sighed. “You can’t keep him, not permanently.”

“Why? He’s my fucking son,” I snapped. I hung my head and puffed on my forgotten joint. It had already burned down halfway. I took a long drag and held in the smoke while I listened to Kara hand me my ass.

“Because you said your name isn’t on his birth certificate. Because you don’t have parental rights established. She could call the police and have you arrested for kidnapping her child! Marcos, you need to bring him home.”

Slowly blowing out the smoke I thought about what she said, knowing she was right. “What are my options for custody?”

“Fuck,” Kara took a deep breath. “You need to establish paternity. You’d have to either get her to agree to a paternity test, or subpoena her for the test. That’s basically suing her though, just so you’re aware of the consequences that can of worms can open.”

I nodded slowly to myself. “So I’d need a lawyer?”

“Yeah, Marquitos. I’ll make a call; I have a friend in family law. I’ll text you her info after I talk to her. If you want to go down that route, you have to know it’s a slippery slope, and with your record—”

“I could lose Luke.”

“Yeah, brother,” Kara said softly.

“So, I sue for paternity and then have to wait for the results? We know that he’s mine, he looks just fucking like me.”

“Yeah, but you have to follow the law and that’s sticking to due process.

Establish paternity, then fight for custody.

Not going to lie, brother, single fathers have a hard time getting full custody.

It would have been different if you and Maya had been married.

Unless you can get the court to rule that she’s unfit to parent, you’re only looking at every other weekend, or joint custody at best.”

“Right.”

“You need to talk to Maya, Marcos. Find out what’s really going on.”

“I know.”

“If Nico’s right, and she’s been threatened this whole time, if that’s why she left in the first place...that changes things, doesn’t it?”

I couldn’t answer her. That was the million-dollar question, wasn’t it? If she’s been threatened this whole time, what would that mean for us?

Why didn’t she come to us?

There was only one person who could tell me the truth…only I didn’t think she would.