Page 50 of Brandishing Betrayals (Devil’s Psychos MC #2)

Maya

I was roused awake to the overhead light in my bedroom turning on and heavy boots stomping on my floor. “What the fuck?” I snapped, sitting up.

Marcos and Nico were carrying a very limp Jason between them. He had bloody gauze wrapped around his shoulder, neck, and calf.

I jumped out of bed and ripped back the top sheet and blankets, tossing them out of the way. “Sorry about this,” Nico said, as he and Marcos maneuvered Jason onto the bed.

“Doctor’s on his way; we couldn’t bring him to the hospital,” Marcos said.

“Why here?”

“He’s going to need round the clock medical care. We’d hoped you’d help.” Nico shot me a tight smile.

I ignored him and dove for my closet. I pulled out the tackle box and duffle bag of medical supplies I kept on hand; things I’d grabbed from the hospital or the office over the years.

It had been a habit that I still hadn’t broken since the days I dated the guys.

Thank God I kept up the habit too, because they were in serious need of supplies.

“He looks like he’s lost a lot of blood,” I said, slipping on gloves.

“Doctor’s on his way with blood. He’ll help you,” Marcos replied, stepping out of my way.

“The neck wound, how bad?” I asked.

“They said it was graze, but deep,” Nico answered.

I nodded and grabbed scissors, going to work on cutting off Jason’s shirt. Someone had already field dressed his wounds, so he was no longer dripping blood everywhere, but he was still heavily bleeding.

“Nic, in the hallway linen closet on the floor is a pile of junk towels. Grab them,” I delegated.

A phone rang as I was cutting the gauze wrapped around Jason’s upper shoulder, where the bullet had penetrated his deltoid muscle. It didn’t look deep, but I didn’t have any local anesthetic on hand anymore, so it was going to be painful once I started digging around.

Marcos answered the call and walked out of the room, just as Nico walked back in with the towels. “Here,” Nico said.

“Fold one under his shoulder.” The last thing I needed was my mattress getting ruined.

Nico did as he was told and I grabbed a pair of hemostats. I was gathering up the rest of the supplies I’d need to remove the bullet and pack the wound with gauze before I wrapped it up. It was shallow enough that it didn’t look like it needed stitches.

“You realize I’m not a doctor,” I said wryly.

“Good thing, I am.” A male voice spoke from behind me.

I glanced up to see a familiar looking man carrying a cooler and a duffle bag of his own. He was tall with a bald head and warm chocolate eyes. “Dr. Griffin?” I asked.

“Yeah, Katalina’s friend, right?” Doctor Griffin asked.

“Maya.”

“Alright Maya, what do we have?”

“Two GSW’s, one to the deltoid muscle and the other to the upper gastrocnemius. I haven’t looked at it yet. Deltoid looks superficial. Possible graze to the neck. He’s lost a lot of blood.” I rattled off his vitals, while Griffin unzipped his bag and pulled on his own set of gloves.

For the next half hour, the two of us worked as a team to tend to our patient. Occasionally, I delegated tasks to Marcos and Nico, like grabbing a hanger from the closet to hang from the curtain rod to set up a makeshift IV pole.

Griffin had a bag of saline, antibiotics and universal donor blood on hand. I had quickly started a line for the blood transfusion and a saline bag in his elbow. “We’ll hold off on antibiotics for now,” he said. “He should still be ok. I’ll leave pills behind in case he needs them.”

I nodded and pulled out a blood pressure cuff. I checked his vitals again, repeating them to Griffin.

“Good.” Griffin finished up with the dressing on Jason’s calf. Neither gunshot wound would be stitched up, rather we packed the wound with gauze before we wrapped it tight with a self-adhesive bandage.

The bullet that had grazed Jason’s neck had left a two-inch-long gash that thankfully had not hit anything vital. The wound had required stiches though, and Griffin had used a local pain anesthetic to relieve any pain Jason might feel, in case he woke up.

Jason, thankfully, had stayed unconscious the whole time we worked on him. Griffin had brought several vials of anesthetic and syringes with him, but we hadn’t needed it. “I’ll leave this stuff with you. I can get more,” Griffin had muttered off handedly while we worked.

I had thanked him profusely. I no longer had access to those kinds of things working at the family clinic.

“Aright, I think that’s about it for me,” Griffin said when we finished up. He started packing up his things, while he pulled out other supplies and stacked things on my dresser. “You can have all this. I’ll grab more from the hospital.”

My eyes widened at the bags of saline and antibiotics, and other medical supplies. “Thank you, Griffin. I really appreciate it.”

“Yeah, no worries. Call me if anything changes. After the blood bag and saline are finished, you could remove the IV.”

“Yep,” I nodded.

“I’m sorry about your guy here.”

“Thanks,” Marcos spoke up from the doorway of the room, where he’d stationed himself, watching on while we worked. “I appreciate this doc.”

Griffin smiled and nodded. “No worries.” He shook hands with Nico and then me, “You did good.” He nodded at me, then he grabbed his bag and cooler off the bed and headed toward the door where Marcos was standing.

Marcos pushed off the door and turned around, leading Griffin out of my room.

I took a deep breath in the quiet that descended over my small bedroom. My limbs began to slowly shake as tears welled in my eyes.

“Oh, sweetheart,” Nico crooned, moving to me immediately. He wrapped his arms around me and held me tight. “You did so good, baby. I’m so proud of you.”

I clung to him as I broke down in his arms, the overwhelming emotions pouring out of me now that the traumatic event was over.

When I heard footsteps behind me, I took a shaky breath and cleared my throat.

I pulled away from Nico and wiped my eyes, putting on a brave face again, just as Marcos walked back in the room.

Ignoring him, I turned back to Jason, who was still unconscious in my bed.

The IV fluids were still flowing and Jason was still breathing, so there wasn’t much for me to do.

“Thank you.” Marcos spoke so softly, I almost didn’t realize he was speaking to me.

“Yeah.”

I busied myself by picking up the blankets from where I’d tossed them on the floor earlier. I started making the bed, when Marcos came up and gently pried the blankets from my hands. “Maya,” he murmured my name softly, his hands so soft on mine.

A tortured sob ripped out of me.

Marcos sat on the edge of the bed and pulled me into his arms, settling me on his lap. “It’s alright,” he said, “let it all out.”

I clung to him, burring my face into the crook of his neck, breathing in his familiar scent of leather and mint.

He rocked me gently, careful not to jostle the bed too much as he rubbed my back and whispered softly in my ear.

I ignored all the shit between us, and held on, savoring his warmth and his strength—I had needed it more than I thought.

A while later, I felt strong enough to pull away.

A glance at the clock told me it was going on four in the morning and my alarm would be going off in two hours.

I already knew I wouldn’t be going to work, though.

So I grabbed my phone and texted my boss that I’d had a rough night and needed the day.

My boss had been extremely understanding since my father’s passing and had told me if I needed more time, that it was ok to take additional days. This wasn’t exactly what my boss probably had in mind, but I didn’t care. I needed the day.

It was also Luke’s first day of school. The new school year had crept up on me and I didn’t want him to miss anything. It felt like life was too unstable these days, too many unknowns kept popping up. We needed routine.

“You call in?” Nico asked as I set my phone back down on the nightstand.

“Yeah,” I murmured, my voice raspy. I picked up the sheets and blankets again, and this time Marcos helped me remake the bed, covering Jason and tucking the sheet and blankets under the mattress.

“I’m gonna try and get some more rest before I have to get up with Luke,” I told them, looking between Nico and Marcos.

“I’m gonna drag the recliner in here,” Marcos declared.

“I’ll help you.”

I let them do what they wanted and slid under the covers next to Jason in my queen-sized bed. At one point during our care for him, I had Nico grab the extra pillows out of the hallway linen closet to prop him up with, so I could use my own pillow to curl up next to him.

Marcos and Nico carried in my father’s recliner from the living room, and the stack of cushions from the couch.

They set up the recliner in the corner, and Nico threw the cushions on the floor at the end of the bed before he left the room again.

He came back a moment later carrying two throw blankets and a throw pillow.

He tossed one of the blankets at Marcos—who raised an eyebrow at him—and then made himself a bed on the couch cushions.

I chuckled softly and shook my head at Nico’s antics. I fucking loved him, though, and I was so grateful that they both were camping out in my bedroom with me, while we waited for Jason to recover.

“Marcos, the lamp next you has a super dim nightlight feature. Turn it on, please?”

“’’Fraid of the dark, Mi Vida?” Marcos voice rumbled through the darkness.

My gasp of surprise at the term of endearment, carried louder than I’d intended.

Both men ignored it, and Marcos turned on the nightlight.

I thought it would be impossible to sleep, but with all three of my men in the room, I drifted off to sleep almost immediately.