Maya
I must have dozed off, because I startled awake a while later. I didn’t know where I was as first. Looking around in a panic, the soft glow of the TV gave off just enough light for me to see Luke sleeping in the bed beside me.
I slowly got up, sliding from Luke’s bed. I made sure my son was tucked in under the covers before I slipped out of his room.Heading down the hall toward my bedroom, I frowned as she realized all the lights in the house were off. Did Marcos and the guys come home? Or were they still gone?
Walking into my bedroom, I flipped on the light, only to be disappointed. My bed was empty and still made from when I changed the sheets earlier that afternoon. Upset, and feeling let down, I couldn’t stop the tears that immediately welled in my eyes. Closing the door behind me, I walked over to the bed. I slid under the fresh sheets of my massive empty bed and grabbed the remote for the ceiling fan and light and quickly turned on the fan while shutting off the light.
Once I was in the cool darkness, I let the tears flow down my face as sobs wracked my body. As tired as I was of being weak and always crying since coming home from the hospital, I wasn’t ready to stop. I needed to get the emotions out.
I still couldn’t believe that they left us alone. My guys should have known better. I knew—or thought I had known—back in the day that the club always came first. I naively assumed that now it wouldn’t be the case, not after spending a week with Hillcrest using me for his sick pleasure.
Why weren’t Marcos and Nico and Jason here?
The club always came fucking first.
I would never be good enough for them, no matter what pretty words they threw my way. I would never be first.
Gut wrenching sobs tore through me and I lost myself into the self-doubt and the dark memories of being held captive with Hillcrest.
Nico
I danced around the ring at Telli’s, the Seratelli family’s boxing gym. The place was packed with Devil’s Psychos and Ravager Knights and members of the Seratelli organization. It was louder than all hell, as everyone yelled and cheered. Leo smirked at me from across the ring as we danced around each other.
I gave Leo the first hit, letting my don set the pace. I smirked and got moving, letting the crowd fuel my fight.
Leo grinned wickedly as we both jabbed and dodge one another’s punches. We had been raised together, trained together. It may have been over a decade since we were in the ring together, but we still knew how the other one moved.
I shook off a rough hit to the jaw and smirked. “Game on, cousin.”
“Took you long enough,” Leo shot back.
Movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention, and I glanced over to see both Marcos and Jason standing in the corner of the ring. “The fuck?” I growled, mostly to myself.
Leo landed another punch, this time to my ribs, and I grunted in pain.
Attention still on Marcos and Jason, I shouted at them. “You left them alone?”
Marcos shrugged a shoulder.
I narrowed my gaze on my president as anger flared within me. Leo still swarmed me, but he sensed my shifting mood and quickly went on the defensive as I turned to my cousin to end the fight quickly. I had another fight to get to—namely kicking my brothers’ asses.
“What happened?” Leo asked, eyeing me as he blocked a particularly nasty punch.
“They fucking left her alone,” I growled. “They’re both here.”
Leo turned just enough to see Marcos and Jason out of the corner of his eye. “Alright, then we call it. You can’t go after your president here, but call Jason into the ring.”
I paused mid-step and nodded. The crowd yelled around us, clearly confused by the fight stopping. It was for the best anyway, I didn’t want to get into trouble with my family, not when I just got them back. Not that I cared much about the others, but I did care about Leo, and Giovanni and my other cousins.
Stalking toward the corner of the ring, I ducked through the ropes before and jumped down to the floor below and got right in Jason’s face. “You fucking left her?” I growled.
“Shit,” Jason muttered.
“It was my call,” Marcos spoke up.
“It’s always your fucking call,” I growled.
“Not the place, brother,” Jason muttered.
