“Luke.” Marcos dropped his voice, deepening it.
Luke stalked toward Marcos and cocked back his arm, stepping into Marcos as he threw a punch right into Marcos’s jaw.
“Shit!” Marcos swore as his head snapped to the right.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the balls on the kid for doing the very thing that I had wanted to myself. “Nice, punch, Luke!” I congratulated him. He was taking all my teachings to heart. The wind up on that punch, the fucking execution! Fantastic! It was a proud fucking Papa moment, and I almost said he could stay home from school, but I knew I needed time to coax Maya out of whatever spell she had fallen into, and I needed him to not be here while I did that.
Luke pushed past Marcos, shoulder checking him as he went.
I glanced at Jason, whose face was swollen and beat to hell from my own punches last night, and smirked. Clearly me and Luke were on the same side here. The right fucking side: Maya’s.
“Is she ok?” Jason asked.
“No. She’s fucking not,” I snapped back.
“Yeah.” He nodded like a dumbass and walked away.
My own rage fired up again at my brothers’ blatant incompetence—both of them.
“I’m gonna talk to Luke, you’ve got Maya?” Marcos asked.
“Yep. Always.” I let the double meaning hang in the air.
Marcos sighed heavily and nodded, before he turned away to go search for his son down the hall.
Holding my towel to my waist, I crouched down in front of Maya, and brushed my knuckles over her cheek. “Little Dreamer, you missed a hell of a punch by Luke. He just cracked Marcos in the jaw.”
She doesn’t even blink.
“Oh, Little Dreamer.” I sighed, shaking my head.
I walked over to the bedroom door and closed it, locking it for good measure. I didn’t want interruptions today. I was going to get my girl back, if it was the last thing I did.
Nico
Hours later I was still sitting with a catatonic Maya. I had gone so far as to call her therapist looking for help. The therapist lady, Dr. Burns, had been very concerned when I explained the full details behind Maya’s capture. She had immediately wanted to call the police, but I explained that the police were already involved and that now Maya needed to recover. I might have lied to the woman, but I couldn’t have her calling the cops.
I needed to get Maya to snap out of her dissociative episode so we could fucking talk shit out. With Dr. Burns on a video call, I just start talking to Maya about everything. “I’m sorry I had to leave last night, Little Dreamer. I had a family dinner and you know how demanding my cousin can be about those things. I thought I was leaving you in good hands with Marcos andJason. I didn’t know they would you leave you and Luke alone. I thought they knew better by this point.”
I glanced at Maya; she was still staring off in front of her. “I beat the shit out of Jason. He was the one that was supposed to stay with you. I needed Marcos last night, but Jason was supposed to be here. So when you see him, he’s rocking some colorful bruises to his face.”
Still no response from Maya.
“Keep going,” Dr. Burns said, softly.
“Luke is pissed at Marcos. He punched Marcos this morning, right in the jaw. Marcos didn’t even see that shit coming, it was glorious. His head snapped to the side and everything. Luke remembered everything I taught him.”
“You taught him how to fight?” Maya’s voice cracked.
I didn’t bring attention to the fact that she was back, I just continued my conversation. “Yeah. He’s pretty good at it too. We brought him down to my cousin’s boxing gym in Creekton. Letting him get his anger and aggression out in a healthy way, showing him how to hit the punching bag.”
Maya blinked at him. “You taught my son how to fight?” Her voice was stronger now, a little more aggressive.
I pretended like I didn’t hear the anger leaking through. I smirked slightly at the doctor on the phone. “Sure did! He’s a fucking natural too. You should have seen him clock Marcos this morning. Bad ass little dude, for sure.”
Maya sat up abruptly. “Nicolai. Randall. Gage. What the fuck?”
Fucking finally. “Welcome back, Little Dreamer.”
