Page 25 of Brandishing Balance (Devil’s Psychos MC #3)

Marcos

I looked around the house in awe. Jason had out fucking done himself with all the work he had done in the short amount time since we closed on the property.

The newly redone hardwood floors were a dark stain that made the freshly painted white kitchen cabinets pop.

The new counters in the kitchen and bathrooms made the house feel brand new.

Add in the extra plush cream carpet Jason added up the stairs and onto the entirety of the second floor, I barely recognized the place anymore.

It was our home, but new. A fresh start.

I couldn’t wait for Nico to pull up with Maya.

Jason and I had spent the last two days moving in, including setting up a bedroom for Luke and moving Maya into the primary bedroom.

Luke would still have his bedroom at Elaine’s house, as would Maya, but the plan was to move them both into the new house.

It was their home as much as it was mine, Jason’s, and Nico’s.

Jason still wandered the place aimlessly, looking around, like he was searching for something else to replace or fix. “Maybe we should—”

“Maybe you should chill out. It’s going to be fine,” I said, trying to console my brother.

Jason shook his head but didn’t reply as both our phones dinged with an incoming message.

Nico:

Just leaving the hospital.

“Fuck,” Jason grumbled. He put his phone in his pocket and left the kitchen. Probably in search of something else to fix or fluff or add to the list to remodel.

I shook my head. I really couldn’t fault Jason for being nervous, shit I was nervous too.

What if Maya hated the house? What if she didn’t want to stay with us?

Nico hadn’t exactly been up front when he invited her to stay with him.

She’d been to his condo before, but she had no idea that we bought a house together.

I could only hope that she would be happy to see the old house. We had two years of wonderful memories here, or so I thought.

Hopefully Maya thought the same.

Maya

I glanced at Nico for the hundredth time as he drove through the streets of Mourningside. He was being shifty, and for Nico that was saying something. Any time I asked where Marcos and Jason were, he just said they were ‘at the house’. Whatever the hell that meant.

“Hey, isn’t your condo back that way?” I asked, when Nico turned the opposite direction than he should have to get home.

“Just have to make a stop, really quick.”

I narrowed my gaze on him but didn’t respond.

Instead, I watched as he drove toward the older unincorporated area south of the industrial district on Mourningside’s Southside.

Where my mother lived. Maybe we were just picking something up at my mom’s house?

Nico had said they grabbed my things, though.

I hated the cloak and dagger. The fucking secrets. It was utterly pointless and just drove up my anxiety. After all the shit we’ve been through over the years, I wanted nothing more than to have an open dialogue between us, at all times. Open communication.

It was the only way anything was going to work going forward between us.

After all the shit I went through in last couple weeks regarding Hillcrest, I was honestly surprised that he still wanted me.

But I wasn’t questioning it. I didn’t want to think about it, just like I didn’t want to think about everything else going on.

Processing could wait.

Nico turned into the neighborhood my mother lived in and I frowned.

I didn’t really want to see my mother, not if Elaine was being a bitch again and not going to let me recover at home.

Only, Nico didn’t pull onto my mother’s street.

Instead, Nico pulled on to the road past my mother’s street.

Our old street, from the rental house days when the four of us lived together: Primrose.

Our old rental house had been two blocks from my parent’s house, and Nico looked like he was driving right toward it.

I turned in my seat to watch him. Nico was a shit liar when it came to me, I could see right through his bullshit nine times out of ten.

There was only the smallest tweak at the corner of his lips, and I fucking knew.

“What have you done?” I asked, my voice soft. My throat still hurt from being intubated with the breathing tube, despite it being several days without it.

Nico’s face broke into a full-blown cheesy-as-fuck grin that sent my heart racing thunderously in my chest. He looked so fucking proud of himself.

We were a block away from the old rental house and I just knew in my heart, that’s where we were headed.

“This one wasn’t all me. Marcos spoke to the relator about the house.

Jason delt with all the financial shit. I just helped pay for shit and pointed Jason in the right direction when he got stuck on the remodels. ”

I sat in silence, completely speechless as I listened to him explain everything. He had spoken so matter-of-factly, like it was nothing life-altering.

My guys had bought a fucking house. Our fucking house.

I had loved that old farmhouse and every day of our lives there. Even on the bad days, I had loved our life together. I often wondered what had happened to the old house back then; the guys still haven’t said what exactly went down after I left.

I gasped as Nico pulled the car into the long driveway that passed the house on the right side to the large pole barn of a garage in the back. The wrap-around porch and the beautiful shutters were in need of a paint job, but it looked the same. It looked fucking amazing.

Nico pulled Marco’s pickup truck in front, where two very recognizable Harley Davidson’s were parked. “Nic,” I breathed his name when he shut the truck off. “What are we doing here, Nicolai?” I needed to hear him say it.

Nico turned to me with a cheshire grin on his face. “Welcome home, Little Dreamer.”

Tears welled my eyes. My hand covered my mouth as it sank in.

He brought me home.

Marcos and Jason walked out the back door onto the deck.

Standing at the railing next to the driveway, they both waited for me to get out of the truck.

I couldn’t move though. Tears began pouring down my face as the reality of what they had planned crash over me.

“Nic, I can’t.” I barely got the words out before Nico was unbuckling his seatbelt and getting out of the truck.

I watched him walk around the front of the truck, still in a daze as he reached my door and opened it. “Come on, Little Dreamer. They’re waiting for you.”

I didn’t want to think about how I was going to get down from the truck, I had barely been able to climb up into it at the hospital.

Nico didn’t seem to have those same worries though, because he slid his hand around my waist, and undid my seat belt.

Once it was back in place, Nico slid his arm under my legs and the other one around my back, and carefully lifted me out of the truck.

I immediately looped my arms around his neck, holding on. “Nico,” I muttered.

“I got you, Little Dreamer.”

I turned my attention toward the three steps up to the deck from the driveway, and to where Marcos and Jason were watching. Both men had their eyes on my face and I didn’t bother to wipe the tears away. They wouldn’t stop falling, anyway.

“Mi Vida,” Marcos said, moving toward us.

“I got her.” Nico shook his head.

“I can walk.” I complained.

“I’ll put you down inside,” Nico conceded.

I glanced at Jason, finding his intense stare to be a little much for me right now. I was emotionally raw and was already tearing up, I was afraid if I looked deep into his stormy gray eyes, I’d see too much emotion there that would break me.

I wasn’t ready to break. Not yet.

Nico walked through the backdoor, into the mudroom and then carefully set me down.

I was in awe as I stared around the small laundry slash mud room.

It was completely different from when I lived here ten years ago.

It was white and modern and airy. A wooden countertop was set atop the washer and dryer and there was a set of cabinets and open shelving.

All empty. A blank slate. It looked fantastic.

I turned away from the mudroom and walked through the door into the kitchen—the completely remodeled kitchen.

My breath caught in my throat as I took in the room.

The upper cabinets were painted white, while the lower cabinets were painted black.

There were granite counters now with a marbled finish and a white subway tile backsplash.

It was modern and clean and sleek. Everything I had wanted back then.

Stainless steel appliances—and were those new floors?

I turned to face my guys, only to be startled when all three of them were watching me intently. “What is this?” I asked, my voice hoarse.

“It’s your home,” Jason said. “We thought we would update things while it was empty, before we all moved in.”

“All moved in?” I asked.

Marcos nodded. “Yeah, Mi Vida. We’re all moving in here. Together. Like it was before.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything. Wiping away my tears, I turned back to Jason. “Nico said you’ve been remodeling the house?”

He nodded and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, looking sheepish. “Uh yeah. Well, calling crews in and directing them to do shit.”

“Like what?” I asked, wanting the full break down of everything he had done to the house.

“The kitchen for one, the bathrooms too. Had the whole house painted, the floors down here redone, and new carpet upstairs,” Jason explained.

I stared at him in awe and disbelief. Turning to the kitchen again, I just took in all in, trying to absorb the fact that I was even standing in this kitchen again. “Why?” The word was barely audible, but all three of my men flinched as if I dealt them a physical blow.

“Because it’s our home,” Marcos said. “When the relator told us it was available, it occurred to me that I wanted nothing more than to raise Luke here. When Griff said you shouldn’t be alone when you go home, we thought it would be perfect to bring you home with us. Because this isn’t a home without you.”

A sob burst out of me that I couldn’t hold in. Arms wrapped around me and I crumbled against whoever it was as my legs gave out. Emotions consumed me and I finally broke down. Everything poured out of me in heart wrenching sobs that tore through my body.

I clung to whoever grabbed me—Marcos I thought—as he carried me up the stairs in the living room. I didn’t even get a chance to look at the rest of the house before I broke down. Marcos carried me into our old bedroom and laid down on the large mattress, pulling me with him.

My throat hurt as I wailed and screamed through my tears, letting out the pain of the last couple weeks. A body pressed into my back and arms wrapped around my waist tightly as they snuggled in close.