Page 27 of Brandishing Balance (Devil’s Psychos MC #3)

Maya

T he next day, I was sitting on the couch in the living room, waiting for Marcos to come home with Luke. Marcos had made sure that Luke was still going to school while I had been both held hostage and in the hospital, for which I was grateful. It made me wonder what would come of his court order.

We hadn’t talked about it yet. We hadn’t talked about a lot of things yet.

It was an unnerving feeling being back in this house—our home—and not being with them. My heart hurt and my head was conflicted as to why I was there. I placed a lot of trust in Nico, believing above all, that everything would be alright.

“It’ll be alright,” Nico said beside me, resting his hand on my knee.

The backdoor opened before I could respond, and Luke called out, “Mom!”

“In here!” Nico yelled.

Luke’s feet pounded on the wood floors as he ran into the living room. Just as he was about to pounce on me, Nico stood up and caught him. “Easy, man. Gentle.” He shook his head.

Luke grinned sheepishly as Nico let him go. “Sorry,” he said to me.

I grinned and raised my arms for Luke, as Nico walked out of the room to give me privacy with my son. Luke gently slid into my arms and hugged me. I held him tight as tears welled in my eyes; I never wanted to be away from him like this ever again. “Hey, buddy. I missed you.”

“I missed you too, mom.” He held me tighter. “I’m glad you’re home.”

“Me too, buddy. Me too.”

Luke slowly pulled away and sat on the couch beside me, leaning against me and looping his arm through mine. “Are we living here now?” Luke asked softly.

I rested my head on top of his and grabbed his hand. “Would that be ok? I mean, at least for a little while?”

Luke turned and looked up at me with a massive grin. “Yeah, I like the idea of living with dad.”

My heart pounded in my chest at Luke’s words. I didn’t know how I would ever take him away from Marcos again. If things didn’t work out living here, all of us together, I would never be able to break Luke’s heart—or Marcos’s—and separate them.

I would never be able to do that to them.

“Alright, buddy. We’ll give it a chance,” I agreed.

“Awesome! I can’t wait to set up my room! Dad said we could go shopping! He already painted it my favorite color! Did you see?” Luke hopped off the couch, talking excitedly.

I grinned and nodded. “Yeah, I did see. I saw there was a big bed in there too! And they got all new furniture!”

“Yes! Can we grab my stuff tonight?”

“Uh.” I was surprised Marcos and her guys hadn’t already grabbed his stuff, as they had already grabbed all of mine.

Before I could respond, Marcos walked into the living room from the kitchen, like he’d been standing there all along, just out of sight. “We can grab whatever you want tonight, and whatever we can’t get, we can go for this weekend.”

I stared at Marcos, wondering if I even had any say. This whole co-parenting thing was going to get interesting if we had issues talking to each other. I didn’t even know if we had issues talking to each other, because I hadn’t been able to really talk to any of them since my rescue.

And before my capture… things were way different between us all. I was struggling to keep up with the status quo.

I felt lost… adrift at sea, unable to anchor.

Marcos took one look at my face and stopped. “Hey Luke, why don’t you head outside with Jason. I’ll be right behind you, ok?”

Once Luke was out of the room, Marcos crouched down in front of me and rested his hands on my knee. “Maya, are you, ok?”

“Hmm?” I asked, snapping out of the stupor of emotion I’d been in.

“Mi Vida,” Marcos murmured, rubbing his large hands over my knees. “Are you ok with this? Moving Luke in here?”

“I—of course,” I stammered.

“Maya.” Marcos’s voice was gentle and soothing. “Talk to me.”

Tears welled in my eyes at how gentle and caring he was being. “I don’t—this is just all so fast.” My voice broke as I choked on a sob.

Marcos immediately pulled me into his chest, holding me close while sobs wracked my body.

“Shh,” he murmured, rubbing my back. “I know it’s fast, I know we’re rushing you.

I’m sorry, I should have thought of that beforehand.

You being taken by Hillcrest, it killed me, baby.

” Marcos choked up and took a moment to get this own breathing under control.

“The idea of being without you and Luke, not having you two close and home , didn’t sit right with me.

I’m sorry for moving things too fast and practically forcing you in here.

Like I said, we can bring you back to your mom’s at any time. ”

I shook my head. “After you already told Luke he could have both parents living together like all the other kids at school?” I pulled away from him to glare at him. “So I can be the bad guy and take him away from his father again?” I shook my head.

Marcos sighed. “There’s a lot we need to talk about, but I know now that you didn’t know you were pregnant when you left here.

There were outside forces at play, I get that.

I know you wouldn’t take him away from me.

Even if we don’t work out, we’ll figure out the co-parenting thing. I promise you, Maya.”

I sighed, wiping my eyes and nodded. Why the fuck did he suddenly have the answers for things now? “Ok.”

Marcos nodded slowly. He slid his hand up my arm and over my cheek. “Luz de Mi Vida,” Light of my life “you are still the light of my whole fucking world. I hope you know that.”

I gasped, my eyes widening as I met his intense dark brown eyes.

I traced his face with my eyes, taking in the crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes, his buzzed hair, and the stubble that covered his chiseled jaw—a permeant five o’clock shadow that only enhanced his features.

He’d always been an attractive man, but he seemed to have aged like fine wine.

His Mexican heritage shown through his complexion and dark eyes, had only served to make him even sexier.

The fact that his name of endearment for me was Mi Vida , and it literally translated to my life , only made him hotter. I had never stopped loving any of my men in the ten or so years we’d been apart. That was never the issue. The issue was just everything else.

“Dad!” Luke shouted from the back door.

I jumped, whipping my head toward the doorway to the kitchen, expecting to see someone standing there. Marcos’s hand slipped from my face and he sighed. “This conversation isn’t over,” he said, before he stood up.

I didn’t respond, I didn’t know what else to say. We had so much to talk about…one day.