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

Jason “Stone” Langford

A nger raged inside me, blocking out most of the pain that radiated from my gunshot wounds.

I was pissed that I wasn’t out there helping search for Maya, that I had to play babysitter to her son.

Guilt coursed through me the second I thought that, though.

Luke was the most important thing to Maya, and she would want one of us watching him and keeping him safe.

My injuries shouldn’t be taken lightly either. It was the first day I was even conscious, let alone up and about. I really needed to go lie down.

Luke was a nervous wreck, though. He kept pacing the living room, tears rolling down his face.

I at least at the sense to clean the cuts on Luke’s face and hand the kid an ice pack to help with swelling.

We would need to teach him how to fight as soon as possible.

He needed to know how to defend himself.

Elaine Henderson had also been beside herself since I hobbled into the house with a crying Luke. I had to break the news to Maya’s mom that she’d been kidnapped by the very man that had been stalking her for the last ten years. “She never should have come back here,” Elaine muttered to herself.

I ground my teeth, clenching my jaw to keep from snapping at the woman.

She’d been nothing short of horrible to Maya most of her life.

Even when Maya dropped everything, put her own life at risk to come back here and take care of her injured parents after a car accident almost killed them, Elaine had still treated Maya like a servant.

“I should call Jenna,” Elaine said.

“Not yet,” I snapped. “Let’s hold off on notifying anyone yet. I don’t need another hysterical woman to deal with.”

Elaine turned to me with a death glare. “You will not sit in my house and disrespect me.”

“I’m not trying to be disrespectful. I’m just saying, let’s hold off before you call her.

There’s nothing she can do from up in Chicago, and she’s just going to rush right down here and put herself in danger.

Hillcrest would love nothing more than to grab another Henderson sister.

Especially if he could use Jenna against Maya. ”

Elaine’s face paled as her eyes widened in shock. Yeah, she still doesn’t want anything to happen to her precious Jenna, I thought.

“When is my dad coming home?” Luke asked.

I shifted from my prone position on the recliner to look over at Luke as he paced the living room. “I don’t know buddy, he and Nico are going to look all over the city. They have friends helping and Nico’s family.”

Luke started to get teary-eyed again. “I really want my dad.”

“Come here, buddy,” I said, lowering my voice, making it softer. I knew I wasn’t the best person to be comforting the scared and nervous family right now, but for Luke, I would try.

Luke walked over and stood next to my recliner.

I pulled him over the arm of the chair and onto my lap, wrapping an arm around his waist and holding him tight. “Let’s FaceTime your dad and see where he’s at, alright?”

“Kay,” Luke whimpered, trying to be brave.

I pulled out my phone and quickly started a FaceTime call with Marcos. He didn’t answer right away, and just when I thought he wasn’t going to answer at all, he did. “Hey buddy,” Marcos said, seeing Luke’s face on the screen.

Luke broke down in tears immediately upon seeing Marcos. “Dad!”

“Aww buddy. I know you’re scared, but your mom’s going to be alright. I promise you we’re doing everything we can to find her.” Marcos tried to reassure him. “I’ll be home by bedtime, ok? Give me a couple more hours and then I’ll come home.”

Luke nodded, seemingly appeased by that. He wiped his eyes and took a deep breath. “You promise?” Way to break a dude’s heart, little guy, I thought.

“I promise, Lucas. I will be home,” Marcos said.

“’k.”

“Alright, we’ll see you later,” I said, turning the camera toward my face before I hung up the call. I rubbed a hand over Luke’s back, and the kid melted into my side. I hugged Luke to me and settled in for the long haul.

Elaine put on some mindless action movie, something we’d all seen a million times, and the three of us settled down, trying to relax.

Twenty minutes later, there was a knock at the front door, and I jerked my head at the sound, cursing myself for being so distracted. Looking through the large picture window that took up most of the front wall, I saw Kara and Kevin standing at the front door.

“Auntie Kara!” Luke exclaimed. Kara gave a little wave, and Luke jumped up to unlock the door.

“Hey buddy,” Kara greeted with a sad smile on her face. She immediately bent over and hugged him tightly to her.

Kevin “Rockstar” Adams walked past her into the house, arms laden with heavy grocery bags. I nodded to the man as he walked by. “How’s the wounds?” Kevin asked, and I thought that was more tactful than asking how I was doing. Because anyone would know, I wasn’t doing well.

“Sore,” I answered.

Kevin set all the grocery bags on the dining room table.

“Have you taken anything?” Kara asked, looking over at me.

I shook my head. “Not since we left this morning for the game.”

Kara frowned. “Where are the pills?” She didn’t wait for me to answer though; she headed down the hall and into Maya’s bedroom like she’d been here before.

It took me a minute to realize that Kara probably had been here before. She’d been friends with Maya since college, and even if they had a falling out in the last decade, they had still been close once.

Kevin busied himself in the kitchen, and Luke started helping him unload the grocery bags, keeping up a steady stream of chatter with the other man.

Kara returned a moment later, her long blond hair draped over her shoulder and the bottle of pain pills in her hand. She went into the kitchen and poured a glass of water before she returned to the living room. “Here,” she said, handing me the pills and the water.

I didn’t argue with her. I downed both pills and the glass of water, drinking the whole thing down in two large gulps.

Kevin entered the living room carrying a plate.

I took the plate that I was handed and looked down at the sub sandwich and chips. “Thanks,” I muttered.

“Elaine, you hungry? We brought dinner.” Kara spoke gently to the older woman.

Elaine shrugged and slowly stood from the couch. “Maybe just a bit,” she admitted.

Kara smiled and set about making up plates.

After we finished eating dinner, Kevin caught my eye and nodded at the backdoor.

Catching his drift, I slowly stood up, feeling better after the medicine and food.

Instead of going out back though, I walked over to the garage door and headed out there instead.

I hit the button for the overhead door to open, then grabbed a couple of the lawn chairs stacked in the corner.

“Let me,” Kevin said, grabbing the chairs before I could lift them.

“Thanks,” I grunted.

“That shoulder has to be killing you.”

“Bit better now.”

Once we were both seated, Kevin pulled out a bag of joints from the front pocket of his leather Ravager Knights cut.

He opened the baggie and pulled one out.

Kevin slipped the joint between his lips and held a lighter to the end, sucking on it while he lit up.

Once the joint was good and lit, he passed it to me while he slowly blew out the smoke.

“Thanks,” I muttered. Taking the joint, I took a long, slow drag. I passed the joint back while I held in the smoke, letting it settle into my lungs.

We were silent for a while, both of us puffing on the joint and passing it back and forth.

It was the kind of comradery you’d expect from people that were friends for years and didn’t need small talk to fill the silence.

It didn’t matter that Kevin and I were barely acquaintances; we shared a like mind and the same traumatic pain.

It wasn’t that long ago that Kara had been kidnapped by Las Serpientes.

“I hear you’ve got the Seratelli’s helping out.”

I nodded slowly, my eyes watching the street beyond the driveway. It was a beautiful late summer evening, and the weather didn’t reflect the pain I felt inside.

“Yeah. Nico’s cousin is Leonardo.”

“Thought I heard something along those lines.”

“They’re newly reacquainted. After some shit went down years ago, they had stopped talking.

Nico went to him not that long ago, trying to set up the sit down between them and the Knights, and for help with Carmichael.

He had to pay some dues to the family, but it worked out in the long run. Let’s hope Seratelli keeps his word.”

“He will.” Kevin nodded his head once. “I don’t know him, but just in the simple dealings we’ve had with him, he’s honorable.”

I nodded slowly, my brain fuzzy as the Mary Jane worked its magic on my mind and body. The throbbing in my wounds had finally diminished enough that I almost forgot they hurt at all. “How’d you handle it? When Kara was gone?”

Kevin hissed out a breath and shook his head. “I didn’t. We didn’t, not really.” He ran a hand through his black spiky hair, making it stick up more. “It was the hardest time of my life.”

“We haven’t been in a good place,” I admitted.

“Kara filled me in a little. Hillcrest has been harassing Maya for the last ten years?”

“Pretty much. Come to find out that he was the reason she left, and Buckley might have been involved even back then.”

“Shit,” Kevin hissed.

“Yep.”

“That’s a lot to wrap your head around.”

“Yeah. How do you just move past the pain of that? Do you just get back together like nothing happened?” I mused through the thoughts that had been plaguing me. “Nico seems to think so.”

“That’s a tough one. Clearly, you still care about her.” Kevin pulled out another joint and lit it up, taking a long drag.

“I don’t think that I ever stopped. Maya was it for me, back then. She’s been the girl I’ve compared everyone else to. No one else ever measured up, never even came close.”

“Then I guess you have to figure out how to move past that heartbreak in your mind. But brother, I’m telling you—at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.

Especially after she comes out of this ordeal with Hillcrest. When their life is in danger, nothing else matters but holding them alive and well in your arms. You’ll see when you get her back.

Things like this put life into perspective, and you realize life is too short to hold on to heartbreak.

” Kevin passed me the joint as he slowly let out a stream of smoke.

I accepted the joint and mulled over his words while I took a drag. It was sage advice, offered from a levelheaded man who understood explicitly the pain that I was feeling—at least the shared misery and fear of our loved one being kidnapped. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Kevin nodded slowly. “Our clubs may not be on the best of terms, but we’re still family. Kara and Marcos ensure that regardless of the colors we wear. We’re here for you guys.”

I appreciated that more than I could admit. “Thank you,” I nodded. “We’ll get the club shit figured out too. Nico is working on Seratelli to get you guys a sit down.”

“Appreciate that,” Kevin said. “Things got more complicated when we started dating a lawyer, and all the shit Mac signed us up for before he passed. It wasn’t a club vote.”

I huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, we’re seeing a lot of that in the clean-up from Buckley’s death. It’s been a pain in the fucking ass.”

Kevin also huffed out a laugh, and I felt the unease lift off my heart for at least a bit.

I was still worried and terrified that something was happening to Maya, but being injured, there wasn’t much I could do to add to her search.

“It would really help if we had a tech guy who could find Hillcrest. He’s been a ghost.”

Kevin’s mouth slowly opened, then closed again. “I may have someone who can help with that.”

I raised an eyebrow at the man as he puffed on the joint.

“My brother is a tech guy. He helped find Carmichel when we were looking for him last year. I’ll give him a call.”

Relief had my shoulders sagged; there may be hope for Maya yet.