Page 6 of Brandishing Balance (Devil’s Psychos MC #3)

Nico

I punched and jabbed and punched the bag in front of me. Each hit making my knuckles bloodier. Each hit reverberated through me, the pain in my knuckles echoed the pain in my heart.

Our search had been fruitless. We had searched the neighborhood for forty-eight hours straight, taking shifts to sleep, eating only when someone shoved something at us. In the end, Leonardo had called off the neighborhood search. He ordered his guys home and told me to do the same.

I had argued immediately. I had gotten in my cousin’s face, almost ruining the tentative relationship we were reforming.

In the end, Leo had pulled me into a tight embrace and told me to fight it out at the gym.

So I found myself at the family’s boxing gym, sparing with a bag for the for the first time in years.

I’d hung a punching bag in my garage at home, but I’d fallen out of practice. Now I was hurting in all the right places, bleeding out, just like my heart.

Forty-eight fucking hours without the love of my life. I couldn’t imagine the hell Maya was facing, enduring. I was living in a nightmare every second that passed by without her in my arms.

Fuck my cousin for calling off the neighborhood search. Fuck Marcos for agreeing.

We needed to keep going, keep pushing on. Someone somewhere was bound to crack. They had to have seen something. No one in that neighborhood had loyalties that couldn’t be bought. That’s what we needed to do; we needed to announce a reward for any information on Maya’s whereabouts.

“Nicolai!” Leonardo’s deep voice rang out from behind me. His yell indicating he’d been trying to get my attention for a while now.

I stopped hitting the bag, but didn’t turn to face my cousin. I grabbed the bag to stop it from swinging and rested my forehead against it as I panted hard and caught my breath.

“Nicolai. You’ve been here for hours. You need to go home.” Leonardo’s voice was soft and gentle, yet firm. He was used to getting his way and expected everyone to listen to him, family especially—family specifically.

I had already fucked up my relationship with Leo and the family once, I didn’t really want to do so again—not when we were finally back on speaking terms. “I can’t.” I huffed a sigh, my body deflating at the admission.

“Then go to Marcos or Jason.” Leo’s patience was something of legend.

I never understood how Leo put up with half the stuff he had over the years without lashing out or snapping.

He was a firm and steady Don, someone that was easy to respect—but God help the person who did piss him off.

Where his patience was legendary, his wrath was fearsome and alarming.

They wrote nightmares about the times my cousin had lost his temper.

I never wanted to be on the receiving end of that anger. I shook my head slowly. “They’re with Luke. I can’t be around him right now. Not like this.”

Leo’s hand rested on my sweaty shoulder. “Then come with me. You shouldn’t be alone right now.”

I huffed a humorless laugh. “The mighty Don, stooping to take care of a lowly associate?” I asked, sarcastically.

“No dumbass. A cousin offering assistance to his family in need. Stop looking a gift horse in the mouth and let’s go.

” Leo’s tone brokered no argument, but I was too tired to move.

I leaned against the bag, feeling the weight of the world crushing down on me as my body slowly succumbed to the lack of sleep and strenuous workout, I just put it through. “Nicolai,” Leo said again.

“Yeah.” I nodded my head.

“Come on.” Leo tugged on my shoulder and dragged me away from the punching bag.

I let my cousin drag me away from the bag.

I was dripping with sweat, yet Leonardo didn’t seem to mind as he gripped my shoulder and led me away.

The boxing gym was twenty-four hours, but the place was empty besides a worker at the front desk.

I hadn’t even come in with any workout clothes, I had simply peeled off my Devil’s Psychos cut and white t-shirt, setting them on the front counter, before I’d stalked over to a bag and began beating the hell out of it, bare knuckles and all.

I was realizing the error of my ways as I slowly uncurled my fingers and flexed my fists over and over. My knuckles were bloody, but nothing felt broken, despite the utter beating I had bestowed upon them.

My cousin handed me my shirt and cut, but I chose not to wear either. I was too sweaty and the idea of slipping into the leather without the shirt sounded like a nightmare to clean. It would only make shit smell. I draped both items over my arm and followed my cousin out into the night.

The humid night air did nothing to cool me down, and I briefly thought about turning around and heading back inside the gym to plant my ass in front of one of the industrial sized fans they had aimed around the place.

I knew though that if I sat down, I wouldn’t get back up again. I hadn’t slept in two days.

There was a blacked-out Escalade waiting for Leonardo, with a motorcycle trailer hitched up to the back of it. I paused in my steps as I realized what Leonardo had planned. “What?” I asked, my mind struggling to keep up.

“You can’t ride. Come on, I’ll help you strap it down.” Leonardo was already pulling off his fancy as fuck suit jacket. He tossed the thing into the Escalade before he rolled up his shirt sleeves.

I felt like I was living in an alternate reality. There was no way my posh as fuck, mafia Don cousin was about to get dirty and help me strap down my Harley to the trailer. How the fuck did he even get his hands on a motorcycle trailer in the first place?

“Marcos called looking for you earlier,” Leo said as a way of explanation. “When I found you, I called him for the trailer.”

I shook my head in disbelief.

“Come on.” Leo nodded toward my bike.

Snapping out of it, I tossed my shirt and cut into the backseat of the Escalade before I turned toward my bike.

I pulled the keys out of my pocket and started the engine quickly.

It roared to life, loud and unforgiving in the dead of night.

Taking a seat on the bike, exhaustion and fatigue weighed severely on me, making the idea of backing my bike out of the parking spot and driving up the short ramp of the trailer feel monumental.

“Come on, cousin. You’ve got this,” Leo said, walking over.

I nodded slowly. Yeah, I could do this. I had to.

I sat and put the bike into reverse and slowly eased out of the spot, keeping both feet planted on the ground as I walked the bike backward.

When I was clear of the spot, I switched gears and drove up the ramp of the trailer, lining up my wheels between the metal brackets that would hold the bike upright.

“Good,” Leo said. He walked up the ramp of the trailer while I put the kickstand down on the motorcycle and shut it off. The silence that fell was deafening, causing my ears to ring.

It didn’t take us long to strap down my Harley, ensuring the motorcycle wouldn’t move during transit. I was still shocked that my cousin had thought ahead to call Marcos in the first place. “Thanks,” I muttered, when we were done.

“Don’t mention it,” Leo said, his voice gentle. “Come on, get in.” He nodded toward the black SUV.

I sighed and followed orders. I had a feeling it wouldn’t be the last time I followed my cousin’s directions.