Page 8 of Brandishing Balance (Devil’s Psychos MC #3)

Jason

I stare around the empty house. It had been over a week since we closed on the property and the painters had made great progress. In fact, they were finished, and I could move on to the next stage of updates I wanted to make to the home: new counter tops.

The granite installers were due any minute. They were going to replace the kitchen counters and bath vanity tops in the bathrooms.

That was how I found myself standing in the empty house, staring at all the blank walls, wondering what the hell I should do next. What would Maya want to change? It was a painful thought, though.

It had been four days since Maya had been taken and we still weren’t any closer to finding her. Four long, horrendous days. Nico was a mess. Marcos was barely holding it together, trying to keep Luke on schedule with school and homework and football practice.

And Luke… Luke was not having any of it. He didn’t want to go to school, or practice, or do homework. He was argumentative with everyone, but with Marcos especially. Kara seemed to be the only that could get through to him, but she still had her hands full with a baby at home.

We needed Maya back. Fuck, did we need Maya back.

I was pulled from my thoughts at the sound of the back door opening. Turning my head, I watched a dazed-looking Nico walk into the kitchen. His eyes were bloodshot and I wondered if he was stoned or hadn’t slept in days. “What the hell man?” I asked.

Nico met my gaze and sighed. “Leo dropped me off. Said I needed to get my shit together and face my family.”

I snorted. “Yeah, sounds about right.”

Nico nodded, not even the slightest bit offended by my gruff response. “Yeah. So what’s next? We’re waiting on Jack Adams to find something. We’re waiting on Leo’s people to find something. Our guys are searching everything we know as well. What are we supposed to do in the meantime?”

“I’ve been standing here thinking the same thing. Paint is done; the granite guys should be here any minute. I found myself asking what would Maya want?”

“New carpet,” Nico answered immediately. “She loved how fluffy the carpets were upstairs when we first moved in. They had been brand new. Re-carpet upstairs and the living room here. Re-finish the hardwood everywhere else.”

I hmphed and shook my head. “I’ve been standing here for forty minutes trying to figure that out, and you knew it immediately.”

Nico carded his fingers through his blond hair and shrugged a shoulder. “I just remember everything from back then. I relived it as much as possible, trying to figure out what went wrong and to never forget her. She was my everything.”

I hung my head, staring at the floor. Nico’s dedication to Maya was admirable and humbling. It reminded me that I treated her like complete shit for the last seven months that she had been back and kept pushing her away.

The part that killed me the most, though, was that Nico had seen through her bullshit.

He had known she was lying the whole time, but he didn’t push through her boundaries.

I thought I had been able to read her pretty well back then.

I should have seen the lies this time. Fuck.

I had seen the lies; I just couldn’t get her to talk to me.

Instead, I had lost my fucking temper and choked her in the dining room after a family dinner.

Great way to fucking get her to trust me.

And while Nico was busy remembering everything there ever was about Maya, reliving their past, I had been busy trying to forget her by drowning myself in pussy for the last decade.

It wasn’t until she had returned last January that I stopped fucking around as much.

After the Devil Chaser I had fucked on the side of Kara’s house at the spring party, I hadn’t touched another slut since—not after I saw the pain firsthand on Maya’s beautiful face.

It had ripped my heart out.

I had fucked up so epically where Maya was concerned, I didn’t know a way to begin fixing things.

So I threw myself into the remodel of the house.

It was the only thing I felt like I had any control on.

I didn’t care if I drained my savings doing so.

I would make this house the home of Maya’s dreams.

“Carpet for sure,” Nico murmured. “We should also start working on Luke’s room. I think she’d want him to have a cool bedroom.”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “Yeah, we could get him involved, maybe? Maybe it will give him something to be excited about?”

“How’s he been doing?”

“Not good. He’s arguing constantly with Marcos and Elaine. He doesn’t want to go to school or do homework. e’s more aggressive at football practice. The coach said he might have to bench him for the game if he doesn’t cool it.”

Nico sighed heavily. “I wondered if that might happen.”

“Yeah. Marcos doesn’t know what to do. Kara’s been around a lot, helping out. Luke really likes her, but she’s got Lilah too.”

Nodding, Nico folded his hands behind his head and locked his fingers together. “What if we took him to the gym? I hit the bag for the first time in a long time again, and Leo’s gym offers youth classes. What if we taught him to box? MMA?”

“You want to teach an angry kid how to fight?” I countered.

“I want to give an angry kid a safe outlet to release that pent up rage. Come on, Stone, he’s hurting. We’re all fucking hurting here. Let’s teach him to defend himself. He’s old enough, and I bet he rocks at it.”

“We should run that by Marcos first, but yeah.”