Page 22 of Brandishing Betrayals (Devil’s Psychos MC #2)

Marcos

I walked into my sister’s house late Monday night, after texting her to see if she was still awake. I was dreading the conversation I was about to have with her and prayed to God her men would give us space.

I let myself in through the backdoor, walking into the kitchen.

I left my boots on, as I walked through the large kitchen in search of my sister.

I found her curled up on the couch, nursing a glass of wine.

There was a book propped up on a pillow in her lap, she looked comfy and cozy, and utterly relaxed.

I hated that I was about to piss her off, especially now that we had finally got into a good place in our relationship. “Hey lil Manita,” I greeted.

She looked up from her book and gave me a soft smile. “Hey Marquitos.” She unfurled herself from the couch and walked over to greet me with a hug. “Want something to drink?”

“I’ll take a Whisky,” I said, squeezing her tightly.

She hummed as she pulled away. “Important meeting, requiring whisky, late at night? What’s going on big brother?”

I sighed as I stepped away from her. I ran a hand over my buzzed head and paced away from her.

Kara was quiet as she poured me a glass of whisky. She slid it over on the counter toward me, before she walked back into the living room and grabbed her glass of wine. Once she was back in the kitchen, she took a seat at the large island and waited, watching me expectantly.

I sighed as I walked over to the island. I took a sip of my whisky and rubbed a hand over my scruffy jaw. “Look, I’m sorry okay.”

She frowned, “Marquitos—”

“Just let me get this out, OK?” I shot her a pleading look.

She pursed her lips together, her blue eyes narrowing on me, but she nodded once and let me continue.

“I hate to admit this, but I’m struggling a little bit financially, and well…” I rubbed a hand over my jaw again, hating that I wasn’t able to just spit out what I needed to say. This fucking vulnerability shit sucks.

“Marcos,” Kara said, pulling me out of my train of thought. “Whatever you need. You can have. How much money do you need?”

“It’s not like that.” I shook my head vehemently. “I just need to stop paying your student loans. If I don’t have those payments, I’d be OK.”

Kara gasped.

I couldn’t look at her. I could only imagine the pain in those blue eyes. I knew I was hurting her. This is such bullshit .

“What do you mean you’re paying my student loans?” She snapped. “Marcos! What the hell!”

I finally looked over at her. The anger was evident, but so was the pain.

“I thought my dad took care of my loans! I never would have expected you pay for them! Marcos! We said when I applied for those loans, that they would be my responsibly when I graduated! It only made sense! Why in the hell would you be paying them? My dad told me he took care of them for me! I thought he rolled my undergrad into the Harvard payments!”

“He and I might have gotten into an argument about them. I told him I could take care of you just fine, and would pay it.”

“Jesus fucking CHRIST,” she swore. She shook her head in disbelief. “That has to be close to eighty thousand dollars! What the fuck, Marcos!”

I took a long pull from my whisky, letting her rant.

Sometimes it was better if she just got everything out in the open.

“I’m just asking you to take over the monthly payment, Manita.

I’m sorry you didn’t know; I didn’t want you to.

But now with Luke and shit with the club, money is tight, and I’m trying to buy a house. ”

Kara sighed and tossed back her wine, emptying it in one gulp. “Did you bring the papers?”

I pulled out a stack of opened envelopes from my inner pocket on my cut. The clear film on the envelope window crinkled as I handed them over.

Kara took the stack from me. She set the stack on the counter in front of her and pulled open the first envelope. Her face was a range of emotions as she read over the billing. Her mouth dropped open when she took in the monthly payment due. “Marcos this is a damn mortgage payment!”

“Look, if you can’t do the whole thing, just pay half, and I’ll take care of the other—”

“No.” She snapped, cutting him off with a glare. “l’ll take care of this. What the fuck, Marcos! You should have told me about this sooner! I would have paid this years ago!”

“I didn’t want you to be upset. I still don’t want you to be upset. OK, sister?” I sighed.

Kara shook her head. “It’s not OK, brother. I’m sorry you had to deal with this. I’ll take care of it.”

I smiled faintly and opened my arms. She flew into me, hugging me hard, making me rock back a step. “I love you, lil Manita.”

“Love you too, Marquitos.”

Marcos

“I talked to Kara last night about the student loans,” I told Stone and Dagger as we sat down to lunch the following day. The restaurant around us was bustling, so I wasn’t worried about anyone overhearing our conversation.

“That’s good,” Dagger grinned. “I bet she was pissed!”

I chucked sardonically. “Sure was. But she’s going to take care of the payments now. It frees up fifteen hundred a month.”

“That’s a damn mortgage payment,” Stone grunted.

“That’s what Kara said,” I sighed.

Stone pulled out a piece of paper from the inner pocket of his cut and set it on the table, in front of the three of them. “This is what I can chip in for a down payment.”

Dagger pulled out his own folded piece of paper. “This is what I’ve got.”

I frowned and reached for both pieces of folded paper. “Shit,” I muttered when I took in the large sums written down. “Seriously?”

Stone just shrugged.

Dagger grinned broadly. “Yeah dude! Let’s do it!”

I shook my head. “After all these years… are we really talking about living together again?”

“We always lived together before—until Maya left,” Dagger said, smiling sadly. “Besides… maybe things with her will come full circle.”

Stone snorted and shook his head.

I glared slightly at my buddy across the table from me, before I turned to Dagger and frowned. “I don’t know about all that, but it would be nice to not live alone anymore.”

“Bear has a friend that’s a realtor, I’ll reach out tomorrow,” Jason said.