“Yeah,” he said under his breath. “It is.”

Or at least it had been when he’d shared this place with his mother. Now …

As much as he wanted to be home, he was terrified of entering.

Nick got out of the taxi and paid the fee then pulled his duffle bag from the seat. Slamming the door shut, he looked up at his house and gripped the handle so tight that his fingers ached in protest.

He’d bought this house as a birthday present for his mother. He could still hear her squeal of joy as he handed her the key. See her standing beside him as she stared at him in disbelief.

“Happy Birthday, Mom.”

“Oh Nicky, what have you done now? You didn’t go and kill someone, did you?”

Her question had appalled him. “Mom!”

Still, she’d been relentless as she narrowed her blue eyes on him and stood arms akimbo. “You ain’t been doing none of that drug dealing neither, have you? Cause if you are, boy, love or no love, I’ll beat you blue.”

He’d scoffed at her warning. “Mom, you know me better than that. I would never do anything to embarrass you in front of your church friends.”

“Then how you get all this money, cher? How you able to buy a house this fancy at your age? You still a baby and I couldn’t afford two bricks off this place.”

“Kyrian put the house in my name, but technically he owns it. He’s letting me rent it from him.” It’d been a partial lie. Part of being Kyrian’s Squire back when Kyrian had been a Dark-Hunter had meant that all of Kyrian’s properties were owned by Nick—at least on paper. This house, though, really was Nick’s. His salary had been such that he could have easily bought three houses like this, but his mother would never have believed he could make that kind of money without breaking the law.

“Broker, hmmm. That’s sounds like one of those euphemisms for drug dealer to me.”

“Ah, Mom, c’mon inside and see the book room. I’ve already got your chair in there so you can read all those romance novels you love so much.”

“Baby, you spoil me. You know I don’t need anything this big and fancy.”