Page 24 of The Hate We Breathe
“Do you trust us?” Gio asks, cutting me off.
“Of course, but?—”
“No buts,” he says. “If you trust us, then trust that we mean what we say. We’re not going to keep being my father’s dumbass cronies forever.”
My brow puckers as I stare into his serious expression. I sit back and huff out a breath. “Fine,” I mutter, moving back fullyinto my seat so that the buckle of my seat belt stops digging into my ass. “Where are we going?”
“The Dionysus Lounge,” Lex answers.
“What?” I jerk my head around and gape at him. “Why?”
Now that he’s said it, I realize that we’re on the edge of Silverwood and about to take the highway. Shit. Why hadn’t I paid any attention beforehand? The answer is right there too—because I’m dumb and I trust these assholes.
Before Lex or Gio can answer me, I smack the back of Gio’s seat. “Turn around,” I order. “Take me back to the house—you guys go without me.”
“Baby, it’s?—”
“Don’t you fucking ‘baby’ me, Lex,” I growl. “I am not showing up to my old workplace after I was kicked out on my ass!”
“You weren’t kicked out on your ass,” Gio says with a chuckle.
I hit the back of his seat again, harder this time. It elicits a grunt from him. “I’m fucking serious!”
Panic begins to set in as Lex turns onto the highway and speeds up, merging with the light traffic heading towards Tangier.Fuck. Me.I slump back against my seat and cover my face with my hands.
“What iswrongwith you two?”
“What’s wrong withus?” Gio huffs and the sound of his chair groaning as he turns around to face me echoes in the quiet interior. “What’s wrong withyou?It’s not that big of a deal, Prep Girl. Besides, you know we have to run errands for my father.”
I lift my head. “Is that what you’re doing today?” I deadpan.
He grimaces and scratches his jaw. “Kind of.”
“Ugh.”
“Come on,” Gio says, leaning over the console so he can look at me fully. “Ma-Ri liked you and you liked the job. We took care of the interference from my father and we assured her he’d notthreaten her about you again. You want your own money, don’t you? You want to save up for when we go away to college, right? If you get your job back, you can, and it’s not like you have to pay rent now.”
“How exactly did you take care of the interference from your father?” I ask. “And how can you promise to make sure it won’t be a problem again?”
The answer to that doesn’t come from Gio, but instead, from Lex. “Don’t worry about that,” he says, eyes trained forward.
“Yeah, see… when you say shit like that,” I reply, pointing at him. “It only makes me worrymore.”
“It’ll be fine,” Gio assures me, flipping back around in his seat. “You’ll see.”
10
JULIET
The Dionysus Lounge is exactly how I remember it. Which isn’t surprising because it’s only been a few weeks since I was last here.
Lex parks in the back lot, but instead of taking the back door into the guts of the building, he and Gio lead me around to the front double doors. I would have sat in the SUV and stayed until they were done doing whatever they came here to do were it not for Gio threatening to handcuff me to him the entire time we’re here. I won’t put it past the crazy asshole.
“Virgin mojito,” Gio orders for me as we take our seats in one of the circle booths.
“Anything for you, handsome?” the waitress says, smiling at him as she tucks a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. I narrow my gaze on her. I’ve never seen her before. She must be new.
“I’m good,” Gio says, waving her off.
