Page 70 of The Air You Breathe

“Don’t use that fucking excuse on me.” Dev’s voice snapped at Evan.

“I know it’s a shit excuse but what the fuck was I supposed to do? That's what he wanted. You wanted me to tell your brother to go fuck himself or what?” Evan yelled back. “He did this to spare you, to keep you safe, to make sure you had a fighting chance of not being sucked into this life.”

“Maybe he should have asked me?” Dev said, with a lot of emotion in his voice. “Maybe you both should have asked me what the hell I wanted?”

“I know we should have, but we didn’t and now that Giovanni is gone, it looks like you don’t have a choice.”

It was quiet for a moment. I got closer to the door to see if they had started talking in normal tones, but all I heard was silence.

“I want in because I don’t want to be left in the dark again, and I want to be able to help,” Dev said, just loud enough for me to hear.

“Are you sure?” Evan asked.

“Who else do you completely trust to watch your back? No offense, Saul.” Dev sounded like he was calming down.

“I get it, right now we don’t know who to trust. We need to find out who said something to Lucio, and I really think we need to talk about taking care of Geraldo,” someone else said, who I assumed was Saul.

“We definitely need to take care of Geraldo, but we have to be smart about it. Lucio is going to be pissed if he finds out that we killed him.” Evan said it like killing was so commonplace. They were talking about taking a life, but since he had tried to kill Evan I think this might be the one time it was okay for someone to die, especially if he had a hand in Giovanni’s death.

Jesus Christ! Being with Evan and Dev for a few weeks had made me okay with a man dying. Well, two men dying because Lucio had to fucking go, too.

“Geraldo is mine,” Dev snapped. “So, figure out a way he won't be missed, and we can take him out.”

“We will figure it out, but we need to be careful with Lucio. I don’t know if he thinks I had a hand in it too and he’s just buying some time,” Evan said, and I instantly felt worried.

“I think if he knew it was you then you would be dead too,” Saul said.

“Geraldo tried to distract me, so I wasn’t around when they planned to take him out.” Evan countered. “I think you're right, Saul, but we need to assume he knows about my disloyalty, and he will do something in the future. I don’t want to be caught off guard.Wedon’t need to be caught off guard.”

“Agreed,” Dev and Saul said together.

“Let's go check on the girls, and make sure everyone is ok. I’d like for you to talk to your men and make sure you are a hundred percent sure that we can trust everyone.”

“Do you remember if you guys told anyone?”

“I sure as hell didn’t. I knew if I told someone then we would get fucked because men are quick to use any evidence against you to get ahead,” Evan responded.

“Then someone had to have been listening to his calls.” Dev suggested. “He left the building when he called so that’s a possibility, but I thought he had gone to his car,” Evan said. “There’s eyes and ears everywhere.”

“Well, let's figure out who we can trust, I’m going to go check on Vittoria, and I think we need to talk about what the next move is,” Dev said, and then I heard murmuring. I pushed my ear by the door to hear better, but I still couldn’t hear anything.

I pulled back slightly and the next thing I knew the door hit me right in the face making me fall back. Dev peaked around the door to see me on my ass.

“Holy shit, Darcy are you ok?” he asked, leaning over me.

“Uh yeah, I was—” I didn’t know what to say as a blush crept up on my cheeks.

“Mhuirnín, were you eavesdropping?” he asked, helping me up, checking my face.

“Maybe,” I said, hugging him to hide my embarrassment.

“You could have just asked us.” I heard the laughter in his voice.

“I didn’t know how much you planned to tell me, so I thought I would just listen to how bad the situation is,” I said into his chest.

Dev sighed. “Darcy, I don’t want to say I would never lie to you when it comes to what happens with my father, but I’m afraid of telling you too much. I don’t want to scare you away and if I’m being honest, see where I come from. Then you’ll realize that I’m not worth staying around for.”

I looked up at him, seeing him looking out the window. He looked worried, unsure and scared.

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