Page 80 of The Air You Breathe

“Shit, man, how are you doing?” Cal asked me, as he stopped his warmup to look at me. “I’m so sorry about Giovanni, and not making it to the funeral.”

“It’s ok, man,” I said, running a hand through my hair.

“We are sorry for your loss,” Aiden said, nodding at me. “We didn’t go because Jane came back.”

I looked up at him to see a big lovey-dovey smile on his face that made me get that same face. I’m pretty sure my face looked like that after I talked about Darcy.

“That's great, man!” I said, really happy for them. “Is that why Nathan isn’t here?

“Yeah,” Cal smiled, and I liked seeing the guys like this. I don’t know if it was because I was lovesick too or it was just good to see my friends happy, especially after the way Cal looked last time. “Plus, he still has trouble with his hand, so he took advantage and stayed with her.”

“That's good, I’m glad,” I said, genuinely happy for them. “Tonight should be an easy win.”

“Good! I feel like I’m finally healing from all the fights I’ve been doing lately, and I want to get home to my woman,” Cal said, as he went back to warming up.

“Alright, Dev is about to go on, and as soon as he is done, you’ll be up next,” I said, walking towards the door.

“Is it bad?” Aiden asked, before I opened the door. He didn’t have to say who he was talking about. “We heard a few things and nothing good.”

“He’s the one who did it,” I said, wishing I could tell them more.

“Shit.”

“Goddammit.”

“Just be careful, things are barely hanging by a thread,” I said, before I left the room. My phone vibrated as I closed the door; it was a call from Darcy. I smiled, about to answer when I saw Candy out of the corner of my eye, walking down the hallway that led to Lucio’s office.

I knew I was on borrowed time, but I couldn’t help but put into motion some security measures to cover my ass. Candy seemed to be the perfect person to help me do that. My phone buzzed while I followed her, seeing her walk into Lucio’s office. I waited a few seconds before I got close to the door.

“Lucio, it wasn’t—”

“I should kill you,” Lucio snarled. “Did you lie to me?”

“Look, I’ve done all that you’ve asked me to do. I spent years with—”

“Oh, they fucked your brains out, don’t fucking act like it was burden,” Lucio snapped. “If I find out that you—”

Lucio moaned and I immediately pulled away from the door, completely disgusted. I knew she fucked around with Nathan and the guys, but damn, Lucio was keeping tabs on them for fucking years without them even knowing.

Nathan had confided in me that he was drugged several times and they thought it might be her. Jane had also confronted her about it on the night of Darcy’s birthday but I didn’t get to hear what Candy told her. Was Lucio giving Candy the drugs? So many more questions about her popped into my head.

Fuck, I did not see this coming. How the fuck did I not notice her here before?

I walked down the hallway to check on the fight Dev was in, wondering if he had already won. I looked out to the cage, and noticed no one was in there anymore. I stood at the entrance remembering the days Giovanni and I would watch the fights, talking shit about everyone. Most days I was able to ignore the pain enough that I could function, but every so often it would creep back in.

My best friend was dead, and it felt like it was my fault. Guilt threatened to suffocate me because I had failed Darcy and Giovanni.

Shit.

I forgot Darcy called. I took my phone out to call her back seeing her SOS text. Worry flooded my veins as I called her back immediately. Walking to the room I had left Dev in, I was surprised to find it was empty.

Goddammit.

I hoped he had seen the text before I did, and was half way there already. I ran to my car running into Candy as I was about to exit the building.

“Oh!” she squealed as I grabbed her by the waist, to keep us from falling. When she realized who I was, her expression changed into what I think she thought was a sexy expression. To me she looked like a rat in a dress. “Evan, are you ok?”

“My sister,” I said, letting whatever I was feeling for Darcy come through at the moment. “She said someone broke in, I have to go.”

---