Page 18 of The Air You Breathe

Now, if Lucio changed it then everyone was fucked, especially Dev and Cal. Giovanni answered but didn’t give me the answer I had hoped for. Lucio had changed it.

Shit, I hated that man even more and hated that he meddled in my fucking shit. I knew why he did it. In his last fight Cal brought in a shit ton of money. This fight would certainly make the crowd go even wilder, making more money flow and people making more confident bets. Cal definitely needed these bigger fights to pay his debt off to Lucio but at what cost?

I sat in my office trying to figure out a way to save either of them the ass whopping they might receive. Cal was an exceptional fighter, but this guy was a different breed and I’m pretty sure he was way out of his weight class too. I decided to skip protocol to give Cal a heads up. As my friend he deserved to know, to prepare for the fight properly with Aiden and Nathan since they always came to watch his back and patch him up if needed. I messaged Cal.

Lucio has you up against Brent Alvaro tonight.

Lucio was a fucking thief and always had someone making bets for him, making money the shit way, and if Cal lost he would be pissed. I’d hate to see what he would do if he lost, I wouldn’t doubt he would have a lot of money riding on this fight.

Brent had made a name for himself, so I’m sure our regulars would definitively bet on him making Cal’s winnings even greater. I took a deep breath, bracing myself for a night that might end badly. I debated on texting Dev, but decided against it because I felt like it might be worse than not knowing.

Everything else needed to go off without any problems tonight, so I went to work ensuring that. But when my phone went off, I froze when I saw Nathan’s name.

“Hey,” I said, steeling myself from his wrath or worse, Aiden's.

“How bad is this?” he asked.

“This guy is a machine,” I responded truthfully. “Last time he was in the cage, we had to stop the fight.”

“Seriously? What the fuck, Evan?” he snapped.

I felt guilty for a moment. “Nathan, you know I can’t do much. I had him down for someone else, but you know Lucio sees dollar signs when it comes to Cal.”

I was met with silence and I thought he had hung up until I heard him sigh. “I know. We’ll be there at nine and Jane is coming with us.”

“Is that a good idea?” I asked.

“No, but if this guy is as good as Cal says he is, then he’s going to need her,” he said, sounding a little unsure.

I remembered hearing she was a nurse, and it was probably for the best if they brought her. “Ok, but make sure one of you is with her at all times.”

“Cal would castrate us if we left her alone,” he chuckled, but it sounded forced.

“I wouldn’t doubt it,” I sighed. “Just stick together and tell Cal to be ready for anything.”

“I will, don’t do anything stupid Evan,” he said. He knew I had my hands tied but also that I would try and do everything I could to keep everyone safe.

“I won’t, there’s some things even I can’t change,” I said. “I’ll see you soon.”

I hung up thinking I would try and reason with Lucio, but I needed Giovanni for this to work. It would definitely take both of us to convince him he was making a mistake pairing both of them with people who had a big chance of kicking their ass, and Lucio couldn’t afford to lose.

Giovanni called me like he knew I needed him. He told me he would be right over, and we could figure out something to do or talk to Lucio about the roster. He didn’t have much interaction with the guys, but he knew they were good people and Cal was trapped in a shitty situation.

I walked upstairs, checking the bars, looking over the lists my bartender left me to order supplies or to make a suggestion. I went back downstairs to check the bar where the fights were held, making sure I put out the expensive scotch, whiskey and tequila. Lucio wanted our best for the high rollers that were coming in. We had a VIP section made just for them, and I had to make sure to talk to whomever was going to be manning the bar down here.

“Ah, Evan!” I looked up to see Lucio and Giovanni walking towards me. Just seeing him made me want to punch something.

“Hello Lucio,” I said, nodding at them, trying to gauge the expression on Giovanni’s face to give me a clue on how this conversation was going to go.

“Everything ready for tonight?” he asked, looking around the area.

“Almost,” I said, preparing myself. “Sir, I think we need to change the roster back to what I had before.”

Lucio continued to look around for a moment before he looked at me. “Why would we do that?” He asked calmly and I saw that tell sign that I'd pissed him off. His eye twitched ever so slightly and his mouth turned down for just a millisecond.

“Dev has never done this before. We’ve seen him fight once and that was because he had to, not because he joined the fights here. He’s inexperienced, and he doesn’t know this is all for show. I think—”

“Dev will be fine, his opponent is a schmuck, and he is drunk most of the time,” Lucio glared at me like I had personally offended him. “He’s my son, he will be fine.”

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