Page 28 of The Air You Breathe

After seeing Darcy with that guy, I threw myself into work and anything that might make me forget I ever saw her flirting with another man. I knew there was a possibility of her moving on but actually seeing it, especially after we had just slept with each other, made me want to hit something.

It was another fight night. The last time I saw the roster it was mostly regulars and Cal was going up against someone he had previously beaten before. I was looking forward to seeing Cal get an easy win, after having two fights where it looked like he might lose. My long list of things to do kept me busy most of the early evening. I was counting cash for the girls downstairs when my phone started to ring nonstop.

Sliding it out of my pocket, I saw two missed calls from Giovanni, two missed calls from Nathan and a text from Aiden. I called Giovanni back immediately, knowing what he was going to tell me.

“Office now,” he growled, before he hung up on me.

“Fuck,” I whispered as I finished counting the cash, leaving the girls to stock the bar. The arena was slowly filling up with people, when I noticed Lucio was talking to a few men in business suits. I immediately became suspicious as to what he was doing with those men. They screamed that they were the top of the food chain, looking arrogant and if the security detail said anything, these men were important.

I made my way down to the hall of offices, feeling dread in my stomach. When I walked into my office, I knew this night was going to be a shitshow.

“What happened,” I asked, seeing Giovanni nursing a glass of whiskey.

“Did you see those men out there with Lucio,” he asked, looking like he was ready to lose it.

“Yeah, why?” I sat in the chair in front of my desk.

“Those men are in the business of human trafficking,” he growled, downing the rest of his drink.

Shit. Fuck.

“Ithought we thwarted his meetings? What the hell happened?” I snapped, getting up from my chair. Giovanni and I had been creating false leads, losing messages and blatantly ignoring calls with anything that pertained to human trafficking.

“This guy called Lucio directly, said he heard that he was looking into getting into the trade and that he had some girls coming in a couple of weeks.” Giovanni poured himself another glass and one for me too.

“Fuck, how do we get out of this?” I asked, desperate to make this all go away. We couldn’t let this go through no matter what.

“I have no idea and that’s not all,” he said passing my drink to me, clicking my glass before we both took it like a shot. “Cal is going up against someone who looks like they might be a professional. He gave a nondescript name that I’ve looked up but the way he and his crew looked I knew the name was bullshit.”

“And Lucio took it because he knew this was going to be a big payout. He needs money to pay for those girls he most likely will be getting from those sleazy guys,” I said, putting everything together.

“Exactly, I called Dev for backup in case it gets ugly, but I have a bad feeling about tonight.” Giovanni looked stressed out. “I’ve also sent a few of my guys to watch my home, your ma’s and Dev’s just in case.”

I wanted to say he was being dramatic, but I knew things could change in a heartbeat and I would rather be prepared than taken by surprise. “Can we trust them?” I asked.

“I trust them with Vittoria and my piccolina. They have no loyalty to him,” he stated, with a fire in his eye that said if they double-crossed him, they would pay, and I don’t doubt they would. Giovanni had been creating his own little following right under Lucio’s nose, with many of the guys feeling angry at the situation that got them into servitude. Lucio was a con artist through and through. Giovanni was capitalizing on their hatred of him, making an inner circle he could trust if shit ever went south.

“I appreciate it,” I said, as I thought about what else we could do to fuck up the trafficking deal and help Cal out. Giovanni looked just as lost for a solution as I was. “Let's just get through the night and we can worry about how to make the trafficking deal go away later.”

“I agree.” He poured us another drink. “I’ll go to my father while you see if you can find any info about the guy Cal is fighting.”

I took the shot wishing I could just get shitfaced and pretend this whole night was a dream.

* * *

Cal’s fight was brutal.The guy he went up against had him playing defense from the moment that bell rang. He was clearly a professional, doing combos and taking hits like it was just an easy Sunday morning. It took two rounds before he punched Cal so hard that he fell like a sack of potatoes. I winced at the hit, seeing Aiden and Nathan go into the cage, trying to wake him up.

It took five minutes before Cal woke up, another minute to get him off the floor and even longer to walk back to his locker room. Cal looked completely out of it, and I hoped he didn’t have any brain damage. I wished that Jane was here to check on him but also grateful she wasn’t here.

Right now, Lucio was passive, but I saw the anger in his eyes. He played nice to a couple of high rollers and made his rounds seeing other clients. He made one last stop with the traffickers, then left quickly with two of his guys flanking him. I took a shortcut to Cal’s locker, walking to the room that had two guys guarding it. I needed to give the guys a heads up, but I barely made it before Lucio barged in looking like he was ready to kill someone.

“What the fuck was that, Cal?” Lucio snarled.

“That was me losing,” Cal responded, being a cheeky bastard at the wrong time.

“I had thousands of dollars riding on you. I gave you an out for your sister to keep her safe and this is how you repay me,” he said, looking disgusted.

“That fighter was no underground fighter. He looked like a professional out there with his fancy crew.” Aiden spoke first before Cal could put his foot in his mouth.

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