Page 35 of The Air You Breathe

My face must have had the horror of my sister dating because Mary laughed. “Dev you know she is eventually going to marry, maybe have kids or she might live a life only satisfying her sexual needs.”

“Mary,” I grumbled, horrified at the picture she was painting.

She cackled at my response.

“Mary, leave poor Dev alone, I’m sure he doesn’t need to be thinking about his sister like that.” Darcy walked in looking fucking beautiful, distracting me enough that all thoughts of my sister went out the door.

“Good morning, Darcy,” I said, keeping my eyes on her as she came up to the counter.

“It’s not morning anymore, Dev.” She smirked.

“Well, I’ll leave you to get his coffee.” Mary eyed us like we were her favorite soap opera. “I’ll be in the back if you need anything.”

Darcy and I didn’t respond to her, stuck in our own little bubble. Every day she was flirting more. It started with small touches when she gave me my coffee. Then I found more than one pastry in my bag. And now she was writing “have a good day” on my coffee cup. I knew encouraging her was a dumb idea, but I couldn’t help myself. Darcy was becoming my favorite part of my day, like that first taste of coffee. If this morning was any indication to me that not seeing her anymore wasn’t an option.

“Same thing?” she asked, with a small blush on her cheeks.

“Surprise me,” I said, remembering the days I said it because I loved to see that challenge in her eyes.

Fuck! I think I’ve had a thing for her for a while now.

“You sure you want to be surprised?” She leaned over the counter, showing me the top of her ample tits, making my mouth water with the need to take her nipples into my mouth and tease her until she begged with the need to come.

“A mhuirnín, I love when life surprises me, especially when it expresses itself in a beautiful woman,” I leaned over, close enough that if she leaned a fraction of an inch forward she would graze my lips with hers. Her proximity made me forget to explain what I called her.

“I like surprises too, especially when they come in the form of hot tattooed men who get coffee every morning,” she whispered seductively, close to my lips. “You are definitely a good surprise I wasn’t expecting.” She licked her lips, the tip of her tongue grazing mine, making my restrain crack.

I pushed forward only to have that damn bell signal someone was coming in. I pulled away slowly as she jerked back, turning around to start on my coffee.

I clenched my jaw in irritation, but also relief. I almost crossed a line; she was Evan’s girl. They weren't together but he still had feelings for her, and I was the asshole who almost kissed her. I don’t think it was a good idea that I was watching over her anymore. I needed to tell Evan I couldn’t do it anymore because If I kept this up, I was going to have Darcy screaming my name.

15

EVAN

After Cal lost the big fight, everything had been going wrong, and Lucio was getting angrier and angrier. We were supposed to have another big fighter come in, but he ended up canceling at the last minute. Our usual shipment of drugs came in late with only half the product we ordered, and the men Lucio talked about getting the girls from had stopped responding.

I felt nothing but relief from the traffickers not replying, but it had put Lucio in a shit mood, which at the moment everyone was enduring. Even Geraldo was behaving himself or maybe he was waiting for the right moment to strike. Giovanni’s guys hadn’t heard anything, but he still made me nervous as shit, so all of us remained on high alert.

Tonight's fight made me scramble for a fighter to keep Cal out of the cage. Since it was last minute, no one was available. I called everyone, almost begging for a fighter. Lucio made the call when I didn’t find anyone, making me really fucking worried about how Cal was doing, not just physically but mentally. I was there when their girl Jane left them the morning after the fight that Cal lost, and now they had no idea where she was at. The two times I had messaged Nathan to ask how he was feeling were responded to with very short and to the point text messages. He had to have surgery to fix his hand and they still hadn’t heard from Jane.

My phone rang pulling me away from guilty thoughts. Cal’s name flashed on my phone and I answered. “Hello.”

“Evan.” His clipped tone made me brace myself for his anger as I leaned back in my chair in my office. “Who am I going up against?”

“He’s new,” I said, running a hand through my hair. “I don’t know much about him, but Lucio said he’s good and the guy who came and championed for him said he’s been fighting for a few years.”

“Fuck, I’m not a hundred percent—” He stopped talking.

I waited for a moment to see if he was going to start talking again. I was about to say something when he started talking again.

“Evan, I can’t get knocked out again. Jane said if I have too many head injuries I either won’t wake up or I could have severe brain damage.” He took a deep breath. “Nothing is going to keep me from Jane, especially something that I can prevent.”

“Have you heard from her?” I asked.

“No, Aiden and Nathan are in Dallas right now looking for her. I had a hunch she might be there, but so far they’ve had no luck,” he said, in a somber tone.

“Damn, I’m sorry man.” I felt bad for the guys. Last time I saw them all together they looked good, like they were meant for each other. I mean if she got Cal to smile and laugh, that was a fucking miracle on its own.

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