Page 37 of The Air You Breathe

“Fine, fuck, let's do it,” I agreed, but it still felt like the worst solution.

“Good,” he said, getting up. “I'm going to go for a drive and make the call. See if you can get anything else out of Lucio before we have to head out. We need as much info as possible if we are going to survive this.”

As he got up to leave my office, I nodded my head and turned off my gadget. I stuffed it into one of my drawers, still trying to think of a different solution we could employ but nothing came up.

“Evan!” Lucio called me.

I got up from my chair, feeling like I wasn't a part of reality anymore as I walked down the hall to his awful office. When I passed the threshold, I noticed Geraldo and a few other men surrounding Lucio's desk. I instantly went to the back of the room, but I knew he was only going to call me again and I didn’t need the unwanted attention.

“Ah, Evan, great! We can talk about the packages we are going to pick up today. Make sure everyone is on the same page,” he said, sitting down, like we were about to talk about deliveries we were getting from Amazon.

I walked close to his desk but still kept my distance from everyone else. Geraldo glanced at me with a glint in his eye that raised my hackles. This fucker was planning something, making me worried that he was going to go after Darcy sometime soon.

Fuck, I needed to check on her or have Dev do it.

“So, tonight we will be getting a shipment of—”

My thoughts went back to Darcy and our families that we were trying to keep safe, thinking of ways to increase their security without running us into the ground. I needed more loyal men that listened to Giovanni, so we could have more hands on deck.

“We will keep them at the safe house outside of Mountain Ridge. Once we have secured potential buyers for them, we can talk about security or retrieving them.” Lucio clapped his hand like the deranged psycho he was.

Giovanni walked into the meeting quickly standing next to me giving me a nod, which I figured meant he had made the call.

“So now that my son Giovanni has decided to grace us with his presence, he will be running this operation making sure everything is going well,” Lucio said, trying to keep a neutral face but you could see the fury in his eyes.

Giovanni walked in front of everyone talking about keeping our profile as low as possible, and only sending a few people to retrieve the girls. He kept a neutral expression until he said the word girls, and I knew it took everything he had not to look disgusted with this situation. The rest of us were there to keep a look out and signal for the possibility that the deal might go bad.

“The deal is solid,” Lucio snapped.

“I’m not taking any chances, we barely know these men. It could be a stupid mistake to trust them completely,” Giovanni said, with a little snap to his voice. “Would you like all of us going to jail for something that could have been avoided?”

Lucio glared at Giovanni and the silent power struggle between both of them was overwhelming, until Lucio looked away first. I didn’t know I was holding my breath, but it seemed like Lucio was not giving up and Giovanni would pay for this later. Giovanni showed that he was not above putting his father in his place and in front of everyone too. The men in the room kept looking between them like they were waiting for Lucio to do something.

“If a sacrifice needs to be made then so be it,” Lucio said. It was a warning to us all that he didn’t need any of us. There was always someone who would rise up to take our place and I wouldn’t doubt it.

“Well, I’d like to see our men go home to their families, so the less chance of casualties, the better,” Giovanni retorted, and in that moment, I saw the shift in men’s loyalties. Giovanni was willing to do whatever it took to get them back home. Lucio was ready to sacrifice anyone for his lack of planning. Giovanni talked about where everyone would be, giving us all direction and what was expected of us.

“Evan will be on the east—”

“Evan will be at the exchange. He will be handing over the money, making sure we have an even trade.” Lucio vetoed Giovanni. He looked like he was going to say something, but I shook my head. We needed to be smart about this and he had already stuck his foot in his mouth. We didn't need him to get into more shit.

“Ok, let's head out in fifteen,” Giovanni said, and everyone started to filter out of Lucio’s office. I stayed just in case Lucio decided to do or say something to Giovanni. I wanted to back him up, not that he would need it, but I felt better if I was close to him.

“Next time you have the need for a pissing contest, make sure you’re willing to bring it to the death because I will not tolerate your childish tantrum when I fucking correct you or tell you how it’s going to go.” Lucio seethed. “I brought you into this work and I can fucking take you out of it.” He tossed a gun on his desk to drive his point home.

“Don’t ask me to lead an operation if you don’t want my fucking opinion, I’m trying to do what is best for all of us in the long run, and not just the right now. What good is money if we can’t spend it,” Giovanni looked at Lucio like he was ready to lunge for the gun if he needed to.

I stood as still as possible, they stared at each other for a minute.

“You're leading because you're my son but if you die; I can just replace you,” Lucio snarled. “Remember your fucking place.”

He walked out of the office, sneering at me as he walked past. Giovanni was vibrating in anger, like it was taking everything he had not to lose his shit.

“It’s not worth it, man,” I said, hoping to knock some sense into him.

He turned to look at me, his breathing was erratic, his nostrils were flaring, and his body was tense. “One day, I’m going to snap,” he said, not saying anymore because we knew his office was bugged. “Let's get this shit show over with and we can go home.”

I nodded, following him out and we headed to the drop off.

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