Page 41 of The Air You Breathe

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When Evan and I couldn’t find Darcy in the morning, I panicked. I had been slacking on watching over her, I simply didn’t have the guts to tell Evan I couldn’t do it anymore. Most mornings I passed by to see if she was ok; some lunches I did the same. I just couldn’t go inside because I was worried about another near-kiss.

It had only been a few days since I started to avoid her. I missed our subtle flirting and those shy glances she gave me more than I realized. I was in way over my head with Darcy, but the longer I was away from her, the more my feelings toward her grew. Was it a crush or an obsession? I swore I thought about her all the time.

When Evan told me the feds busted a deal and Lucio was pissed at everyone, guilt ate at me when we couldn’t find her. My job was to keep her safe and it had suffered because I was developing feelings for her. These feelings couldn’t ever lead to anything because she wasn’t mine. Not that she was Evan’s either, but I couldn’t do that to him.

After we found her and told her she needed to go to the safe house, she looked at me like I had betrayed her. In all reality I needed her safe too. Evan had told her that I was staying with her, I had never wanted to punch my friend more than I had in that moment. I couldn’t stay there with her with these feelings, it was a disaster waiting to happen.

Thankfully, she had agreed to go to the safe house but I was scared to think it was because of me. When she took off to go pack a bag, I glared at Evan.

“Thanks for fucking volunteering me,” I snapped. “I have my own family to watch over, I don’t have time—”

“Please, just watch over her. Giovanni will have someone watching over Ava and your ma,” he said. “Darcy will not be comfortable with an outsider, and it seems she is comfortable with you. She won’t stay if it's anyone else.”

I wanted to argue more, but if me being there meant that she would be safe, then I had to fucking to do it. I didn’t know what I would do if something happened to her, especially when I almost lost my shit this morning.

Not bothering with saying bye, I left Evan at the coffee shop and made my way to Darcy’s house. I shot Jaime a text saying I needed the next few days off hoping he didn’t ask too many questions. I had finished all the cars we had in the shop, so I knew he wasn’t going to be busy. Worst-case scenario, I could tell him Giovanni needed me and that would be enough to let me go, but he just told me to let him know when I would be back.

When I arrived at Darcy's house, the mood was awkward and emotional. I could hear her crying in her bedroom, but I knew I had made the right decision to come with her. Evan was right, she needed someone familiar with her.

I expected her to take a lot longer to get all her stuff, but she was ready quickly and we immediately left for the cabin. It was a quiet ride except for the radio pushing droning background music onto our icy mood. When we arrived, Darcy’s face was priceless. I don’t know what she was thinking the cabin looked like, but I knew it was probably a lot nicer than she had imagined. Evan had this location secured with a high-tech security system, that alerted us of movement down the road and an obscene amount of cameras. This was the best place for her safety.

It was a nice place that Evan had put a lot of time and effort into, with the occasional help from Aiden, Cal or Nathan. Evan, Giovanni and I stayed here one weekend getting wasted, having a ‘dude weekend’, and blowing off some steam. I wished we had more time to come out here because it had been an awesome experience.

Darcy followed me into the house, stopping at the entrance to admire the inside. For just a second, I thought she might be ok until she yanked her bag from my hand, storming off to one of the rooms. Taking a deep breath, I felt a little frustrated, even though she had every right to be mad. My phone buzzed and I fished it out of my pocket to see a text from Evan.

One of the guys is taking a bag of clothes for you. I’m sending food too. I’ll try and be over soon.

Sounds good.

I really wanted to be mad at the man, but I knew he was under a lot of stress. He and Giovanni didn’t tell me much about what had happened. All I know is Lucio was pissed about a deal gone bad and we all needed to be on high alert because we didn’t know what he might do.

I sat Darcy’s other bag on the sofa by the hallway in case she needed it, then took some of her groceries to the kitchen to put them away. The silence was deafening as I sat down on the sofa, trying to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do. Should I leave her alone or go and check on her?

To keep me occupied, I texted my sister to let her know I wasn’t going to be home, but that I would check back in with her every so often. I didn’t know if I should have let her know what was going on, but I texted my ma to let her know things hadn’t been good with Lucio and to just keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. She told me to be safe and she would keep an extra eye on Ava.

I got an alert on my phone that a car was approaching. The camera feed came up, showing me that it was one of the men Giovanni trusted. Opening the door, I waited for him on the wrap-around porch. He pulled up and we unloaded a shit ton of grocery bags, with a duffle bag for me.

“Thanks man,” I said, shaking his hand before he got back into his car and left.

It took me several trips to get the bags into the cabin. Evan had gone overboard and sent us enough food to feed a small army. Once I had all the groceries put away, it was close to dinner time. I stood at the end of the hallway for a moment, listening for Darcy. When I didn't hear anything, I silently walked to the door to the room she was staying in, trying to listen for any noise but I was still met with silence.

The need to walk in to make sure she was ok was almost too much to handle but I needed to give her space. I didn’t want her to hole herself up in the room the whole time we were here; she didn’t need to feel like a prisoner. Walking back to the kitchen I looked through everything to see what I could make.

There was a lot of pasta, so I decided to make a carbonara since there were eggs, bacon and surprisingly some pecorino cheese. It made me wonder if Italian food was his favorite or if Giovanni’s guy just liked Italian and that’s all he knew how to shop for.

Either way, making Italian was easy for me. Giovanni’s wife, Vittoria, had been nice enough to show me how to cook a lot of dishes and I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to cook amazing food. I swear she could cook with her eyes closed and whip up homemade gnocchi with a delicious pesto sauce.

Checking to see if I had everything for pesto because gnocchi and pesto sounded delicious. I had everything except pine nuts. I might have to ask Evan to stop for some, if he was coming by soon. As I cooked dinner, I listened to a Whitney West novel on my phone.

Yeah, I like romance novels. Sue me.

I had just finished mixing everything together when I heard a door open and close. Putting the tongs down, I pressed pause on the audio book before she came out to the kitchen.

She came in looking rumpled from sleep and was fucking adorable.

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