Page 59 of The Air You Breathe

“What’s for breakfast, Darcy?” Dev asked, as he steered her out of the room giving me the space I needed. He looked at me before he closed the door nodding at me, reassuring me he was here for me with whatever was going on.

I took a deep breath seeing two calls from Giovanni but at least eight from Saul, one of Giovanni’s closest guys. I called Giovanni first and it went straight to voicemail. It was only eight in the morning, so it wasn’t a big surprise that his phone was off. Calling Saul next, and he answered on the second.

“Boss, where have you been?” Saul asked, with panic in his voice.

“Geraldo was waiting for me at the warehouse,” I said, really not wanting to go into details.

“Shit, we thought he killed you too.”

“Almost, man,” I said, running a hand over my face. “Wait, what do you mean too?”

“He killed Giovanni last night.”

24

DEV

Ifigured a good night's sleep next to Darcy would make me feel better, but I had a sense of dread today. Talking to Evan didn’t make me feel better, in fact it made me even more anxious. If Lucio wanted to kill Evan, he would do whatever it took. That meant Evan didn’t have time.

He would need to leave now if he wanted to survive, but I know that might not be an option because his sister and mom lived here. I wondered if we could just move them all to somewhere safe. I knew Evan had been saving some money and if he needed more, I would give him my entire savings if I had to. I needed to talk to Giovanni to see what we could do to help him.

Would he leave Darcy?

Before I sat down at the island, I pulled my phone out of my pocket, but it was dead too. I’m sure Evan was going to talk to Giovanni about whatever he would need to do. I could help when they had decided what they wanted to do. I also needed to text Ava to tell her I was okay.

“You okay, there?” Darcy looked at me with concern.Shit.Darcy would not like this, especially if she had decided to give her and Evan another chance.

“Yeah, I’m just tired,” I said, leaning over.

Darcy gave me a look like she knew I was lying, but she slid a cup of coffee towards me, then walked around the island to stand next to me. She wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me in for a hug.

“I’m worried too,” she said, close to my ear, then nuzzled down to my neck, placing a small kiss on it.

A shiver ran down my spine as I wrapped my arms around her waist. I took a deep breath of her, burrowing my face into her neck, dreading the aftermath that might ensue soon. She sighed, melting against me like this was the best place in the world. It made me stupidly happy that she found comfort in my arms because I felt like she belonged here.

“I needed this,” she mumbled against my neck. “It's going to be okay, right?”

“Yeah, I think everything is gonna be alright,” I said, technically not lying because I did think that everything was going to be alright. Getting there was probably going to be hard, but I would do everything in my power to get us there.

She gave me one last squeeze reminding me of what it felt like being so close to this body while I was buried deep inside of her. What I wouldn’t give to release some stress with her shuddering around my cock.

“What’s for breakfast?” I asked, while she went back to the stove, wondering what the hell we left here that was still good.

“Oatmeal, but it will be without milk since we don’t have any, and I found some bacon in the freezer,” She stirred the oatmeal before she took out another pan to fry up the bacon. “I know it's not much.”

“I think that is more than I expected. Coffee would have been just fine too.” I took a sip thinking I might need the whole pot to get through the day.

“We might as well eat; are we staying here another day?” she asked, laying the bacon on the pan making my stomach growl.

“I don’t know, I’m waiting to see what Evan wants to do,” I said, looking back at the bedroom door. “I know he probably has to talk to my brother. I don’t know if he feels safe enough to go back to Mountain View, but I know he will want to check on his mom and sister.”

“Do I have to stay here too?” She looked up at me. I expected to see anger or annoyance in her eyes, but she looked like she was trying to figure out what the hell we were going to do.

“If Evan thinks you're safe at home, we will go back, but he might ask you to stay here for peace of mind,” I said, twisting my mug around, thinking about everything I wasn’t telling her.

“Well if I have to stay, I would like to pick up a bag of clothes, plus I need a shower,” she said, flipping the bacon.

“Once he talks to my brother we can figure out when we can go back to pick some stuff up for all of us,” I said, watching her face in case she was annoyed with all of this.

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