Page 84 of The Air You Breathe

“I love you, Dev,” I said, before he got up.

“Mo chroí, mhuirnín.” Dev kissed me softly, resting his forehead against my own.

“I hope that means I love you or this is awkward,” I joked.

He chuckled. “It means you are my love, but also our way of saying I love you and I think I have for a while now.”

Tears gathered in my eyes, so grateful he was in my life. I kissed him one more time before I laid back, closing my eyes.

I jumped a little as a warm wet towel cleaned me up and someone gave me a drink of water. Evan picked me up as Dev pulled the covers for us to get into the bed together.

Evan laid me down on his chest and Dev snuggled behind me. They cocooned me in their warmth and their scent, making me burrow myself even further into Evan and pulled Dev even closer. I wanted no space between us, no stop or end to all of us together.

“You’re not alone, Evan,” I murmured, against his chest. “This burden shouldn’t be yours to shoulder alone.”

Evan stayed quiet, making me think he had fallen asleep, but he was staring at the ceiling with his lips pressed into a line.

“She’s right, Evan.” Dev said, leaning back away from me. “You used to share some of your burden with Giovanni, but now you need to share that load again, if not you’ll go crazy. We can work together because this whole ‘I want to protect you’ isn’t going to fly anymore.”

“We need to kill Lucio,” Evan said, matter of factly.

“I agree,” Dev said.

“Me too.”

“Or he needs to go to jail with nothing,” Evan said, pulling me closer.

“Which is easier?” I asked, running my fingers on his abdomen, seeing a piece of the camellia flowers peeking out from in between us. A piece of me, always with Evan.

“I don’t know, but I think we need to make his empire fall, making him vulnerable to create doubt.” Evan held my hand in his.

“What if we use the Feds to our advantage,” Dev said, getting up on his elbow to look at both of us.

“I wasn’t lying when I said I was putting feelers out. I have a guy looking into what the feds have on Lucio and everyone else.” Evan looked over at Dev. “Once he finds out what they have, I was going to see what we could use.”

I knew I should have been paying attention, but with both of them near me and hearing them talk about Lucio going down, it was like a perfect lullaby and I fell asleep.

* * *

Going backto work like everything was ok was so hard. I knew the guys discussed what was going on, they recapped what they had talked about the next morning but every day after the attack I could see the toll it was taking on the guys.

Lucio was livid when no one knew what had happened to Geraldo, but Evan said Lucio was looking at him with renewed interest. He asked about Evan’s sister and the break-in without Evan having told him. Lucio asked detailed questions, if he had seen who it was. Evan said he called the cops and had heard some of the feds had picked up a few people.

Lucio was livid and he had no proof it was Evan unless he outright said he had sent Geraldo for me. The story Evan was telling was throwing him off, especially since we knew it had come from Candy. The circle around Lucio was getting smaller and Evan said he was now looking at everyone suspiciously.

Dev worked at the garage during the day, going to the club at night, then either staying at Evan’s house or going to his home. Evan’s schedule was also really busy, he was usually at the club with Lucio breathing down his neck, at home talking to his hacker friend, or on his computer.

They each had another family to take care of too, making them more worried each day that Lucio hadn’t done anything. I tried checking in on their families as much as possible. Evan’s mom and sister were ecstatic that we had gotten back together, saying he was an idiot for leaving me.

Other than the stress of Lucio, we navigated our relationship as if we had been together for years. I was never alone anymore, and the day off I had two days ago, I spent it at the cabin. Jane was back in town, but I felt too worried to spend time with her because I didn’t want to put her in any danger. The weather was definitely getting colder and before we knew it our busy ski season would start.

The last customer had just left, and relief coursed through me. I was so ready for this day to be over, so I could go home and relax in the bath while reading or listening to a good book. Cleaning at the end of the day was so hard, when all I wanted to do was leave but I did it anyway.

I packed up a few pastries so I could take them to the guys, turning off the light to the front as I walked into the back and saw Mary putting away some dough.

“Alright, I’ve given you a few days, but I’m tired of waiting,” Mary said, coming out of the refrigerator.

I looked at her, wondering what the hell she was talking about. “Uh, what are you waiting for?”

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