Page 87 of Bad Men

Davien took in a breath that lifted his shoulders. “There was a smudge.”

I groaned and rolled my eyes even before the hint of a grin turned up Davien’s mouth.

“Right on those fancy windows you’re so fond of,” he pressed on, lips curling back over his teeth in a barely contained laugh. “Almost hindered some of that precious light you love so much.”

I pitched my pen at his head. It sailed past the asshole’s head when he dodged it, laughing. It hit the wall behind him and dropped to the carpet with a muffled clatter.

“Get out of here,” I grumbled.

Davien had made it no secret he detested the condo. He’d been against it from the moment Eduardo had gifted it to me and even more so the moment he’d seen all the windows. I wasn’t a fan, either, but it was better than piss-stained carpets and weird smells at all hours of the night. Plus, this was the kind of life I wanted us to be able to offer Mia when she came back. This was the kind of apartment she deserved, the really fancy kind with expensive furniture and a doorman and located in a safe neighborhood. It wasn’t to my taste, but it was free.

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” I pressed when he continued to snicker.

“Nope.” His smirk broadened. “You get the full pleasure of my company.”

In all honesty, I wouldn’t have changed that for the world. The last two months had been a learning curve of bumps. Neither Dav, nor I had ever been in charge of an entire sector. It had been a nightmare to clean up initially, and even after eight weeks, there were still people like Joaquin who disagreed with the new street order, rebelled against the pay cuts, the change in routes and routines. We lost a lot of people the first two weeks. After the sixth, the majority slowly started falling into place. Most of them preferred the new way, the clean and discreet way. Those people lived in the neighborhoods we cleaned up. They had families there and the new way offered their kids a fighting chance. The rest were too deeply broiled in Cortez’s old way, in greed and a lust for power. They only saw dollar bills, not a future where we could have safe streets and still make money.

Yet, despite all the good we’d done, all the change we’d made, it didn’t feel like enough. There was still so much we had to clean and organize. The list refused to go down. Undoing years of bad business dealings would require years of commitment and work, and I didn’t have the manpower. I didn’t have enough feet on the ground to run the jobs.

I choked back the panic I could feel building at the back of my throat. My fingers bunched at my sides with the effort. Nails cut half-moons into my damp palms.

Maybe I couldn’t do this. How was I supposed to fix a system that refused to be fixed? It was too late to go back but going forward seemed impossible.

“Hey,” Davien’s grin dimmed, dark eyes lifted from my clenched fists to my face. “My company isn’t that bad, is it?”

“What’s next on the agenda?” I said instead, appreciating his attempts, but needing a distraction from my own doubts.

Dav pulled out his phone and swiped open the calendar. The level of his efficiency never failed to both impress and terrify me.

“We have a pretty open day,” Dav paused to swipe further down the list. “Nothing on the itinerary until tomorrow.” He switched his phone off and tucked it back into his pocket. “Eduardo did text this morning.”

I knew there was no point checking, but I poked my phone awake and peeked at the date, assuring myself it wasn’t the first week of the month and thus not collection time.

“What did he want?” I asked, pushing out of my chair.

“Just to tell us what an amazing job we were doing and...” He checked his watch. “You should reconsider taking him up on his offer to spend the weekend at his villa.”

I gave a grunt and moved around the desk to join him. “Still not interested. I want as little from that man as humanly possible.”

Dav nodded with a roll of his eyes. “No kidding. So, what did you want to do today?”

I shrugged, tugging at the lapel of my navy blazer. “I don’t have any plans. You’re welcome to take the day and do whatever.”

He snorted. “As your second, it’s literally my job to be so far up your ass that you become my human meat suit.”

The graphic imagery had me grimacing. “That’s disgusting. No more Supernatural for you.”

“It’s true, and don’t give me that. You’re as obsessed with the show as I am.”

For someone who had never had any real interest in climbing up the mafia crime ladder, Dav was taking the transition too well. He’d slipped into his role as my bodyguard slash personal assistant slash co-captain as if made for the job. I had no idea what I would have done without him those first few days in the beginning. He’d kept me together, kept the wheels turning when those loyal to Cortez learned their leader was gone and were unwilling to submit to the new rules. He’d been there by my side when the big decisions needed to be made and helped me see it through. With him, I didn’t have to put on a brave face. I didn’t have to pretend like I knew what I was doing. He simply knew what I needed and made sure it happened.

I would have been lost without him.

“Fine,” I grumbled, suppressing the muscle I could feel twitching at the corner of my mouth. “What do you want to do?”

Hesitation and uncertainty whipped the grin on the other man’s face. His dark eyes swung away from me to settle on something off to my right.

“I was thinking…” he trailed off just long enough to make my eyebrow arch, “we should talk to Luis again. It’s been two months,” he blurted quickly, as if worried I would interrupt him before he’d said his peace. “We’ve done a lot of good in a really short amount of time. He has to see that now and maybe it’s not enough, but maybe it is just enough to convince him.”

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