Page 86 of The Demons We Hide

Backing away, I hold my hands out in surrender. “Sorry,” I say, laughing. “I was hungry.”

Camila lowers her arm back to her side and offers me a withering glare before shaking her head. “You boys,” she huffs, turning back to her pan. “Always sohambriento.”

“Are you bothering my ma?” Gio calls from the living room. I drop back and give Camila a quick kiss on her cheek, earning another muttered mixture of Spanish and English before I head back to face my friend.

“Just—” The door opens as I answer him and I turn to find Nolan there. I frown. He’s supposed to be with Juliet, and Juliet can’t be here. “Where’s?—”

Nolan answers before I get the question fully out. “She’s at work,” he tells me. “You can pick her up later tonight.”

“‘Kayyyy.” G draws out the word, glancing between the two of us with a confused pucker to his brow. That would make two of us. I narrow my eyes on Nolan, noting the ease of his shoulders and the lack of tension around his eyes and mouth. That can only mean one thing.

“You fucked her.”

Nolan scowls and then peers past me into the kitchen. “Not out here,” he hisses, nodding to the hall that leads back towards the bedrooms. Gio practically shoots up from the couch and dives down the hall. I follow with Nolan bringing up the rear, and none of us speak again until we’re sequestered in Gio’s bedroom with the door firmly shut behind us.

Gio collapses into the bean bag chair in the corner as I take up residence on the end of the too-small twin bed he’s slept on since he was eleven. Nolan stands before us, arms crossed.

“I wanted you guys to meet me here because we need to talk,” he begins.

“About you fucking Prep Girl?” G asks. “Or about all of us fucking her?”

I eye him without speaking, waiting. Nolan blows out a long breath. “Juliet is…” He grinds his jaw and I can visibly see the way he searches for the words to explain. I could tell him it’s useless. I’ve been trying to understand what she does to me for thirteen years. There’s nothing sane about my need for her, my yearning to watch her, love her, keep her.

Wanting Juliet Donovan is a curse, and now we’re all under her spell.

Gio barks out a laugh when Nolan never seems to come to terms with his own role in falling for our stubborn woman. I roll my shoulders back and lean over, propping my arms against G’s mattress as I arch an eyebrow at both of them.

“You called us here to talk,” I say, “so talk.”

Nolan casts me a grateful look, one I know he’ll regret because I’m going to insist that I get some alone time with Juliet sooner or later and he’ll owe me for it.

“Darrio left town,” he states as if we didn’t already know, but it sets the tone for what he wants to discuss, and Gio’s easy demeanor changes in a heartbeat. He sits up, planting his elbows atop his knees as he watches Nolan start to pace. “I assume it has to do with the product he’s trying to ship through Silverwood and then up to Eastpoint.”

“If you want to tell him how dangerous it’ll be, you’re wasting your breath,” G says, a note of disgust in his tone. “He won’t listen.”

Darrio is a conniving bastard, and it’s only because of Mama Camila and G that he’s managed to live as long as he has. Had it been left up to me, I would’ve taken out the head of the Vargas gang long ago. So, too, I believe, would have Nolan.

“He’s had me running my usual rounds with the smaller deals,” Nolan continues as if G hadn’t spoken. “Savino has been in charge while he's gone.”

“He’s been coming around the house more too,” G admits. “To ‘check on’ Ma, he says.”

We all know what that means. Darrio couldn’t give a shit less about his old lady. No. Savino is merely making sure that G is still here and still doing what he’s supposed to, as well.

“The product he’s trying to send up north is a problem,” Nolan says. “But after your attack”—he gestures to Gio—“he seemed to think that there was more at play.”

I frown. “You didn’t tell him about what they said, right?” I demand. “About Juliet?”

Nolan scowls at me. “Of course not,” he snaps. “When we talked at the hospital, G hadn’t even woken up yet. Once he did…” Nolan shakes his head. “I’m not telling that fucker shit if I don’t have to.”

“We still need to figure out who hired the guys to jump me, though,” G says, voice quiet.

“Agreed.” Nolan nods at him. “As well as who might have potentially burned down her apartment.”

“The information I found from the fire marshal showed no signs of being manipulated,” I say.

Nolan gives me a bland stare. “That might be so, but you don’t think it’s a coincidence any more than I do. How can you? The day G gets jumped and warned to stay away from her, her apartment burns down? Come on, man.”

He’s right. It is too much of a coincidence. “We’ve told her the truth about my attackers at least,” Gio comments. “She knows to be on the lookout and have her guard up.”

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