by Bethany-Kris
Tuck had a problem with that.
She wondered …
“Did he mention not bringing us along when he called?” she asked.
Renzo kept his gaze forward, but it was the slight curve of his lips edging into a grin that had her shaking her head. “Not really. He didn’t say anything about the two of you at all. Mind you, he won’t like the fact you’re here, but he didn’t outright say not to bring you two along, either. That sounds like something he’ll have to deal with, you know?”
“Ren.”
He only shrugged, entirely unbothered. That dark gaze of his darted to her as the elevator climbed higher. There was something about the intensity of his stare that always pinned her in place, and loaded with the heavy weight of all the things he felt and saw when he looked at her.
She loved it the most.
Loved how it made her feel, too.
Crazy, and his.
She was his.
“You’ve been stuck in the hotel all damn day,” Renzo muttered, “did you really want to stay there all night alone, too?”
“Not really.”
“Exactly, so I brought you along.”
Lucia’s gaze narrowed. “If you thought I would have to stay there alone all night, then Tuck must have made you think you were coming in to get a job.”
Renzo grinned lazily. “I told you no.”
“Well—”
“Maybe I just wanted to bring you, Lucia. I like having you close, all right? There doesn’t have to be anything else to it. Not when saying that is enough, you know? I wanted to bring you. Simple as that.”
Lucia blinked.
Renzo laughed.
“Okay,” she whispered.
Diego tugged on Lucia’s hand, and his child-like, toothy smile made her heart kickstart when he pointed at the numbers lighting up above the elevator doors. “Fifteen, right?”
This kid was smart, she thought. He knew all his numbers, letters, and colors. He didn’t have everything going for him because society was hell on those who had less than someone else. Born to a punishment of being poor and to a constant struggle, it was very likely that things would often seem bleak for this kid’s life. And yet, he never seemed to know it. He was too busy loving everything around him and being all too eager to learn about anything that someone else would take the time to teach him.
Lucia loved to teach, too.
“Yeah, that’s right, buddy. What comes after fifteen?”
“Sixteen,” Diego answered immediately.
“Good job,” Renzo said.
“And then seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, and twenty!”
Once he got to the last number, Diego did a fist pump in the air to celebrate his achievement. Their laughter filled up the elevator, too.
And then the elevator jumped a bit as it finally came to a stop on the fifteenth floor, the doors opened to a long hallway with doors on either side, and the three of them quieted again. Even little Diego seemed to know something was going on.
She still didn’t know why they were here.
Guess we’re gonna find out.
• • •
“You brought them along again, then?”
Lucia rolled her eyes at Tuck’s question. He couldn’t see it, of course. She and Diego had been directed to stay in the living room area of Tuck’s large apartment while he and Renzo headed into the kitchen. There, Tuck could get himself a drink, apparently. Good manners also seemed to be lost on the man because he didn’t even attempt to offer anyone else something to drink.
Not that Lucia honestly gave a fuck.
She’d be happy once she was out of this place altogether. She didn’t mind coming with Renzo, especially because he wanted her there. But that wouldn’t change the fact that since the first day Lucia had met Tuck, something about the guy just never sat right with her. Everybody had that instinct about other people—they simply chose to ignore it. Lucia wasn’t the type to ignore hers, but given the fact that Tuck hadn’t done anything to make her feel uncomfortable, she mostly kept quiet. That didn’t mean she wasn’t feeling way about the man—and nothing good, really—because she was.
Deal with it on another day.
“Figured I might take them out to do something after,” Renzo said, although he hadn’t mentioned that to her earlier. She didn’t know if he was lying to appease Tuck’s bad fucking attitude, or he meant what he said. It could go either way. “It’d be a lot easier for me to bring them along than to drive all the way back across the city to pick them up again. I hate wasting money.”
Tuck made a noise under his breath. “Yeah, you always fucking did, huh?”
A cupboard creaked as it was opened before the sound of glass clanging echoed to Lucia’s spot as well. Silence answered the noise while liquid was poured. She kept Diego entertained with two small cars he’d brought along. One for him to drive along the floor, and one for her to play with, too. He was the bad guys, apparently, and she was the police. Or that’s what he explained when they first sat on the rug in the living room to play.
Whatever he wanted.
As long as he was quiet for now.
It was the conversation still happening in the next room that drew Lucia’s attention away from Diego and their game. The boy didn’t seem to mind considering he used her distraction to escape from the police.
“Remember when I asked you if you were gonna bring me any problems, Ren?” Tuck asked.
Renzo cleared his throat. “Yeah, I suppose.”
“You suppose?”
“You asked. And I told you no. What about it, Tuck?”
“We’ve got a problem.”
Lucia stiffened on the floor as the words filtered out to her spot. Calm before the storm. She’d known it—said it to herself, too, hadn’t she? Nothing was ever simple or easy for them. Life had to make sure it came around and kicked them right in the ass to remind them that for every step they took, something was going to come around and knock them back all over again.
Despite the way panic and anxiety swelled in Lucia’s chest, wrapping around her heart with a death-like grip to silence her and chill her to the bone, Renzo’s voice came out calm and steady in the next beat. Like he wasn’t concerned about Tuck’s words at all. She knew that couldn’t be true—he always worried—but he was damn good at hiding it.
Not like her.
“What kind of problem?” Renzo asked.
Tuck laughed, but the sound didn’t come off easy or amused at all. More bitter, and dark. Like he was pissed, and he wasn’t even bothering to try and hide it anymore. “Why don’t you tell me, Renzo? Tell me what you were doing and what happened before you showed up in my city, huh?”
“Thought New York was your city, Tuck.”
“New York didn’t make me fucking rich.”
Renzo cleared his throat loudly. “Just tell me what the problem is, yeah? I can’t fix it if I don’t know what’s going on, man.”
“That’s the thing—you can’t fix this. At least, not the way you’re probably thinking.”
“I don’t—”
“Your face is on the fucking news, Ren. Guess there’s an alert out for your little brother. An Amber Alert. Oh, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg with you because somewhere along the lines, you robbed a fucking store, too. Made national news, you fucking idiot. Someone must have connected the Amber Alert to the robbery because they figured the picture they managed to get of half of your face during the robbery was a pretty good match to your last known picture. You know, the fucking picture they’re shoving all over the news alongside the Amber Alert for your brother.”
“What’s a … Amber Lert?” Diego asked.
Lucia’s head snapped back, and she found Diego looking up at her with a smile. He didn’t know in those moments that their entire plans and all their work had been upended all over again. That without even needing to be told by Renzo, she already knew they were going to have to leave again.
Run again.
/> It felt like a knife in her heart because she knew this was chaotic and bad. For Diego, this situation wasn’t good at all. They couldn’t keep settling him down just to turn his whole little life into a mess over and over again.
“What is it, Lucia?” Diego asked.
“An important message for people,” she settled on saying.
Jesus.
She didn’t want to lie.
Diego seemed happy, and went back to his toys. She was grateful because she was able to focus on the conversation in the next room for the moment. How much she had missed in those few seconds, she didn’t know.
“No, you are way too recognizable now,” Tuck snapped.
Renzo let out a heavy sigh. “You think?”
“Your face is fucking everywhere. I can’t have that kind of trouble on me here, Ren. I am doing … some big things. I am involved in more than you know here in Vegas. Those people will not want to see me mixed up in this kind of mess because of a friend from fucking New York.”
“Yeah, I get that, Tuck.”
“No, I don’t think you fucking do. And speaking of New York, Ren … when were you going to tell me about her, huh?”
Lucia froze in place all over again.
Tuck didn’t even give Renzo the chance to respond to his question before he barked out, “Do you even know who she fucking is?”
As unbothered as ever, Renzo murmured, “I know exactly who she is.”
Tuck cursed loudly before a second later, something that sounded like glass shattered with a thump against the wall. Lucia jumped in place, and even Diego stopped playing to look up at her with wide eyes.
“It’s okay,” she told him quietly. “It’s fine.”
He didn’t look like he believed it.
Frankly, she didn’t believe herself.
“So, you knew,” Tuck growled, “that you brought a Marcello daughter to this city—that you took her away from her family? Do you know they’re looking for her, too? That they’ve put the word out across the fucking country for her? That they’re willing to pay a huge fucking price to get her back with them? Do you know any of that, too?”
“No,” Renzo replied dryly, “I can’t say I did know any of that.”
“That family’s reach is … this is bigger than you and me. She’s bigger than even your face on the fucking news, and the problems that could bring. Shit, I might have been able to overlook that as long as you stayed quiet until the alert blew over and they stopped talking about it so much. But her, man? Them? I can’t be here for that—you can’t be here with her.”
“What do you want me to do, then?”
“Get the fuck out of my city tonight,” Tuck said sharply. “Get your shit, and go. I don’t care how you do it, but you can’t stay here for one more night. It is only a matter of time before someone recognizes her face given the way you drag her around everywhere, and then they’re gonna pass the message along to her family. They’re going to come here to get her, and when they find out I was the one helping you out, that’s going to come back on me, Renzo. So, no, you need to go. Take the fucking car with you—consider it a parting gift for all I give a damn.”
“A parting gift,” Renzo said quietly.
“It’s the least I can do, considering …”
“Considering what, Tuck?”
The other man made a noise under his breath, and said, “Considering nothing. Just get the hell out of this city ASAP. I am not going to stand around and wait to be killed like a forgotten mutt because you and I go way back, Renzo. That’s all there is to it. I’m sure you can understand.”
Renzo laughed, then.
A cold, dry laugh.
“Yeah, I fucking got it. We all gotta save ourselves, right?”
“Right. Now go.”
It didn’t matter that Tuck tried to brush off what he said. Lucia heard it, and she suspected Renzo heard it just fine, too. Like there was something he was holding back from them.
Not that they had time to consider it.
Apparently, they had to go, now.
Run.
Again.
• • •
They didn’t talk. Not on the way out of Tuck’s apartment complex, not on the drive back to the hotel, or even while Renzo pulled those familiar black duffle bags out from beneath the bed. They didn’t talk until Diego climbed up on the bed when Lucia hauled an armful of clothes over to drop it into one of the bags, and he looked at her with a sad understanding that no four-year-old should ever have, but especially not this one.
“We’re leaving again?” he asked softly.
Lucia glanced at Renzo.
His shoulders dropped a bit, but he forced a smile on his face as he looked his brother’s way. “Yeah, buddy … we’re going to head out again. We’ve got somewhere else to be. It’ll be fun.”
Diego frowned. “But why?”
Yeah, that answer was not as easy or simple.
Renzo didn’t look like he had the right one to give his brother, either. “Because we have to, Diego. That’s why.”
It wasn’t a lie.
Looking more defeated than ever, Diego gave a loud sigh before climbing off the bed. Without needing to be asked or told, he started picking up his toys and bringing them over to shove in the duffle bags as well. Lucia thought the scene was a little heartbreaking, but right then, she didn’t have the time to dwell over it.
They had to move.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured.
Renzo’s hands froze as he shoved a pair of dirty jeans in the bag. “For what?”
Wasn’t it obvious?
She thought it was.
“If not for me being here, you wouldn’t have to up and go again, right? We’re going now because it’s my family coming, Ren. Or they’re looking for me—whatever. If they had me, then they wouldn’t—”
“Stop.”
Lucia stiffened as he quickly came closer to her. Close enough that all she could smell was his unique scent—a mixture of heady smoke, leather, and man. Close enough that all she could see was the golden flakes in his russet gaze, and the way his pupils dilated when his eyes locked on hers.
“Stop,” he murmured again, “because it doesn’t matter. Are you still where you want to be, Lucia?”
He didn’t tell her she was.
He asked.
“Yes,” she replied honestly.
Instantly.
Renzo dropped a kiss to her mouth before just as fast as he closed in on her, he went back to the bags and the work of packing them up. “That’s what counts, then. Nothing else matters. We’ll figure it out. Just like we got it figured out to get to here, Lucia. All right?”
“Yeah, Ren, okay.”
They were caught up in packing the bags when the one good cell phone they still had—and mostly Renzo used to take calls from Tuck—started to ring across the room where it was charging on the table. Renzo should have answered it, but Lucia was closer to the damn thing and maybe it was just the habit of a phone ringing that caused her to go and grab the call.
“Wait,” Renzo said, a hand lifting to her.
It was too late.
She’d already picked up the call.
“Hello?”
“Lucia, sweetheart, it’s time to come home.”
It was like ice had been dropped down her spine. It felt like it had been months since she last heard her father’s voice even if it had only been a couple of weeks. She had that same reaction to hearing her father’s voice that she did when it had been her brother that called—like she wanted to be happy, but it was quickly replaced by her bitterness and contempt that just wouldn’t leave her alone because of the things he had done.
“Daddy?” she whispered.
The silence on the other end of the call only lasted a moment before her father said, “John is coming to get you, Lucia. Please, make it easy on your brother. Know that I’m doing this because I love you, mia cara. I know it doesn’t feel like it right now, but—”
> “Doing what, Daddy?”
“Lucia—”
“What are you doing?”
“John is coming. Don’t run again.”
Renzo grabbed the phone from Lucia’s hand. When he put it to his ear and went to speak, the hardness in his gaze and the cuss that left his lips told her the call had been disconnected. He threw the phone to the table hard enough to crack the screen, but Lucia couldn’t do anything except stare at it.
He pointed at the phone, and shook his head wildly. “Fucking Tuck. Fucking liar.”
Lucia still felt like she couldn’t move. “What?”
“Tuck.” His words came out in a pained growl. His hands fisted into his hair like he was at his last rope. She waited for him to explain what he was trying to say, but he went back to packing. Lucia followed behind him to help, and it was only then that he started talking again. “Tuck’s the only one with that number, Lucia. No one else was called with that phone. No one that they could hack like they did my sister’s phone. We called a pizza place once or twice with it, but they don’t know that. The only person who knows it is fucking Tucker.”
It took Lucia entirely too long to realize what he was saying to her. To understand what he was trying to explain to her.
“Tuck sold us out? Is that what you’re saying?”
Her heart raced.
Her lungs ached.
How long did they have now?
Not long, she bet. There was no way her father would give her a warning like that about her brother coming unless John was practically already there.
“Is that what you’re telling me?” Lucia demanded. “It was Tuck that told them where we are?”
Renzo’s movements slowed to a stop altogether, and his eyes darted to hers. “It had to be. No one else knows.”
“But he told us to leave. He gave us the car. He—”
“The least he could do for us, remember?” Renzo spat out a bitter laugh. “It was the least he could fucking do because he already fucked us over, Lucia.”
TEN