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Renzo + Lucia: The Complete Trilogy

Page 43

by Bethany-Kris


  “That’s it, buddy. Let’s play.”

  Lucia leaned back to rest against the couch as the boys took their turns first. Diego got a six, but tried to sneak a seventh square where a ladder was waiting for him to go higher. All it took was a look and a chuckle from Renzo for the boy to sneak his piece back to the correct spot. Renzo went next, landing on the square before Diego’s. Lucia rolled a fucking two.

  Playing with only one dice meant it was going to take them forever to get to the top of the board what with all the snakes sending them back down to a bottom level. She didn’t even mind. This little game would keep Diego good and distracted for a while. They all needed that for the time being.

  A half hour in to playing the game, and Renzo was the only one on the last line of the top of the board. Diego was back near the middle after landing on yet another snake, and glaring at the dice like it was plotting against him. Lucia had given up even managing to get halfway through the board because each time she did, another snake seemed to be waiting to take her to the bottom level once again. It wasn’t really about winning, anyway, but rather giving them something to do until—

  Renzo’s burner phone rang on the counter in the small kitchen where it had been left to charge. He gave Lucia a look—an oh, well sort of thing—before pushing up from the floor to go and grab the call. At that point, Diego was still fine considering it was his turn to roll the dice and see just how close to the top he might be able to get with his turn.

  Lucia kept one eye on Diego to make sure he didn’t cheat again, and one on Renzo picking up the call. He turned his back to them, but that didn’t hide his voice from her.

  “Yeah, Ren here.” A beat of silence passed, and Renzo nodded. He listened for another few seconds before replying, “Yeah, you got it. I’ll be down in two minutes, Todd. Sounds good … Later.”

  Hanging up the call, Renzo shoved the phone in his pocket and turned to face them again. Although, his gaze only drifted to Lucia since Diego was still busy moving his piece on the game to the correct spot, which just happened to be a ladder that took him right up to the square after Renzo’s piece.

  “Look, I’m winning!”

  Renzo laughed. “That’s great, buddy. Lucia will keep playing with you, though, okay? I have to head out and do some stuff.”

  Instantly, Diego’s happy expression melted away. Like there was nothing else his brother might have said that could have hurt him worse than those words he just spoke. In a way, Lucia felt like Diego had been two seconds away from a meltdown for days. Each time Renzo left to work, the first place he went was that window. And she was damn near convinced that if not for her making him get away from the window, that was where he would happily stay all day until his brother got back home, too.

  She heard it in his voice when he talked.

  Saw it in his face when he looked at her, or looked for Ren.

  He was scared they were going to have to go again. Or worse, he was terrified Renzo wasn’t going to come back to him when he left day after day. The fears might be unfounded in a way, considering they had unpacked their bags and didn’t even talk about the possibility of needing to leave again when Diego was within earshot, but that didn’t matter. Diego was a kid, and kids didn’t understand or process things the same way adults did.

  It was as simple as that.

  Renzo, clearly seeing his brother was ready to throw a fit about him leaving for work, decided to try a different route of pleasing the boy to keep him calm. “How about when I get back, I bring you one of those mini pizzas you like from downstairs, huh?”

  Diego’s wide eyes turned from Renzo, to Lucia. She could already see the water starting to line the boy’s eyes. All it took was one blink, and fat tears slid down his cheeks. A sniffle echoed, and then the crying started. All out, ugly crying that echoed in the apartment. Lucia let out a sigh, and slid closer to Diego to wrap an arm around his small shoulders. There wasn’t very much else she could do, really.

  She’d been waiting for this.

  Renzo hadn’t gotten to see it at all.

  “But we’re not done playing,” Diego mumbled through his tears. “You have to stay and finish the game, Ren. You said we could play—you said!”

  “Yeah, but I also have to work, buddy.”

  Yeah, that didn’t help at all. If anything, it just urged Diego’s crying to turn up a notch. The wailing started, too. An all-out temper tantrum, really. Lucia didn’t blame the kid. She figured it was hard for kids to learn the right way to express their emotions at this age, but especially a kid like Diego who had spent the last several weeks in a constant state of chaos.

  San Francisco was his first moment of stability, really. Here, they had something that felt like a home to him. He had a bed that was his, and a room he was allowed to put his things inside. He was starting to get a schedule set for himself day in and day out, but that didn’t mean anything. She bet to him, all he saw were things that could be taken away from him again.

  He was terrified they were going to take all of this away from him.

  “It’s all right,” Lucia murmured, kissing the top of Diego’s curly head. “Ren’ll be back, and we’ll finish our game, then.”

  “B-but—”

  “I gotta go,” Renzo said. “I told him two minutes.”

  “Yeah, it’s all right,” Lucia told him.

  But it wasn’t.

  Diego was far from all right.

  It was just yet another thing they were going to have to deal with later. It seemed like that was happening a lot lately. She didn’t blame Renzo, herself, or even little Diego. This was just something else for them to handle when they could.

  Renzo slipped out of the apartment with his messenger bag on his shoulder, but not before shooting a look back at them. Lucia tried to give him a smile while she hugged a crying Diego, but she didn’t know if it felt true or not.

  “I don’t want Ren to keep leaving,” Diego mumbled when the door shut.

  Yeah, she knew.

  Lucia hugged him a little tighter with one arm, and wiped his face with the sleeve of her sweater. “He’s always gonna come back, Diego. Ren is always gonna come back to you.”

  Diego sniffled again when he stared up at her. “How do you know?”

  “Because I just do.”

  Maybe that was what the kid needed to know more than anything else. More than he needed stability and things that felt like home. Maybe he just needed to know that his brother was always coming back to him.

  But what did Lucia know?

  • • •

  Lucia was sitting on the edge of the bed in the bedroom she and Renzo used when he finally got back a little after twelve. Diego had been in bed for hours, but that didn’t mean it was easy to get the kid to lay down. Slipping on the too-big T-shirt that Renzo had left hanging off the side of the bed, she eyed him in the doorway.

  He leaned against the doorjamb, rocking back on his heels a bit to stare down the hallway. “How long did it take to calm him down after I left?”

  “An hour.”

  Renzo flinched.

  Lucia figured the truth was better than a lie. Besides, it wasn’t them that was having trouble right then. It was Diego. He needed to realize that the shit they had done leading up to this point left Diego in a bad place. Emotionally … maybe mentally, too.

  “We can’t run again,” she murmured. “He’s scared of that, I think. And he’s scared you’re going to leave him, maybe. It’s just been too much for him, Ren. He doesn’t know how to process what’s happening. He doesn’t understand why we had to leave, and why the little bit of stuff that he had, he had to leave behind. All that he’s got left is the things that mean the most to him—you, really. He’s probably scared the next time we go, he’s going to leave you behind, too.”

  Renzo’s gaze lifted and met hers. She thought maybe he was going to come back with a rebuttal for a second—if we have to, then we have to, sort of thing. Instead, she found an agreement star
ing back in his eyes.

  “Yeah, I know,” he replied just as quietly. “That doesn’t change the fact that we might still have to—”

  “It’s not good for him. It’s that simple. Think about him.”

  “I am!”

  Lucia stiffened at the tone of his voice. High, and sharp. Like she didn’t fucking understand what he was trying to tell her, even if she did understand exactly what he meant.

  “I am thinking about him,” Renzo said quieter, and rougher. “All I do is think about how to keep him with me all the time, Lucia.”

  “You have to start thinking about what’s best for him, too. Running isn’t, Ren. That’s all.”

  He cleared his throat, and rocked back on his heels to stare down the hall again. Diego’s door was closed, and the kid wasn’t making a noise.

  “What if someone comes then,” he started to say, “your father, or—”

  “We’ll handle it. But we don’t run. Aren’t you fucking tired of running, anyway? I am. He is. Aren’t you?”

  “It’s not that simple.”

  She could hear the anxiety in his voice, even if he didn’t acknowledge it, really. The fear that he felt over someone taking her away from him, or Diego. They’d done so much already—robbed, killed, and run. How long would they have before something or someone finally caught up with them?

  That was the real question.

  Not that it mattered.

  Her feelings remained the same.

  “We can’t keep running, Ren. It’s not good for him.”

  Renzo nodded, stepped into the bedroom, and closed the door behind him. “No more running.”

  • • •

  “Fuck … fuck. Lucia? Lucia!”

  She heard Renzo’s voice filtering through her dreams, but it was his hands that woke her up. Reaching for her across the bed, and grabbing tight to her body. One on her arm, and another along the curve of her waist. Her eyes flew open, and found his gaze locked on hers. There was something wild staring back at her from him—something desperate, she thought.

  “Ren?”

  He said nothing, simply dragged her across the bed like he couldn’t get her close enough to him. Those arms of his wrapped around her like iron bars, and his lips drifted along her forehead at the same time. He cursed low again, his voice a rumbling ache against her skin. Her heart thundered in her chest even as she tipped her head back to stare at him. Reaching up, she traced his roughened features with her fingertips, trying to calm him.

  “You okay?”

  “Bad dream.”

  Lucia blinked. “About what?”

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  No, she thought it did.

  “Ren.”

  He sighed, the pulse of his breath whispering along her hairline. “Just … thought you were gone for a second. Woke up, and you weren’t right there, I guess. Just, I—”

  “Hey.” Lucia pressed her fingertips against his lips, silencing him. “I’m always going to be here. Don’t you know that by now? I love you, Ren.”

  “Yeah, I know. I just panicked.”

  “Don’t.”

  “I’m fine,” he murmured, his arms tightening around her body.

  But he wasn’t.

  She could tell.

  Skimming her hands down his bare chest, she leaned in and pressed her lips to his. Even in the darkness of the apartment’s bedroom, she could see the anxiety lingering in his eyes. The tension in his jaw hardened his features, and kept his lips from pulling in that familiar, sexy smile she loved so much.

  If he couldn’t get the dream out of his mind, then she could help him forget.

  If only for a moment …

  All it really took was her hands drifting lower between them to slip beneath his boxer-briefs, and then her fingers circling around his soft cock. She hooked her leg around his waist, stroked his cock until it was hard, and kissed him all the while. Renzo said nothing, simply answered back her touches and want with his own.

  Soon, she found herself turned over on the bed, so her back was pressed into the mattress and he was between her thighs. God. She loved the weight of him against her body. Pinning her into the bed, his hand locked around her wrists to keep her hands high above her head. The shift of his hips against her sex to make her body answer him back with the same movements. A familiar rhythm that was sure to get her wet and hot in the best ways.

  He let her wrists go just long enough to pull at her clothes. To shed her of the shirt she wore, and the panties keeping her sex hidden from his view. He wasn’t slow, by any means. Fast and rough, really.

  Desperate, she thought.

  Like that look still glimmering in his eyes.

  And then his weight was back on her in a blink, his hand pinned her arms above her head, and his hard cock was between her thighs. Sliding home, and promising to take her to heaven. He didn’t have dirty words for her that time. Just the harsh exhale of his breath pulsing in her ear with every thrust of his hips that she met with her own.

  A brutal beat between them of skin against skin in the darkness, and the scent of sex clinging to his body. The hard lines of his body tucked against hers, and keeping her pinned to the mattress. She couldn’t drag in a breath deep enough, but she loved that ache in her lungs. She couldn’t make her lips work to whisper his name, but her cries worked their way out of her throat, anyway.

  This man was something else.

  Something wonderful, and dangerous, and beautiful.

  Something made just for her.

  Lucia was sure of it.

  She didn’t mind this—didn’t mind losing herself in him, or letting him forget everything because he was lost in her. Her legs wrapped tightly around his waist, her only way of keeping him as close as she could possibly get him. And yet, it still didn’t feel like enough. Her soul was screaming, she thought.

  Screaming to find its way out of her body, and sink its way into this man. To tangle with his soul, and live there happily for the rest of her days. He could rip the breath right out of her lungs; take every fucking beat of her heart. He could be the sun to her days, and the water to her ocean.

  He already did those things.

  He already was those things.

  And it still wouldn’t be enough.

  She was still going to want more.

  Lucia wasn’t sure that was normal.

  She didn’t want it to be, either.

  FOURTEEN

  “Are you ready?” Renzo asked, ruffling Diego’s curls with the palm of his hand. “It’s almost time.”

  “I can’t see! I can’t see it, Ren!”

  Chuckling, Renzo bent down to pick up Diego. Grabbing the boy around the waist, he lifted his brother so that Diego could stand on the railing and look out over the bay. He kept a firm hold on Diego’s middle to make sure he was safe and steady as he waited for the show to begin. The dark sky overhead lit up by the big, yellow moon was the only light they had to use next to the streetlight behind them that wasn’t all that bright.

  “Now you can’t see,” Lucia murmured beside him.

  He turned his head to see her flash him a teasing grin. It was nothing more than the sweet, sexy curve of her lips that made him lean in closer. Just for a taste—nothing more, and nothing less. A quick kiss before he put his attention back on the sky and the show that was about to start.

  Like usual, the second his lips touched hers for that quick kiss, he found that he didn’t want to stop kissing her at all. She tasted like that cherry ChapStick she’d picked up from the store earlier in the day, and just a hint of sour sugar, too, from the candies she’d been sharing with Diego on their walk. There was something comforting in the familiarity of their kiss now—the way her lips worked against his, and how the rest of the world just blinked out when he was kissing her.

  He needed it, really.

  Craved her.

  “Look!” Diego shouted.

  It was only his little brother’s yell that broke the two of them ap
art. Renzo might have been annoyed, but he was becoming accustomed to this with Diego. Not that the kid was purposely trying to break up Lucia and Renzo’s private moments—even if they weren’t exactly in private—but that was the thing with little ones.

  They didn’t care.

  They had no sense of personal space, or privacy.

  None at all.

  Tightening his hold around Diego’s middle, Renzo tilted his head to the side, so he could see what had his brother so excited. Across the bay, a light flickered. Green, then white. Green again, and then white again. Over and over. He figured that was the boat’s signal for the fireworks to start, and he wasn’t wrong.

  Less than thirty seconds later, the sky lit up with bursts of sparks and colors. All the colors, really. He hadn’t known what to expect of the firework show that was advertised, and while he had seen some of the best shows while back home in New York growing up, this was good, too.

  Good for Diego, really.

  Each burst that exploded in the air, shattering the black, inky sky with colorful sparks had his brother practically dancing on the railing. Diego pointed at the sky and shouted over and over again, like each new firework that went off was the best thing he had ever seen in his life. Renzo could only laugh, and hold his brother tighter to make sure the kid didn’t topple over into the bay from his excitement. That would be a sure-fire way to end their fun.

  It was Lucia’s light laughter that made Renzo take his attention away from Diego and the sky for a brief second. Just long enough to see her face—shadowed by darkness and yet, her eyes were lit up by the colors—staring up at Diego with a wide smile. He’d been holding onto Diego with one hand, and the railing with the other. But he was quick to drop the railing just so that he could get ahold of Lucia’s hand with his own.

  Their fingers intertwined tightly, and he squeezed his around hers. Her gaze drifted to him, and her smile softened instantly. Tugging on her hand, Lucia moved close enough to tuck against his side for the remainder of the fireworks show. Renzo liked her there with him better. Closer was always fucking better, as far as he was concerned.

 

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