Page 123 of Privilege

The landlord shook his head one more time, gave a pitying look in the direction of Lucia and Diego, and then he disappeared into the stairwell once more. Renzo turned to tell his mother to fuck off somewhere—in a hole, preferably—but the bitch was already gone, too. She left through the other door at the end of the hallway.

“Ren,” Lucia started to say.

He held up a hand, hoping it would be enough to quiet her for a second. He just needed to think. Plan. Something. “Just … don’t right now, please.”

“It’ll be okay. We’ll figure something out for the apartment, and—”

He let out a hard, bitter laugh. “That’s not going to help. That won’t stop her.”

“What?”

Lucia didn’t get it.

Renzo didn’t blame her.

“Carmen,” he said harshly, turning to snatch the keys to his place that had been forgotten on the floor. He made quick work of unlocking the apartment, and slipping inside. Lucia followed him with her hand tight around Diego’s who was still oh, so quiet and scared. “That bitch … she’s fucking vindictive, Lucia. If she thinks she can hurt me, she will do it.”

And right then, Carmen promised to hurt him through Diego. He didn’t have any reason to think his mother wouldn’t follow through on her threat. That’s just what she did. So fuck it, he wasn’t going to give her the chance to hurt him by using Diego at all. Oh, sure, the bitch could try, but she was going to have to find him first.

That wouldn’t be as easy as she thought it would be.

Lucia made a quiet sound behind him, but Renzo was too busy opening up the small hallway closet. He yanked out two bags—one for him, and one for Diego. Both black duffels would fit just enough shit to do them for a while, but not much more. It was also all he could carry for the moment.

“She’s not going to do anything. She’s high,” Lucia whispered, coming closer. “I’m sure she says a lot of things when she’s high, Ren.”

Wrong.

Well, partly.

“She says a lot of things, sure, but when she’s in that kind of mood, everything she says holds weight, Lucia.”

“Wait, what are you doing?” she asked, following him down the hallway where he slipped into Diego’s bedroom. “What are you doing with those bags?”

“Packing shit he needs. Me, too.”

Lucia said nothing for a long while as Renzo filled one bag full with Diego’s clothes. His little brother edged into the room, but hung out near the doorway as he watched Renzo work.

“Ren?” Diego asked softly.

Too soft, really.

He dragged in a ragged breath, and turned around to face his brother. Dropping to his knees, he put his arms out for Diego to come closer. He did, thankfully.

“They won’t take me, right?” Diego asked.

Renzo shook his head. “Nope. And we’re gonna go on a trip, okay? Take a drive, and see what we can find. How does that sound, buddy?”

Diego smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Sounds fun. Don’t forget my dino, okay?”

Yeah, his one stuffy he always needed to take with him. Still sitting on his bed where he’d tucked it in that morning before leaving with Renzo.

“I won’t forget your dino,” Ren promised. “So hey, do you remember what I showed you last week—the vent?”

Diego nodded. “You took the money from the freezer and your bag, and put it in the vent.”

As a just in case, he showed Diego where he decided to hide his bit of cash. He figured he should move it because he had more than what he thought was safe to hide in the freezer, and he expected his crazy mother to show up again like she always did. Carmen wouldn’t have thought twice about taking his money. Not if it meant she could get more drugs.

“Remember how to open it up?”