Page 19 of Privilege

“This is the fifth time this month that someone has been late picking him up. I even held the spot last week in the daycare for him because I knew you were dropping him off as you’d called ahead to let me know.”

“Listen—”

“No, you listen, Ren,” Laurie countered just as fast. “I know he needs a safe place to go in the day time, so you can … do whatever it is you do. It is only because you were able to provide a statement from your mother showing you take care of the majority of the child’s needs that I even allowed him a spot here without confirming other things that everyone else who gets a spot has to prove, Renzo. But I can’t keep stretching rules for you when you can’t even follow the basic policies of the daycare.”

Everything about Renzo’s posture screamed defensiveness. Lucia wouldn’t even have needed to hear him speak to know that just by looking at him.

“He’ll be picked up on time,” Renzo muttered through a still stiff jaw.

Laurie sighed. “You have one more chance. And no more calling in for me to save the spot, either. He either gets here on time, or you don’t get it.”

Renzo sucked air through his teeth, and his gaze swung down to his little brother who had come to stand by his side. It seemed that just by seeing the look of worry on little Diego’s face, Renzo quickly fixed his scowl and offered a smile to the boy. He tousled his hand through Diego’s hair, and winked.

“Is that understood?” Laurie asked, breaking the two brothers’ moment.

Renzo let out a grunt, but didn’t take his attention away from his brother. “Yeah, I fucking got it.”

Laurie only sighed again. Renzo gave the woman one last burning look before he bent down to scoop Diego up to carry him out of the entrance. He’d never even seen Lucia, or so she thought, but she had seen him. That was more than enough for her. She couldn’t begin to explain the strange desire in her chest that made her want to follow him just so she could speak with him, but it was there.

It grew with every passing second.

Every breath.

Lucia wasn’t even sure why. She didn’t know anything about Renzo except the fact he worked for her brother, and that didn’t mean good things. She’d literally watched her brother give the man money, and Lucia wasn’t so young or stupid that she didn’t know what her brother did for a living. Like every other man in her family.

And John basically said it, too.

Renzo was bad news.

The streets made him.

Yet, all Lucia could think was that the only difference between what Renzo did to get by and what her family did to make their money was the fact they dressed better than he did. So, she really didn’t see the difference.

And besides, right then, all Renzo had looked like was a young man struggling and at the end of his rope. That made her chest ache for reasons she couldn’t explain.

“I think that’s all, Lucia, thank you,” the woman behind the receptionist’s desk said. “We’ll have your identification card and everything ready for you here at the front tomorrow. Okay?”

Lucia blinked back into reality fast. “Okay, thanks.”

By the time she turned back around, Laurie was already gone from the entrance. Probably back to her office, but who knew for sure. It was only the phone buzzing in her pocket that took Lucia’s attention away from the doors for a second. She answered the phone as soon as she saw her father’s name flashing on the screen.

A lie was already on the tip of her tongue, too.

“Hey, Daddy,” she said, “something came up at the shelter, so I might be a little late. That’s okay, right?”

Lucian chuckled on the other end. “All right. I was just calling to see if you were going to drive yourself home, or if you wanted someone to come get you because I figured you might be tired.”

“I’ll drive.”

Right after she spoke with the man who just left.

Yeah, right after that.

FOUR

“Can I come back?”

Renzo glanced down at his little brother. Diego’s big, worried eyes stared back at him waiting for the inevitable answer he figured was going to come. It sucked that at only four, his brother was already figuring out the world was not made for people like them. He had to learn far too young that disappointment was really the only thing he could count on.