Page 79 of Privilege

That was all she gave the guy, mostly hoping he would get the hint that she wasn’t up for conversation, and make his way back to his work. He didn’t get the hint at all.

Leaning in closer to Lucia, the guy smiled. “My name’s Karl, but everybody just calls me Diesel.”

Fascinating.

Lucia kept her mouth shut as to not make the guy think she was interested in having a conversation with him, but her silence didn’t seem to bother him a bit. He just continued talking like he was the only one between them who might have anything interesting to say. “I fucking knew he was keeping something on the low. Are you the same one that parked the nice car in front of his apartment building, then?”

Lucia blinked.

Who was this fucking guy?

Then, he got closer.

Too close, really.

Lucia leaned back, and it wasn’t subtle, either. It was clear she was putting more distance between them, but that didn’t faze Diesel, either. His hand found her thigh before Lucia even knew what was happening.

“You’re fucking wasting time with Ren, girl,” he said, grinning. “You’re too pretty for a guy like him, anyway. Get what I—”

Her gaze narrowed, and disbelief swept through her system. The anger that followed right behind it was just as swift, and destructive. Lucia didn’t even think whether or not it might cause a problem for Renzo when she outright slapped Diesel’s hand away from her body. The sound echoed.

How had it gotten so quiet in the warehouse?

“Don’t touch me,” she murmured.

He opened his mouth to speak, but Lucia had already jumped down from the crates. Spinning on her heels to head for Renzo on the other side of the warehouse, she came up short in her first step at the sight of him standing right there. At first, by the hard, cold expression on Renzo’s face, she thought he might be pissed at her.

But just as quickly, those dark eyes of his drifted past Lucia to the man still sitting on the crates. Renzo arched a brow, and strolled closer, and shoved his hands in his pockets at the same time.

As he came up to her side, one of his hands lifted, and he stroked her cheek with two fingers. “You good?”

“It’s fine,” she promised.

It wasn’t. The guy really overstepped his boundaries like a lot of guys did, but she was okay. She just wanted to get the hell out of there, now.

“Give me a second,” he told her.

“Ren,” she whispered.

A plea, maybe. A request to just let it go so they could leave. It was the simple shake of his head that told her, no, he absolutely would not be letting it go.

“No harm done,” Diesel said, throwing his hands up with a playful smile. “I was just testing her, Ren.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Renzo nodded, and came to a stop right in front of Diesel. He glanced to the side like he found something interesting to stare at in the corner of the warehouse before his gaze cut back to the guy on the crates. “Didn’t know you were working here with Perry, too.”

“Gives me extra cash.”

“I bet.”

His words were tight, and so was his jaw. Like he was holding something back, but it was about to spill out like lava shooting from a fucking volcano.

“Listen,” Diesel said, pushing down from the crates to land on his feet, “just thought you’d wanna know what she was like when you weren’t looking, you know?”

Renzo let out a short laugh, his head tipping down a bit as he muttered, “I fucking know exactly what she’s like when I’m not looking. I don’t need shit from you when it comes to her.”