Page 80 of Privilege

“Ren—”

Before the guy could even finish whatever bullshit he was about to spew, Renzo struck out at him. Renzo caught Diesel by his face and throat with both hands. It was but a blink, and he had smashed the other man back into the crates, busting them apart and taking Diesel to the floor with a loud bang.

The noise from the others working stopped altogether. Someone shouted, but Lucia wasn’t hearing them at all. She moved forward—not because Renzo needed help as he picked Diesel up, and slammed him into the floor again, but because she didn’t want trouble for them.

She didn’t even get close to him.

One of the guys Renzo had been talking to earlier pulled her back with a dry laugh, and his large form blocked her from moving closer to the mess a few feet away. His large hands came up to make it clear he didn’t want to put his hands on her, but he would if she tried moving past him again. “Hey, I’m Perry. And you’re not going over there.”

The other guy from earlier came up on her other side, shrugging like this wasn’t anything new. “He’s always trying to fuck with Ren, you know? Pushing his buttons, and trying to get away with more shit than the rest of us. He’d have fewer problems with Ren if he’d just do what he was told like the rest of us.”

Wait, Diesel was a part of the guys Renzo was running, too?

“Look at me, yeah?”

Lucia knew those words weren’t meant for her, but she still peered around Perry’s large linebacker-like form to look at Renzo. Still leaning over Diesel on the floor, his hands hadn’t left the man’s throat or face. If anything, he’d just dug in his fingers because the guy’s face was red and he didn’t look like he was willing to fight his way up from the ground. Peeking out from the back of Renzo’s jeans where his jacket had ridden up his back was the sight of something Lucia was all too accustomed to seeing, but had never saw him handling one.

A gun.

She sucked in a shaky breath.

Maybe it was because she’d never seen Renzo get really angry before, or rather … he never had a reason to show violence with her around, but she found this shocking. How quickly he could go from smiling and easy-natured to a man willing to beat a guy into the ground because he stepped out of line.

Lucia couldn’t decide whether she liked it, or it scared her.

Both, actually.

It was both.

“You get your fucking ass back to work,” Renzo hissed at Diesel, “and I don’t want to hear another goddamn word out of your mouth, either. And don’t you ever put your fucking dirty hands on what’s mine again. You got me?”

Lucia blinked.

What’s mine …

“Got it, Ren,” Diesel rasped from the ground.

Renzo let him go, and turned to Lucia with a nod to the side. “Let’s go, baby.”

She didn’t say a word.

She just went.

• • •

“No, there’s no fucking discussion here, Rose,” Renzo grumbled into the phone. It’d started ringing damn near to the second that they slipped out the back of the warehouse. “He’s coming back tomorrow, and you’re going back to school.” He was silent for a moment before adding, “I get it, but he’s taken care of. Like always. Stop worrying about it. Got it?”

Lucia didn’t hear his sister’s reply, but she figured Renzo got the response he wanted when he nodded, smiled, and then said goodbye. Hanging up the phone, he slipped it into his pocket like nothing was wrong. Like he hadn’t just been seconds away from beating the hell out of a guy just a minute ago.

They were walking alongside the warehouse when Lucia finally found her ability to speak again. “You know, you didn’t have to do—”

She didn’t even get the words out before Renzo grabbed her wrist, and spun her around fast. So fast that everything around her was nothing more than a blur in her vision. The empty, dark alley echoed with the noise of Lucia’s back hitting the wall. It didn’t hurt, but the sudden movement was such a shock that all she could do was drag in a sharp gasp, and freeze when Renzo’s hands came up to lay flat on either side of her head.

He came so close to her, then.

So fucking close.

All she could see were his russet eyes, and the way they practically nailed her to the wall. Those hands of his—soft to the touch, and able to heat her up in no time at all—cupped her cheeks and jaw. He tipped her head back, and came closer still, his weight pressing against hers and keeping her pinned in place.