Page 88 of Privilege

“No one showed up here, right?”

Lucia shook her head. “No, but I got enough messages to know when I get home … well, never mind. That’s for me to handle, I guess. Did you get everything done?”

Renzo grinned. “Yeah, I did. Thanks to you.”

He snagged her wrist in his hand, and let his thumb drift over her pulse point. There was something about the beat of this girl’s heart that settled him. Like all he needed to do was feel her heart beating its smooth, steady rhythm, and nothing else mattered at all. All was good in his world. Strange how that worked.

Tugging Lucia close to him again, her hands splayed across his chest, and she smiled. Things seemed more beautiful when she was smiling, even if he could see she was doing it for his sake. Dropping a quick kiss to her mouth once, and then twice, Renzo settled on letting her have her lies … for now.

“Everything is great,” she told him. “Let me know if I can help again … I don’t mind, Diego is wonderful. And he really missed you.”

Sure. But he wondered …

Just by the look on Lucia’s face …

Was it great?

• • •

“Don’t drop your bag, Diego,” Renzo said, laughing as the boy’s backpack started to slip from his arms as they climbed the last flight of stairs in their apartment building. “Here, let me—”

“I gots it,” Diego muttered strongly, shifting the bag back up to its rightful position. It couldn’t be that heavy, really. A couple of changes of clothes, and a toy or two that Diego had wanted to take with him while Renzo was gone. Nothing major. Peering up at his brother, Diego nodded. “See, I did it myself.”

Mmhmm.

He’d done it all himself. And Renzo would not point out how for most of their trip home, he had been the one who carried Diego on his back because the kid didn’t want to walk. Or rather, he was too tired to walk.

“Good job, buddy.”

Renzo didn’t need to be told to see it—Diego was damn tired, and ready for a nap. He suspected Lucia had kept the kid entertained and moving non-stop since he’d been gone. Probably to keep Diego distracted enough that he wasn’t worried about where his brother was, or if he was coming back.

He appreciated it.

“Will Lucia watch me again?” Diego asked, taking those last couple of steps slowly.

Renzo was already opening the doorway to the hallway leading to their apartment when he replied, “Maybe, we’ll see.”

“Okay, I like her.”

Yeah, he knew that.

No doubt.

“Who’s that, Ren?”

Renzo turned in the doorway as his brother passed him by to see who Diego was talking about. There was a lot of shady characters that came in and out of their apartment building on a regular basis. Sometimes, they’d see a face once, and never see them again. That was just fine with him, because those were usually the people he didn’t want to see again.

Not that he was any better, he supposed.

To some, he was bad people, too.

The man leaning against the wall directly next to Renzo’s apartment door, however, was a whole different breed. Never once had he laid eyes on Lucian Marcello. They’d never crossed paths, or had a need to, for that matter. Renzo liked that just fine. But just because he never had a face to face with the man didn’t mean he wouldn’t recognize him when Lucian was standing just a few feet away.

Maybe it was because the man’s eyes matched his daughter’s. A bright hazel, with secrets hiding in the depths. Or maybe it was because he was an older version of his son—tall, intimidating, and dangerous in more ways than one.

It could have also been because Renzo saw the man’s face flashed on the news a few times throughout his life. All the Marcellos had made their rounds in the system—courts, or otherwise.

It didn’t matter.