Page 57 of Harbor

“Pull over,” Renzo murmured.

Lucia swallowed hard. “I’m fine—I am.”

“Pull over.”

She did, yanking the car onto the shoulder of the highway way too fast. Even the skidding tires and the car being thrown in park didn’t wake up Diego. Renzo was grateful because for the moment, he had someone else to handle. Lucia threw off her seatbelt, and slid across the middle of the car to climb into his lap.

Renzo barely felt the pain. Every blink hurt, and each breath made his ribs sting like a motherfucker. None of it mattered as Lucia broke down in his lap with his arms wrapped around her. He buried his face in her hair, and let her cry. There was nothing else he could do, really. Nothing he could say that was going to make this better for her.

A person had to handle that alone.

Deal with it their way.

The only thing he could do was hold her together while she did it.

Yeah, he could do that.

So he did.

ELEVEN

“Lucia, wake up.”

In the background of her dreams, a voice was threatening to pull her from the bliss of slumber. She didn’t want to wake up, though. Reality was not nearly as nice as what she found in her dreams. Didn’t they know that?

“Lucia?”

Something small grabbed her shoulder, and shook. It was just enough to drag her away from the dream that was currently filling her vision. She shifted, trying to get away from whatever it was wanting to wake her up only to immediately realize how uncomfortable she felt. Something dug into her sides, and something else felt too firm against her back.

“Wake up, Lucia,” the tiny voice whispered.

Whisper-yelled was more like it.

Her eyes flew wide, and the first thing Lucia saw was little Diego leaning over her with his big, toothy smile. He’d pushed himself between the front seats of the car to get next to her. He shook her shoulder again despite the fact she was awake and looking right at his face.

Damn kid.

She loved him, though.

“Do you know where we are?” Diego asked her.

Lucia blinked, still stuck in a state of half-sleep. It took her entirely too long to realize the car had stopped, Renzo was not inside the vehicle driving, and warm light was shining in through the windshield on her face. She squinted at the sun’s rays, enjoying the way it made her skin hot, and at the same time, trying to figure out just how long she had been asleep.

It had been dark when she closed her eyes.

Right?

Was it morning now, or the afternoon?

“Where’s Renzo?” Lucia asked.

“There.”

Diego nodded his head toward the windshield before slipping between the seats to sit in the driver’s seat. He played with the steering wheel of the car and chattered on like Lucia was listening and talking right back to him, despite the fact she wasn’t doing either of those things. She was still trying to figure out what was going on, after all.

Where were they?

San Francisco, her mind mumbled, still tired with sleep, too. You killed a guy, remember? That’s where you were supposed to go, not back after Renzo. Had you kept going, that never would have happened. But if you didn’t follow Renzo, he wouldn’t be here either.