Page 82 of Harbor

“There’s cars down in the alley, Ren. I saw them, they’re coming up the stairs and—”

The comforting, tight hold of Renzo’s arms on Lucia let go at the same time the first kick against the apartment door reverberated down the hallway. She heard the sound the door made when it was kicked in, and crashed against the wall. The shout of a man—a familiar voice Lucia hadn’t heard in a long time—came right after.

Her brother’s—John—demand for her drowned out Diego’s cry of fear.

Time was up.

They were there.

SIXTEEN

Diego’s cry was all Renzo heard, and he had to move. It was like an invisible rope had been tied around his middle, and with just that sound alone, it was pulled taut and dragged him in his brother’s direction. He let go of Lucia, and slipped past her in the bedroom to head for the hallway even as she turned to go with him.

It felt like he was floating, in a way. Like everything had suddenly slowed down in time around him. He was running for the hallway, but it seemed like slow motion. He couldn’t get out of the bedroom fast enough despite the fact he moved so fast, he slipped on the way out of the doorway and crashed into the hallway wall.

Voices filtered into the apartment.

“Lucy, make this easy on me,” John Marcello said clearly.

His voice bounced from wall to wall, it was that loud. Another time, and Renzo might have answered the man back with an equally nasty fuck you. Not right then, though. His mind was focused on other things.

Lucia’s quiet, broken noise behind him bled through it all.

Didn’t matter.

All Renzo could see was Diego at the end of the hall. His brother had turned around—his back faced Renzo now. He had a good view of whoever was coming into the apartment while Renzo couldn’t see anything but Diego. His little brother’s head was tipped back, so he could look up at whoever was approaching him.

“Diego!”

It still felt like his body was slowed down—like he wasn’t moving fast enough. Diego turned, and his big, dark eyes met Renzo’s. Wide with fear, and wet with unshed tears. Confusion wrinkled the kid’s brow.

“Come to me, Diego,” Renzo told his brother.

Did he say it loud enough?

He couldn’t tell.

His lungs ached.

He outstretched his arms to grab his brother, ready to get him safely away from whoever was coming for him. Was it just John, or had they brought others? Diego had said cars, meaning more than one. Fuck. Maybe he could handle one person, but not a small goddamn army. And right then, the only thing he needed to get out of harm’s way was Diego.

Would John hurt him?

Renzo didn’t know.

He didn’t know anything at all.

“Diego,” Renzo shouted, “come to me!”

Finally, that seemed to snap Diego out of his daze. Renzo was only a couple of feet away from him, then, too. Diego turned on his heels, and took a single step forward like he was coming for Renzo.

It was already too late.

The man who darkened the end of the hallway was quick to snatch Diego around his little waist, and rip him out of Renzo’s reach just a half of a second before he would have grabbed his brother. Diego’s cry of shock as his little arms reached out for Renzo came like a kick to his goddamn chest.

“Ren!” Diego howled. “Help me!”

The air might as well have been sucked right from his lungs. His heart? Yanked right out of his chest in the most brutal way. The pain of having his brother pulled away from him before he could even get to him was painful enough that it might have put him on his knees right then and there.