Page 9 of Harbor

For him.

TWO

Renzo kept the SUV running at the corner of a building that allowed it to stay hidden from the gas station across the way. There, it wouldn’t get caught on camera like it would if he pulled the vehicle right into the parking lot. The side and back windows were tinted anyway, but not the front. He was trying to be safe.

Because nothing about this was sane.

He knew it.

What could he do, though?

In the passenger seat, Lucia stayed quiet as she waited for him to do or say something. Right then, Renzo was still trying to figure another way out of doing this. As it was, he’d already left a mess with each step he took to get further away from New York. Did he really want to leave one more mess behind that could be tied to him?

And on the other side of that, what would one more thing really mean in the grand scheme? Look at all he’d done—what was one more thing going to hurt at the end of the day?

The little devil on Renzo’s shoulder was loud.

“Ren?” Lucia asked softly.

His gaze drifted to her.

Sweet smile.

Knowing hazel eyes.

Reaching across the seats, his hand found her cheek. The second his hand touched her skin, her gaze lowered, and her lashes fluttered closed. Like she needed his touch, and he needed to touch her. There was something about this girl that brought him down from the clouds, and at the same time, kept him sky high.

“I’ll be five minutes, at most,” he murmured. “If I’m not out of there in five minutes, you’re to go.”

Lucia’s eyes flew wide at that statement, and thick panic stared back at him. “But—”

“Get in the driver’s seat and go.”

Her throat bobbed when she swallowed hard. “I can’t just go, Ren. I can’t go—”

“That’s what you’ll do because that’s what I need you to do. Got it?”

She still looked like she wanted to argue with him. Renzo didn’t know if arguing would do either of them any favors except keep them both right where they were. And fuck, maybe that would be the smarter idea. The two of them and Diego in that vehicle alone was a hell of a better place to be than jail or prison.

But he could do this. He knew he could. Hit the small convenience store, pop out the cameras as soon as he headed inside, and go straight for the counter. When he’d scoped it out by driving past, it didn’t look like the place was very busy, and the older gentleman behind the counter wasn’t going to be a problem as long as he did what he was told, and handed over the money. Renzo highly doubted anyone wanted to be a hero in the face of a robbery.

It should be simple.

Easy, really.

“Five minutes,” he repeated to Lucia.

Her jaw tightened, and her gaze dropped but she nodded. The relief that swept through him at that was good, but fleeting. He couldn’t sit here for much longer. It simply meant less time they were on the road and gone after this. He had to prioritize the shit he needed to do and the nonsense going on inside his head.

Like everything else lately.

Deal with one thing now, and something else later.

He passed a look into the backseat where Diego was currently halfway between falling asleep, and trying to finish scratching out what he thought was a cat on his small pad of paper. All it took was food, a few minutes driving, and the kid was ready to sleep again. He’d barely said a word the entire time they were driving. He was simply happy to follow his brother wherever Renzo was going to go, no questions asked.

No matter what, Renzo had to do right by that kid. That was the thing about this whole fucking mess—it wasn’t about Renzo, and it was not about Lucia. It had very little to do with them, or this thing of theirs that kept growing out of control like a weed. Oh, it was great, yes. He was going to do his very best to keep this girl at his side where she needed to be.

But the truth was simple—it really wasn’t about them.