Page 121 of Privilege

Lucia straightened against the wall, and wiped the edge of her mouth with the back of her hand. “Yeah, Ren, I’m okay.”

His gaze darted to the doorway of the hallway where Diego had come to peek through the crack. Fucking thing—it had never shut properly. It was supposed to always be shut for fire safety, or some shit like that, but it was jammed open. Diego’s wide, tearful eyes darted from Renzo, to the spot behind him.

He barely heard Carmen’s insult before his mother’s hand struck him in the side of his face. The surprise slap shocked him for a second—it made his vision blurry, and his ears rang with noise. It took him entirely too long to shake the dizziness away, but when he did, he was already going for his mother again.

He got ahold of Carmen just as she struck out at Lucia. The edge of her fingernails caught Lucia along her throat, leaving behind red scores that looked painful, and fuck …

His rage blew out of control, then.

Maybe it was the bit of blood on Lucia’s throat.

Maybe it was her cry of pain.

It could have been a lot of things, but really, all Renzo saw in those moments was the color red. Tunneling into his vision and taking over his mind. Red everywhere. Like it was infecting him, and coloring through his whole body. He didn’t hear his brother, or Lucia. He barely even saw them in the corner of his eye as he turned on Carmen, ready to hurt her just for fucking existing.

Because how dare she touch Lucia.

How dare she.

Renzo caught his mother around her throat, and slammed her into the wall. The bang echoed in the quiet hallway. He didn’t even give his mother the chance to speak before he was squeezing her throat tight in his palm, and leaning in close so that all the bitch could see was him coming for her.

“Don’t you ever put your fucking dirty hands on her again,” he uttered.

Carmen’s wild eyes met his.

She was gone, he knew.

So fucking high.

Out. Of. It.

She barely heard him at all, but the little bit she did hear made her breaths pick up like she was huffing oxygen, and just couldn’t get enough. Holy hell, what was she on? She wasn’t usually this strong, but she did her best to fight against his hold, dragging her nails over his arms keeping her locked against the wall, and baring her teeth at him like that was something to scare him.

Really, it just made him mad.

And so fucking sad, too.

“Let me go,” his mother croaked.

No, not yet.

Renzo had a few things to say to her. He wanted this shit to be very clear so that there was never a next time when she came back around. Even better if this was clear enough that she never showed her fucking sorry ass here again. It wasn’t like they needed her. She didn’t do anything for them.

Never had.

“You ever touch her again,” Renzo murmured, coming close to his mother’s face again, “and I will make sure you never take another breath, Carmen. Don’t fucking look at her. Don’t think about her. If you come around here again, I will make you wish for death because it will be easier than what I will do to you. Do you understand me?”

Carmen clenched her teeth, and then without warning, spat at him. Renzo didn’t even blink when the saliva hit his face. Oh, he wanted to wipe it off. More than anything in the world, he wanted to get her spit off his face, but he didn’t move. He just kept his hand around her throat, and had to force himself not to squeeze until the bitch was blue, and on the ground dead.

“Should have aborted you when I had the chance,” she hissed at him.

Renzo laughed.

Was that supposed to hurt?

It didn’t.

“You’ve been telling me that for my whole life. Give me something else, Ma.”