Page 126 of Privilege

That was the man she wanted to see.

Reaching across their seats, she caught the edge of his jaw in her palm, and stroked the hard line with the pad of her thumb. His rough facial hair tickled her skin, and his gaze caught hers again. She wanted to believe—at first—that Renzo was just overreacting about his mother’s threats. That surely, Carmen would not be so vindictive as to try and get Diego taken away from the one person who clearly loved him more than life itself.

And then she thought about all the other things she knew Carmen had already done to her children. What would something like this be compared to all of that?

A drop in an already full bucket, Lucia imagined.

She’d wanted to hope he was panicking.

She knew inside that he wasn’t.

Lucia peered back at Diego again who was still comfortably sleeping like his whole world wasn’t burning down around him. And hell, maybe it wasn’t for the kid. He still had his brother, after all. That’s all Diego ever seemed to want.

“Do you have an idea about where we’re going?” Lucia asked.

Renzo shrugged. “Maybe.”

It was something in the lilt of his tone that had her attention going back to him again. In the darkening light of the day, and with the little glow the dashboard provided for them to see, Renzo finally seemed back to his old self again. Calm, unbothered, and hers. All things she loved.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing.”

“It’s something.”

Renzo nodded ahead, and Lucia glanced out the windshield to see what he was staring at. A sign coming up, it seemed. It read the miles left before they crossed over into a new state. Away from New York, her life, and family. It was the first time since she had gotten in the car that she thought about them at all.

How long would it take them to figure out she was gone?

What would they do, then?

Still, even as those questions danced through her mind, they were quick to leave before they could linger too long and bother her. She was where she wanted to be with who she wanted to be with. That’s all that mattered to her.

Was it selfish?

Crazy?

Not like her?

All those things and more.

It still didn’t change the fact that she was exactly where she wanted to be, doing what she wanted to do, and with Renzo. That outweighed any reservations she might have had. That stopped her from thinking about all the rest.

“Last chance to back out,” he murmured.

Lucia gave him a look from the side. “Back out from what?”

Renzo wouldn’t look at her. “This, I guess. I can drop you off at the store coming up, if you want. You can call someone—your father. I’m sure he’d come pick you up, no questions asked. I’d understand, Lucia. This isn’t exactly what you signed up for with me.”

“I didn’t sign up for anything with you.”

That was the truth.

More than either of them knew.

Lucia never expected to meet this man beside her. And when they did cross paths, she never even considered that their time together would lead to her first love, or that he would change her perception of the world—that he would change her whole world—without meaning to, or even wanting to.

She meant what she said earlier.