Page 127 of Privilege

Where he went, she went.

She was not her without him.

“I’m not going anywhere, Ren.”

He gave a little nod, and then put his attention back on the road. His hand snaked over the middle to grab hold of hers and hold tight, though. There was something that felt desperate in the way his fingers tightened around hers, and held strong like he wasn’t going to let go. Maybe that desperation was her, too.

She needed to feel it.

“You should stop at the store, though,” Lucia said. “I need to grab something.”

“Whatever you want, baby.”

It didn’t take long for the store that had been advertised on a billboard a few miles back was in their sights. Renzo pulled into the busy parking lot, and parked along a gas pump. Lucia stepped out of the car, but gave a look into the back at a still-sleeping Diego.

“Want me to grab some food while I’m in there? He’s going to be hungry when he wakes up.”

Renzo laughed as he reached for the nozzle. “He’ll eat anything as long as it doesn’t have lettuce on it.”

“Got it.”

Lucia headed for the convenience store, ignoring the looks that were passed her way as she crossed the lot. She suspected the people were more interested in the car than her. That probably wasn’t a good thing—exactly how many vintage red Mustangs were there in New York, or even across America?

Not that many, she bet.

Inside the store, Lucia made quick work of grabbing a whole armful of food and junk from the shelves and fridges. Water, juice, chips, prepackaged sandwiches, wrapped cheese, and a chocolate milk for Diego. At the front, the man behind the counter didn’t even really look at her while she paid for the stuff. He was too busy watching a recap of the latest game on the television next to the register. He only asked her a question when he asked her if she wanted to pay for the gas at the pump for Renzo, or if he was going to come in and pay himself. Lucia paid for her shit and the gas using a debit card that was attached to her accounts and trust fund, and it took her all of three seconds to realize her mistake but it was already too late.

It could be tracked.

The second she put it in and entered the pin, her location was known.

“Excuse me,” the woman behind her said politely, trying to get her to move so that she could ring her stuff in as well.

Shit.

“Sorry,” Lucia muttered, grabbing the bags from the counter.

Turning to leave, her gaze caught something in the corner of the store that she had overlooked before. Maybe it was a stupid idea that came to her mind, but she figured at this point, her card had already been dinged here … she might as well milk it for all it was worth. Stepping up to the ATM, she stuck her card inside, and punched in her pin.

Ever since her father had taken her car away, Lucian had put her on a budget with her card. Sure, she could go into the bank and pull out as much cash from her accounts that she wanted to. But since her cards were still attached to her parents’ accounts in a third-party bank, her father could control just how much money she could take off her cards.

Not that a five-thousand-dollar spending limit was anything to scoff at, really.

Lucia punched in the max limit she could take, according to the machine which was two thousand, and prayed the machine had enough cash inside to accept it. Usually, ATMs only had a couple thousand dollars inside at a time. She almost fucking choked when the machine beeped, confirmation came up on the screen, and a second later, money came out the bottom in the amount she requested.

Hoping no one noticed her pull that much cash from the machine, she stuffed the large wad of bills into the plastic bags at her feet, grabbed them up, and headed the hell out of that store. Renzo was just coming around the side of the car to head for the store when Lucia met him there.

“I paid for the gas, and my stuff, and—”

“Whoa, slow down,” he murmured, his hands coming up to find her face with a soft touch. “Did you grab money from the car?”

She shook her head.

Renzo stilled. “You used a card?”

“Yeah.”

“Lucia.”