Page 55 of Privilege

She couldn’t help it.

“Am I driving, or …?”

Renzo laughed. “I’d rather take the bus, unless that’s going to hurt your sensibilities, princess.”

“Fuck you, Ren.”

“Yeah, maybe later. We’ll see how it goes, you know.”

Ass.

And she liked it.

Entirely too much.

TEN

One seat ahead of Renzo, Diego leaned closer to the window to peer outside. Nothing interested that kid more than people, for whatever reason. Any kind of people. He loved to people watch, but he also enjoyed engaging others. Renzo wasn’t sure what that would mean for Diego’s future, but hopefully something good.

Smiling back at his brother, Diego asked, “Did you see the dog, Ren?”

He hadn’t. He was too busy to be staring out the window between keeping an eye on his brother, and watching Lucia at the same time. Diego looked too happy to tell him he’d missed whatever dog had caught his eye this time.

“Yeah,” Renzo replied, grinning.

Diego went back to the window with a nod. Satisfied for the moment that his younger brother was distracted and fine, Renzo went back to Lucia.

“Almost there,” he murmured to Lucia.

Next to him, she nodded absently. Her attention was on something else entirely, though. The damn phone in her hand that hadn’t stopped buzzing from almost the very second they stepped on the bus. Something was up—Renzo knew it even if she wasn’t saying that was the case. She wasn’t answering the calls or texts, and she’d put the phone on vibrate so now it was only mildly annoying … but it still hadn’t stopped.

Her family, maybe?

She didn’t talk about them a lot, if at all. But he wasn’t so stupid that he didn’t know enough about them to wonder. He was a lot of things, but he didn’t have his head stuck in the sand, either.

Lucia finally looked up to meet his gaze, and she smiled like nothing was wrong in her world. He didn’t know how true that was, but for the moment, he was willing to let her pretend.

“You good?” he asked.

Her pretty hazel eyes lit up like her smile. “Why wouldn’t I be, Ren?”

“Seem distracted, that’s all.”

Lucia shrugged. “No place else I would rather be right now.”

She offered that statement so freely and sweetly that he had no doubt she was telling him the truth. That didn’t mean something still wasn’t going on that he didn’t know about. That was what concerned him.

Renzo really didn’t need to be getting himself in some kind of shit because he got mixed up with the wrong woman. He knew just enough about the Marcellos to know they weren’t the type of people to let things go.

That concerned him.

“You’re not skipping out on anybody?” he asked, testing the waters.

Lucia flashed her teeth in a smile, and laughed. The quiet noise drew the attention of several other people on the bus, including Diego who quickly went back to his window-watching, but Renzo paid them no mind.

He figured right then, he had other shit to focus on. Like figuring out if there was a giant pile of steaming shit coming his way, and deciding whether or not it might be worth it to step in it for this girl.

She’s here with you, isn’t she?