Page 74 of Privilege

He was too far away to hear what they were saying while he leaned against a car, and lit up a smoke. Not that it mattered. Watching was just about as good as hearing, and he could step in if he needed.

Lucia pointed a finger at the man to her left in response to something he said, and the girl with dreadlocks at her left threw her head back with a hard laugh. Someone in the apartment building opened their window, and music filtered out. A loud, fast beat that immediately had the people on the steps dancing where they sat.

Even Lucia.

Renzo grinned.

He was coming to learn that absolutely nothing about this woman was what it seemed. She was more than capable of making friends wherever she went. She wasn’t a wilting wallflower, either. If someone gave her shit, she could hand it right back, and with a smile, too. She might have been wearing a silk dress and heels with those goddamn red soles again, but once someone let her in, they quickly realized she could fit in anywhere.

Or maybe it was just him that had to learn that fact.

“Ren!”

He wasn’t sure who it was that called his name because he was still a little busy staring at Lucia as she moved her hips and swayed her shoulders to the beat of the music filtering out from the apartment up above. Although, as soon as someone called his name, that ended her dance.

He didn’t like that at all.

Her smile lit up his whole fucking day, though. He’d been going non-stop—barely got in a couple of hours the night before, really. The sun wasn’t even up fully, and he was already out of the apartment, and gone again to do something for someone else. He’d had to run a package all the way down to Hell’s Kitchen, and then take a message back again. All the while, checking in with his guys, and doing a couple of deals on the way for customers that called on him when they wanted an eight ball.

Lucia smiled at the girl to her left, and nodded when something was said. She didn’t linger with the people on the steps for any longer than she had to once she realized he was there, though. Not soon enough for his liking, she came down the steps, and crossed half of the parking lot to come stand in front of him.

Already, he was reaching for her.

Renzo felt a hell of a lot better when he had his arm wrapped around the back of Lucia’s neck, and he could drag her closer. Her soft laughter filled his mind as he dropped a kiss to the top of her head, and tightened his hold. Her arms snaked around his waist to hug him back, and the rest of the shit in his head that had bothered him over the last day just drifted away.

Gone.

Instantly.

“What are you doing here, huh?” he asked.

Lucia tipped her head back, and grinned in that sweet way of hers as her teeth cut into her bottom lip. “What, you don’t want to see me?”

“You know I do.”

Of course, he did.

He always wanted to see her.

Shit was always getting in the way, though.

“You didn’t think to call?” he half-joked. “I would have made sure to be here when you showed up, Lucia.”

She shrugged, and kind of nodded a bit at the people back on the stairs. “Yeah, but I had company so it’s all good.”

He quirked a brow. “That so?”

“I made friends, Ren.”

He chuckled because really, what else could he fucking do at this point? When someone told this woman not to do something, she turned around and did it with a smile just because she could. Besides, he wasn’t going to tell her not to make friends.

“Those are good friends to make,” he murmured. “They’ll always keep an eye out for you as long as you keep an eye out for them. That’s the deal—got it?”

Lucia met his gaze knowingly. “Got it, Ren. They keep calling me princess, though.”

He laughed.

He couldn’t even help it.