Page 87 of Privilege

Renzo didn’t look back as he headed down the street. He couldn’t.

He’d go back, then.

Back to her.

• • •

Renzo stared up at the inky sky as he strolled down the street, and ignored the stinging in his hands. Other than a quick dip under lukewarm water with a shitty bar of soap someone had found in the barely useable bathroom inside the stuffy warehouse, he hadn’t properly washed his hands in two days. Which meant they were stained with grease, oil, and dirt. Way too much fucking dirt.

He hadn’t known very damn much about cars before this job started, but he knew far more than he wanted to now. He sure as hell didn’t know how to fix one, but he now knew how to take one apart and cut the rest of it up.

Maybe he understood why Perry and Diesel—that stupid fuck—took on a side hustle in a chop shop, although he doubted they were getting paid what he just did for their work.

Flexing his hands at his sides, his skin stung like nothing else. All the little crisscross cuts and scrapes that covered his knuckles and palms opened up again, and screamed with discomfort. He felt it, sure, but he couldn’t find a reason to complain about it. Not when he had just shy of ten thousand dollars in small bills inside his messenger bag, and a whole lot of relief in his heart.

Well worth it.

At the moment, he didn’t even care to think about where that money was going to go, or all the things it could do for him, and his siblings. He could figure all that out later.

Right after he dealt with more important things first.

Checking his phone, Renzo scrolled to Lucia’s last text. A picture of Diego jumping on a bed that looked like it would take twenty of him just to fill it up. She’d kept him updated over the span of a couple of days. Where they went, and the things they did. She sent pictures, too, just because. Diego looked like he had the time of his fucking little life.

Nothing else mattered.

Scrolling up through the texts, he checked the name of the hotel where Lucia had set them up for a couple of days just to make sure he was at the right place. The gold lettering along the front of the entrance made Renzo quirk a brow, but hey, it was her money. Or … her father’s. The girl could spend it whatever damn way she wanted.

Especially after what that man did.

Entering the hotel, Renzo ignored the look the woman at the front desk passed him. He was far more interested in the woman coming out of the bank of elevators, and the boy holding tight to her hand at her side.

Lucia and Diego.

He grinned when his brother caught sight of him, dropped Lucia’s hand, and darted forward with a loud holler. He dropped his messenger bag to the ground, uncaring that for once, he wasn’t holding it despite the contents. He didn’t think this fancy fucking place was the kind of business that harbored someone who was going to steal his shit.

Renzo caught Diego with both arms, and stood, lifting the boy right off the floor in a tight hug. Diego’s little arms wrapped around Renzo’s neck, and squeezed hard enough to take his breath away.

Damn.

“Missed you, buddy,” Renzo murmured, stroking his brother’s hair. “Did you have fun with Lucia?”

Diego leaned back, and grinned to show off his pearly white teeth. “We did everything.”

Renzo arched a brow. “Really?”

“She let me jump on the bed, too.”

“Yeah, I saw that.”

Renzo put Diego back on his feet to the floor as Lucia came closer. She wore that same smile he loved so fucking much, but he could tell there was something wrong at the same time. “Hey.”

Once she was close enough for him to grab, he did just that. Pulling her in for a tight hug, he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. Lucia hugged his middle, and lingered for a beat longer than she usually would before she let him go.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, catching her cheek in his hand so he could force her to look at him. “And don’t tell me nothing—I can see it, baby.”

She shrugged. “Just family.”

Renzo’s gaze drifted to his brother who was entertaining himself by asking the girl at the front desk a million and one questions. He didn’t know what kind of pull Lucia’s family had, but he suspected it was enough that they knew where she was at all times, and exactly how to get to her should they need to. That concerned him a bit.