Page 20 of Harbor

“Fuck the money.”

“But—”

“Not important. Grab the bags,” Renzo told her. “I’ll get Diego.”

Lucia didn’t even question him. “All right.”

Diego was not happy to be scooped up from the bed by his big brother before he was even ready to wake up, but Renzo didn’t give him a choice. He ignored the boy’s grumblings, and slung him over his shoulder still half-asleep. Diego would wake up properly in the truck, or elsewhere for all he gave a damn. As long as he wasn’t waking up in some foster home, that’s all that mattered to Renzo at the end of the day.

“I wanna sleep,” Diego whined as they exited the hotel room. Lucia was fast on his heels, still quiet but doing as he’d said for her to do. “Ren!”

“Sleep in the truck, buddy.”

“I don’t wanna!”

Renzo juggled his wiggling brother and the screwdriver he’d used to boost the truck the day before. They were lucky really that they’d managed to find two vehicles that were old enough to be boosted simply by shoving a screwdriver in the ignition, twisting it hard and popping two wires together at the same time.

Speaking of which …

“Did the guy look in the driver’s window when he was looking around?” Renzo asked Lucia.

She nodded before slipping around the back of the truck to throw the bags onto the bed. All except one—the black duffle that held his gun, and the cash he’d moved into it the night before. She put that in the driver’s seat for him. Renzo cursed under his breath, but tried to give Diego a smile at the same time so that his brother didn’t think anything was wrong. That wouldn’t help them at all. The kid didn’t need to be in any sort of panic right now.

But if the guy had looked in the driver’s window, there was no doubt in Renzo’s mind that he saw the hanging wires under the steering wheel, which was a good fucking indication that the truck was stolen.

Shit.

This was not good.

“Get in the truck,” Renzo told Lucia as she came back around the side. “We need to hit the road.”

He also didn’t want to panic for her. Sure, she knew something bad was up, but that didn’t mean he was going to fuel her concerns by acting like it, too.

Calm and steady was best.

Right?

“Y’all aren’t heading out of here already, are you?”

Lucia was just slipping into the passenger side as the voice drifted over the gravel parking lot. Renzo’s shoulders tightened with tension as he turned just enough to look at the guy from the side, but over his shoulder. That way, he wasn’t giving the man a good look at his face, not entirely. But he was still able to see him just fine.

“Yeah, thanks for the room,” Renzo called out, “have a good day.”

He didn’t for a second think that would be enough to satisfy the guy, but that also didn’t matter. Renzo just needed enough time to circle the truck, get inside, and boost the fucker so they could get on the road. Nothing more, and nothing less. He wasn’t about to have a conversation with the man.

“Now, you’ve got a deposit waiting for you in the office,” the man said. “You’re not going to leave that, are you? It’ll take me a few minutes to go and grab it out of the safe.”

Renzo’s gaze narrowed.

A few minutes?

A safe?

Why in the hell did a shitty little motel in the middle of Nowhere, Nebraska need a fucking safe? That screamed strange to him in more ways than one. Renzo was not the type to ignore his gut instinct when something felt off to him. Sure, that thousand dollars could do a lot for them once they finally hit Vegas, and they needed as much money as they could get their hands on, but it still wasn’t enough to make him feel safe enough to wait.

The guy had come a hell of a lot closer, too.

“No, we’re good,” Renzo said. “Keep it—a thank you.”