Page 24 of Harbor

A simple huh.

FIVE

Renzo managed to keep a hold on their bags as he hailed a cab at the same time. The noise of the Greyhound station made Diego press tighter against the back of Lucia’s legs. His small arms wrapped around her knees, and he was determined not to let go. Lucia might have laughed if she wasn’t so damn tired. She understood the boy’s desire to hide away from the noise. She wanted to do the exact same thing.

She had never traveled on a Greyhound bus before, and if she could help it, she wouldn’t use another one again. Cramped, hot, and uncomfortable, it just wasn’t for her. She swore people didn’t understand the concept of personal space, either.

“It’s all right,” Lucia said, reaching back to pat Diego on the top of his head when he squeezed her legs tighter. “We’ll be somewhere quiet soon.”

Hopefully somewhere with a shower, bed, and food. All things they needed to feel like real, live humans. And despite how tired she was, Lucia couldn’t help but feel relieved as she watched the sign across the street light up in bright colors—making a rainbow-like streak of prisms shoot up into the inky sky. She only had to glance down the street to see the same thing over and over again. Bright signs. Huge buildings crawling up toward the sky.

They couldn’t see the stars in Vegas, either.

But they were here.

Really here.

That one thing they thought might not happen had finally come true. Here they were.

“That’s a sweet sight.”

The voice that came far too close to Lucia’s right gained her attention. She turned to find a white-haired lady with a face weathered from years gone past and a life well lived smiling down at Diego who was still holding tight to Lucia’s legs. The older woman gave Lucia a smile, too.

“Your son is very well behaved,” the woman told her. “And loves his mom, like all good boys, it seems.”

Lucia laughed. “Thank you, but—”

She was about to say Diego wasn’t her son, but she didn’t get the chance. Finally, Renzo caught the attention of the cabs driving past the stopping lane. One pulled in quick, and Renzo stepped forward to open the back door. With a nod in her direction, he helped her to get everything in the back of the car before she scooped Diego up, and sat in the back with him. Renzo slipped in with them in the back, muttering an address to the driver who barely even spoke to them except to wave a card reader, if they needed it.

They had been driving down unfamiliar streets with lights that were bright enough to make a person think it was daytime when Renzo spoke for the first time.

“We’re going to meet up with my friend first, see what he has for us, and then we’ll get everything else figured out from there,” he said.

Lucia nodded. “Okay.”

She had a lot of questions even though she chose to keep them quiet. Like who exactly was this friend, how did Renzo know him, and could they trust him? What was going to happen now that they were here?

Instead of asking those things, she simply kept quiet. She trusted Renzo, and that’s what mattered. Nothing else factored into it at all if they had a place to sleep, the ability to take care of Diego, and food to eat. The rest, they would figure out in due time.

“Just keep Diego close when we get there,” Renzo said, passing her a look. “And stay quiet until everything is figured out. I didn’t explain very much about … all of it.”

“What would have happened if you did explain it all?”

Renzo arched a brow, and turned to watch the scenery pass them by again. “I’m not interested in finding out.”

Yeah.

She figured.

• • •

“Here to see Tucker,” Renzo said to the guy manning the door of a small restaurant that was as empty on the outside as it was on the inside. She suspected the place was closed, but that seemed strange considering Vegas never closed anything at night. It was the city that never slept, after all. “He’s expecting me—Renzo.”

As big as a barrel, the guy narrowed his gaze on Renzo, and then at the people standing right behind him. Lucia and Diego. She shifted in her jogging shoes, holding a little bit tighter to Diego as the man looked him over as well. It took Renzo clearing his throat to bring the man’s stare back to him.

“Well?”

Stepping aside to open the door, the man replied, “Tuck’s in the back working. He’s got shipments coming in tonight, so mind your fucking business when you’re in there, huh?”