Page 33 of Harbor

Fuck.

“Yeah, I got it.”

Didn’t mean he liked it, though.

• • •

“What did he mean?”

Renzo just finished activating the phone Lucia picked between the two—although she was aware Tuck might call either number—and handed it over. She took it, but still looked at him expectantly, clearly waiting for him to answer her question. “About what?”

“That you owe twice … or whatever.”

Shaking his head, Renzo muttered, “Nothing, that’s just Tuck being a fuck, that’s all. He was that way in New York, too. Always liked to have something to hold over someone else, in a way. I guess that’s just how he always made sure someone else owed him, and not the other way around. I’ll handle this job, and then he’ll be happy.”

“Except you asked if he had any other work for you, too. So, it’s not really going to be over,” Lucia pointed out. “Because you still might be doing work for him.”

Renzo chuckled, and leaned over to press a kiss to the top of Lucia’s head. She really was too smart for her own good. Quick as a whip, maybe. Nothing was getting past her. She grinned up at him like she could read his mind, and winked.

“Doing work for him and getting paid isn’t the same thing,” he murmured against her hair. “It’s kind of equal footing, then. It’s when you owe Tuck something that it can be a problem.”

Lucia said nothing, and Renzo was grateful. He tapped the phone in her hands.

“Someone you wanna call?”

For a long while, she stared at the blank screen of the phone, clearly thinking his question over. He let her have her moment. He wouldn’t blame her if she did want to call her family. For the most part, the phones would be safe. They couldn’t be tracked if they didn’t stay on them too long, and since they were picked up at basically any convenience store, including the activation cards, that made it twice as hard to track them. Cheap as fuck, easily disposable and replaceable … yeah, it was mostly safe for her to call.

But did she want to?

That was the real question.

“Not really,” Lucia finally said. “Not yet, anyway.”

Renzo nodded. “All right. I need to call Rose.”

Lucia didn’t even question him on that. He hadn’t said much about Rose since they took off, but his sister wasn’t very far from his mind. Sure, Renzo had got her set up for a few months just in case. All those threats from Lucian Marcello had basically guaranteed Renzo would make sure his sister was fine even if he wasn’t. At least, for a while. But that didn’t mean his sister wouldn’t be worried as he hadn’t shown up to see her like he did twice a damn week typically. And if she headed down to the Bronx to find him, then she had no doubt gotten the news that he took off with Diego.

At the very least, he owed his sister a call.

Diego came out of the bedroom with a handful of cars. “Lucia, come see what I made!”

Renzo was grateful for the privacy when Lucia slipped into the bedroom with his little brother. Turning the phone on, he dialed a familiar number, and put it to his ear. It took three rings before a familiar voice filled the speaker.

“Hello?”

“Rose …” Renzo cleared his throat. “It’s Ren.”

A beat of silence passed, and then two. He waited his sister’s confusion out.

“Ren?”

“Yeah, Rose. Hey.”

“Oh my fucking God, where have you been?”

Renzo had to pull the phone away just to save his eardrums from the volume of his sister’s voice. He listened to her shriek at him even though the phone wasn’t anywhere near his head. He could still hear her crystal clear. It might be funny if it wasn’t so fucking sad, in a way. Finally, he put the phone back to his ear when he figured his sister had calmed down enough.

“Some shit happened,” he started to say.