Page 42 of Harbor

Then, Renzo had another idea. “But her number isn’t private. It’s accessible on at least one of her social media accounts to message her, and shit.”

“I don’t understand what that means,” Lucia admitted.

“It means if they have a hacker, all they needed was her phone number and a hotspot, Lucia. A hacker with the means and the mode, so to speak. Be at a hotspot near my sister, have her phone number, hack into her device, use the right code to call the last numbers that had called her phone, and there you are.”

She blinked. “Really?”

He echoed her brother’s words, then. “Hackers can do anything.”

If they had the talent, the means, and the mode.

“But then they didn’t have the actual phone number for this phone, then,” Lucia said, glancing down at the device in his hand.

“That’s probably what the code was running which, if they couldn’t track out the exact location during the phone call, would have given them an area code for where we were, and possibly the chance to hack into this phone.”

Lucia’s gaze hardened.

Renzo didn’t know what else to say.

Well, no, he did.

“Is this still where you want to be?” he asked quietly.

Her stare darted back up to his to hold on tight. Unquestioningly, she came closer to him until she could fist the collar of his shirt, and pull him down closer to her. In a breath, her lips pressed to his. Not hungry, rough, and demanding, but soft, sure, and sweet. Everything that Lucia Marcello was, really. All the things that made her most amazing to him.

“I will always want to be with you,” she whispered.

That was all he needed to know, then.

“I think we’re okay,” he said, glancing at the phone. “They didn’t get what they needed.”

But just to be sure …

He turned on the screen of the phone, and made one of the last calls he planned on making with the device. The call rang twice before Rose picked up. Her cheery voice relaxed him almost instantly. No, he hadn’t thought the Marcellos would go as far as approaching his sister or doing something to her to get to him. Lucia’s family weren’t entirely good people, but they didn’t seem like fucking monsters, either.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Rose,” Renzo said, giving Lucia a small smile and stroking her cheek at the same time. “Just wanted to check in on you.”

There was no need to worry his sister with the details. She didn’t need to be freaked out over the fact someone had hacked into her phone, or whatever, not when they weren’t after her.

“Hey, everything is good,” Rose returned. “But I am just heading to—”

“That’s okay. I’ll let you get back to … whatever.”

“All right.”

“Love you, Rose.”

His sister laughter. “Love you, too, Ren.”

The relief Renzo felt as he hung up the phone seemed traitorous, really. Still, he enjoyed the feeling while it lasted. Which wasn’t very fucking long before it was gone. He headed for the bathroom with that goddamn phone in his hands—Lucia was close on his heels the entire way. Diego didn’t seem to mind them leaving him behind at the small kitchenette table to eat his pizza alone. He had what he wanted, after all.

In the bathroom, Renzo turned the sink on, stuck in the small plug, and waited for it to fill up with water. Once the water level in the sink was high enough to reach the overflow, he dropped the phone in without hesitation. He watched the screen flicker, and then black out. He left the phone in the water for a good minute, all the while, he said nothing. Neither did Lucia.

Once he was satisfied that the phone was ruined, he pulled it out, dried it off with a towel, pulled off the back, ripped out the battery, SIM card, and small board, and threw it all to the floor. He crushed the items under his boot before bending down, sweeping it all up, and throwing it all in the trash can.

Wasted money.