Page 47 of Harbor

Renzo grinned lazily. “I told you no.”

“Well—”

“Maybe I just wanted to bring you, Lucia. I like having you close, all right? There doesn’t have to be anything else to it. Not when saying that is enough, you know? I wanted to bring you. Simple as that.”

Lucia blinked.

Renzo laughed.

“Okay,” she whispered.

Diego tugged on Lucia’s hand, and his child-like, toothy smile made her heart kickstart when he pointed at the numbers lighting up above the elevator doors. “Fifteen, right?”

This kid was smart, she thought. He knew all his numbers, letters, and colors. He didn’t have everything going for him because society was hell on those who had less than someone else. Born to a punishment of being poor and to a constant struggle, it was very likely that things would often seem bleak for this kid’s life. And yet, he never seemed to know it. He was too busy loving everything around him and being all too eager to learn about anything that someone else would take the time to teach him.

Lucia loved to teach, too.

“Yeah, that’s right, buddy. What comes after fifteen?”

“Sixteen,” Diego answered immediately.

“Good job,” Renzo said.

“And then seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, and twenty!”

Once he got to the last number, Diego did a fist pump in the air to celebrate his achievement. Their laughter filled up the elevator, too.

And then the elevator jumped a bit as it finally came to a stop on the fifteenth floor, the doors opened to a long hallway with doors on either side, and the three of them quieted again. Even little Diego seemed to know something was going on.

She still didn’t know why they were here.

Guess we’re gonna find out.

• • •

“You brought them along again, then?”

Lucia rolled her eyes at Tuck’s question. He couldn’t see it, of course. She and Diego had been directed to stay in the living room area of Tuck’s large apartment while he and Renzo headed into the kitchen. There, Tuck could get himself a drink, apparently. Good manners also seemed to be lost on the man because he didn’t even attempt to offer anyone else something to drink.

Not that Lucia honestly gave a fuck.

She’d be happy once she was out of this place altogether. She didn’t mind coming with Renzo, especially because he wanted her there. But that wouldn’t change the fact that since the first day Lucia had met Tuck, something about the guy just never sat right with her. Everybody had that instinct about other people—they simply chose to ignore it. Lucia wasn’t the type to ignore hers, but given the fact that Tuck hadn’t done anything to make her feel uncomfortable, she mostly kept quiet. That didn’t mean she wasn’t feeling way about the man—and nothing good, really—because she was.

Deal with it on another day.

“Figured I might take them out to do something after,” Renzo said, although he hadn’t mentioned that to her earlier. She didn’t know if he was lying to appease Tuck’s bad fucking attitude, or he meant what he said. It could go either way. “It’d be a lot easier for me to bring them along than to drive all the way back across the city to pick them up again. I hate wasting money.”

Tuck made a noise under his breath. “Yeah, you always fucking did, huh?”

A cupboard creaked as it was opened before the sound of glass clanging echoed to Lucia’s spot as well. Silence answered the noise while liquid was poured. She kept Diego entertained with two small cars he’d brought along. One for him to drive along the floor, and one for her to play with, too. He was the bad guys, apparently, and she was the police. Or that’s what he explained when they first sat on the rug in the living room to play.

Whatever he wanted.

As long as he was quiet for now.

It was the conversation still happening in the next room that drew Lucia’s attention away from Diego and their game. The boy didn’t seem to mind considering he used her distraction to escape from the police.

“Remember when I asked you if you were gonna bring me any problems, Ren?” Tuck asked.