Page 48 of Harbor

Renzo cleared his throat. “Yeah, I suppose.”

“You suppose?”

“You asked. And I told you no. What about it, Tuck?”

“We’ve got a problem.”

Lucia stiffened on the floor as the words filtered out to her spot. Calm before the storm. She’d known it—said it to herself, too, hadn’t she? Nothing was ever simple or easy for them. Life had to make sure it came around and kicked them right in the ass to remind them that for every step they took, something was going to come around and knock them back all over again.

Despite the way panic and anxiety swelled in Lucia’s chest, wrapping around her heart with a death-like grip to silence her and chill her to the bone, Renzo’s voice came out calm and steady in the next beat. Like he wasn’t concerned about Tuck’s words at all. She knew that couldn’t be true—he always worried—but he was damn good at hiding it.

Not like her.

“What kind of problem?” Renzo asked.

Tuck laughed, but the sound didn’t come off easy or amused at all. More bitter, and dark. Like he was pissed, and he wasn’t even bothering to try and hide it anymore. “Why don’t you tell me, Renzo? Tell me what you were doing and what happened before you showed up in my city, huh?”

“Thought New York was your city, Tuck.”

“New York didn’t make me fucking rich.”

Renzo cleared his throat loudly. “Just tell me what the problem is, yeah? I can’t fix it if I don’t know what’s going on, man.”

“That’s the thing—you can’t fix this. At least, not the way you’re probably thinking.”

“I don’t—”

“Your face is on the fucking news, Ren. Guess there’s an alert out for your little brother. An Amber Alert. Oh, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg with you because somewhere along the lines, you robbed a fucking store, too. Made national news, you fucking idiot. Someone must have connected the Amber Alert to the robbery because they figured the picture they managed to get of half of your face during the robbery was a pretty good match to your last known picture. You know, the fucking picture they’re shoving all over the news alongside the Amber Alert for your brother.”

“What’s a … Amber Lert?” Diego asked.

Lucia’s head snapped back, and she found Diego looking up at her with a smile. He didn’t know in those moments that their entire plans and all their work had been upended all over again. That without even needing to be told by Renzo, she already knew they were going to have to leave again.

Run again.

It felt like a knife in her heart because she knew this was chaotic and bad. For Diego, this situation wasn’t good at all. They couldn’t keep settling him down just to turn his whole little life into a mess over and over again.

“What is it, Lucia?” Diego asked.

“An important message for people,” she settled on saying.

Jesus.

She didn’t want to lie.

Diego seemed happy, and went back to his toys. She was grateful because she was able to focus on the conversation in the next room for the moment. How much she had missed in those few seconds, she didn’t know.

“No, you are way too recognizable now,” Tuck snapped.

Renzo let out a heavy sigh. “You think?”

“Your face is fucking everywhere. I can’t have that kind of trouble on me here, Ren. I am doing … some big things. I am involved in more than you know here in Vegas. Those people will not want to see me mixed up in this kind of mess because of a friend from fucking New York.”

“Yeah, I get that, Tuck.”

“No, I don’t think you fucking do. And speaking of New York, Ren … when were you going to tell me about her, huh?”

Lucia froze in place all over again.