Page 49 of Harbor

Tuck didn’t even give Renzo the chance to respond to his question before he barked out, “Do you even know who she fucking is?”

As unbothered as ever, Renzo murmured, “I know exactly who she is.”

Tuck cursed loudly before a second later, something that sounded like glass shattered with a thump against the wall. Lucia jumped in place, and even Diego stopped playing to look up at her with wide eyes.

“It’s okay,” she told him quietly. “It’s fine.”

He didn’t look like he believed it.

Frankly, she didn’t believe herself.

“So, you knew,” Tuck growled, “that you brought a Marcello daughter to this city—that you took her away from her family? Do you know they’re looking for her, too? That they’ve put the word out across the fucking country for her? That they’re willing to pay a huge fucking price to get her back with them? Do you know any of that, too?”

“No,” Renzo replied dryly, “I can’t say I did know any of that.”

“That family’s reach is … this is bigger than you and me. She’s bigger than even your face on the fucking news, and the problems that could bring. Shit, I might have been able to overlook that as long as you stayed quiet until the alert blew over and they stopped talking about it so much. But her, man? Them? I can’t be here for that—you can’t be here with her.”

“What do you want me to do, then?”

“Get the fuck out of my city tonight,” Tuck said sharply. “Get your shit, and go. I don’t care how you do it, but you can’t stay here for one more night. It is only a matter of time before someone recognizes her face given the way you drag her around everywhere, and then they’re gonna pass the message along to her family. They’re going to come here to get her, and when they find out I was the one helping you out, that’s going to come back on me, Renzo. So, no, you need to go. Take the fucking car with you—consider it a parting gift for all I give a damn.”

“A parting gift,” Renzo said quietly.

“It’s the least I can do, considering …”

“Considering what, Tuck?”

The other man made a noise under his breath, and said, “Considering nothing. Just get the hell out of this city ASAP. I am not going to stand around and wait to be killed like a forgotten mutt because you and I go way back, Renzo. That’s all there is to it. I’m sure you can understand.”

Renzo laughed, then.

A cold, dry laugh.

“Yeah, I fucking got it. We all gotta save ourselves, right?”

“Right. Now go.”

It didn’t matter that Tuck tried to brush off what he said. Lucia heard it, and she suspected Renzo heard it just fine, too. Like there was something he was holding back from them.

Not that they had time to consider it.

Apparently, they had to go, now.

Run.

Again.

• • •

They didn’t talk. Not on the way out of Tuck’s apartment complex, not on the drive back to the hotel, or even while Renzo pulled those familiar black duffle bags out from beneath the bed. They didn’t talk until Diego climbed up on the bed when Lucia hauled an armful of clothes over to drop it into one of the bags, and he looked at her with a sad understanding that no four-year-old should ever have, but especially not this one.

“We’re leaving again?” he asked softly.

Lucia glanced at Renzo.

His shoulders dropped a bit, but he forced a smile on his face as he looked his brother’s way. “Yeah, buddy … we’re going to head out again. We’ve got somewhere else to be. It’ll be fun.”

Diego frowned. “But why?”