Page 84 of Harbor

“Ren … Renzo …”

“Stop fighting, Lucy.”

“Fuck you, John.”

Lucia’s voice was a secondary focus to Renzo in those seconds. He couldn’t concentrate on too many things at once because it made him want to vomit.

“Ren.”

Diego again.

The very last thing Renzo wanted to do was move. The pain stabbing through his body at every little twitch of his muscles was bad enough to tell him he wasn’t in good shape. Not to mention, the bleeding in his mouth hadn’t stopped and he was pretty sure he had bitten his tongue. His vision swam and was hazy when he tried to look around too fast. Besides all of that, his head was still ringing from that first hit.

Jesus Christ.

Had they used a baseball bat?

None of it mattered. At the sound of Diego’s call for him and the quiet footsteps coming his way, he rolled over in the direction of his brother. He already had his arms opened, ready to get Diego back where he was safe. He forced himself to blink, begging his vision to become a little sharper as Diego’s form came closer.

Too slow, he thought.

The kid was scared.

“It’s all right,” Renzo mumbled, “come here, Diego.”

Why was the fucking apartment so quiet?

Or maybe that was just the ringing in his ears taking over all the noise.

That all stopped, though. Or it faded the second Diego slammed into Renzo. Everything around him came into sharp focus all at once when he had his arms wrapped around his little brother.

Like he could breathe again.

See again.

Hear again.

“No, stop it!” Lucia cried. “I don’t want to go, John, fucking stop!”

“That’s enough, Lucy!”

“Stop calling me that!”

“I said make it fucking easy on me, and you didn’t. This is what happens, kiddo.”

“Fuck you. Fuck you, John. I fucking hate you!”

“Lucia.”

Lucia’s gasping sob came further away than her last words. It felt like a snake slithering across the floor to find Renzo, wrap around his body, and tighten on him like it was about to squeeze him to death. All of that confusion muddying up his mind and making him feel off-balance drifted away when he caught sight of Lucia fighting with her brother in the doorway. The other two men who had come in to help stayed a couple of feet back. Like they didn’t dare step in and put their hands on her.

Instead, it was just her brother with his arms locked around her like bars she couldn’t get free from, and pulling her closer and closer to the door. Further and further away from him and Diego.

Her wild, hazel gaze found Renzo.

Terrified, and fighting.

Not giving her brother an inch at all.