Page 88 of Contempt

Lucia peered back at him, and let her gaze drift over the ink on his skin. The portraits of people who he loved the most. The symbols and memories of her and them together that he’d made sure with one tattoo at a time to memorialize on his body.

That was kind of crazy to her.

And it wasn’t at the same time.

She loved it.

She loved him.

“Ren?”

“Hmm, baby?”

“You know I love you, right?”

She felt his fingers tighten around her hand, but he didn’t say anything in response to her question. Not that she blamed him. She hadn’t said that. Not like she just did, anyway. She said it like a throwaway—like it didn’t matter.

And that was the thing.

Her love for him was the most important thing. It was the one thing that continually held her back from moving forward all these years, and then at the same time, kept her going. That fucking love—as crazy as it was—kept her alive. She didn’t want to put that knowledge on his shoulders. She didn’t want him to know the struggle that had been so entirely dark for her all these years, but it was there.

She knew it.

“Hey,” he murmured.

Finally, he tugged on her hand.

Lucia looked back at him again.

He was still grinning.

“You know, regardless of the rest, we’re still just Lucia and Ren, babe.”

She blinked.

“Are we?”

Renzo laughed. “A little messy, maybe. But yeah, why not?”

“Is it really that easy, though?”

“It can be, if you want it to be.”

She did.

God, she did.

Lucia just didn’t think it was that simple.

Nothing was ever simple or easy for her.

“I just …” Lucia sighed, and shook her head. “How do you stop being angry, Ren? You know what I mean? I feel like it’s been with me for so long—always constant—and I’m scared that I don’t know how to live without it, now.”

Renzo wet his lips, and chuckled. “You know, that used to be me, too. Grew up angry, babe. So fucking angry. And it feeds you, and you feed off it, if you get what I’m saying. It fuels you, and keeps you going when nothing else does.”

He wasn’t wrong.

That’s what terrified Lucia.