Page 29 of Hidden

His frown remained in place as she unlocked the door and pushed it open.

“Come in. I promise it’s perfectly safe around here. Hardly any drugs at all, and last week I only had to kill one cockroach.”

He wasn’t amused, so she stood at the kitchen island and laid out everything she had from the mystery tipster.

As he examined it, she opened her burger bag and started eating.

“How do you eat that crap?” He ripped the plastic wrapper off his utensils and stabbed a piece of lettuce.

“A lot easier than I can eat thatcrap.” She waved an onion ring at his salad.

He shook his head and picked up the photos of Upwood.

“You find anything on this guy?” He pointed at Dino Carranza.

“Not a lot. He’s named as a person of interest in several police reports but has never been charged with anything and the crimes range from assault to drug trafficking. Never any human trafficking, though. I saw you there with Upwood and Carranza last night. What were they talking about?”

“I don’t get paid to eavesdrop on my protectee’s private conversations.” He picked up the photo of the picnic table and stared at it.

“Any idea what this means?”

“That one confused me, too.”

Carrie picked up the notebook and handed it to him. “This came in the second envelope.”

As Peter flipped through it, a crash pierced the silence. Carrie whirled around and screamed. Her curtains were on fire and shards of glass from the broken window lay glistening on the ground.

Peter jumped into action while she screamed, running to the kitchen sink to grab the fire extinguisher from under the sink and shouting at her to stay back.

Frozen, she watched as he ran towards the flames and sprayed them. At first, it looked like he wouldn’t be able to contain the blaze, but the foam from the extinguisher eventually snuffed it out.. Thankfully, before the sprinkler system kicked in.

“Grab your things. You’re not staying here tonight.” His gun was out, and he was easing toward the front door.

“Don’t go out there.” Fear seized her insides as he reached for the doorknob. “We should call the police.”

“We will. This is more serious than I thought. We need to get you out of here.”

“I’ll go to UNN. I can crash in an empty office.”

Peter didn’t respond. The front door was open, and he was staring at something.

She rushed toward him, but he held up his hand. “Stay back.”

Curiosity had her pushing forward, anyway. A note was stuck to the door over the peephole.

Stay away. This is your last warning. Listen or die.

As a newswoman, she had to admire the fact that they got straight to the point. As the victim of the threats, she was fucking terrified.

“What do we do now?”

“Call nine-one-one. We’ll wait for them.”

After making the call, she gathered the pictures she had laid out. They were packed up in her laptop bag before the sirens reached the apartment.

For the next hour, she talked to the apartment complex manager, and the police.

“Do you have any idea what the note means, Miss Davenport?” an officer asked, notebook in hand.

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