Page 73 of Hart of Hope
“If he did, I forgot about it.” With everything going on since I’d moved to Boston, I barely had a moment to breathe. “Though the management company should also call my cell.”
“Agreed,” Ray said.
I couldn’t shoot the messenger. “I’ll take care of this.” I waved the envelope. “Thanks.”
As I was backtracking to the elevator, a text came in from Chris Vargas.
Chris:It’s late. If you’re up, call me. I have news on Arturo’s drug shipment.
I didn’t give a fuck about Arturo. However, he’d been calling me all week. It wasn’t like I could pull a rabbit out of my ass and know who’d stolen his shit.
Before I returned to the apartment, I got Chris on the phone.
“Hey, man,” Chris said after the first ring. “Sorry it’s taken so long to get back to you. No one on the street is talking, but I managed to pull it out of one of my colleagues who deals with Arturo more than me. Word on the street is Arturo’s main enforcer, Jorge Moreno, fucked him. He intercepted the drugshipment. I hear there’s a war about to start with the cartel. If I were you, man, I wouldn’t be anywhere near it.”
“I don’t plan on it. You should do the same.”
He let out a strangled laugh. “I wish I could. But selling drugs is my lifeblood.”
“I’ll relay this to Arturo. Stay safe.” I stabbed the elevator button. “And thanks, Chris. I owe you.”
I opened the envelope on the way to my apartment. I read the letter once, then twice, then laughed. In a nutshell, the tenants were complaining about a mob-looking guy hanging around in the lobby. Knox wasn’t working tonight. Duke and I had decided to give the bodyguard the night off, since Grace was with me. The letter also served as a warning that if there was any trouble, management would terminate my lease.
Like I gave a fuck.
I was shaking my head as I got off the elevator and heard a scream.
Grace?
I bolted down the hallway.
My next-door neighbor, Mrs. Jackson, came out into the hallway. “She’s been screaming on and off. What’s going on?”
I apologized to the gray-haired woman. “Night terrors.”
I fished my keys out of my pocket with shaky fingers and unlocked the door, ignoring Mrs. Jackson as she mumbled something about how bad night terrors could be.
Grace was pounding on the window.
Fear whipped through me as I rushed over to her. I doubted she could break the window, but weirder things had happened in the world.
I gently grabbed her arms from behind. “Baby girl.”
She spun around and swung at me. Dillon had mentioned sleepwalking. I wrapped my arms around her with no idea how to handle this. But I had to wake her up. She fought me off.
“Grace.” I raised my voice, holding her face in my hands. “Wake up. It’s me, Brian.”
She stilled.
I kissed her on the lips. “Baby girl.”
She blinked, and the zombie state she was in vanished. “What are you doing?”
I guided her to the couch. “You were sleepwalking.”
She absently glanced around, confused, as her forehead wrinkled.
“You were screaming too.” I sat down next to her. “Do you remember?”
