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“Somebody just tried to get into the apartment.” She sucks in a breath as though she’s desperately trying to hold it together. “They picked the lock. The only reason I heard them was because I was up late reading.”
“Where are you now? Are you and Matthias safe?”
“Yes, we’re okay. Whoever it was has gone and Mr. and Mrs. Cates from next door are here with me. They wanted to call the cops, but I—”
“We’ll be right there, mija. I’m five minutes away. Okay?”
“Okay.”
He ends the call and then curses in Spanish. “I knew I should have made her stay at the house until she found a proper place to live,” he snarls.
“She needed her independence, amigo,” I remind him.
“What if someone had got to her, Jax? To both of them?” he whispers and I recognize the fear in his voice because it’s the same fear I feel in my bones. The thought of anything happening to her and Matthias makes me feel like I can’t breathe.
Alejandro drives to Lucia’s apartment as fast as his old Mustang will take us, cursing the fact that he’s not driving his Bugatti. As soon as he screeches to a stop outside her apartment building, we jump out of the car and to the door as her neighbor buzzes us in. I have never taken stairs so fast in my life as I do running up to the fourth floor where her apartment is. Her door is open and her neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Cates are waiting in the hallway. Alejandro nods to them in greeting and appreciation but rushes past them. As soon as she sees him, she falls into his arms, as though she’s been holding everything together until he got there.
“Papi,” she breathes and he hugs her, smoothing her hair.
“It’s okay, mija. We’re here now.”
“Thank you for everything,” I tell her neighbors. “We can take it from here.”
“If there’s anything she needs at all…” Mrs. Cates says, worry etched on her face. “We should call the police.”
“Mr. Montoya is handling it, dear,” Mr. Cates says as he puts a reassuring arm around his wife’s shoulder.
As soon as they’re gone, I inspect the front door. There is clear damage to the lock where someone has tried to pick it, but none to the rest of the door. I close it behind me and walk inside. Alejandro looks at me over Lucia’s shoulder, a frown on his face.
“The lock’s still working but we’ll get it replaced obviously just to be sure. No other damage to the door. I’ll get the security footage from the building and I’ll check the feeds from anywhere else around her that might help us.”
He nods his agreement and then he turns back to her. “What happened to your face?”
She brushes her fingertips over the cut on her lip. “That was just Toni.”
“Oh, yeah. Jax told me you were great,” he says proudly.
“He did?” She glances at me but I don’t meet her eyes.
“Yeah,” he says but then seems to remember why we’re here. “Now you’re coming home with me.”
“No. Matthias is asleep. He doesn’t even know anything happened. I’m okay now. I overreacted. I just got so scared. I heard him breathing at the door, Papi.” She shudders. “But he was probably just looking for something to steal. If you could just check around outside and downstairs, then I’ll be fine.”
“But what if he wasn’t just looking for something to steal?” I ask.
Alejandro shoots me a warning look but Lucia is a grown woman and this is the reality of our world. We have many enemies.
“You think he targeted me?” she whispers.
“It’s a possibility,” Alejandro agrees but we both know it is way more than a possibility.
“Has anything else strange happened?” he asks her.
“Like what?” she shrugs.
“Anything weird or unusual. Meet anyone new?” I ask.
She scowls at me.
