WRENI jolted away in my bed, blinking in the darkened room. What had woken me? Turning, I glanced at the clock, trying to focus my blurry eyes on the digits on the digital readout. Was that one o’clock —in the morning?Bang, bang, bang!Someone was at the door.Opening up the drawer on my side table, I pulled out my Beretta 92FS and got out of bed. It was still in the high nineties in my non-air-conditioned apartment, so I’d slept in a shirt and panties. But this was Boyle Heights, and there was no way in hell I was answering my apartment door in the middle of the fucking night without a weapon in my hands—modesty was simply optional at this point.Bang, bang, bang!“Jesus! Wren, let me in.”At the sound of my brother’s voice, I flipped on the living room lights, undid all three deadbolts, and then the slide lock before opening the door. Hawk was weaving on my doorstep, his face a bloody mess, one of his eyes swollen shut.“What the fuck, Hawk?” I guided him inside, re-shut things, a
Last Updated : 2025-08-15 Read more