Chapter57: Braxton--Safety

Stringer leaves, and I fix Julia a cup of warm tea trying to settle her nerves. I know she’s upset, but she has yet to tell me exactly what happened. I want to drive to Jeff Thompson’s apartment myself and punch that bastard in the face, and I don’t even know yet what’s gone on. Julia sits on a couch in the room near the window overlooking the city. She is stunning, even in an old outfit I’m sure she’s been wearing all day as she cleaned up Jeff’s messes and did her best to make their apartment into a home, which is difficult to do under the best of circumstances. When your husband is an ungrateful bastard, I can’t even imagine how she gets out of bed in the morning. After a few sips of her tea, she says, “I’m sorry to barge in on you in the middle of the night.” “Are you serious?” I ask, studying her from the chair across the room from her. “First of all, it’s hardly the middle of the night.” It wasn’t even 9:00 yet. “And secondly, as I told you, I am always available for you, Julia.”