Lead Me Home (Fight for Me #3)(9)

I knew her better than anyone.

She went back to hugging herself. “I can’t think of anyone. I mean . . . I’m Nikki. Who could hate me?”

She gave a wide grin.

Honestly, it looked a whole lot more like a grimace than anything. Kind of pathetic and awkward and desperate.

She wasn’t fooling anyone.

“What about at school or the diner?”

Her head shook. “My classes are all online, and everyone’s wonderful at the diner. Who wouldn’t be after Rynna feeds them those breakfast pastry pies. Happiest people in the world. I’m sure you’re right, and it was just kids,” she continued with a resolute nod. “There are packs of them roaming the area all the time. It was bound to happen.”

Bound to happen.

I was bound to kick someone’s ass.

“Luckily, if that’s the case, they usually move on once they figure out there isn’t anything of value for them to take.”

Although Seth’s words were obviously delivered to offer her some comfort, he kept shooting me glances on the sly.

Nikki laughed a self-deprecating sound. “Well, then, I’m sure that ring was worth a mint, and unless they were after the VHS player my grandma gave me for my tenth birthday, then they are straight out of luck.”

Seth chuckled while he scribbled something onto a fresh sheet in his notepad. “You probably made yourself a prime target with that one.”

“I knew I should have gotten a security system with all my valuables. Oh God, what if they’d found my Discman?” Her eyes went wide with feigned horror. “Living the high life is dangerous.”

I would have laughed if I wasn’t so pissed. Only this girl would make light of the situation.

She’d also be the one to hang on to all those pieces of her childhood.

My insides clutched as I thought about her hopping into her grandmother’s car every Saturday morning.

Tagging along to yard sales and thrift stores like it was some sort of epic trip to Chanel.

Couldn’t count the number of times the girl had busted into our house with pride in her eyes to show off the latest gadget she’d picked up with her grandma. Half the time, it’d already be obsolete or missing pieces or just plain ugly, but she never cared.

She’d go on about why it’d called out to her. Why it was supposed to have belonged to her all along.

Sentimental to the skinny bone.

Hell, I wouldn’t have put it past her to be carrying a beeper in that huge-ass purse of hers, too.

“You should have been born in the seventies,” Seth teased.

“I know, I was robbed. Think of all the awesome music I missed out on in the eighties.”

He laughed. “Robbed. Vandalized. You really are a target.”

Anger soured on my tongue. Knew he was being cool. Setting her at ease. But her safety wasn’t a damned joke.

“All right, I think that’s all I need for now,” Seth said, ripping out the sheet and flipping the notepad closed. “You know where to get in touch with me if you think of anything else. Sometimes things become clearer after the shock wears off. We lifted a couple of prints, so I’ll let you know what we find, and I’ll send someone over first thing in the morning to get your door fixed.”

Nikki sent him a wobbly smile. “Thank you, Seth. I really do appreciate it.”

“Just doing my job, though, I have to admit, wasn’t a fan of doing it here. You need to be careful, Nikki.”

“I know.”

He hesitated. “Are you sure you’re fine?”

She nodded and pasted on one of those smiles. One of the ones that promised Nikki Walters was just fine.

Having a blast.

Even when the world tossed her shit and problems and trials, she chose to live life large and to its fullest.

“Yeah, I’m totally fine. No need to worry. I knew what I was signing up for when I moved in here.”

Seth shook his head. “All right then, I’m going to get out of your hair. Take care of yourself,” he told her.

He walked toward me and reached out to shake my hand. With the other, he slipped me the sheet he’d ripped out of the notebook.

Unease rumbled in my gut.

I gave him a tight jut of my chin. “See ya, man.”

“Yup,” he said before he and his partner slipped out.

Nikki followed them and did her best to wedge the door shut.

While her back was to me, I peeked at the note.

None of this sits right. Call me.





Nikki grunted, trying to get it shut but the wood was too mangled and disfigured.

What if she’d been there? Alone?

What would have happened then?

What had the intruder’s intention been in the first place?

Fear tumbled through me like a slow, excruciating burn.

Lava that sprouted from my soul.

Singeing my insides.

It was doubled by a bolt of that rage. A stake through my spirit.

It landed right in the midst of the rest of that bubbling fury, leaving me to barely hang on.

Sometimes I looked in the mirror and was terrified of myself, having no clue who I was gonna be when it happened.

When it all came to a head.

Where she stood facing away from me, I watched a tremble roll through her body. The girl refused to let on that she was shaken up by the incident.