Page 17 of Swan River

But none of it could change the fact that Landry was dead.

Paisley and Jonas thought it was because of them.

The officials weren’t so sure. According to them, the creepy stalker notes were erratic and amateurish, whereas at first glance, Landry had been killed by someone trained to do so.

An officer approached Nikki, said the Professor was there to see her, and asked if she wanted him to send the man away. Nikki turned a wide-eyed gaze toward the open front door and the sea of officials who’d been pouring in and around the property. She’d forgotten about him. Forgotten about the torn-up office and the rough man who’d been with him. She didn’t know if she wanted to see him. Not now. Not after what had happened.

Maynard looked wild-eyed, and she was afraid he wouldn’t leave, so she pulled herself from the couch and joined him on the porch. He whispered in her ear, dark thoughts. He said this could have been THEM coming for her like they’d come for him earlier in the day just for trying to find the truth.

Landry and Nikki were almost identical from the back when she had her hair straightened. Same height. Same body shape.

Her stomach turned.

Could this have been because of her? Her family? The secrets the professor hinted at?

“My brother was right. We need to drop the entire thing. If you say anything, if you try to find out the truth, you risk not only your life but your mother’s and the rest of the band’s. You don’t know who you can trust. They came for your father, they’ll come for you and kill whoever is in their path,” he whispered. At his office, he’d been afraid but still eager, almost desperate. Now, there was only pure terror in his voice.

A horrified tremor went through her.

She believed him with a sickening clarity. Because Landry was dead. She was dead even though they’d had a host of bodyguards and law enforcement agencies watching over them.

“I’m done, but this,” he shoved a small package at her, “it belongs to you. Take it. Don’t show it to anyone. Ever.”

Nikki tried to push it away, but he pried her fingers open and placed it her palm.

“Good luck, Ms. Rani. I hope you stay safe,” he said stepping back.

She would have protested. She would have thrown the package at him if two people hadn’t emerged behind him in the darkness. One tall and somber in a dress with her brown hair pulled back into a bun and the other tall and wide-shouldered with a frame that screamed military. Sadness and relief flew through her as she rushed down the steps.

“Mom!” Nikki cried, throwing herself into her mom’s strong arms. Her stepmom squeezed her back.

“What’s happened?” her father’s best friend asked.

Bile rose in her throat. She’d happened. Her curiosity. Her desire to know more about a family she’d never know because her father was no longer alive to answer the questions. The loss of Lan could be her fault.

She promised herself right then that she’d forget it all. That she would never again risk her friends…her mom…herself… to chase a fairytale.

Her mind flashed back to the muscled and tattooed man she’d seen outside the studio and Maynard’s scarred brother with his beady eyes.

She hadn’t said anything about either of them to her team.

She should have said something.

But now it was too late.

Now she could only bite her tongue and hope the swells of guilt and sorrow didn’t drown her.

? ? ?

FIADH

She hugged her friends, her bandmates, her sisters fiercely and tightly to her. She’d thought it was all falling apart, and it was, but not in the way she’d expected.

Fee listened while Asher Riggs calmly talked to their label owner about money, and discounts, and a band that would no longer be the flagship of the label, and her stomach twisted and turned.

He’d wanted to get rid of some of them.

He’d wanted four instead of six.

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