Page 84 of Twisted Hearts

Something didn’t feel right. “Stay here.” With her holding on to one of my arms, I used my other hand to grab the gun holstered beneath my jacket.

“Shawn?” My name was a whisper that seemed to echo in the alley. Around us, everything else was silent, but fear made her voice tremble.

“The fire escape ladder.” It was crooked, hanging in a way that said it’d been moved. We hadn’t used it since I told her I was going to stay here, and when we’d left earlier, it had been exactly where it was supposed to be.

Senses on alert, I scanned the area. No sense of being watched or anyone there, but there was something wrong.

I tugged Addi with me to the door to the building and punched in the code. Once inside, I turned to her. “I need you to go to Shannon’s office. She gave you the code, right?”

“Yeah, but…” Her eyes went to the door to her apartment. “Shawn—”

“Don’t. Let me go check it out. Maybe it was assholes messing around in the alley earlier, but that ladder’s been moved. I want to make sure your place is safe and that you are too, okay?”

She chewed her bottom lip and frowned. “Okay.”

I bent down and kissed her forehead. “Get inside and stay there until I come back. Promise me, Addi. Let me go up there and you stay here.”

“Okay. Yes, of course.”

She headed to Shannon’s office. I waited until she punched in the code, and then I opened the door, scanning the small office. “I’ll be back, okay?”

Addi was trembling, but she pressed her palm to my cheek and rose onto her toes to kiss me. “I’ll be here.”

“Good.” I shut the door behind me as I stepped back and hoofed it to the door to get her to place. With my gun drawn, my instincts kicked in, adrenaline spreading through my veins. Maybe I had overreacted. Maybe everything was fine. But the part of me that made me a damn good cop told me something was wrong.

I entered the code for her apartment, and with my hip to the door to push it open, I clasped the gun in both hands. I moved, opening the door slowly, and immediately raised my gun once I flipped on the light and saw the destruction.

“Holy shit,” I whispered.

Everything was tossed. The couch cushions were ripped. Cupboards were flung open, and dishes were shattered all over her small kitchen floor.

I gave her small space a quick scan, saw the door to the fire escape busted open, and then cleared her apartment. I was in her bedroom, looking at her flipped and tossed mattress, when I pulled out my phone.

“Jaxon.”

He answered immediately, and it took me another second to respond. “It’s Shawn. We have a problem. I need you or someone else on the team who’s available to get to Addi’s.”

“What happened?”

I explained what I was looking at, the complete and utter destruction of everything Addi owned, all while I grabbed my own bag of clothes that had been dumped out and emptied.

Why? Why would they make their presence known?

And how in the hell was I going to tell Addi?

“I’ll send Mason,” Jaxon said as soon as I was done. “He’s better at tracking. If there’s any clue to find, he’ll find it. Until then, you get Addi safe.”

“Got it.” I hung up and hurried back down to Shannon’s office door. I pounded on it and yelled out for Addi.

She flung the door open, immediately caught sight of the expression on my face that had to be a mixture of fear and fury, and fell against the door.

“What is it?”

“You need to call Shannon.” She was going to need to make an insurance call. “And we need to pack and get out of here.”

“Why?”

“Come on.” She came with me, squeezing my hand like her life depended on it, and as we punched in the code to the stairway again, I explained, “Your place has been trashed. They broke in through the outside door.” I’d kick my own ass later for not setting up better security at her door. I had asked Jaxon to install an outdoor camera, and I knew he was already looking into it.

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