Page 75 of Falling for Her

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

LINCOLN

I’m hanging on by a very fine thread, and in about two seconds, it’s going to fucking snap. Finley walks past me, and I’m waiting for her to turn around and give me shit. Instead, she disappears inside the apartment without another word.

My phone rings, and my hand is holding it so tight that I feel like it’s going to shatter.

“Hey.” I put the phone to my ear, pacing to the driveway. “Thanks for returning my call. I need to ask you something.” I’m sure Brock can tell from my tone that I’m not in the mood to chitchat and shoot the shit.

“Sure thing.”

“Finley brought her car in the other day, and you mentioned some damage.”

“Yeah,” he says, as if he’s waiting for more of a question.

“What happened to it?”

“Can’t be certain. Pretty bad scrape all down the side, and the side mirror was almost completely broken off.” I close my eyes. “I would have thought it got sideswiped while parked, maybe a drunk driver. But the windshield was cracked, too, on the opposite side, which is weird.”

“Thanks,” I respond.

“Should I have called you?” It’s a loaded question.

“Probably. I have to go.” Captain’s car is coming down the street.

“Later.” For once, he doesn’t give me any shit.

Finley steps out of her apartment with a bag in one hand and a black square thing under her opposite arm.

“I’m bringing my frother.” She nods to the black thing. “I’m guessing you want me to go back into the house and not ask you questions. I will say, before I do, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. It’s just the couch. The bed was tossed around, but nothing else was messed up.”

“Captain just got here. I have to debrief with him. Put your things in Asa’s bedroom. He’ll sleep with me tonight.”

“I can tell from your tone that this isn’t a two-way conversation, and it’s really just you telling me what to do.”

“You would be right.” Captain is walking up to the officer on the scene. “Save the sass for another night. Knowing you, I’m sure you’ll have enough for tomorrow too.”

She snorts as she walks up the steps. I wait for her to be inside before joining Captain.

“What the fuck happened?” he asks. I can see from his clothes that he was home, sitting in his recliner. When we step inside the apartment, he sees the couch and releases a breath through his teeth. “Did they do this in your house, too, or just here?”

“Just here.” In the bedroom, the mattress is flipped over. Two officers are dusting for prints. “Could be they tried to get into the house and saw the camera at the front door.” I pull up the video footage from today on my phone, something I should have done already.

It’s black. Everything after I left the house has been deleted.

“What the fuck?” I toss my phone to Captain, who catches it.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” His jaw is as hard as mine.

“That this has to do with the case? Yeah, I’m fucking thinking it.” I shake my head. “Last week, they vandalized my nanny’s car. Didn’t know until today. She didn’t want to tell me.”

“We’re going to get some officers to patrol more in the area. Monday, we sit down with the team.”

“They know where I live and that I’m in this,” I say tightly. “It’s not undercover at this point.”

“They came to your house. They left that box at our undercover office.” He hands me back my phone. “They’re either very brazen and this is a random targeting of an officer, they have cops on their payroll, or you in particular are fucking shit up for them.” I want to throw the fucking phone across the room, but I stop myself.

“It better be one or fucking three,” I growl as the guys come out of the bedroom, avoiding looking at me. “Anything?”