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.“Dallas.You fucking sent Austin here, didn’t you?” Voices echoed in the background, telling Dallas his brother was still working the case at the convenience store.“You know why I did it,” Dallas said.“How similar is it to the Nance case?”“Goddamn it, Dallas,” Tony muttered.“If you want to do police work, then—”“Hey,” Dallas interrupted his brother, “I brought Nikki Hunt home like you requested and discovered someone broke into her place.Ransacked it.” Dallas walked over to the end table and picked up the picture that Nikki had so carefully put there.“Shit,” Tony said.“Is this night ever going to end?”“I’m beginning to wonder.” Dallas stared at the framed snapshot of a blond little girl standing beside an older woman.He recognized the woman as Nikki’s grandmother and then focused on the girl.Nikki.Scared, big blue eyes and a forced smile stared up at him.Something about the insecure look on the young face told him the picture hadn’t been taken too long after she’d been abandoned by her parents.His chest tightened.“Did they take anything?” Tony asked.“Not that she’s noticed yet.She’s just now going through the rest of the apartment.It appears as if they were looking for something.”“And I’ll bet she doesn’t have a clue what that could be.”“No, she doesn’t,” Dallas snapped.“Where’s her place?” Tony asked.“Knoll Apartments, Park Knoll and—”“By the cemetery?”“Yeah,” Dallas answered.“Apartment 605.”A light flicked on down the hall.Dallas stepped back and saw that Nikki had turned the bedroom light on, and she stood in the doorway staring inside the room.Then she leaned against the door frame, slid down to her ass and dropped her head on her knees again.He recalled her underwear being strewn all over the room.“Do you think someone is after her, too?” Tony asked.“I don’t know.” And Dallas didn’t know, but the possibility knotted his gut almost as much as the thought of him shooting her.He looked back at the front door still ajar, the lock broken.“Can you send someone out here ASAP? Nikki’s had it.I’m taking her to my place.”“Your place?” Tony asked.Dallas didn’t answer.He was almost as surprised at his statement as Tony.Then he looked at the picture of a young and disheartened Nikki again and felt right about his decision.Making sure she didn’t end up in someone’s trunk or in the operating room, didn’t make him a hero.It made him a decent person.“I’ll need to talk to her first,” Tony grumbled.“Talk to her tomorrow.”“Come on, Dallas.There’s a reason people are dropping like flies around her and all this shit is happening.Chances are she knows something she’s not telling us.”“See you tomorrow.” Dallas hung up and went to check on Nikki.A hand moved across Nikki’s shoulder blades and lingered there.The touch sent shards of emotion charging right to her chest.“Hey.” His deep voice spoke close to her ear.“You gonna be okay?”Biting down on her lip, she saw him kneel beside her.“It wasn’t just computer stuff that interested him.”“Huh?”“The jerk went through my panty drawer.”“Yeah, I noticed that.” He gave her shoulder another light squeeze and stood.“Why don’t you grab an overnight bag and I’ll take you somewhere you can get some rest? Tony and CSU will be here and it could take them all night to check for prints and everything.”She wanted to argue, to tell him all she’d wanted to do was crawl into her own bed and sleep.However, knowing someone had broken in, that they’d gone through her underwear drawer gave her the creeps.Considering it was probably the same person who killed Jack and attacked Ellen, well, Nikki didn’t love her bed that much.“Can you drop me off at my grandmother’s place?”He stared at her for several seconds.“Yeah, I could do that.” He stood up and continued to look at her as if he had something else to say.“Thanks.” She started to get up, and he reached down to help her.His hand stayed on her elbow, his thumb moving back and forth over the inside of her arm.It tickled and soothed at the same time.“Of course, I’d think you wouldn’t want to put your grandmother in any danger.”She pushed the feel of his touch from her mind to try and digest what he said
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