I watched him put her in the back of the car.
Watched him walk away without looking back.
And something inside me cracked down the center.
I wanted to collapse. To scream until my voice shattered.
But patients were crying in the waiting room.
There were children still hiding behind chairs.
And someone had to hold the fucking line.
I walked back into the clinic, blood pounding in my ears. Found my phone and dialled the only person I trusted.
“Jack,” I said when he answered.
“Ava?”
My voice broke. “It’s bad. It’s Erin. She arrested Remi.” I swallowed hard. “We need help.”
CHAPTER 45
HARLAN - THE GOOD GUYS
The call came in mid-morning.
Code flagged. Dispatch tone urgent.
Domestic terrorism suspected. Raid active at the Carter Sinclair Clinic.
I didn’t need the rest of the briefing.
Because I already knew.
Erin.
I slammed my office door open, didn’t have a plan for what came next. Just keys, badge, and my sidearm. My blood was a livewire, my jaw locked so tight it ached.
She’d done it.
She really fucking did it.
By the time the next dispatch call came through, I was already halfway to the clinic.
Suspicious activity confirmed. Suspect on-site.
My foot hit the gas harder.
When the clinic came into view, it felt like pulling up on a war zone. Tactical vans lined the street like armoured teeth. Uniforms everywhere. Red and blue lights ricocheted off glass and brick. The air itself felt split open.
Patients huddled outside, some crying, some frozen in shock. A little girl with a broken sandal clung to her mom’s leg, her small shoulders trembling. People whispered words like “terrorism” and “trafficking” like if they said them softly enough, they wouldn’t be real.
I wanted to tell them it was bullshit. That it was Erin playing God again. But I couldn’t even convince myself of that, not with the show she was staging.
The moment I stepped inside, the breath punched out of me.
Glass crunched under my boots.
