Furniture overturned.
A baby was wailing somewhere near the intake desk.
And Ava...
Christ.
She was standing there behind the desk, arms raised, fury trembling through every inch of her. She wasn’t afraid. But she was cornered. Trapped in her own goddamn clinic.
She didn’t look at me like the man she’d spent nights tangled up with.
She looked at me like a stranger.
Like a traitor.
I fucked up.
I was so busy fighting ghosts from the past, I didn’t see Voss moving pieces in the present.
This was on me.
But Kane’s voice was in my head, steady, cold:“You want this done clean? Then toe the line. Don’t move. Don’t react. Let Gray do what he’s built to do.”
I forced myself forward. Every step felt like moving through wet cement.
Remi stood at the center of it all. Chin high, eyes steady, wrists bare. Unshaken. Even here.
Erin turned to me like she’d been waiting for this. Like she’d scripted it.
“Perfect timing, Chief,” she purred, holding a warrant like it was a trophy. “Our suspect already confessed.”
I wanted to rip the smug smile off her face. Wanted to put my fist through the wall. But Kane’s voice stayed there, anchoring me down."Don’t blow it. Don’t give her an inch."
“She’s not a suspect,” Ava snapped before I could even open my mouth. Her voice was raw, scraped clean of patience. “And she didn’t confess shit. You’re pinning this on us, and you fucking know it.”
I stayed silent.
Because if I opened my mouth, I’d burn this entire operation down and take everyone with me.
Remi turned her head toward me, her hazel eyes sharp enough to cut glass. Once, those same eyes laughed when she called megrandpa. Now they were stripped of warmth.
“Go ahead, Chief,” she said flatly. “You came all this way.”
A single beat of hesitation.
That’s all it took to damn me.
Then I stepped forward and pulled the cuffs from my belt.
I didn’t look at Ava.
Couldn’t.
I looked at Remi instead.
And cuffed her wrists like I wasn’t tearing out the last piece of myself.
The click of the metal was louder than the shouting, louder than the crying, louder than my own heartbeat in my ears.
