She was unravelling.
I’d seen it before, the way cornered animals lash out at shadows, snapping teeth just to taste blood. She was getting reckless. Sloppy. And reckless people with power always cost someone everything if you didn’t get ahead of them.
I was halfway to check on Remi when I passed the holding area and stopped cold.
Her cell was empty.
An ice-pick panic drove straight up my spine.
I checked the logs, nothing. No clearance for movement, no scheduled transfer, no escort signed off. She was supposed to be guarded. Safe. Locked down until Jack could get her out clean.
Instead, she was gone.
I was already moving before I had a plan. My boots pounded the hall, turning hard into the interrogation wing, and when I hit the door, my stomach bottomed out.
She was there.
Remi sat in one of the steel chairs, her arms crossed tight, herposture rigid, her hair loose and curling around a new bruise on her face. She looked starved, exhausted, and ready to take someone’s head clean off.
Across from her sat Erin Voss.
And leaning against the far wall like a silent threat, Bishop. One of hers.
Something in me snapped.
I pushed the door open so hard it ricocheted off the wall.
“What the fuck is going on in here?”
Erin didn’t flinch.
Remi did, though, just barely, enough to tell me she was unsettled. Before turning her head slowly, her gaze locked on mine. There was no anger in her eyes anymore. No fury.
Just… nothing.
Like she’d finally stopped expecting anyone with a badge to save her.
Erin stood, voice dripping saccharine poison. “Remi was clarifying some discrepancies in her statements. Tying up loose ends for her arrest report.”
“You’re not cleared to be alone with her,” I snapped.
She pointed at Bishop as an answer.
“And certainly not with one of your people hovering over her.”
“She waived counsel.”
I turned to Remi. “Did you?”
She didn’t answer. Didn’t even blink. She gave me a look that said:Are you fucking kidding me right now.
I turned back to Erin, teeth grinding. “Get out. Both of you.”
Her brows arched, faux innocence twisting her face. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. Effective immediately, you’re suspended pending the internal review. Badge. Gun. Out. Now.”
Erin stared at me like she was weighing whether to laugh or kill me.
