“You don’t know that.”
I looked up. “Don’t I?”
Her voice softened, lips curving just enough. “You’ve got the whole damn station leaning on your shoulders. Pressure like that… it’ll eat you alive if you don’t let someone help carry the weight.”
I closed one folder and opened another, ignoring her train of thought. “Trying to understand where we keep falling short.”
“Oh, is that what we’re calling it now?” Her voice was teasing, light, with just enough edge to make my shoulders tense. “Come on,Harlan. You’re burning daylight. Those girls, no offence, some of them are just looking for attention. You know that.”
I looked up.What the fuck did she just say?
She smiled, mistaking my attention. Tilted her head like we were sharing a private joke. “I’m just saying, you can't dig too deep into the sob stories.”
I stared at her. At the woman whom I had once gone to without question. At the features I was once attracted to, which now looked fake and forced. Blonde hair that was too bright... too shiny. Her brown eyes, which I had once thought were warm, now looked dead and cold. Not one thing on her was out of place; she was the epitome of polished perfection... and I once admired that. But now...
Now, a different blonde was holding my attention, and I didn't know what to do with that.
Erin shifted, still smiling, but there was something else behind it now. Calculation. Maybe even a warning. “Remember when you weren’t afraid to let loose, Harlan?”
I turned. “That was before my father died. Before I had a town to answer to. And you should be calling me Chief Gray.”
Her smile thinned, but she didn’t back off. “We made a good team once.”
I let the silence stretch until it cracked.
“Not anymore,” I said.
Her face barely shifted, but the undercurrent of irritation cut through her polished surface.
I set my pen down, needing her to understand. “That was over when I took this job. You know that. I was very clear.”
She shrugged. “Doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. You’re under a lot of pressure. It’s not a crime to want a little… relief.”
There it was. The game she played. Push, retreat, push again. I wasn’t biting.
“If that’s all, Sergeant.”
She held my gaze for a second too long before pushing off the desk and walking toward the door. “Suit yourself. Just thought I’d offer.”
She stopped at the threshold and looked over her shoulder. “Oh, by the way. You shouldn't be seen around Carter and Sinclair.”
I didn’t respond.
“They are trouble. You ask me, it’s only a matter of time before Ava drags someone else down with her.”
She left without waiting for a response.
I sat back in my chair, the silence swallowing me again.
The files in front of me blurred slightly as I exhaled. For a moment, I wondered if maybe I was chasing shadows. If maybe Erin was right.
But then I thought of Ava, blood on her hands, eyes burning with grief. Of Remi, watching everyone with that quiet weight like she already knew how this story ended.
Jack running to their aid without question because he knew that whatever side they were standing on was the right one.
I turned back to the files. To the evidence of everything we missed.
Worrying about what I would find the deeper I dug. Would the rot be found in just the old paperwork, or in the people wearing the badge beside me?
