She put her wine down and pulled the blanket up closer around us.
We stayed like that for a long time, two girls raised on broken promises, trying to rewrite the ending. Trying to hope and dream in a world made of pain and nightmares.
CHAPTER 12
HARLAN - JUST A GIRL
Some people walk into a room like they own it.
Remi Carter walks in like she’s not afraid of who does.
I saw her before I heard her.
The courthouse lobby buzzed with the usual noise, irritated attorneys, humming vending machines, and the scuff of cheap dress shoes on tile, but Remi cut through it like a siren. Not loud. Not aggressive. Just… direct. Lethal in her clarity.
One of her patients had been picked up again. I didn’t know the whole story yet, just that the arrest came during a noise complaint, and Erin was the senior on scene.
Of course she was.The thought slipped out of me, and I didn't have time to think about it.
The sliding doors barely had time to close behind Remi before she found Erin at the intake desk. No hesitation. No fear.
“She’s seventeen, Sergeant. Seventeen. Do you even stop to ask what the hell happened before you threw her in a cruiser?”
Erin didn’t flinch. She turned slowly, looked Remi up and down like she was a nuisance at best, a gnat at worst.
The two stood toe to toe. Mirrored opposites in every way.
“She resisted,” Erin said flatly. “And she was screaming threats. We had every reason to detain her.”
“She was screaming because one of her mother’s boyfriends broke her collarbone last year, and no one believed her. Now she panics when men raise their voices. You knew that.”
Erin shrugged. “I can't keep track of all your pet projects, Carter... and she got physical.”
“She was triggered.” Remi stepped closer, her voice lowering,sharpening. “You know what that means, right? You remember all those sensitivity trainings you whole department is supposed to show up for?”
I moved fast, intercepting before Erin snapped or Remi said something that would get her arrested...again.
“Carter.”
She turned to me, eyes wild. Not a single flicker of fear. Just righteous fury, tempered only by exhaustion.
“Chief,” she said with clipped civility. “Your officers arrested a teenager with a known trauma history for panicking. They bruised her wrist and called her hysterical. Want to explain how that’s protecting and serving?”
“Let’s step over here,” I said, gesturing away from the front desk.
Remi didn’t move at first. Then she exhaled and followed.
Once we were a few feet away, I dropped my voice.
“I’m going to look into the body cam footage.”
“You shouldn’t have to,” she said, crossing her arms. “If your officers knew how to de-escalate instead of detonate, none of this would’ve happened.”
“That’s not all of them.”
“No,” she said. “But it keeps being the same ones, doesn’t it?”
She looked toward Erin without subtlety.
