“You’ve checked your collar twice in ten minutes.”
My hand stops halfway back to the keyboard. “No, I haven’t.”
“You have. You also opened Emrys’ message thread, closed it without typing, opened Rourke’s company file, closed that, then spent three minutes staring at a still of the traffic camera like it personally betrayed you.” She drops into the chair beside my desk and lowers her voice. “You smell like cedar, Sky.”
I keep my eyes on the monitor because the still is easier to look at than Reyes. “This is where you tell me to be careful, right?”
“I’m not telling you to cut them loose,” she says. “I’m telling you to stop pretending nobody else can see the shape of this. If Morrison is already off and she catches enough to make you look compromised, she can pull you from the case or put pressure on them.” She runs her tongue along her top teeth as she relaxes her shoulders a little. “This is also where I tell you Morrison asked about Rourke again.”
The distraction cuts clean through everything else. “The order’s rescinded.”
“She knows.” Reyes leans closer, her tone losing the dry edge. “She asked whether patrol should keep flagging movement around his building and company. Not as protection for Emrys. As monitoring Rourke.”
I sit back slowly. The traffic still sits frozen on-screen, the dark jacket angled away from the camera, no face, nothing clean enough to hold. “She’s keeping him available.”
“That’s what it sounded like.”
“Did anyone else hear it that way?”
“Miles did, and he hates agreeing with me unless he gets to complain for at least ten minutes first.” Reyes glances toward Morrison’s office, then back at me. “I’m not saying she’s dirty. I’m saying she’s moving wrong. She should be glad the order came down. Instead, she’s acting like she lost something.”
I add a note to the parallel file, keeping it short.Morrison continues to frame Rourke as monitor-worthy despite rescinded order and revised timeline. Reyes and Miles both flagged concern.
Reyes watches me type, though she doesn’t comment on the private file. “Call your other partner. Detective Caldwell,” she says. “Maybe he can look from a different angle that’s clean from Morrison’s touch.”
I nod. “Yeah, maybe.” I haven’t talked to Caldwell since the last lead died, though I’ve received some updates that only turned to dead ends. Reyes throws me a look before pulling her collar up to smell it, making fun of me. Then she walks off as I try to settle with the idea that I’ve found two mates in less than a week.
The worst part is that I kind of want them, despite my past history with packs who always end up telling me I spend too much time at work. That my attention isn’t focused enough. ThatI’mnot enough.
Leaning back in my chair, I dial Hunter before Reyes can tell me to do it again. He answers on the fourth ring, wind cutting across the line. “Caldwell.”
“Hey. It’s me.”
There’s a brief pause, then the sound of movement, like he’s stepping away from traffic or a door. “Skylar. Everything okay?”
“Not exactly.” I look toward Morrison’s office before lowering my voice. “How’s everything with the Hex investigation? Any new leads?”
Hunter chuckles. “I wish. It’s been a bunch of the same old, same old. Hex isn’t saying anything we don’t know, though he has slung a few more insults my way and asked where you are.”
“Lovely,” I mutter. Arresting Marcus had been an ordeal all on its own but finding out that there might be a network attached to his kills was the bigger issue. He said he ‘knew people’ and someone said there was an entire situation dealing in more than we can imagine. I don’t know who’s telling the truth but the evidence drying up is pissing me off.
“I know you didn’t just call me to talk about the investigation. What’s up?
“A local Alpha who got arrested protecting the Omega was cleared this morning. Protective order rescinded, charge dropped from active posture.”
“That’s good.”
“It should be.” I grab the pen on my desk and start turning it between my fingers, slow enough to keep from tapping it against the desk. “But the chief here is still asking whether patrol should flag movement around his building and company. She’s not framing it like protection for the Omega. She’s framing it like the Alpha still needs watching.”
Hunter goes quiet. He does that when he’s putting pieces somewhere in his head before he lets them become words. “Is he still under investigation?”
“Not that I know of. There’s enough evidence to point to otherwise but it’s like she’s still treating him as a suspect. There was also a call to the station several minutes before the attack ever happened. The police showed up on scene seconds after the real suspect got away when a real call into the station shouldn’t have been responded to for at least 15-20 minutes.”
Hunter exhales, the sound thin through the line. “If someone there is trying to keep pressure on him after the order was pulled, I’d start taking notes. There has to be a reason why yourchief is pulling that, even if it’s as stupid as needing a few easy arrests under her belt to keep her position.” Something shifts through the earpiece. “Hold on a moment.”
I jot down a few more notes in the parallel file as the line fills with silence.
Then he reappears. “It seems I have a meeting tonight. I didn’t want to get my hopes up but there’s an informant who might have some information about a name and location connected with Hex.”
