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“Then we can’t win.” Danni threw her hands up and paced in front of Go-Go’s desk. “I can’t believe this. The criminals are running the show. My life means nothing to the people I serve or to the people who employ me. I quit. I’ve had it.” There, she said it. She faced Gomez, hands on her hips, heart pumping.
Gomez stood, raising his hands. “Danni, don’t get tunnel vision, and don’t do something you’ll regret. You’re a good cop—a great one. Did you take this job thinking you’d be thanked every day?”
“Of course not. But I didn’t take it thinking I’d be offered up as a sacrifice. What else can you call what’s happening out there? Cops are being hurt and the perpetrators face no consequences. It’s insane.”
“I can’t argue. But your father would be the first to agree, politics aside, we still have a job to do.”
“Don’t bring my dad into this.” She pressed her palms to her forehead, fighting angry, frustrated tears.
Gomez went silent.
Danni composed herself. “What’s the endgame? You know as well as I do that the longer this goes on, the harder it will be to stop it.”
He sighed. “I don’t have an answer. The world is upside down right now. But even upside down, people still need us. They may not ever appreciate us, but we keep order; we keep the peace. I wouldn’t want my family to live in a world withoutcops.”
Danni sat heavily in a chair in front of Gomez’s desk. Her ears heard but there was too much indignation in her soul to let the words sink in.
Gomez got up and walked around the desk to lean a hip against the corner. “Don’t quit, Danni. If you have to, take a leave of absence. Don’t throw away fifteen good years.”
“Like they’d let me take leave with all this craziness.” She felt a twinge—she’d be running away.
“I’ll make it happen. You had a concussion, for heaven’s sake. You deserve time to heal.”
Danni thought for a minute. Being a deserter was something she’d never thought would apply to her. But the betrayal of the rock thrower’s release stuck in her back like a red-hot poker. Nothing more than a citation for nearly killing her. The department had already deserted her.
“I’m quitting. I’ll go visit my mom before I sign the papers. But I promise I won’t be back.”
