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“It’s Clive, I think.”
She looked at me. “Yeah?”
I thought back to the moments before the fighting had begun. “He had a lot to say, and a lot of it was personal. I get away with too much, I can’t use my origin differences to break the rules, I’m a risk, et cetera. And it wasn’t just the words. He had a look in his eyes.”
“A look?”
“He was angry, and he was arrogant. But he was also... excited? Not like an officer carrying out a duty, but...”
“A believer,” she said quietly, and I looked up at her.
“Yeah. That’s it exactly. He had the glow of the righteous.”
She blew out a breath through pursed lips. “That’s going to make him—and all of this—difficult. More difficult than it is already.”
“I don’t want to make trouble for Chicago, for anyone. But I’m not going to give up my autonomy because he’s on some kind of mission.”
She nodded. “The press will be told you were interviewed, released. If the security footage confirms your whereabouts, they’ll be told you were not near the scene when the incident occurred. And I would ask that you contact us, me or Theo, when the AAM makes contact again. I don’t say ‘if,’ because you strike me as a logical person, and you can surmise as well as me that those who have the glow of the righteous, as you put it, won’t stop.”
I nodded. “I’ll give you whatever information I can.”
“Then I think we’re done here.” She rose, moved toward the door, opened it. “Thank you for your time. You’re free to go, but don’t leave the city for now.”
I stepped into the hallway, found Theo waiting. And was unsure what I wanted to say to the man who’d been all but my partner a week ago... and felt the fury claw through the hallway like an angry tide.
Connor strode toward me with the bearing of a prince, blue eyes gleaming like a furious angel. His hair was furrowed, like he’d been running his fingers through it, and a lock fell over his eyes. Strong body, beautiful face, and hell in his eyes.
Furious angel indeed.
Then he reached me, and his hands were on my cheeks, strong and protective, as he searched my face with furrowed brows. “You’re all right?”
“I’m fine,” I said and put a hand on his, squeezed, and found tension had turned the muscle beneath to stone.
“A Compliance Bureau member was killed?” he asked.
“One of the guys who came to the loft. The one who did the talking. His name is Blake. Was Blake,” I added grimly.
He nodded, pressed his lips to mine, the kiss as gentle as his anger was fierce. And then he turned that gaze on Theo and Gwen, who’d stepped out behind me.
He aimed that gaze at Theo, a weapon. “You know better. You know she wouldn’t do this—wouldn’t kill an innocent.”
“And they know the AAM already believes we get special treatment,” I said. “We can’t give them an excuse for more violence.”
He bared his teeth at them. “Are you taking their side?”
“No,” I said and squeezed his hands again. “I’m taking my side. They know I didn’t kill him. But they have to ask. That’s the rule.”
His gaze slipped back to mine. “Now we’re following the rules?”
“We follow the rules we can; we break them if it’s necessary to save others.” Put that on a damn pennant, I thought, and fly it above the loft.
Connor looked at me for a long time, then nodded. One last stroke of his thumb across my cheek, and he stepped back.
“She’s right,” Theo said. “If we hadn’t questioned her, the AAM would make this even uglier.”
“Dropping down to the level of manipulators doesn’t impress me,” Connor said. “I take it you’re satisfied she’s innocent?”
Theo’s dark eyes were hard. “There are details to confirm. But—in addition to her being a decent person who wouldn’t kill out of spite—we expect to confirm she couldn’t have been near the scene when the incident occurred.”
