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“Of course it is,” she sighs. “I think you gentlemen have taken enough of my time today, I’ll be on my way now.” She turns that ice-cold gaze on me, giving me nothing. “Detective.”
She walks away with the air of superiority that usually surrounds her followed by the lawyer who struggles to keep up with her long strides. When she’s far enough away, I turn to Marks with fire in my eyes. “Why the hell was she here?”
He shrugs, completely unaware or uncaring of my anger. “We had evidence linking her to an arson attack on George Street.”
My head jerks back. “What evidence?”
“Evidence, Campos. Don’t worry about it. You’re back on the force, Annika Wolfe is no longer your concern.”
I’m running before he’s finished his sentence, bolting through the door to the stairwell and practically jumping a flight at a time to get to the street before Annika disappears. I catch her walking out toward the parking lot.
“Annika!” I call as I barge through the doors, she doesn’t respond. “Annika!”
She won’t even turn to look at me, her back retreating further away, but I run to catch up with her. As I near her, I reach out and grab her wrist. I realise my mistake far too late. Her whole body swings, following her fist which connects with my nose with a sickening crunch and an explosion of pain in the centre of my face. I can feel the skin split across the bridge of my nose when the giant ring on her finger crashes into it.
I release her wrist immediately, both my hands going to cover my face and I bend double, wailing in pain. There’s a string of exacerbated profanities that I assume has come from the lawyer since his client just sucker-punched a detective. Footsteps scurry up to us and I can hear shouting from a group of unis coming to my rescue, but I hold my hands out to them.
“It’s okay, it’s okay guys,” I say, my voice nasally, blood dripping into my mouth from my nostrils. “We’re good here.” I try to straighten but my head feels like it might roll off my neck, so I keep my hands braced on my knees.
“You sure, Detective?” one of them says, I can’t see who but I do recognise his voice.
“Yeah, stand down, Gibson. It’s my fault, there was a misunderstanding.”
They walk away hesitantly and I chance a look up to Annika to find Stuart stood just over her shoulder. He’s staring at me in utter confusion until I manage to stand semi straight and his gaze dips to that fucking badge. He isn’t as adept as Annika athiding his feelings, the journey from confusion to blind rage via hurt is clearly shown in every feature of his face.
“Motherfucker,” he spits.
“Annika, please,” I beg, keeping my eyes on hers. “Please just listen to me.”
“You have nothing to say that’s of any interest to me,DetectiveCampos. Have a good evening.” With that, she turns on her heel and walks away, Stuart following close behind her with his fists clenched at his sides. Before they disappear behind the rows of cars, he throws a death stare over his shoulder at me, one that promises I haven’t seen the last of him. I would not be surprised to wake up in the middle of the night to Stuart looming over me with black leather gloves on, ready to squeeze the life out of me.
“I uh,” the lawyer stutters, unsure what to say. “We, um…”
“Just go,” I tell him, and he scuttles off as fast as his legs will take him.
I make my way back to the entrance and drop my butt to one of the damp concrete steps, digging the heel of my hands into my eyes until it hurts. Everything hurts right now, my face is fucked, that woman has a right hook Anthony Joshua would be proud of. My chest feels like it’s caught in a vice, the air too thick to reach my lungs and my heart is trying to pump with no room to expand. I lift the hem of my t-shirt to wipe at the blood on my face, wincing with the sting of it.
Unclipping my badge, I stare at the embossed silver, the weight of it too much for my hand and my heart right now. This is what I’ve been working for, this is all I wanted. But now that I have it, I feel sick. I’m torn by the loyalty I’ve felt to this badge since before it was even handed to me the first time, and the overwhelming sense of belonging I have with the Talons and mostly their fearless leader. The thought of going back to a lifein which Annika is nothing to me but a name on a report is abhorrent. I don’t know what to do.
43
ANNIKA
Isit stock-still on the car journey back home. Stuart drives in silence but I can feel the warring emotions inside of him from here. He’s going to apologise, and I need him not to. While Harvey—Detective Campos—was showering this morning, I received a phone call from the station asking me to come in to answer some questions. I didn’t bother the detective about it because I didn’t want him to get uncomfortable dealing with the police. Foolish woman.
I had my lawyer come along, though I needn’t have bothered. It was a pointless exercise where they didn’t have anywhere near enough evidence to suspect me. They barely had anything; I don’t even know how they justified pulling me in. Well, I do now, obviously. He’s been working with them this whole time, feeding them information about anything they could use against me. Javier Campos isn’t the disgraced ex-cop turned reformed Talon that he had led me to believe. He’s nothing more than a rat.
“Anni, I—”
“Don’t.” I interrupt Stuart before he can say anything because if I hear pitying words or needless apologies, I will lose control of the anger that’s screaming to get out.
“It’s my fault,” he mumbles regrettably.
I close my eyes and exhale slowly through my nose, trying desperately not to break, not here, not now. Stuart doesn’t seem to register my thin patience and continues.
“I told you to hire him. I thought…I thought, I don’t know. I’m so sorry, Anni.”
“Enough,” I snap. Rolling my neck and my shoulders to try and relieve the ache forming in my head, then take a deep breath to compose myself. “You’ll need to make sure that all of his access is revoked and find out from anyone he has interacted with what they might have told him.” I sigh, hating this. “And tell Lance Preston, he’ll need to know, too, as he actually did set the fire at George Street.”
