Page 54 of Follow Your Instincts

“But you didn’t see the assault take place?” Broad asked.

I kept my rage contained for Maggie’s sake. My testimony was important to nail Phillips. “No, but as I said, I saw evidence of the assault on Officer Carter’s throat. Phillips was feral. He called her a bitch as I walked him out of the room and said ‘I’m not finished with you.’ It was clear an assault had occurred, and Phillips was the perpetrator.”

Broad hummed. “You are making quite a few assumptions for not witnessing an actual altercation. You said Phillips was on the floor? He was also injured, if the arrest report is accurate,” he said, producing the document. “You wrote here that Officer Phillips had sustained an injury to the head, a superficial wound that had ‘stopped bleeding by the time of booking.’”

“Yes, that’s accurate,” I said, seething. “But -”

“Thank you, Detective. And you said Officer Phillips was ‘feral.’ How often have you encountered feral Alphas to makethat judgment based on only a few seconds before Tasering the officer?”

“I’ve encountered several and taken the mandatory training in de-escalating situations with feral individuals, both Alpha and Omega. I’m confident in my assessment of the situation.”

Broad hummed again, then gave me a nasty smile. “And is it true that you are officially courting the Omega in question, Maggie Carter?”

Fuck. Well, I knew it would come out eventually, but I didn’t know they’d use this against her case.

“Yes, my pack is courting her,” I said, my tone clipped.

“Can you see why that might be seen as a conflict of interest? How can you be unbiased when you are… intimately connected with one of the parties?”

“When Officer Carter was attacked, we were only colleagues. We did not start courting until a week after, and that was a coincidence,” I said, clenching my teeth.

“I see. Thank you for your account, Detective,” Broad said and switched off the recording.

“We done?” I said, standing up.

“Yes, thank youso muchfor your time,” Broad said with an oily smile. “It was a pleasure speaking with you.”

I grunted and made a beeline right to Harcourt’s office. If Broad knew about Maggie, Harcourt probably did, too.

She beckoned me in, looking grim. “Over a month you’ve been courting Officer Carter, and you didn’t think it might be worth mentioning to me? I had to find out from that idiot,” she said, nodding to the retreating back of Sergeant Broad.

“Sorry, Captain. It was just a coincidence,” I said.

Harcourt grimaced. “It doesn’t look good. The only witnesses are you, her, Phillips, and me. Of course, I believe that Phillips assaulted Maggie, but I didn’t see what happened. If this becomes a ‘he said, she said’ case, then your testimony coming into question based on a conflict of interest is not going to help.”

I sighed. The politics of the job always annoyed me. “Is he going to interview Maggie?”

“Of course. You’d better warn her.”

Chapter 21

Maggie

Sergeant Broad arrived about an hour after Soren’s call warning me he was coming.

“Fucking worm,” Soren had said. “He’s looking for any reason to discredit you. Captain says IA does this all the time; tries to minimize incidents between officers to keep their misconduct numbers low.”

“Great,” I said flatly.

“Tell the truth, and don’t let him rile you up,” Soren said.

I was happy for the warning, but I was already riled up before he arrived and itching for a fight.

Steffi showed him into the meeting room off the lobby where I was waiting. Dread and anger pooled in my stomach. The last thing I wanted to do was talk about Phillips attacking me, let alone to someone who didn’t believe me.

“Miss Carter,” he said, shaking my hand. “How wonderful to meet you.” He was tall and handsome, but too polished for me to find him attractive. His leather and musk scent was also overpowering in the extreme.

“You too,” I said politely.

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