Page 35 of Shadow Sabotage
I stormedout to the parking lot, planning on driving all over town until I saw Claire’s truck. But she pulled into the parking lot before I made it to my SUV.
I walked straight to her door and yanked it open.
“Where. Have. You. Been?”
She glared at me. “Itoldyou. Following up on some leads.”
I shook my head. “This ismycase. You don’t do anything without my approval.”
Her eyes went wide with innocence. “Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I’m new to this, you know. I was just trying to be helpful. I really want to earn a gold star on my report card.”
I braced my hands on my hips. “Cut the crap.”
She jabbed her finger toward me. “Then you cut it, too. This isn’tyourcase—it’sours.You may be in charge, but this ismycounty.Mypeople. And I’m not just going to sit at a desk, waiting for assignments from you. Especially when you haven’t even bothered to show up for two days!”
“That’sexactlywhat you’re going to do,” I said, raising my voice to match hers. “You have no idea how to conduct an investigation. For all I know, you may have blown this whole case today!”
She rolled her eyes. “I did not. When you’re ready to pull that giant stick out of your ass, we can sit down and talk about what I found out, compare notes. Otherwise, I have work to do.” She pushed me out of the way and hopped out of the truck, slamming the door closed.
“No, you don’t,” I said, furious at her attitude. “You’ll be lucky if you even have a badge after today.”
Her head jerked back like she’d been stabbed. Her mouth dropped open, but for once, no sounds came out of it.
“If you want any chance of retaining your job, you’re going to do things my way from now on,” I said, realizing I’d finally gained the upper hand. “We’ll start by you explaining exactlywhat you did this morning so that I know what damage control I have to do to fix it. My office.”
“I need to—”
“My. Office.” I lowered my voice, speaking with deadly calm. “Now.”
She glared at me, crossing her arms. “Yes, sir.” She spit out the words, but the look in her eyes was pure hurt.
And I hated it.
I pushed down my desire to smooth things over and led the way to my office. When we crossed through the bullpen, Collins snickered.
“You screwed up this time, Little Miss Wildwood,” he whispered as she walked by, just loudly enough for me to hear.
I looked back and saw her shoulders sag. It pierced something in me.
Claire Hawkins was wild, free, and gloriously unrestrained.
Except here.
Here, she was miserable. And who could blame her? The colleague she needed to be able to trust with her life was constantly backstabbing her, trying to get ahead. He probably made it abundantly clear every single day that he had no respect for her, that he didn’t care if the citizens she risked her life to serve did either.
That would make any job hell.
Guilt stabbed hard. I wasn’t much better than Collins, thinking I’d keep her busy with paperwork even when it was clear that sitting at a desk waspainfulfor her.
I couldn’t have her screwing up the investigation. No distractions, I reminded myself.
But I also couldn’t stand to see her looking like that.
I opened the door to my office, gesturing for her to enter first. When she sat, looking so damn defeated, I closed the door and took the seat across from her.
“I’m sorry,” she began, folding her hands together. “I really was just trying to help. I–I hate feeling useless.” She looked down.
I stared at her. Reminded myself that her feelings weren’t my problem.
