Page 156 of Controlled Burn
Her face crumpled the second their eyes met.
Talia caught her in two steps—arms strong and steady. Kennedy collapsed into her chest, sobbing, trembling, burying her face in her shoulder.
“He called me your name,” she choked out.
Talia went still.
“He made me beg.”
The silence shattered.
Talia held her tighter. Rage flooding every vein. Her fingers curled protectively around Kennedy’s spine.
Jake Hastings had crossed every line.
This wasn’t about flirting or power anymore.
This was war.
Chapter 54
Acting Lieutenant
The station carried the weight of something unspoken.
Kennedy’s eyes were red when she walked the halls, her hands shoved deep in her hoodie pocket like armor she didn’t believe in.
Jake whistled in the kitchen like nothing had happened, bruised knuckles drumming the counter.
And Talia… Talia felt the silence sharpen into teeth.
It wasn’t guilt. It wasn’t grief.
It was pressure.
The kind that promised something was about to break.
Talia
She could hear the shift gathering in the conference room—boots dragging, chairs scraping, murmurs low and tense.
She stood just outside the doorway, her hand on the edge of the frame, eyes burning. The helmet she held didn’t feel like armor. It felt like a target.
Kennedy’s voice still echoed in her head.He made me beg.
And that video—her voice looped, distorted, turned into something obscene. They thought it would unravel her.
It nearly did.
But shame was flammable.
And she was done putting out other people’s fires.
***
The lieutenant’s helmet looked heavier than she expected.
Talia stood at the front of the room, the ancient conference table between her and a dozen faces that seemed to blur together in the fluorescent light. Her badge felt cold and unfamiliar on her hip. The laminated nameplate clipped to her chest was stiff and cheap, the black letters spelling outActing Lieutenant Crosslike a dare.
