Page 174 of Controlled Burn
“No. I want you to know that I see you. For what you are.”
Brooks leaned back, voice low. “You think you’re in control now? You think this ends because HR walks in with a folder?”
“No,” she said, stepping closer. “It ends because you gave yourself away. You got sloppy. Obsessed.”
“You think they’ll believe you?” he spat. “You fucked half the station.”
She stared at him, cold as steel. “I used what I had, and you used cameras. Let’s see who they believe.”
Brooks stood, posture changing, shoulders squared, jaw twitching. He took a step toward her.
There was a flicker of movement—his hand grazing the corner of the desk, where a photo had been tucked just beneath a clipboard. Her face. Cropped from a group shot and marked with a faint X.
Her pulse didn’t spike. Not this time.
“Careful,” she said, her voice ice. “You touch me, I won’t call HR. I’ll call an ambulance. For you.”
“You’re bluffing.”
Talia didn’t blink. “Try me.”
There was a tense, vibrating pause.
Then McKenna opened the door. HR stood behind her, cold and unreadable.
Brooks flinched.
Talia didn’t.
“You’re done, Brooks.”
He didn’t resist. But his eyes never left hers.
***
She pulled out her phone, thumb hovering over the screen.
Dean.
It wasn’t about you saving me. It was about me learning to save myself.
She hesitated. Typed again.
But you were right. I am the fire.
Send.
She closed her eyes and let the heat lick up her spine.
Not to burn her.
To remind her what she was made of.
Whatever came next, she wouldn’t run. Not from the heat. Not from herself. And not from the burn she left behind.
Chapter 59
The Leak
