Page 176 of Controlled Burn
What stopped him cold was the group chat—the one labeledStation 12: Rats and Rogues.Usually just memes and trash talk.
Now, the newest message was a single link.
Dean clicked.
The video started instantly. Grainy, but unmistakable.
Him.
Talia.
His voice. His hands.
He almost hurled the phone into the bay wall. Instead, he clenched it in both fists, pressed it to his forehead, breath ragged.
His badge was still clipped to his belt.
He yanked it off and dropped it into the engine sink like it was burning him alive.
McKenna
She was off-duty, chewing the same stick of gum for the third hour straight in the precinct lot, when her email pinged.
Subject:Internal Affairs Leak?
Attachment: anonymous footage.
She opened it. Frame by frame. Each angle worse than the last.
She’d seen fear. Bravado. Grief.
But this? This was surgical humiliation, stripped raw and uploaded for clicks.
She dialed the Chief.
“I know who did it,” she said flatly. “It’s Brooks. We need to move now.”
Kennedy
The med bay was quiet. She was restocking Narcan when she heard voices outside.
Two firefighters near the lockers, whispering.
“…she was practically begging for it…”
“…Maddox is done. So is that rookie…”
She stepped out. “Excuse me?”
They turned like they’d seen a ghost.
Kennedy’s phone buzzed. She fished it out.
The thumbnail preview alone made her stomach flip.
She clicked.
Talia. Bent over the engine. Maddox behind her. Flashlight tinting everything red.
