Chapter 12
HARLAN - JUST A GIRL
Some people walk into a room like they own it.
Remi Carter walks in like she’s not afraid of who does.
I saw her before I heard her.
The courthouse lobby buzzed with the usual noise, irritated attorneys, humming vending machines, and the scuff of cheap dress shoes on tile, but Remi cut through it like a siren. Not loud. Not aggressive. Just… direct. Lethal in her clarity.
One of her patients had been picked up again. I didn’t know the whole story yet, just that the arrest came during a noise complaint, and Erin was the senior on scene.
Of course she was. The thought slipped out of me, and I didn't have time to think about it.
The sliding doors barely had time to close behind Remi before she found Erin at the intake desk. No hesitation. No fear.
“She’s seventeen, Sergeant. Seventeen. Do you even stop to ask what the hell happened before you threw her in a cruiser?”
Erin didn’t flinch. She turned slowly, looked Remi up and down like she was a nuisance at best, a gnat at worst.
The two stood toe to toe. Mirrored opposites in every way.
“She resisted,” Erin said flatly. “And she was screaming threats. We had every reason to detain her.”
“She was screaming because one of her mother’s boyfriends broke her collarbone last year, and no one believed her. Now she panics when men raise their voices. You knew that.”
Erin shrugged. “I can't keep track of all your pet projects, Carter... and she got physical.”
“She was triggered.” Remi stepped closer, her voice lowering, sharpening. “You know what that means, right? You remember all those sensitivity trainings you whole department is supposed to show up for?”
I moved fast, intercepting before Erin snapped or Remi said something that would get her arrested... again.
“Carter.”
She turned to me, eyes wild. Not a single flicker of fear. Just righteous fury, tempered only by exhaustion.
“Chief,” she said with clipped civility. “Your officers arrested a teenager with a known trauma history for panicking. They bruised her wrist and called her hysterical. Want to explain how that’s protecting and serving?”
“Let’s step over here,” I said, gesturing away from the front desk.
Remi didn’t move at first. Then she exhaled and followed.
Once we were a few feet away, I dropped my voice.
“I’m going to look into the body cam footage.”
“You shouldn’t have to,” she said, crossing her arms. “If your officers knew how to de-escalate instead of detonate, none of this would’ve happened.”
“That’s not all of them.”
“No,” she said. “But it keeps being the same ones, doesn’t it?”
She looked toward Erin without subtlety.
“She targets our patients,” Remi said. “She undermines Ava. She ignores context every damn time it’s inconvenient. And you keep pretending you don’t see it.”
“I’m not pretending.”
Remi raised an eyebrow.
“I’m... trying to fix it without blowing everything up.”
“That’s the problem,” she said quietly. “You’re still more afraid of blowing up your department than you are of letting another girl slip through the cracks.”
That landed harder than I expected.
Because I’d been thinking the same damn thing for weeks now, I just hadn’t said it out loud.
Remi stepped back, the anger in her face cooling into something heavier.
“She is only seventeen,” she repeated. “Just a girl with a horrible family, a girl who has to fight through every single day, chief.”
I didn’t know the story. But I knew the type.
We stood there staring at each other for a moment.
I shifted on my feet, which Remi caught. What was it about these girls that made me feel like being me wasn't enough?
I cleared my throat and asked, "Uh... Did you and Ava do anything fun for New Year's?"
She raised an eyebrow in question, shook her head.
"I had so much fun at the bedside of one of my patients in the ER, on New Year's Eve, Chief.
We didn't count down or kiss or anything.
.. but I did hold her hand while they reset her shoulder and gave her enough money so she could take a bus to her family up North. "
I stared at her, unsure of what to say next.
Remi turned before I could ask more... say more. And that was the thing when Remi spoke, I wanted to listen. But I had no idea how to respond.
She walked toward the elevators, her head high, her sundress swaying as if she wore her joy on the outside for everyone else. A leather jacket and sweater layered over top.
I stood there, still hearing her voice, still processing her words.
She was right. She’d been right since the first time she looked me in the eye and told me the law wasn’t always justice. That rules were only as good as the people enforcing them.
And I didn’t like how often I realized she wasn’t just insightful; she was usually two steps ahead.
I pulled out my phone to check in on the intake when a voice behind me said, “Chief? You got a second?”
It was Officer Reid. Still too clean-shaven and baby-faced to be taken seriously by half the department. But sharp, smart.
“Disturbance call just came in,” he said. “One of the truck stops off Old Ridge. They’re saying it’s a full-on brawl between two MCs.”
I groaned. “Which ones?”
Reid hesitated, then pulled out his notepad.
“Devil’s Ride... and uh... Iron Serpents, Sir.”
I blinked. Looked at him again.
Fuck could this day get any worse.
“Did they say who was involved?”
Reid raised an eyebrow. “Yeah. The caller said Spike and Hammer might kill each other this time... do you know what that means? Sounds like code names.”
“No,” I muttered. “Sounds like a headache.”
I stuffed the file back under my arm.
Remi’s voice still echoed in my head as I headed for the door.
"... in my experience, Chief, more often than not, things aren't always as they seem and not every situation calls for the same interpretation or misinterpretation of the rules."
I wondered what kind of rules were required to deal with two hot heads with fists like canons who were too much alike for their own good.