Chapter 49
HARLAN - HOLD THE LINE
I didn’t sleep, couldn't eat and didn't even think about going home.
I sat in my truck until dawn, trying to stay away from Erin and stay close enough to Remi.
I watched the precinct lights flicker on and off like warning signs, hoping, somehow, that I’d come to and yesterday wouldn’t exist.
But it did.
And she was still in custody.
Remi Carter. Arrested on my watch. Cuffed by my hands.
And now?
Now they were transferring her to county.
I walked into the holding area before shift change. Most of the precinct was still running on coffee and second-hand gossip. Reid gave me a nod from his desk but didn’t speak.
I found her in the back, sitting in one of the hard chairs with her wrists cuffed to a metal bar bolted into the wall.
Her hair was down, that too-tight elastic finally gone.
But... there was a bruise blooming on her chin, another on her arm.
One's that hadn't been there before, one's that shouldn't be there now.
She looked up when she heard the door.
And when our eyes met?
She didn’t say anything.
Didn’t need to.
Because that look, blank, furious, disappointed as hell... said everything.
You did this.
Your people.
Your precinct.
You.
I opened my mouth. Tried to speak. “Remi, I need to...”
“Don’t,” she said. Quiet. Tired.
“I didn’t know,” I said. “Not all of it. I swear. This wasn’t...”
The door opened behind me, and I knew who it would be before I smelled her cheap perfume.
Erin.
“Well,” she said, clapping her hands once like she was at a fucking pep rally, “looks like someone’s ready for her big sendoff. The press is here. It’ll be like your own little parade.”
I looked at Remi. She didn’t react. But her eyes flicked to me for one more second.
And then she looked away for good.
Reid appeared in the hallway, his jaw tight. “You might want to reroute the transfer. There’s… a crowd.”
“How big?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Big enough.”
Erin smirked. “Perfect. Let them see. That’s the point, isn’t it?”
I felt bile rise in my throat.
She wanted this spectacle.
She thought it made her look like the hero in this small town, but she had no idea what that actually looked like. The weight that the real heroes carried.
We walked the hallway in silence, Remi in front, flanked by two uniformed officers. Her cuffs were too tight. I could see the red marks on her wrists from here. The hallway felt longer than usual. Every step was echoed with judgment.
And I couldn’t shake the feeling that we weren’t walking her to a transport van, we were walking her to a stage.
She didn’t stumble. Didn’t falter. Chin high. Shoulders back. Every inch of her radiated that strength she carried when no one else had the guts to speak up.
But the front doors opened and she stepped out first, she stopped short.
Just froze.
No sound.
No words.
Erin didn’t notice why. Too busy straightening her collar and adjusting her lipstick.
She reached forward and shoved Remi roughly in the back.
“Let’s go, Carter.”
Remi went down hard, cuffed, off balance, no way to brace.
Her knees hit pavement with a crack. The sound sliced through the air like a warning.
And then?
All hell broke loose.
A crowd erupted that we didn't even know existed.
Screams. Gasps. Shouting.
People surged forward. Cameras flashed. Signs waved.
"Justice for Remi!"
"Hold the Line!"
"We See You!"
A woman screamed, “She’s bleeding!”
Someone else shouted, “Get your hands off her!”
And another, “You call that protecting women?!”
"Who will protect us from the police?"
Officers rushed out to hold the crowd back, but that just made it worse.
I stepped forward to help her up, Remi, on her knees, jaw clenched, breath shaking... but she yanked away from my reach.
Got herself upright.
Alone.
I heard someone sob.
And I realized it was Ava.
She was somewhere in the front, near the steps. Pale. Shaking. Holding back rage with every inch of restraint she had left.
The officers tried to form a perimeter, but it wasn’t working. The crowd didn’t want a perimeter. They wanted Remi free, and they were willing to draw blood for it.
Then Jack stepped up to the top of the stairs like he’d been waiting his whole life for this.
He raised his arms, and just like that, the noise dipped.
People listened.
Because Jack knew how to command a courtroom, and this was his fucking jury of peers.
“My name is Jack Callahan,” he said. “Former Assistant District Attorney for the county of Sable Valley. And I’m here today to speak not only as a legal representative, but as a witness to injustice.”
A murmur went through the crowd.
“Remi Carter has been targeted,” he said. “By a corrupt officer who abused her position and manipulated a system meant to protect us. These charges are fabricated. The warrant? Built on falsified evidence. And the raid? A power play meant to silence women who fight for the voiceless.”
Erin snapped, “You don’t work here anymore, Callahan! You have no jurisdiction...”
Jack turned to her with a slow, broad smile.
“I’m so glad you brought that up.” Then he turned to the press.
“I have full authorization from my supervising DA in the city. And from the DA of this county. Effective immediately, I will be serving as Remi Carter’s defence attorney, with the full support of the DA department for the state. ”
The crowd lost it.
Cheering. Applause. Roaring.
Erin looked like she might actually detonate.
And me?
I wanted to laugh.... I didn’t.
But it was close.
Ava hadn’t taken her eyes off Remi. She didn’t smile. Didn’t move. Just stood there, holding her breath like she was afraid this moment would vanish if she blinked.
I scanned the edge of the crowd.
And there, half in shadow, arms folded, expression unreadable, was Kane.
Watching.
Measuring.
Waiting for the next piece to fall.
The cops who backed Erin looked rattled, unsure for the first time in years.
And that's when I saw it. She wasn’t untouchable anymore.
Not with the crowd watching.
Not with the press rolling.
Not with Jack fucking Callihan throwing a legal and political nuke in the middle of her parade.
My officers were still struggling to form a perimeter.
I glanced at Remi.
She was still standing tall.
Still holding the line.
And I realized...
Whatever came next?
She wouldn’t be the one on trial.
We would. Maybe we already were.