Chapter 61
HARLAN - WORTH THE COST
I didn’t look back as I walked out of the precinct.
Not at the empty desks. Not at the officers still standing there trying to decide whether to pick up their badges or set them down. Not at the place that had once felt like the center of my world.
It's a strange kind of reckoning when you think you are doing what is right, following the law, the rules... when those things and the people who are supposed to enforce them fail... It holds a mirror up, and you have a choice to stare down your reflection and decide if you like what you see.
The badge in my hand felt heavier than it should have, like it knew what it meant to hand it over. Like it carried the weight of every line I’d walked, every call I’d answered, every compromise I’d made to keep order in a system that hadn’t earned it.
The admin was already sitting behind my office door, waiting for Internal Affairs to finish their interviews. He didn’t stop me. Didn’t say a word. Just looked at me like I was a question he didn't know how to answer.
Maybe I was. Or maybe they all needed to wake up.
I got in my truck and started driving to my place, then to pick up supplies, and finally headed north, toward the cabin and Ava.
The silence hit me first, no comms, no static, no voices bleeding through the radio. Just the hum of tires on pavement and the creak of the old leather wheel under my grip.
I’d done what I needed to do. Erin Voss had made her play, and I’d made mine.
Still, it didn’t feel like victory.
It felt like it wasn't over.
My phone rang an hour into the drive. I didn’t even have to check the caller ID.
“Kane,” I answered.
“You are out of your goddamn mind,” he snapped.
“Good to hear your voice, too, Sunshine.”
“I go dark for two days,” he said, voice rising, “and Thelma joins a biker gang while Louise forces a precinct walkout?”
I exhaled through my nose. “Didn’t realize you had names picked out.”
“Oh, I got plenty of names, Harlan,” he said. “Most of them four letters. What the hell happened?”
“What needed to,” I said. “Erin had the whole place fucked up from the inside. IA was slow walking the process. The media wouldn’t have cared unless there was blood on the pavement. And I was done letting Remi bleed. Someone had to light a fire.”
“Yeah? Well, congratulations, you poured gasoline on the whole damn system.”
“You told me to hold it together,” I said. “And I tried. But Erin got bolder. She pulled Remi into an interrogation without clearance. She walked into my precinct like she owned the place.”
“She does own the place. You think stepping down fixes that?”
“No,” I said. “But it exposes it. IA didn’t care when I sent reports of my findings. But half the department walking out with Erin? That they’ll care about. And when the dust settles, I’ll be in a position to rebuild. From the outside, if I have to.”
There was silence on the other end. Then, quieter, “You think you’re coming back from this, Harlan?”
“I think if we survive this, someone has to lead what’s left. And I’d rather it be someone who still gives a damn. I would rather tear everything down and rebuild it with people I trust to do the right thing.”
He grunted. “What about Remi?”
“She’s lying low. With people we trust.”
“You trust a biker named Clutch?”
“I trust her,” I said. “And I trust the people watching her because of what she has done for them. You taught me not to ignore a gut feeling. Mine says she’s safer with them right now than she would be anywhere else.”
Another pause. Then: “Ava’s with you?”
“She’s at the cabin. Jack and Gray, too.”
“And you?”
“I’m on my way.”
“You better be,” Kane muttered. “We’re too close to the end to let personal shit burn you any further.”
“I'll take the burns if it means keeping them safe and fixing what is broken.”
“Keep your head up,” he said. “... and your gun ready.”
I tightened my grip on the wheel. “I’m done playing defence, Kane.”
“Careful, Harlan. If you go full vigilante, I’ll have to put you on a watchlist.”
I chuckled. “You already have me on one.”
“Damn right I do.”
The line went quiet again. This time, when Kane spoke, it was calmer. “We’re not done,” he said. “And Erin Voss hasn’t played her last card. Be ready.”
“I am.”
“Good. Then get to the cabin. Watch your six.... Oh... and tell Ava I say hi.”
With that, he hung up.
I drove the rest of the way in silence, my thoughts a mess of memories, regrets, and unfinished business. But under all of it was a quiet promise:
We were going to finish this.
And I was going to make damn sure the place we built afterward was worth the cost.