46. Dash #2
Garrett turns his face enough to glare at her. “You think this proves you are strong?”
Callie releases my hand and straightens. “I think the camera proves you broke into the house, the filings prove what you did before that, and the police are about to find you pinned to the floor with expired paperwork in your coat.”
For the first time since I have known him, Garrett has no answer ready.
His face changes beneath the blood and swelling. The certainty that has carried him through every lie begins to crack as he looks from Callie to the broken door, then toward Idris speaking steadily to the dispatcher.
Sloane moves beside me again, but he does not touch Garrett. He keeps one arm around Callie’s waist and watches the man on the floor with a feral stillness that makes it clear how little distance remains between restraint and another blow.
Callie looks past us toward Theo.
He is still held against Idris near the far side of the nest. His face is pale, his eyes fixed on Garrett, and every attempt to speak ends in a broken movement of his throat.
Callie slips out of Sloane’s arm and crosses the room. Idris loosens his hold only when Theo reaches toward her, and she takes his face gently between her hands.
“I am here, Star,” she says, moving close enough to block his view of Garrett. “You don't have to talk.”
Theo’s mouth opens again, but nothing comes out. His whole body folds toward her instead, and Callie gathers him against her chest while Idris keeps an arm around both of them.
She kisses Theo’s hair and rubs his back without asking him to explain what happened. He clutches her sweater in both fists, breathing against her neck until the shaking begins to ease by small degrees.
Garrett turns beneath me when he sees them. “Theo, look at me. You know I have never hurt you.”
Theo’s body jerks at the sound of his voice. Idris turns his head and looks directly at Garrett with a coldness that quiets the room.
“You entered his nest by force,” Idris says, lowering the phone after the dispatcher confirms officers are less than two minutes away. “You used his fear to demand obedience while he could not speak. Do not address him again.”
Garrett tries anyway. “You can't keep him from me. There are legal processes—”
“There are,” Callie says, looking over Theo’s shoulder. “You falsified them.”
Sirens rise beyond the rear fence before Garrett can answer. The sound grows quickly, joined by tires on the drive and voices approaching the broken service entrance.
Two officers enter first with their weapons drawn. I keep one hand locked around Garrett’s wrist and lift the other where they can see it, explaining that he is pinned beneath me and that no weapon has been found.
They separate us without unnecessary force. One officer takes control of Garrett’s wrists and places him in cuffs while another checks the room, the shattered door, and the blood on Callie’s hand.
Garrett begins speaking the moment they lift him from the floor. He claims he entered under lawful authority, that Theo is endangered, and that Callie has manipulated a vulnerable Omega into violating an active order.
Callie keeps one arm around Theo while Idris holds them both. Her voice remains quiet when she addresses the officer nearest her.
“The order expired, and a full order was never entered. My attorney provided that confirmation after he tried to use the same papers on campus.”
The officer looks toward the documents scattered near Garrett’s coat. “Your attorney’s name?”
“Zana.” Callie gives him the number from memory, then points toward my phone on the hall floor. “The exterior cameras recorded him destroying the rear feed before he forced the door. The secondary camera uploads separately.”
I retrieve the phone when the officer allows it and open the saved clip. Garrett appears on-screen approaching from the trees, covering the first camera, and striking the service door until the frame gives way around the reinforced lock.
Kade calls before the officer finishes watching. I put him on speaker long enough for him to confirm the preserved feed and the digital evidence already submitted in the active investigation.
Garrett’s face changes again when Kade identifies the case number. The last of his confidence gives way to something harsher and less controlled.
“They belong to my pack,” Garrett says as the officer turns him toward the door. “This was handled internally before Calliope interfered.”
Theo makes a faint, broken sound against Callie’s shoulder. She tightens her hold on him and looks at Garrett without moving away from Idris.
“You don't speak for any of us.”
The officer guides Garrett through the damaged doorway while another begins photographing the room.
Sloane follows far enough to watch Garrett placed in the patrol car, but he stays inside when Callie reaches back and catches his hand.
Idris comes up behind him once the car door closes, wrapping one arm across Sloane’s chest and pulling him firmly against his body.
Sloane turns inside the hold and catches Idris' face in both blood-marked hands. Their kiss is rough at first, driven by the terror still shaking through the bonds, but Idris keeps one hand at Sloane’s nape until it slows.
Sloane folds into him when their mouths part, pressing his face into Idris' neck while Idris holds him and keeps his other arm extended toward Theo and Callie.
I leave them together long enough to find the first-aid kit beneath the bathroom sink. When I return, Idris' hand is still spread over Sloane’s back, and Sloane is steady enough to crouch beside Callie without looking as though he might follow the patrol car and tear Garrett out of it.
I kneel in front of her and take her injured hand. Her knuckles are swollen but intact. I clean the blood from them carefully while she watches Garrett’s patrol car through the damaged doorway.
Sloane presses his mouth to her temple as Theo remains tucked against her other side, silent but no longer shaking as hard, while Idris speaks with the officer taking statements.
Callie looks down when I wrap the gauze around her hand. Her eyes are red, and fear still lingers in the tightness of her face, but she stayed standing through every lie Garrett tried to carry into this house.
I lift her bandaged hand and kiss her fingers. She bends toward me, resting her forehead against mine while Sloane keeps one hand against her back and Theo holds the other.
Outside, the patrol car pulls away with Garrett inside it.