Page 14

I snap my eyes to Kane again and he’s leaning back in his swivel chair, dark eyebrow arched.

“What’s on your mind? You’ve been off since we closed the Whitfield case last week.”

“It’s nothing,” I say too quickly, and he looks at me like I’m an idiot.

“You’re going to have to try harder than that.”

I want to tell him the truth. I need to tell someone before I go insane trying to figure out if I’m making the right decision, or I’m ruining my life. Although, I think I already know the answer to that.

“Do you have a second?” I look past him, my eyes falling on Chief Anders walking down the hallway with two uniformed officers. “Outside?”

Kane frowns, but he stands without question, leading the way out of the open area of the office and to the elevators in silence. We make our way to a balcony that looks out at Demont River a few yards away. Today, the water is grey and stormy, moving at a breakneck pace as it rushes to the ocean that’s visible on the horizon.

The OCU is strategically positioned near the bridge that divides the city. The Scarlet Ravens to the south and The Snake in the north.

The clans are mostly symbolic now and operate underground, but before the peace agreement brokered by Elias Moreau andZaina Vasilyev, Senna was pretty much lawless. Now, their lawbreaking is more covert and as hard as the police try to stop them, there are too many factions between us, too many of us pursuing our own goals that align with the clans. We can’t stop the clans because the people that are in charge don’t really want to.

A cold wind blows past us as Kane pulls out a box of cigarettes and pops one into his mouth. Tanya doesn’t like him smoking, and she always asks me to watch him, so I arch an eyebrow as he lights it up.

“I have a feeling I might need it,” he says, voice muffled. He holds out the red and white box. “You want one?”

I look at it, licking my lips. I haven’t had a cigarette since I was twenty and I’ve been craving one for days now, but I still shake my head.

“Better man than me. What’s up? You look like you haven’t had a wink of sleep in days.”

I turn away from him, looking at the river. “What if I told you I’m mixed up in something that could get really bad, really fast?”

Kane frowns. “Bad? Are you in trouble?”

“I don’t know,” I say honestly.

“Look, if you need money, I can help. I know how these things go. I can—”

I shake my head, holding out my hand. “No, it’s nothing like that,” I say quickly. “It’s about Halle’s case.”

I watch his face fall. “Did the lawyer come back with anything?”

I shake my head. When Halle was arrested, Kane was the first person I called. We went to the station together, and he managed to speak to one of his contacts there to make sure they treated Halle well. I could barely speak that night.

“No, nothing. Nothing from the police, either.”

“Sometimes no news is good news. Halle is a fighter. She’ll get through this,” he says, voice gentle.

I try for a smile, looking at his thick brown hair that has begun to grey and close shaved beard. It’s clear that he’s been hardened by life, but he still has kind eyes. “I know. Thanks.”

He blows out a thick stream of smoke. “So, what’s this really about? Why do you look like you’re going to be sick?”

The sounds of a busy city float around us, car horns, doors closing and voices clamouring. I let out a deep breath, warm air escaping me. “Two weeks ago, I got an anonymous email saying any evidence against her will go away if I find out who is running a new drug on the streets.”

His eyes flash with something like confusion. “New drug?”

I nod. “Yeah. Goes by the name Haze.”

A deep frown settles on his face. “Why would they want you to look into it? What’s the catch?”

“Not sure. Just that I need to give them a name.”

Kane takes another quick drag of his cigarette. The smell makes my stomach turn on itself. “How do you know this isn’t some kind of set-up?”