"I appreciate the heads-up." Erin stood, her legs unsteady. She set her professional armor back in place, even as everything inside her was crumbling. "Is there anything else?"
"Just..." Hallie hesitated. "Be careful, Erin. Personal relationships in small departments can get complicated quickly. Make sure you're protecting yourself."
Erin nodded once sharply and walked out of the office with her spine straight and her hands shaking.
She made it to her truck before the full impact hit. Sitting in the driver's seat, staring at the fire station throughthe windshield, Erin finally let herself process what had just happened.
Lena had gone to her superior. Behind her back. After their fight on Friday, after Erin had explicitly told her to back off and let her do her job, Lena had called Hallie to express concerns about Erin's competence.
Not because of incompetence. Not because of poor judgment or reckless behavior. Because Lena was scared, and instead of trusting Erin to know her own job, she'd decided to protect her from it.
Overprotectiveness was hard enough to handle, but this was straight-up career sabotage. With one phone call, Lena had managed to not just undermine her but confirmed everything that Erin had feared from the beginning: that no one would ever see her as anything more than the young fire marshal who needed supervision.
Erin's hands trembled as she started the truck. The engine turned over with a roar that matched the fury building in her chest. She pulled out her phone and found Lena's contact, her thumb hovering over the call button.
No. This needed to be face to face.
Lena's house was fifteen minutes away. She had fifteen minutes to decide what she was going to say, how she was going to handle this, and whether this was the end of everything they'd been building.
But as she pulled out of the fire station parking lot, Erin already knew. This conversation couldn't wait. This betrayal couldn't fester inside of her.
Some fights were worth having. Some things were worth fighting for, and some things were worth fighting about.
And if Lena Soto thought she could undermine Erin's career while claiming to care about her, she was about to learn exactly how wrong she was.
She drove to Lena’s house on autopilot and let herself get lost in her thoughts. Residential streets lined with oak trees, neighbors walking dogs, the peaceful rhythm of a day off—all of it a stark contrast to the storm building in Erin's chest.
She parked in Lena's driveway behind the detective's car and sat for a moment, engine ticking as it cooled. Once she knocked on that door, there would be no taking any of this back. No pretending she didn't know about the conversation with Hallie, no protecting what they'd built from the truth of what Lena had done.
But there was no going back anyway. The damage was already done.
Erin got out of the truck and walked to the front door, her knock sharp and demanding in the Sunday morning quiet.
The door opened before Erin's knock finished echoing. Lena stood there in weekend clothes—soft leggings and a gray sweater that made her look approachable, almost vulnerable. For a split second, surprise flickered across her face, followed quickly by something that looked like resignation.
She knew why Erin was here.
"You went to Captain Hallie." The words came out flat, deadly calm. No greeting, no pretense. Erin stepped past Lena into the house without waiting for an invitation to enter.
Lena closed the door slowly behind her, the soft click somehow ominous in the sudden quiet. When she turned around, her detective mask was already sliding into place, that careful, neutral expression Erin had seen her use with suspects and witnesses. "Erin, let me explain?—"
"Friday afternoon." Erin's voice cut through whatever excuse Lena was forming. "After our fight, after I told you to back off and let me do my job, you called my boss."
The living room felt different than it had a week ago when they'd sat on the couch sharing takeout, when the biggestcomplication in their relationship had been whether to file disclosure forms. Now every piece of furniture felt like a barrier, every familiar detail a reminder of what Lena had already destroyed.
"I was concerned about your safety," Lena said, but the words came out rehearsed, like she'd been practicing this explanation. "The chemical fire was different, more dangerous than anything we've seen?—"
"My safety." Erin's laugh was sharp enough to cut glass. "Is that what you're going with?"
She could see Lena's jaw tighten, a tell she'd learned to read over weeks of working together and watching this woman's face across crime scenes and conference rooms and her own kitchen table. Frustration, maybe guilt, definitely defensiveness.
"The accelerants at Rainbow Alliance were more sophisticated than anything we've encountered at the other fires," Lena continued, and Erin could hear her slipping into detective mode, presenting facts like evidence. "The structural damage, the toxic exposure levels?—"
"I know what I saw at that scene." The fury was building now, fed by every careful, professional phrase that Lena had clearly intended to disarm her with. "I know what I'm trained to handle. What I apparently don't know is how to make you trust that I can do my damn job."
"This isn't about trust?—"
"This isexactlyabout trust!" Erin's voice rose, echoing off the walls she'd told Lena that she’d help her paint once the case was closed. "I told you Friday that I needed you to let me do my job without hovering. And your response was to go to my superior and tell her I'm taking unnecessary risks."
