“Nothing unusual.” Maddox kept her gaze steady, her voice neutral. She’d practiced this on the drive over—clinical recitation, no emotional engagement, give nothing away.
Jade nodded slowly, like she’d expected exactly this response. “I wanted to follow up on the domestic call from two weeks ago. The one with the armed subject.”
Maddox’s jaw tightened reflexively, but she kept her expression blank. “What about it?”
“Walk me through it again. Not the tactical details again; I want to know what it felt like.”
What it felt like. As if feelings mattered when a drunk man was waving a rifle around and his terrified ex-girlfriend was crying on the sidewalk. As if Maddox’s internal state had any bearing on whether she’d done her job correctly.
“It felt like work,” Maddox said flatly. “The subject was volatile, and the situation required de-escalation. Zeus performed his function. It was a clean takedown with no injuries, and the weapon was secured. That’s all the relevant information.”
Jade’s pen moved across her notepad, and Maddox resisted the urge to lean forward and see what she was writing. Probably something clinical about resistance and avoidance. Fine. Let her write whatever she wanted.
“Zeus performed his function,” Jade repeated, looking up at her. “That’s an interesting way to describe it. He’s your partner, right? Not just a tool.”
Maddox felt the familiar prickle of defensiveness crawl up her spine. “He’s both. That’s what makes him effective.”
“How does Zeus read you during a call like that? When the pressure’s on?”
The question caught Maddox slightly off-guard. She’d expected Jade to keep pushing about feelings, not pivot to the tactical dynamics.
“He watches my body language. My breathing, posture, and hand signals. We’ve worked together long enough that half the time I don’t need to give him commands; he already knows what I need.”
“Five years together is a long time,” Jade said. “That’s a deep bond with a lot of trust built over hundreds of calls.”
Maddox nodded once, wary of where this was going.
“You told me last week he’s the best partner you’ve had.” Jade’s tone stayed even and conversational. “That implies you’ve had others before him.”
Yep, there it was. The trap springing shut.
Maddox’s hands pressed harder against her legs, her fingers blanching white at the knuckles. Zeus shifted at her feet, sensing the change in her tension, and she forced herself to breathe slowly through her nose.
“I was a K-9 handler in the Marines,” she said, keeping her voice carefully level. “Before Zeus.”
“What was your partner’s name?”
“Titan.” The name still tasted like bitter almonds in her mouth, and she hated that it still did after eight years. She hated that Jade had maneuvered her into saying it out loud.
Jade waited, her pen still and her expression insufferably patient. The silence stretched between them like a wire pulled taut, and Maddox counted her own heartbeats—three, four, five—before Jade spoke again.
“Do you want to talk about him?”
“No.”
“Okay.” Jade set her pen down, a small gesture that felt unsettlingly deliberate. “Let’s talk about K-9 handling in general, then. What makes a good partnership?”
Maddox exhaled slowly, grateful for the reprieve, even as she recognized it for what it was: a tactical retreat, not a surrender. Jade was backing off the direct approach, circling around to try another angle. Whatever. She could talk about the work without talking about Titan.
“Trust,” she said. “And communication. The dog has to know you’ll back them up, and you have to trust their instincts. They’re doing more than just following commands and reading the situation then making decisions. A good handler knows when to direct and when to let the dog work.”
“That sounds like a real partnership with mutual respect and reliance.”
“It’s the only kind of relationship that makes sense.” The words came out before Maddox could stop them, and she immediately regretted the admission. That waswaytoo much, way too revealing.
Jade tilted her head slightly. “Because it’s straightforward? Clear expectations with no ambiguity?”
“Because he does his job, and I do mine. It’s simple.”
