“Sure.”
She pulled into the parking lot of a boarded-up gas station and turned off the engine while she waited. Zeus sat in the back, knowing the routine. Riley meant Sarge, and Sarge meant the possibility of play time later if they ended up at the station.
Riley's patrol car swung in beside her, and Maddox rolled down her window.
"Quiet afternoon," Riley said, leaning one arm on her doorframe. She looked relaxed, her ponytail catching the light. "Almost too quiet."
“Don’t say that. You’ll jinx it.”
"Please. We're cops, not doctors." Riley grinned. "How's therapy going with Carla? Different than Jade?"
The question was casual, but Maddox caught the slight emphasis on Jade's name. She kept her expression neutral. "Different. Good, though. Carla doesn't take any shit."
"Jade didn't either."
"No," Maddox agreed. "She didn't."
Riley's grin widened. "You two seem comfortable now. At the wellness meeting last week, I noticed you actually sat near her instead of across the room."
Maddox felt heat crawl up the back of her neck. "We're colleagues. It's fine."
"Uh-huh." Riley drummed her fingers on the door. "Just saying, it's nice to see you less…”
“Less what?”
"Isolated." Riley shrugged, not apologizing for the observation. "You've been easier to be around lately. Less like you're waiting for an ambush."
Before Maddox could figure out how to respond to that, the radio crackled again—dispatch, different tone. She straightened.
"All units, domestic disturbance at 193 Cottonwood Drive. Caller reports a barricaded subject with possible weapons in home. Requesting backup and K-9."
Maddox's hand was already on the gearshift. "Unit 12, responding."
Riley stepped back from her car. "I'll follow. Be careful."
Maddox was already moving, lights flashing as she pulled onto the street. Behind her, Zeus shifted his weight, his body tense with the change in energy. He knew the shift from routine patrol to crisis in seconds.
Cottonwood was a ten-minute drive through residential streets where kids played in yards and retirees walked dogs. It was normal and safe…until someone locked themselves in a room with weapons and parents were outside trying to talk them down.
She keyed the radio. "Unit 12. ETA five minutes. Subject details?"
"Teen male, sixteen. Parents report a history of anxiety and depression. There was a confrontation at school today, and hecame home on edge. He’s locked in the upstairs bedroom and won't respond to his parents."
Maddox's lips pressed together in a thin line. Not a hardened criminal, just a scared kid who'd hit his limit.
"Copy. Are weapons confirmed?"
"Father states the hunting rifles are secured in the master bedroom closet, but the subject knows the safe code. No shots fired or direct threats, but the father is concerned."
“Copy.”
She took the turn onto Cottonwood, the neat houses with trimmed lawns and basketball hoops giving way to flashing lights ahead. There were two patrol cars already on scene, officers positioned at the front of a two-story colonial. The teen’s parents were standing on the lawn, the mother crying into her hands while the father tried to explain something to a uniformed officer.
Maddox parked and killed the engine. Zeus was already on his feet, waiting. "Just like always," she told him, opening his compartment. "Assess, de-escalate, keep everyone safe."
He jumped down beside her, focused and ready. They moved toward the scene together, and Maddox felt the familiar calm settle over her, the one that came when the job was clear and Zeus was at her side.
Captain Julia Scott waved her over. "Shaw, good timing. The kid's been up there twenty minutes. Won't talk to parents, won't come out. The father's worried he'll do something stupid."
