Everything Anton is saying is true.
“Freya…” He brushes the back of his fingers along my cheek. “There’s something else.”
I furrow my eyebrows. God, how can there be more?
“Rio will listen to you,” he says. “He said if you walk into the offices today and tell them to wait for the subpoenas, they’ll stop.”
Something snatches my heart and squeezes it in my chest.
Responsibility. Weight. Power I don’t take lightly.
He sighs roughly. “That’s what kept me up all night.”
The world stops between us.
“Because I’m asking you not to do that.”
What?
Anton’s blue gaze is raw.
He drags a hand down his face. “I know this is a big ask. I know who your mom is. I know whoyouare. I know what it means to teeter on the edge like this…what it could cost you.”
He swallows thickly.
“Rio needs this,” he says quietly, his thumb brushing my jaw. “And I need it resolved. For you. For our baby. Time doesn’t give us anything back once it’s gone.”
Anton has never asked me for anything.
He’s carried everything on those broad, unbreakable shoulders—the fear, the pressure, the protection he gives so instinctively; it’s in his marrow.
He’s been my pillar, my shield, my storm wall…but he’s never asked me to be his.
Until now.
And the weight of that trust hits harder than anything else.
I think of the oath I took. I think of the badge in my top drawer. I think of my mother—the woman who breathes justice and holds the world accountable, the woman who raised me to believe the law is the spine of everything good.
And yes…what Rio’s doing is illegal. There’s no polite language to wrap around that truth.
But then I think of my mom as a person, not the prosecutor, not the voice of the law, but the woman who stayed up with me through every fever, fought teachers who underestimated me, refused to let anyone imply I was fragile or less.
Faith Johnson would bend the world for the people she loves. She would bulldoze mountains if that’s what it took to protect them.
And I would, too.
Anton’s big, warm hand is still wrapped around mine, and I guide it over my bump, over the tiny life we promised to protect.
Then I gaze into those ocean eyes, at the man who didn’t sleep last night because he was tortured by asking me for something.
This is my moment to give back.
It’s not simple—it’s layered, messy, terrifying in the way only truth can be. I could lose the job I worked damn hard to earn.
For so many years, I thought that if I just found the right uniform to wear, I’d finally be successful. If I only achieved a standard the outside world understands, I’d be worth a damn.
But I’m more than that now. Yes, I’m an officer but also a mom-to-be, a girlfriend, a confidante, and a neighbor who wants to make this town safe again.
