The bay goes quieter. Even Axel’s grin fades to something more careful.
Ash’s tone softens, the bastard. “Levi…”
I cut him off. “Don’t.”
Sawyer sets his mug down. “You want me to talk to the chief? Ask him to assign someone else?—”
“No,” I say too fast.
Axel’s brows shoot up. “No?”
I swallow. It tastes like metal. “No. I can handle it.”
“Can you?” Sawyer asks. Not teasing now. Just… real.
I nod once. “She’s an intern. I’m a lieutenant. It’s my job.”
Ash leans closer, voice low like he’s offering a secret. “Your job, sure. But your face back there looked like you were two seconds from either kissing her or throwing her out of the bay.”
“I wasn’t,” I say, because the truth is worse.
The truth is I wanted to do both.
The truth is I wanted to grab her by the back of her coat and drag her somewhere private so I could ask her why she came back now, why she didn’t warn me, why she thinks she can walk into my life like it didn’t crack open when she left.
The truth is I wanted to press her against the wall and feel if she still trembles the same way she used to when I got too close.
The truth is I wanted to tell her I never stopped wanting her and I hate her for making that true.
The truth is… I’m not as unshakable as everyone thinks.
A door opens down the hall. Footsteps return—steady, confident. Not the hesitant cadence from before.
Sadie steps back into the bay with a clipboard now of her own, a pen behind her ear like she belongs in this world. Like she didn’t spend years away.
Her gaze lands on the three idiots watching me like it’s a live show, then on me.
“Lieutenant,” she says, louder this time. For them. For the room. For the boundary.
I hate how good she is at it.
I lift my chin. “Intern.”
Axel clears his throat dramatically. “Well, would you look at that—professionalism.”
Sadie’s eyes flick to him. “Axel Ramirez.”
Axel blinks. “You remember me.”
“I remember everyone,” she says sweetly.
Ash leans a shoulder against the engine, grin returning. “She remembers everyone, Lieutenant.”
I shoot him a look that says I will drown you in a mop bucket.
Sadie ignores them and steps closer to me, stopping just outside the distance that would feel like touching. She holds up her clipboard. “Chief said you’re in charge of my training schedule.”
“Correct.”
