Page 79 of Burn Protocol

His eyes look at me, pleading. For the first time since that night in the parking lot, I feel like I might have made a mistake. But if it wasn’t him, then who was it?

“Clearly not. Someone here decided my personal choices were of concern.” I glance around the room, turning to face every single person there. “Anybody willing to fess up?”

“They won’t,” Torres whispers, before he clears his throat. “They won’t because the person who did it is not in this room.”

Both Rivera and I spin to face him again.

“You know who it is…”

“Yes. After… after I saw what it did to you,” he looks into Maya’s eyes, “I realized that all of this was wrong.” He turns his gaze to me. “And then I understood why you were so angry at me. If you thought I had spoken to the Chief…” He closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. “…if I had thought that about anybody else, I would have punched them too.”

Maya gasps next to me, grasping at my arm. “You hit him?”

I nod once, but my eyes don’t leave his. When he looks back at me again, he smiles sadly.

“I am truly sorry this happened to you, Elena. To both of you. But we work together every day. We run into burning buildings while having each other’s backs. We need that trust in order to keep safe. So, I decided to do a little digging. After all, everyone thought I hated you. Getting the culprit to talk wasn’t much of a challenge.”

“Enough with the tale already,” Rivera hisses. “Who is it?”

“Tommy.”

For a moment the world freezes. Fucking Tommy? The goodie-two-shoes desk clerk? The one who’s always smiling in everybody’s face? That little piece of… Around us, more people gasp and even Moreno’s face falters.

“Yeah. I ran into him at The Dublin,” Torres explains. “He was having a pint with his buddy and he didn’t realize I was sitting right behind him. Tommy was going on about how he was going to tap the little hot reporter for sure if it wasn’t for you being in the way,” he nods at me once. “But that he had found a solution for it, that would make you back off for sure. It wasn’t hard to figure out what he had done after that. He tainted your good reputation for his own advantage. He is no better than a rat.”

I stare at Torres for a moment, the blood in my veins turned to ice. But this time it’s not aimed at him. No, I feel some sort of… gratitude toward him. Maya stirs next to me, and shuffles uncomfortably on her feet. It seems to break the tension. Torres raises his chin and looks me straight in the eye when he steps forward with his hand extended.

“I should have come to you sooner, Elena. My apologies.”

I grab his hand and shake it firmly, raising my other hand to clap him on his shoulder.

“And I apologize for hitting you. I made a very bad call, Sergio.”

He scoffs and winks. “It takes a bit more than a brush to knock me down.” But he nods slightly and then turns toward Moreno. “Which I will demonstrate on you, if you don’t apologize within the next thirty seconds as well.”

Moreno gapes at him and then snaps his head toward Maya and me. When Torres moves toward him, he flinches and raises his hand.

“Okay, okay. Sorry, alright.”

“For what?” Rivera growls beside me and Moreno throws him a murderous look.

“I shouldn’t have said the things I said.”

“Wrong answer,” Torres threatens. “You should not have shown any disrespect to our guest here. Let alone defile her image by your own pubescent thoughts. Do I make myself clear?”

Moreno’s mouth drops open. “I… I wasn’t…”

“Do. I. Make. Myself. Clear?”

“Yes, sir.” He looks at Maya now, the look in his eyes completely different. Filled with shame. “My apologies, Carter. I… I shamed my crew and our station.”

Maya’s cheeks burn as he addresses her directly. She shuffles on her feet again. Her shoulders move up and she throws him a weak smile.

“It’s okay.”

It really isn’t, but the last thing I want to do is make her even more uncomfortable. Which is also the only reason that I am not storming over to the reception area right now to deal with that rat behind the counter, as Torres rightfully called Tommy. I feel my nostrils flare and my jaw clench at the thought. Maya sees me tense but doesn’t shrink at the sight. She knows exactly what I am thinking. Her fingertips graze my wrist and she shakes her head, before she turns toward Torres and Moreno.

“Now that the air is cleared, we need to get to work. And talking about that… your rig can use some cleaning.”