“She’s hiding something,” detective Schwent said.

Unfortunately, Catherine had to agree.

“What teenager isn’t?” she said noncommittally.

She was currently watching her daughter hug Crystal, and then Linda, before they would be escorted out of the station and Linda would bring them back to the apartment. Ashe wasn’t out of the woods, but they had exhausted their ability to hold her without formal charges and processing her into the system.

Part of her was relieved that her daughter was free, but Catherine couldn’t help that instinct she had honed over two decades that they were missing something big. Ashe had been too casual about things in the interview, so cold about taking lives. When she had originally seen the video from the attempt on Jason’s life, Ashe had seemed hyper-focused, but not so methodical. Then again, nobody was able to question her following that incident due to her injuries to get a proper read on her.

Injuries that were still healing, yet didn’t seem to hold her back. Her little girl was familiar with pain, and that left a raw wound behind. She wanted to be there to comfort her, but Catherine had a job to do, and an investigation to resolve.

Jessica was in the hospital getting stitched up, and the only person she was allowing at her side was Rachel. She had expressly barred her parents from seeing her and implicated them in her disappearance.

It was one mess after another.

“Any luck in getting Jessica’s video pulled?” she asked.

“Fuck no,” the detective grumbled. “Judge refused to sign an injunction.”

Not that she expected it to work, but the detective had all but demanded they try to get it taken down due to the threat it posed to public safety. All that would do is encourage others to seek it out to see what all the fuss was. The jinn was officially out of the lamp here, there was no putting it back.

The news was still running wild, with the official statements up in the air. She wanted to keep her daughter out of it as much as possible, but that wasn’t always an option. Too many witnesses were spreading their own stories hoping to jump in on the social media blitz and go viral. Rachel’s video alone had ten million views in just six hours, all because she had the most complete version, it even captured Gray pulling the gun and firing, and Rachel’s mad dash for the stage.

Crystal pulling her own gun and running after him was seen as well, and it took all of twenty minutes for her name to get drawn into things, and the pieces were coming together. There would be investigations, and no doubt once again law enforcement would get the raw end of the stick for not being the ones to solve the active shooter situation.

The last thing they could allow to get out was that Inferno was involved. They could play it off that the mercenaries executed him, try to keep the peace that way, but it didn’t sit well with her. No doubt the mayor would press for just that once he was no longer a grieving mess.

“This is going to be a coffee night,” Catherine said, moving to the door.

“What night isn’t?” Adam Schwent asked, mirroring her earlier statement while gathering the last of his documents. “I’ll send you the compiled document once it’s done. Let me know if you get anything else out of your girl, I think she knows who Inferno is.”

Catherine certainly hoped that wasn’t the case, but that thought continued to nag at her. Ashe and Jessica were once mortal enemies, she had seen it first hand more than once when called into the office over some incident.

Yet, when they interacted on that stage, they almost appeared to be friends, and Jessica looked upon her rather fondly. A change like that doesn’t come from nothing, and Catherine didn’t think her time spent kidnapped would be all it took to undo that animosity on both sides.

“Thank you, and I will,” she said, making her way out into the madhouse that was the Halsey precinct.

People were running all over the place, the phones were ringing off the hook, and she had the beginnings of a migraine as she found a cup and filled it with what was almost black sludge. Thankfully, the coffee was always hot, and so dense that it qualified as tar in at least three states.

“Planning to stay late?” someone asked.

Catherine turned, and had to smile at the sight of Reynolds, his arm still in a sling.

“Aren’t you supposed to be on leave?” she asked, offering him the filled cup before pouring herself one.

“Too many fires,” he said with a shrug of his good shoulder. “I volunteered to help with the phones. About all I’m good for until this damn arm heals… How’s Ashe?”

“She’s a trooper,” Catherine said. “I just wish one damn thing could go right for that girl. Her prom was ruined, she won’t ever get that night back.”

That was assuming that detective Schwent wasn’t right, and that Ashe had more to do with all of it than she implied. Once home, she would have a talk with Ashe about just how involved she was with things. If she was getting in too deep with Inferno’s rising star, then she needed to take steps to get her away.

An out of state college might stop being a choice, if that was what it took to keep her daughter out of an early grave.

“Any actual tips, or is it more links to videos being uploaded?” she asked, taking a sip of the hot sludge that was pretty much concentrated caffeine.

“Mostly that,” he said, grimacing at his own cup. “How the hell do you drink this shit?”

Catherine chuckled. Someone had once said that the graveyard shift’s take on coffee might as well be filtered coffee excrement, and the comparison had almost been enough to make her swear off the brew for good. Late nights like this were shaping up to be the sole reason she hadn’t followed through.

“Boss,” a junior officer yelled, running up. She thought she recognized him, but couldn’t be certain until he got up close and she could see his nametag. Officer Combs was panting heavily and she gave him a moment to catch his breath. “We just got a tip that the Patriots are hitting a Viuda brothel.”

“Fuck,” Catherine spat, breaking her usual professional demeanor. Just what they needed, a gallon of gas tossed onto the bonfire. “Get anyone not working the prom fiasco on it before half the city degrades into a warzone.”

Combs snapped off a salute, then hurried off. Catherine wanted nothing more than to go home, but it was starting to look like it was going to be yet another one of those nights where she had to work her ass off to keep the city from imploding.

“Sorry to cut and run,” she said to Reynolds, downing her cup before tossing it in the trash. “Best get back on the phone while you can.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“Will do,” he said. “I don’t envy you, having to manage this mess.”

“Someone has to,” she said with a smile. She turned and marched off, her smile falling into grim determination. She wasn’t looking forward to hearing the night’s final tally, but she had a feeling it was only going to grow as the night wore on.

She could only hope that Linda’s night was going better, and that they might get a few answers out of the girls off the record. She didn’t want her daughter to die, and if things don’t go exactly right, she might not make it to eighteen.

“Please Linda,” she muttered silently, “get her to open up. We can’t lose her…”

***

Linda pinched the bridge of her nose, looking across the couch to the two girls. They were freshly changed from their ruined prom outfits, Ashe’s bandaged wounds prominent in her sleeveless tank top and shorts and Jasper had taken a protective position with his head on Ashe’s lap. It hurt to see her daughter injured yet again, but it stung far worse that her girl was being so tight-lipped about what really happened.

The statements given to the investigator were so carefully curated that it was obvious she was hiding so damn much, and neither girl was saying anything. Well, Linda was stubborn, she could sit right there all night if that was what it took to get them to open up. The pair were holding hands and Linda could see how tight their grips were on one another.

Despite everything, they had almost lost one another. Linda knew all too well how that could shake a couple, especially one that didn’t have years of shared experience behind them. Her first scare had come when Catherine, then a fresh faced sergeant, took a bullet to her vest during a routine overtime shift covering for a patrol officer on maternity leave.

They’d had a brief fight over it, then spent the night holding one another out of the fear that she might just lose her little kitten. Dozens of close calls later and they were sort of used to the routine. Ashe and Crystal hadn’t been through much together, and as cute as they were, she didn’t want to see them split because of this.

Maybe something to break the ice.

“Well, if we aren’t going to talk about what happened,” Linda said, pulling out her phone, “maybe we could look over the pictures I took and focus on the good parts of the night instead?”

Ashe and Crystal looked at one another, and her daughter shrugged before they made room for Linda to sit between them, Jasper whining about being jostled before swiftly settling back in with his head on Ashe’s lap. Linda took the peace offering for what it was and accepted the central spot. The silence between them hadn’t been broken yet, but she hoped this would do it.

She thumbed through her phone, blocking the view from her daughter just in case something she didn’t want to see happened to be in the lineup. Their teen daughter probably didn’t want to see her thirty-something year old mothers in any state of undress.

Finally settling on a picture of Ashe in her suit, she made sure she knew the exact point to cut off the swiping. The two girls on each side of her leaned forward to get a better look, Ashe letting out a small gasp when she saw the image. It was a picture taken just an instant after she caught sight of Crystal in her dress for the first time.

Ashe’s eyes had widened, a small smile had snuck its way onto her face, and she appeared genuinely happy for once. That was something that had been lost to the years of dealing with the stress of life in Jericho, it had robbed Ashe of her smile. Crystal had managed to bring it back, and Linda didn’t want to mess that up for her.

Catherine had a differing stance. Seeing Crystal in the dress, it had been Cat’s first real look at the girl’s tattoos, and there was no mistaking her left sleeve as anything but Viuda. Sure, the pride flowers in lesbian colors all along the vines were a nice touch, but the web and widow were not something that could be mistaken.

Listening to Crystal’s questioning, she believed the girl when she said that she had gotten out, that she wasn’t involved with the gang anymore. What had been a surprise was that she insisted Ashe had helped her break those last ties. The statement had been truthful, but Linda knew it was a fae sort of truth. Telling lies while speaking the truth was an art all of its own. Doublespeak was something many used to defeat a polygraph, not that they were worth a damn in the first place. Still, they often unnerved people and served a basic purpose in police work.

Neither Ashe nor Crystal had been unnerved by it, seeming far too calm for having gone through yet another life or death situation. Though, looking at them now, they seemed to be in a state of shock, which was expected.

Ashe had watched yet another person that made her life hell die violently. The thing was, Linda wasn’t convinced that Inferno was the one to pull the trigger, even if Ashe had been absolutely certain of it. If the city’s newest gang leader was as invested in Ashe’s story as she seemed to be, would she have taken the shot herself, or let Ashe be the one to do so?

There were no doubts that Ashe had no problem taking a life, she had done so several times over the last few months. That alone broke her heart, but would that translate to being able to execute a young man, even if she did hate him? Linda wasn’t sure, and she wasn’t about to pry, not when the event was so fresh.

So, they spent the next hour just scrolling pictures, and pointedly ignoring the updates that Cat was sending about the spreading violence. The Patriots attacking the Viuda wasn’t a surprise, they had the most to lose with Jessica’s speech going viral. As bad as that was, she dreaded what might come from when Inferno decided to make her own move. That woman didn’t seem to understand subtlety or restraint, and always left a trail of bodies in her wake.

She swiped again, and this time the video came on, playing right up until the first moment that she stepped out and the door was open. It was then that her daughter’s stoic facade finally cracked and she reached out, setting the video back about fifteen seconds to rewatch that reveal.

“I didn’t realize…”

“That you were so enraptured?” Linda asked, a smile on her lips. “Ashe, you’ve been head over heels for Crystal since you first met her. Don’t be embarrassed that she makes you happy.”

Then Linda turned, looking Crystal dead in the eyes. “And you. I know there is more to what you’ve done than you’re telling us. I know that my daughter has been dragged into things she shouldn’t, and that kills me. But, I also know that she’s been happier with you than she has since those first few months after she finally got her medication. That tells me all I need to know.”

Ashe scoffed, drawing her attention back to her daughter. “Don’t play the accepting good cop, I know that game too well. You’re just trying to get me to admit to something, or to sell out someone that helped me.”

Linda’s heart ached, because if she ever was going to get a confirmation that her suspicions were true, this was it. Now the only question that remained was how deep the affiliation went. She wanted to pry, to dig for the truth, but she wanted her daughter to trust her more. She wasn’t going to betray what little trust seemed to remain between them.

“You have your secrets, I understand that, and you are an adult now. I can’t stop you no matter how much I might wish to.” Ashe frowned, but didn’t speak. “I’d rather have my daughter in my life, than push you away because I dug too deep, or pushed too hard. Someday, I hope you’ll trust me enough to believe that, but I’m content to wait until then.”

That was a lie, but a necessary one.

Ashe seemingly considered her words, and was about to open her mouth when something vibrating had her daughter’s eyes widening. Linda wasn’t sure what was up with that, then Ashe pulled out a phone from her pocket. A phone that was visibly different from her personal phone, actually, it was the latest model from what she could see.

Her daughter had a second phone.

If there were alarms going off in her head before, they were screaming now. Ashe thumbed the answer button and placed it to her ear, pulling back so Linda couldn’t hear what was being said.

“Not a good time,” Ashe said.

There were indistinct voices on the other side, Ashe sat stiffly, listening to whatever was being said. Her eyes drifted from Crystal, then to her, and the look within sent a chill down Linda’s spine. She was furious and terrified all at once. Moreover, there was conflict within those brown eyes, just as quickly as it had appeared, that conflict settled into resolve and Ashe was on her feet, practically running towards her room.

“What’s going on?” Crystal asked, also on her feet.

Linda was growing concerned about the lack of communication, which meant it was something that they couldn’t say around her. Just as she was about to interject something, Ashe returned from her room, now sporting heavy pants and a leather jacket, but more importantly, her Tavor rifle was slung over her shoulder.

“That was Jessica,” Ashe said, checking her rifle. “The apartments are being attacked by an unknown force. They’re outnumbered and outgunned.”

It was with mounting horror that she realized her daughter was planning to rush into danger once again, and she couldn’t abide by that.