“You fools.”The boss burst into another round of hysterical laughter — not the playful kind, but the sick, belly-deep kind that echoed off the tiled walls and dug under your skin. The kind of laugh that told you he truly genuinely enjoyed this.“Do you honestly think,” he wheezed between chuckles, “that I could run an establishment of this magnitude… with this level of organization… without having the entire Pantheon Valley Police Force tucked neatly in my pocket?”Rhea froze.Not physically — her aim didn’t drop, her stance didn’t falter — but something behind her eyes cracked. She tried to hide it, but Johnny saw it. The way her jaw clenched. The slight flare of her nostrils. The betrayal sinking into her bones like ice water.She didn’t want to believe it. She couldn’t.“Yes, yes, that look right there!” the boss cheered, pointing at her face. “Priceless. You truly didn’t know? My dear detective, your force has been mine for years. The chiefs. The captains. The ones you call for b

“JOHNNY!!!”Rhea’s scream tore out of her throat before she even realized she’d opened her mouth. She kicked at the elevator doors like they were alive and mocking her as they shut and carried her upward—the metal vibrating from the force of her boot.“He’s an idiot,” she hissed, breath shaking. “A complete, absolute idiot—why did he have to stay behind?”The elevator kept rising at its slow, steady pace. Too slow.Too calm.Too wrong.Rhea paced inside the cramped space, fists clenching and unclenching. He didn’t get to do that. He didn’t get to shove her into safety like some helpless damsel while he played macho sacrifice downstairs. She hated it. Hated every part of it. Hated how it made her feel—small, unarmed, useless.But more than anything, she hated the fact that for the first time since she joined the force…she honestly didn’t know if Johnny Steele was going to walk out of that room alive.When the elevator finally dinged open, she burst out before the doors had fully parte

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Johnny froze—not out of fear, but out of calculation. The room felt tighter suddenly, the air thinning with every passing second. “What are you talking about?” he shot back, forcing a scoff he didn’t feel. “He’s already half dead thanks to you. Why should I care if he lives or dies?” The boss tilted his head. He looked at Johnny the way a butcher sizes up a pig before deciding where to start cutting. “Nice try,” the boss said, amusement dripping from his voice. “But if you didn’t care… you would’ve done the dissection. You would’ve opened him up like the animal you pretend not to be.” Johnny clenched his jaw. “Because I’m not a heartless monster like you.” “Oh, spare me the moral poetry.” The boss stepped closer, lowering his voice. “Look around you.” He spread his arms. “You are every bit the monster I am. You just hide yours behind a fake little veil of right and wrong.” “That’s not true.” “Alright then,” the boss said, smiling as he lifted the gun again. “Prove it.” He pre

“Johnny.” Rhea didn’t think. Didn’t hesitate. She crossed the room in three long steps and threw her arms around him. Her body hit his with enough force that the scalpel almost slipped from his hand. She held him like someone afraid he might vanish again if she loosened her grip even a little. Her face pressed into his shoulder. Her breath shook. “You’re alive,” she whispered, voice breaking in the middle. Johnny blinked, caught off guard not by the hug itself, but by how tightly she held him—as if she was trying to anchor him to the world. “How had I no idea I could be missed this much?” he murmured, arms slowly wrapping around her. She pulled back only when her lungs burned for air. Even then, her hands lingered on his arms, as if checking he was really solid. “I thought you were dead,” she said, letting him go carefully, like her fingers didn’t want to release him. “Please,” Johnny scoffed softly, “death can have me the day it earns me. And that is clearly not today.