“Is there anyone here you can trust?” I asked Bria. “Anyone higher up on the food chain than Dobson that can help you and Xavier?”

She glanced around, looking at first one face, then another, just like I had. Her expression became grimmer and grimmer the longer she looked. “A few people. Not many. Dobson’s the third highest-ranking officer in the department, and he’s the one in charge of all the detectives, including Xavier and me. Besides, most of the time everyone waits to see which way the wind is blowing before they take sides, no matter what their rank is.”

Something that was perfectly normal in Ashland, which meant that Bria and Xavier were pretty much screwed. Yeah. That was definitely the theme of the day. But before I could tell them to brace themselves for the worst, it went ahead and happened.

“Step away from your desk, Coolidge,” Dobson barked out.

Bria blinked. “What? Why?”

He held out his hand, and one of the officers stepped forward and passed him a piece of paper, which Dobson then slapped down on the edge of her desk. “So I can search it,” he sneered. “Seems we’ve gotten a tip about some Burn pills disappearing from evidence lockup. Someone seems to think they’ve wound up in your desk. Imagine that. Your sister is a cold-blooded killer, and you’re a dirty, pill-popping cop. Must run in the family.”

Bria gasped, and all the color drained from her face at his harsh, jeering insults.

Dobson’s brown gaze flicked to Xavier. “Unless you and your partner are in on it together. Might as well search them both, while we’re at it. Clean out all the trash at once.”

“The only trash here is you, Dobson,” Xavier growled, stepping up so that he was nose-to-nose with the other giant. “Unlike the rest of you crooked bastards, Bria and I don’t steal evidence, and we sure as hell don’t take drugs.”

Dobson smirked at Xavier, whose hands clenched into tight fists, as if he was thinking about punching the captain. I definitely knew that feeling.

But Bria stepped up and put her hand on her partner’s shoulder, silently warning him against it. “It’s okay, Xavier. Let them search. We both know they won’t find anything.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Dobson crooned.

Bria and Xavier looked at each other, their faces tight, both of them realizing they were being set up. But the worst part was that they both knew there was absolutely nothing they could do to stop it since Dobson outranked them. So they had no choice but to reluctantly move away from their desks.

The captain made a big show of opening the top few drawers in Bria’s desk and rifling through the pens and papers inside. He kept making faces the whole time, as if he were disappointed that he hadn’t found anything incriminating yet. The tension in the air built and built, and a few of the cops started muttering with worry, probably hoping that he wouldn’t start searching their desks and find all the illicit items hidden inside.

Finally, Dobson had gone through all the drawers except one. He paused a moment, that smirk flitting across his face again. He already knew exactly what was in that last drawer because he’d planted it in there earlier, while Bria and Xavier were up on Bone Mountain.

“Well, well, well,” Dobson crowed, bending down and sticking his beefy hand into the drawer, as if he’d discovered something completely unexpected. “What do we have here?”

He pulled a plastic bag filled with red and green Burn pills out of the drawer.

He held up the pills and let out a low whistle. “Forget about your own bad habit. Looks like you’ve decided to go into business for yourself. What do you say, Coolidge? How much were you planning on selling these babies for out on the street?”

Dobson tossed the Burn pills on top of Bria’s desk and gave me another arrogant smirk. “Like sister, like sister, I suppose. Either way, Detective Coolidge, you are officially relieved of duty—effective immediately.”

9

This time, Bria’s hands were the ones that clenched into fists. “I don’t know where those pills came from, but I didn’t put them there.”

“Right,” Dobson drawled. “And I’m the tooth fairy.”

He looked at the crowd of cops who had gathered around, but everyone’s faces were cold and shuttered. Yep, everyone was waiting to see how the cookie would crumble in this situation. Bria knew as well as I did that Dobson had already won, this round at least, but she didn’t want to believe it. She kept glancing from one detective, one officer, to another, hoping that someone would speak up and tell Dobson that he was full of shit, that she was a good, honest cop and that there was no way she would ever steal evidence, much less sell drugs.

But no one did.

Instead, silence descended over the crowd, spreading out to the folks in booking and beyond. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to watch the drama unfold.

“As of this moment, you are suspended without pay, Detective Coolidge,” Dobson sneered, his loud, gravelly voice echoing through the entire station. “Of course, there will be a thorough investigation into your many crimes, but if I were you, I’d go ahead and clear out your desk. We both know that you won’t be coming back—ever.”

Bria’s fists clenched tighter, her eyes burned brighter, and the set of her jaw hardened with every lie Dobson spouted. Being a cop was just as important to her as running the Pork Pit was to me, a way to honor and follow in her foster father’s footsteps, and so much a part of who she was that she could never be or do anything else that would make her nearly as happy. For Dobson to take all of that away from her, especially on such an obvious, ridiculous, phony charge, well, it made her as angry as I had been at the restaurant earlier—and Bria’s reaction was just as cold as mine had been.

She approached Dobson, and the two officers who’d been flanking the giant sidled away from him. So did all the other cops who’d gathered around. They all knew that Bria was a powerful Ice elemental, and they could all see the mix of magic and rage flashing in her frosty blue eyes. They didn’t want to get caught in the cross fire should she decide to unleash her magic on Dobson. Even the good captain himself swallowed and took a step back.

Bria noticed them backing away, and she let out a loud, derisive snort. Like sister, like sister, after all.

“Cowards,” she called out, her light, lilting voice booming even louder than Dobson’s had. “The whole sorry lot of you.”