Page 65 of Bent, Not Broken

“I’m Evan’s person.”

She burbled out a laugh and touched the back of my hand with hers before she let me go. She glanced at Paxton, who only smirked. “Are you? Oh my.”

The door pulled opened from the other side, and we all jolted in place as Evan came out. Tall and muscled, his handsomeness sucked all the oxygen out of my lungs, especially when he turned toward me. I reached out for him and he took my hand. I’d expected… a rage. Yelling. Hellfire and cussing. He seemed… fine, actually. Maybe a little sad with his frown digging deeper into his face than usual, but his captain, Monahan, I finally remembered from the hospital, followed him out. She had a harassed grimace and didn’t meet anyone’s eye as she stared straight ahead of herself. She brushed some of her blonde hair behind an ear.

“I would apologize, but I’m not going to. I needed to speak to Slater alone.” Finally she turned to catch my eye. Her shoulders were squared and her black pantsuit had every button and crease in place, like the last time I saw her.

“So you could convince him to quit?” I kept my tone light, but my face heated and my hand quivered in Evan’s.

She flinched, and finally guilt, or something like it, narrowed her eyes. “It’s not like that. I fired him.”

Evan gave me a light, sad smile and leaned over to kiss my cheek. Paxton sounded like he choked, and Dr. Molly blinked like dust had flown into her eyes. I knew what it must have cost him to do that in front of everyone.

Standing up straight, I bristled toward Captain Monahan. “We’ll fight it—”

“Mr. Polunin, I’m very familiar with you.” She stepped closer to me but stopped short when Evan made a warning sound. “I have no doubt that you could drag the department into expensive litigation, but the long and the short of it is that we don’t have the budget for a police officer who can’t perform all the duties necessary. You can take us to court, and yes, it’s possible that you could force some sort of settlement, but that would just mean another officer, or two or three, who wouldn’t have a job next year. Evan’s windfall would be the downfall of his brothers. Fired doesn’t mean at fault. He can collect unemployment.”

Paxton cussed a blue streak under his breath, a string of swear words that ended in “numpty,” but I had no idea what the hell that was. I whipped around to stare at him, but then refocused on my real target. “Court sounds good to me, Captain,” I snarled.

“Not to me,” Evan said and jiggled my hand. My stomach tumbled unhappily as he looked around at everyone and then used my hand to tug me closer to his side. “We need all the cops we can get on the street, with you keeping dirtbags like the Kings sailing free. Let’s go home.”

“Oh you stupid fuck. You didn’t really let her fire you, did you?” Paxton asked, and stuck out a hand to Evan. Monahan shifted uncomfortably while they shook, and Evan gave Paxton a small smile.

“I’ll be okay.”

Paxton’s lips thinned and he nodded. “Don’t be a total stranger, yeah? Let’s have drinks some night, soon as you’re up for it.”

“Love it,” I said. “Bring your husband. I still haven’t really met him yet.”

Paxton nodded, and after a short exchange of tense pleasantries, we turned away from everyone and left the most awkward water-cooler party ever.

“I don’t like this,” I hissed as we exited the station via the front door, with all the other foot traffic. There were cops giving us too much attention, but they didn’t stop Evan or even tell him to feel better. Was he so much of a bear, no one was sorry he wasn’t at work? That made me sad for some reason, but then I remembered I was infuriated instead. “You could have made them bleed green if you’d played this the right way. What did you sign? Did you even consult the union?”

“No.” He slid closer to me and draped his arm over my shoulders, simultaneously making me feel warm and cared for and completely on display. He walked me like he was showing me off until we were past the stream of people going in and out of the station, and then he kept right on going. My stomach melted with an obnoxious heat, but I refused to reward his behavior. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to distract me, or if he really was having a look-what-I-own moment. Either way, I wasn’t letting this go.

“All we have to do is—”

“There’s no point. She’s right.”

“Labor law isn’t my focus, but, you’re losing your job because you were doing your job. That isn’t fucking fair!” I turned toward him, and he didn’t stop walking, simply used his weight and our momentum to keep me going forward. With a start, I realized he must be feeling a lot better to do that.

“I meant what I said. I can’t be responsible for Paxton not having a paycheck next year. He’d be the first to get let go since he was the last in.”

“That would not be your fault.” I jabbed him hard with a finger in his side.

Evan pulled me to a stop on the sidewalk. “It would be.” Misty specks smacked my face, and I glanced up into gray clouds that spat more rain on us before I zeroed in on his amused face.

“How? Did you shoot yourself? I don’t think so.”

“I wasn’t paying attention. I wasn’t paying attention, a scuffle broke out, and by the time I got my head in the game, I got shot. I was sitting there… I was sitting there missing you and fucked up.”

Faltering back a step, I rubbed at my chest. “That’s….”

“It’s okay.” He grabbed my hand and reeled me in again. “I mean, I wish this wasn’t how things worked out, but the more I think about it, I’m not sure I ever wanted to really be a cop. I mean, I did. I went through training and worked for it, but more than anything I wanted to prove that I wasn’t the same type of person my dad was.”

“Oh, Evan,” I murmured, my heart twisting.

“Don’t want to talk about it,” he grumbled. “But I’ve done that now. I know I can look someone in the eyes, someone who might even deserve to get shot if the truth was known, and not hurt them. I know I can take them in for real justice. I got all I can out of this job.”