Brutal

12

Logan's face paled—it turned plain white—because of sheer terror. She was the Lieutenant? How was it possible? How could he not recognize her? Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. He was in dire straits. Shit. He messed up big time. He was supposed to be able to recognize her from a mile away. Damn!

He looked around, and Chicago could swear she could feel the gears move in his brain. She felt a slight pity for him when she saw him turn paler when he realized he was surrounded by her team, and smirked.

"Walter, Troy, hold him in his place." She looked around and spotted Hunter immediately, standing right where he was supposed to, jaw clenched, and hands fisted. She whistled loudly to call out to him. "Hunter, come up here."

"Yeah?" His face turned hard at the site of the scoundrel who murdered his sister, before he looked at Chicago.

"See, I'm not allowed to do this legally, but I know—much too well—what you're going through. So, I'm giving you one chance to punch this excuse of a human right here. Remember, only chance you have Hunter. After this he is under arrest and anything you try on him will go on your record. This won't, I'll make sure."

Hunter clenched his fists even more and threw a punch at him hitting squarely in the nose. The blood oozing out from there soothed Hunter like nothing else, though he would've felt better ripping the bastard's skin off. He had put everything into his punch, all he could do now was to wait and trust Chicago with her work—which he had come to respect more, recently.

"Well, take him away, Troy." She waved her hands. "Listen up, others, Interviewing at eight-hundred hours tomorrow. Now, I want Hill and Cooper there. Davis, you will accompany Mr. Radcliffe in the VR. I want any one of you to notify the same to Reed. Am I clear?"

"Yes, sir!" everyone yelled in unison.

"Very well. Dismissed. I'll be back in a minute."

Her whole team had made their way out before she stopped Hill and whispered in her ear, "Oh, Cooper is pretty pissed. Give him a make-up kiss, will you?"

Sydney nodded with a smirk plastered on her face. "As you say, Lieutenant," she said, purposely and watched annoyance flash through Chicago's eyes. Hill quickly held her hands up in surrender before Chicago gave her an earful.

"Oh, Sydney, tell him I said, 'I love you', okay? He was amazing today," she shouted after her.

"Okay! Enjoy," Sydney winked at her and bolted.

Chicago simply rolled her eyes. She turned to Hunter, who had been watching their entire banter. "Well, for starters, I'm extremely grateful for your help today. Thank you. A lot."

"I think I should be the one saying that," he put in, "after what you let me do, even though you're not allowed to. Thank you and I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" she asked, curiously. "For what, Hunter?"

"Well for starters," he used her line and smirked, "I was awful and rude towards you during our first acquaintance. And, I think I continued to be a dick because I didn't really peg you to be able to get hold of the bastard," he answered, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.

She let out a laugh. "No problem. Like I said earlier, I don't blame you for being awful that day. Coping with a beloved's death is really very tough and everyone copes in different ways. The mechanisms are different, and believe it or not, most people come under the fuming category—with you. There are very few people who are calm about it and even fewer who have already accepted it, saying it's fate or it was bound to happen. So, relax. No big deal."

He stared at her skeptically, still not able to wrap his head around the fact she hadn't even once called out on his terrible behavior.

"And I wanted to tell you one more thing."