Reignite

Chapter Six

•Chase•

"When it comes to the brothers, they don't seem to have been doing anything out of the ordinary in the last month, no large money movements, no out of country travel, we're not really sure what's going on with them at all. You two haven't even seen them yet?" Cole and I look to each other trying to remember, and shake our heads.

"The problem is, they lack an online footprint. They're hard to follow and they did that on purpose. They do show up to Pulse, but it's not often. But the last time they showed up was the same day that Georgia went missing, and inexplicably, they haven't visited again, I think if we-" Mando stops as he hears his radio beeping. "What, Camilla, I said not to interrupt unless it's important." "Um, there's some girl here saying she has to speak to Chase urgently about the case," Mando looks at me and so does everyone around the room. "We'll be out there," he replies into the radio and motions me to follow him.

I'm shocked to walk to the reception and see Gabrielle there, totally soaked from the pouring rain but definitely not dressed for it. "God, you could have at least gave me your damn number so I'm not walking in the rain to this place to get ahold of you," she says as she shivers. I quickly make my way to her and take off my academy jacket I always wear and put it around her. "Gianna Childs," she says as I step back. "What?"

"Gianna Childs," she repeats, "that's Georgia's real name." Mando and I look at each other and he runs back off to the room everyone else was in, immediately getting on the radio asking dispatch to look up the name. "How did you find that out?" I ask her. She hands me a piece of paper and I take it. "The club has a file for everyone from when they had to verify everyone was over 18 to hire them and I did some rummaging. You're welcome." she says while looking full of herself. "Wow Gabrielle, I mean this is amazing, I can't believe you did that," I exclaim as I look up at her again. She shrugs it off like it isn't a big deal but I bet she did a lot to get her hands on these files. I'm surprised they weren't trashed.

"You guys don't have coffee or hot chocolate here for victims or something? What kind of station is this?" She asks as she looks around. "And what are you a victim of?" Camilla says while looking her up and down. I run over and grab Gabrielle because she closes in on Camilla, "Fuck you bitch," she spits while struggling in my arms to get out. I look over at Camilla and give a disapproving look, and she storms out of the room and towards the break room. Once she's far enough away I let go.

"What's your problem anyway, she just gets to talk to me like that and I get held back like I'm the bad one?" She looks at me like she wants to kill me. "When you say it like that it sounds bad, I just didn't want you getting in trouble," I try say to calm her down. "Yeah right, blame the stripper, that's how cops feel about us anyways. Just a bunch of sluts with no morals." I sigh, "I don't think you're a slut. And you must have some morals to come to a police station in the pouring rain at night to help someone."

She didn't get to reply by the time Mando and Sarg are trudging down the hallway to us. I hand over the paper to them and they examine it, then look back at Gabrielle. "Who is this?" they ask, pointing to her. "It's a really long story," I'm really scared to tell them. I avoided it and I thought I could keep her a secret to avoid all the extra shit that's going to have to happen now that she's involved. "Well, get to talking," Sarg says disapprovingly.

—

"I didn't come here to be questioned like a fucking criminal and I'll be damned if you think you get to treat me like one. Where were you all 30 minutes ago without my information? Huh? Because if you start fucking with me I'll ruin your whole operation in a heartbeat."

"Gabrielle..." I scream whisper to her to get her to stop. "No, fuck that! I told you already that I would help you because I care about these girls, and these idiots think that they can sit here and somehow say I might be involved in the whole thing, that's just-" "Stop," I say sternly to her and she hesitates for a minute but she stops. Mando rolls his eyes, "Look, you don't get a free pass because you gave us this, you have to be ruled out, and honestly if you think you can threaten a police officer you're mistaken little girl." I push down on Gabrielle's shoulders when she tries to shoot up from the table, screaming obscenities about him calling her that. I ask them if they'll talk to me outside alone and they agree.

"Look, I know this isn't how it's supposed to be done, and I'm sorry I kept this a secret, but she's really important to this. She's helping us at every turn here. I know I don't have a lot to show yet but I have a lot to give you all if you can just trust me for now on this, trust her. I trust her." They look at each other and Sarg just nods his head to Mando, then turns to me,

"You know this is your promotion on the line, Burrows." I nod my head and say yes sir, and that seems to be enough for him. They bring in an NDA for her to sign about the case and about my identity, and she begrudgingly signs it, somehow without taking her angry eyes off of Mando. They let her leave the interrogation room and I walk her to the front, luckily Camilla left for the night. "Do you need a ride?" I ask her as we walk, and she just nods.

As we get into the car I blast the heater for her since she's still soaking wet, and she lays her head back against the seat enjoying the feeling. I can't help but stray from her face to see her tight tank top and leggings sticking to her wet skin. When she talks again she breaks me out of my trance.

"It's the apartment buildings next to Woodridge Park, I'm sure you know where that is, officer," I tell her I do and start to drive down the dimly lit streets. The sound of the rain hitting the car is the only thing I can hear. "Do you respect me?" She suddenly blurts out. "Wow, where did that come from?" I ask, unable to reply properly. "Stupid question," she says as she looks back out of her window. It got unbearably awkward so I have to blurt something out, "Why wouldn't I respect you?"

"Because I get naked for money," she says, still looking out of the window. "I don't think it matters what anyone does for money if they're not hurting someone," I say trying to catch a glimpse at her expression. "Yeah, but you're saying that as a good person. Reply like you were a single guy from tinder asking me what I do for a living and I say that to you," she turns to look at me. "Umm, I guess I'm not sure how I'd feel about a girl I'm dating letting other men see her naked, but that doesn't mean I'd think less of her,"

"Yeah but if another girl came around and had a normal job you would prioritize her." I thought about it really hard for a moment. "I don't know what I'd do, I've never really dated around enough." "You're married," she laughs. "Yeah but, she was my only girlfriend, so I'm not sure about all that honestly, it never crossed my mind before."

She jumps back in her seat, "Only girlfriend?! You're trying to say to me, you've only fucked one person?!" She practically screams. "Jesus, is that so terrible?" I ask, embarrassed by her response. "I mean, kind of, how can you just marry the first person you ever get with?! You don't even know the world yet, if I stayed with the first guy I ever dated I'd throw myself off a building," she says laughing, a little too long. "Yeah, yeah, get out. This is the place right?" She keeps laughing and somehow is able to put a yes in there somewhere. "Thank you, officer," she teases as she kisses my cheek and gets out of the car. I feel the familiar warmth again as I watch her walk to her apartment door.

While I drive back home, I think about her walking into her apartment. It was kind of a shabby place, the kind that has only a few units stacked, hers being on the bottom right. The neighborhood wasn't the best, and an apartment building so out on the open on a main street isn't very safe for a young woman. How old was she anyway? She couldn't be older than 22.

I continue my rambling thoughts and wonder why she suddenly got so existential on me. She seems too confident to be so worried about what a man thinks of her. If she felt like that, why be a stripper in the first place? Well, maybe that isn't the most fair of questions. I don't even know anything about her.