𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐂𝐎𝐃𝐄

Chapter 13

You followed Connor's lead through the pod of police officers, observing as he nudged some people out of his way, making sure there was enough room behind him for you to keep up. After a few minutes, the crowd cleared and you both found yourselves face to face with the brutal scene you'd been hearing about.

The severity of what you were looking at caused a gasp to erupt from your lips. The other people in the room with you looked up and furrowed their brows. Hank stood up from where he was crouched by the body of an older looking man. Blood dripped down the victim's sickeningly pale chin. He was dead, there was no questioning.

"Finally. What took you guys so long?" He greeted, wiping his hands on his jeans. Connor's eyes flickered to you, but he remained silent. Did he expect you to answer? "Erm, I was having some difficulty with an android. Connor helped me though."

A snort sounded from behind you. Turning, you came face to face with a young looking man who couldn't have been older than 30. There was a soft stubble dotting along his chin and a thin pink scar ran along his nose and right eye. He had dark green eyes that seemed to trail down your figure as he observed you. You instinctively shied away.

"What? Did your card get declined or something?" He scoffed and pushed off the wall to approach you. His arms were crossed above his chest and the further he walked into the light, the more detail in his face made you aware of how handsome he was. Not that his face made up for his shitty first impressions. He looked to be taller than you, but shorter than Connor. As far as you were aware, everyone was shorter than Connor except for maybe Hank.

You gulped and did your best to look human. You made sure to blink a few times and even clear your throat. He looked somewhat convinced when you raised your eyebrow at him. Without even acknowledging that you could speak for yourself, he turned to Hank. "You know you can't bring civilians in here, Anderson. Or were you too busy drowning yourself in cheap whiskey to read the handbook?"

You turned around to look at Hank. He seemed taken aback by this comment but all the more pissed off. "She's not a civilian, Reed. She's our new consulting Deviant expert. She's working with Connor and me as of now."

"That reminds me, the fuck are you guys doing here anyway?"

Yeah. You already didn't like this guy.

Connor looked up from the pair of bodies he was surveying. "Detective Reed, you are aware that we've been assigned all cases involving androids, correct?"

The man whose name was apparently Reed rolled his eyes. "Is that so? Well, you're wasting your time here. It's just some pervert who got more action than he could handle." At his own comment, he burst out laughing. The booming sound swallowed the once silent room. No one else laughed. Not even the officer by the other end of the bed who looked like the only thing he wanted to do was leave.

Hank pseudo-smiled in his direction before winking kindly at you. "We'll let (Y/N) take a look if you don't mind." You suddenly felt singled out as Reed flashed you a toothy, obviously forced grin. "Alright, we'll just be outside." He walked past Connor, nudging the shoulder of his clean grey suit roughly as he did so. "And uh, sweetheart?"

It took a second to process that he was referring to you. Glancing over your shoulder at him, you watched him reach out his broad, scarred hand and rub circles into your clothed skin. "If you get bored with these guys, my patrol car is parked out front."

It was like you had tunnel vision. The atmosphere in the room darkened and the air grew ten times heavier. You felt frozen to the spot. The only thing you could feel other than Gavin's hand on you was a shiver that rolled through your body like a tidal wave. This was a familiar feeling, but you had no idea where it had come from. A foggy, glitching voice in the back of your mind whispered to you.