Page 8 of Heartless Enemy

Opening the door, I slipped into Wright’s office and then closed it behind me again. But I didn’t straighten fully. Instead, I kept my shoulders slightly hunched as I moved towards the middle of the room with steps full of calculated uncertainty.

Captain Wright raised his eyebrows in genuine surprise when his gaze landed on me.

He looked the way he always did. Brown hair cropped close to his scalp, stern blue eyes that never seem satisfied with anything, and an air of looking down at people even though he was technically shorter than me.

Resting his elbows on the neat desk before him, he steepled his fingers and gave me a dismissive once-over. “Sterling.”

All I wanted to do was to punch his teeth down his throat, but instead, I replied with the honorific that I knew he preferred even more thanCaptain. “Sir.”

As expected, a hint of satisfaction flickered briefly in his eyes. I had never called him sir before. Only everCaptain.

“I thought I made it clear that you are no longer a part of the South Side Department,” he said, smugness lacing his voice. “So why are you here?”

Biting my lip, I made a show of wringing my hands and looking as desperate as possible. “I’ve come to ask you to please let me come back.”

“Let you come back?” He arched an eyebrow. “This is not a temporary punishment, Sterling. You have beendemoted. And besides, the archives is an important cog in the great machine that is the constable force.”

“I know. Of course, it is. But please…”

“Please what?”

“Please take me back. I will suffocate if I spend one more week down there. I need to be up here, out on the street, actually helping people.”

Wright slammed his palms down on the desk and then slowly pushed to his feet in a way I think was supposed to have looked menacing. But after dealing with Levi these past few months, my criteria for what constituted menacing had already been irrevocably skewed.

While keeping the amusement off my face, I watched as Captain Wright stalked around his desk and prowled up to me. It took all of my willpower to remain standing with my shoulders hunched instead of straightening to remind Wright that I was taller than him.

“You do not get to decide which tasks to perform,” he declared as he drew himself up in front of me. “You will do whatever your commanding officer orders you to do.” Raising his hand, he pointed a finger towards the door. “And I am ordering you to go back to the archives where you belong.”

I wanted to grab that arrogant fucking finger of his and break it until he was screaming in pain. But I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t even afford to keep my pride. I needed to get back into the South Side Department for our plan to work, and there was only one thing that could make Wright change his mind. He wanted to feel powerful. So that was exactly what I would give him.

With that desperate mask still on my face, I dropped to my knees before his feet.

He started slightly in surprise. Then a smug smile briefly pulled at his lips before he quickly flattened them into a stern line again.

“Please, I’m begging you.” I looked up at him with my most pleading expression. “I’ll do anything.”

Saying nothing, he just arched an expectant eyebrow at me.

“I’ll do whatever you want,” I promised. “I will obey every one of your orders without question.”

“That’s what a subordinate should do regardless.”

“I’ll spy on the others for you. I’ll be your eyes and ears and report back everything they say when you’re not in the room.”

Interest glinted in his eyes. “A snitch, huh?”

I swallowed. “Whatever you want.”

He chuckled and gave me another smug once-over. “I knew being demoted would be painful for you, Sterling. But I never expected to see you begging on your knees.” Cocking his head, he sucked his teeth. “But then again, you have never had a real captain before. One who keeps tight control of his department instead of treating them like family and letting them run wild.”

I suppressed a snort and barely managed to stop an eye roll.

“IfI allow you to come back,” he began, stressing that first word. “Your days of independence and free will are over. You will snitch on your colleagues and do whatever I say. If I tell you to jump, the only acceptable answer is,yes, sir.” That hateful smirk curled his lips again. “Understood?”

My blood boiled with cold fury. I wanted to kill this pathetic little man so badly that I could barely think straight. But I couldn’t kill him. Not yet, anyway.

So I buried that hatred deep inside and instead replied, “Yes, sir.”