It was a fair trade.
I was supposed to be transferred to county that day so when I heard the door open and footsteps coming toward me, I stood up and stretched out the sore muscles from sleeping on a bed meant for a man half my size.
Collings came alone, standing outside the bars and looking at me for a minute.
"I hope you have a clue what a lucky fuck you are," he said, shaking his head.
"What?"
"I had a good woman once. I constantly chose this job over her company until she couldn't take it any more and left my sorry ass like she should have years before. I know a thing or two about what it's like to lose a woman who did nothing but her best for you. So I hope to fuck you don't make the same mistakes I made."
What the fuck was he talking about?
"Collings..." I said, shrugging a shoulder.
At that, he gave me a smile, unlocking the door and pulling it open. "Do you have any idea the kind of hell and headaches your woman has caused in the past forty-eight hours?"
"Janie?" I asked, brows drawing together. I mean, 'hell and headaches' sure had her name written all over it, but I had no idea what he was talking about. Last I heard when I saw my lawyer, she was camping out at the compound. I figured Lo would drop in and drag her stubborn ass back to Hailstorm and help her get her life back on track.
Collings laughed, the sound raspy like he hadn't made the sound in so long the vocal chords they required got dusty. "The one and only."
"What'd she do?" I asked, feeling a pit settle in my stomach. Reign, Cash, and Repo better the fuck have not let her get herself into trouble because of me.
"What hasn't she done?" Collings asked, shrugging a shoulder. "She uncovered unprocessed rape kits and leaked the news to the press about them sitting in storage, implying a police cover up I'm sure we all know has footing. She gave me an olive branch of letting me put my name on those cases and get them off to the lab before the story broke."
"For?" I asked, knowing there was no way she did it just for the fuck of it. She was a logistical pro. That was what she did, next to hacking and making bombs and refusing to use a filter when she spoke.
"A boot print disappearing. It's the only evidence we had on you and she knew it." Of course she did. That was my girl. "But that wasn't enough for Janie."
I felt my lips twitching. "'Course not."
"Now we can't prove any of this, but let's face it, we know who is behind this course of events. My partner, Marco, found himself jumped in an alley next to his apartment. Beat him unconscious. Janie is a strong fighter and all, but no way did she take him down. My money is on her getting one of the Mallicks in on it. Eli, judging by the sheer violence he inflicted. But she still wasn't done..."
Jesus Christ. Had she slept at all?
"She must have smelled something on Marco that didn't sit right with her because she did some digging. In that digging, she found something that the force missed when they accepted him. And that is a connection to the Abruzzo family. So naturally your little spitfire paid a visit to the Grassi family who paid a visit to Marco who suddenly signed out of the hospital and promptly went missing." Collings paused, shaking his head, a strange smile toying at his lips. "I've got to say, I knew women could bring a wrath that makes the plague of locusts look merciful, but Janie is in a league her own."
"Telling me things I know," I shrugged, though inside my heart felt like it was going to bust free of the confines of my ribcage. She was on a tear. I should have known there was no way she was just laying low over at the compound painting her nails and challenging the guys to grappling contests.
"Well let me tell you a bit more about the repercussions of your woman's little rampage. Such as IA coming in to investigate. Now I bet Marco is going to have a lot of blame fall onto his head. He's the perfect scapegoat. He's gone. He wasn't on the force for long. All of his open cases are being gone over by other detectives. And, well, it's the damndest thing..." he trailed off, brows lifted in confusion, but he was smiling.
"Damdest thing?"
"All the evidence in your case seems to have never existed in the first place."
"You don't say," I said, feeling the smile spread.
"Crazy, that. Marco must have been one crooked son of a bitch to frame a good, upstanding citizen such as yourself."
"Damn straight," I agreed.
"So needless to say, you're free to go with the full apologies of the NBPD for your unlawful detainment. We'll get you your clothes back and call someone to pick you up. Janie, I assume?"
I felt my head shaking. "Reign," I corrected.
"Now listen here, son..." Collings started, sounding almost agitated at the idea that Janie went through all she did for nothing. "Did you not hear a thing I said about good women? And Janie, lawlessness aside, is as good as it gets."
"Know that," I agreed, nodding.
"Then why the hell don't you want her to come and pick you up?"
"What time is it?" I asked.
Collings' brows drew together and he reached for his cell. "Six-fifteen."
"Last time she caused chaos?"
"Yesterday afternoon," Collings supplied.
"She's sleeping."
Collings' head jerked back, brows drawing together. Then he considered me for a moment and nodded. "You know, Wolf, all lawlessness aside for you as well, I think you're probably a pretty decent man too." He paused. "When that news story broke, Wolf? There were pictures. The women's faces were blurred out but what was being done to them..." he shook his head. "But even masked, the resemblance was too strong to deny. One of those women was a very young, very brutalized Janie." I closed my eyes tight against that image, swallowing past the bile that rose up my throat. One day, I hoped that image would fade for me, just like I hoped it would fade for her. Until that day, I was okay with shouldering some of that with her.