Chapter 33 What remains
The city felt different in the days that followed.
Quieter—not because crime had vanished, but because fear had shifted. D’Angelo’s arrest sent shockwaves through networks that had thrived on silence.
Accounts were frozen.
Shelters fortified.
Names surfaced.
Doors that had stayed shut for decades finally cracked open.
Lucy stood in the sunlight outside one of the shelters, watching girls laugh softly as they planted flowers along the fence.
Small things.
Healing things.
Lucas leaned against his car nearby, sunglasses on, posture relaxed in a way she’d never seen before.
“You look… lighter,” she said as she approached him.
He tilted his head. “So do you.”
She smiled. “I slept for ten hours last night."
He let out a low laugh. “That’s a miracle.”
Lucy thought about Jessie, hoping she was ok out there, wherever out there was.
Even after everything they had been through she always thought of her and she wasn't going to stop until she found her. She owed it to her to find her.
All the memories they had together growing up , the memories they had missed for two and a half years. They constant worry of what had happedened to her, would she ever find her again. How was she would she ever recover from whatever she had been through.
Later that afternoon, Lucy sat across from Detective Scott in a quiet office.
“You could step back now,” Hale said gently.
“Let others take over. You’ve done more than anyone could ask.”
Lucy considered it.
She thought about Marina.
About the envelope on her table.
About the fear—and the fire.
“I don’t want to stop,” she said finally. “But I want to do this smarter. With protection. With accountability.”
Hale nodded. “We’re building a task force. Multi-agency. I want you advising.”
Lucy’s chest tightened—not with fear this time.
“With Lucas involved?” she asked.
Scott raised an eyebrow. “That man scares half the department. But… yes. He gets results.”
She smiled. “Then I’m in.”
She needed this, to keep going to keep helping to save the girls and help them back on their feet. They were owed the time they missed out on and the long road to recovery it took.
If she could help in any way, either preventing more being taken or finding the one who had been taken. Even helping them recover and feel safe afterwards. She would.
That night, Lucy found Lucas on the rooftop of the Bravata building, city lights glowing below.
He was staring out at the skyline, hands in his pockets.
“You’re thinking too loud again,” she said softly.
He smirked. “Getting predictable."
She stepped beside him. “I joined the task force.”
He turned to her, surprise flickering. “You sure?”
“Yes,” she said. “But on my terms.”
He nodded slowly. “That’s the only way you know how to live.”
She looked at him. “And you?”
He exhaled. “I’m stepping back from some things. Letting my people handle what they can. I’m tired of leading through fear.”
Her brows lifted. “You?”
He smiled faintly. “You changed my priorities.”
Her heart warmed. “Careful. That almost sounded healthy.”
He laughed quietly.
Lucas never thought that his priorities would change, Lucy had taught him so much more than he had ever imagined a partner could. She stood up to him, told him what she thought and didnt just agree with him and he respected her for that.
Later, in the quiet of his apartment, Lucy curled against him on the couch, her head on his chest.
The city hummed softly beyond the windows.
“You ever think about what comes next?” she asked.
“All the time,” he admitted. “And it scares me more than war.”
She looked up at him. “Why?”
“Because it’s something I don’t want to lose.”
She smiled gently. “Then don’t.”
He brushed a thumb along her cheek. “Stay.”
It wasn’t a demand.
It wasn’t a command.
It was a question.
She didn’t hesitate.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
He kissed her—slow, warm, full of quiet promise.
Outside, the city continued on—messy, dangerous, beautiful.
Inside, they had built something strong enough to face it.
"I have started a search for Jessie" Lucas sad watching her reaction.
"I don't know how long this will take or what if anything we will find but we need to find her and I won't leave any stone unturned"
Lucy was speechless, he was doing this for her, he knew she needed it and he was now ploughing all his resources into finding Jessie for her.
"I don’t know what to say" Lucy said I a whisper
"Don't get your hopes up, we don't know if there is any traces to find anything. All I can promise you is that I will try"
"Thank you, I am scared.
Scared of what we might find, but I need to try to find her. I need to know" Lucy said
Lucas nodded understanding the unsaid words more than the said words.