You're a US police officer, what are you thinking about going back to the East for?

"Boss, have some decency."

Mia tilted her head back and looked at the ceiling:

"You were sleeping soundly in the operating room, while I was outside wiping your butt all night."

"The use-of-force report, the vehicle damage assessment, the suspect's death certificate... and the testimonies of those ACU old men—they're all full of loopholes, full of holes! I have to patch them all up one by one!"

"That old bastard Harrison said his hand hurt and he couldn't write, so he pushed all the stuff onto me!"

Mia turned her head and glared at Leon with deep resentment:

"I just dozed off for less than half an hour. I was thinking of going home to catch up on my sleep, but I just couldn't stay awake any longer. But then I thought you weren't quite dead yet, so I came to check on you... Looks like I was overthinking it. You look better than me."

"Wow."

Leon glanced at her with some surprise.

This guy still came to see me right away despite having such huge dark circles under his eyes. Even if it was just to complain, he still showed some consideration.

"That's quite touching. So, you came all this way just to see me?"

Stop being so vain.

Mia rolled her eyes, leaned back, and prepared to launch into a new round of rants.

However, she had just opened her mouth, but hadn't uttered a single word.

"Shhh."

Leon suddenly extended a finger and pressed it against her lips.

Mia paused for a moment, her mind a little slow due to lack of sleep, and instinctively shut her mouth, thinking that some important person or reporter had come to the door again.

"What's wrong? Sterling's here?" she asked nervously in a low voice.

"Nobody's coming."

Lyon withdrew his hand, his uncharacteristically serious expression vanishing from his usual carefree smile.

He reached out and grabbed Mia's wrist, pulling it slightly.

Mia gasped, staggered forward two steps, and fell onto the edge of the bed, forced to sit very close to Leon.

"Listen, Mia."

Leon looked into her eyes, his voice low and serious, not like he was joking:

"For the next period of time, try not to wander around anywhere other than the police station and home."

"If you feel unwell, or anything seems wrong, even if you just feel like someone is watching you, call me immediately. No matter what time it is, no matter what I'm doing."

Mia blinked, still a little dazed, and instinctively asked, "How so?"

"Because we blew the sky apart last night."

Leon tapped his fingers lightly on the edge of the bed:

"More than a dozen people died, including mercenaries. Although the gang has been scattered, Marcus is still alive, and the others haven't made a move yet."

"They might seek revenge on me. If they can't find me, or if they think I'm too difficult to deal with, they'll turn their attention to the people around me."

"You're my clerk, and the one who was constantly by my side yesterday, and you're not some brute like Jacob. In their eyes, you're just an easy target."

Mia's heart skipped a beat upon hearing these words.

A strange feeling welled up inside me.

"cut……"

She turned her head away, trying to conceal her fleeting moment of attraction with her usual nonchalant and jaded demeanor, stubbornly saying:

"Boss, you're taking me way too seriously."

"I'm just a report writer, picking up scraps from your trail."

"Is she considered someone close to us? We're not really that close, are we? At most, we're... well, an unfortunate superior-subordinate relationship that's forced upon us?"

She tried to distance herself from the relationship to reduce the ambiguity that left her feeling somewhat bewildered.

However, Lyon did not respond.

He leaned forward slightly, his eyes fixed on Mia's face with a playful expression, staring straight at her.

They neither spoke nor refuted.

It's just keeping an eye on it.

His eyes were saying, "Keep making this up, let's see if you can fool yourself."

one second.

two seconds.

Five seconds.

Under this extremely aggressive gaze, Mia's eyes began to dart around, and she dared not meet Leon's gaze, her hands unconsciously gripping the hem of her clothes.

The temperature on my cheeks began to rise uncontrollably, and a feeling of heat crept up my neck and up to my ears.

That's so unfair!

This guy is already handsome, and now he stares at people with that kind of gaze. Who can resist that?

Finally, Mia broke down.

"Stop! Stop, stop, stop!"

She abruptly raised her hand, blocking Leon's view, and turned her head to the side in a gesture of surrender, her voice tinged with exasperated embarrassment:

"Okay, okay, I got it, stop watching!"

"Are you trying to cremate me right here in this hospital room with your eyes?!"

"I'll be careful. I'll lock the door when I get home from get off work, buy pepper spray, and put the gun under my pillow, okay?!"

Leon smiled with satisfaction as he watched her blushing and flustered appearance, then leaned back on the pillow and withdrew his intensely threatening gaze.

"That's right."

"As my personal clerk, your life is quite valuable. After all, it's not easy to find another partner as obedient as you who can also make me happy."

"Get out!"

Mia cursed, stood up and straightened her clothes. She felt that the air in the ward was too thin, and if she stayed any longer, she was afraid that she would do something stupid because of lack of oxygen.

"I'm leaving! Going back to sleep!"

She grabbed the folder and rushed towards the door as if fleeing.

"Remember to close the door behind you."

Lyon's lazy voice came from behind.

"Bang!"

……

In the senior office of the Department of the Interior (IA), the blinds were drawn tightly shut, and there was a musty smell of tobacco in the air.

Stone was holding a freshly printed field report, the ink still wet, when he slammed it onto his boss's mahogany desk.

"Sir, this is utterly lawless!"

"Look at this! A gunfight in the industrial zone. More than a dozen people are dead, more than a dozen bodies!"

"According to standard procedure, the medical examiner's office (ME) should enter the site to conduct a scene examination, autopsy, and ballistics analysis, and then seal the body."

"And what happened? Those guys from the West District Precinct just called in a third-party outsourcing company!"

"No forensic pathologist was present, no coroner signed off, and they didn't even enter the body bag numbers into the system. They just hauled away the gangsters' bodies like garbage!"

Stone became increasingly agitated as he spoke, spittle flying everywhere:

"This is a serious violation; it constitutes tampering with a crime scene and destroying evidence!"

"If this is all okay, then what's the point of having our Internal Affairs Department? To clean up their messes? I'm requesting Vance's suspension immediately!"

The head of the internal affairs department, an old man with gray hair and deep nasolabial folds on his face, was sitting behind his desk, slowly trimming a cigar with scissors.

He listened to Stone's roar without even lifting his eyelids until Stone finished speaking, at which point he slowly put down the scissors and let out a meaningful sigh.

"Are you done talking?"

The supervisor looked up, his eyes showing no surprise, but rather a weary expression as if he were looking at an idiot.

"Stone, you're an excellent investigator, and I admire your adherence to the rules. But..."

The supervisor had a cigar in his mouth, but didn't light it.

"Some things are not that simple."

"It's not that simple?"

Stone paused for a moment, then let out a cold laugh.

"Sir, don't tell me it's that woman Sterling putting pressure on us again."

"I know she has connections, but can she really control everything, even deciding how to dispose of a corpse?"

"If it were just her, I might be able to hold on."

The supervisor shook his head, leaned back, and the chair creaked.

"But this time, it's not just her."

He stretched out his finger, pointed to the ceiling, then to the floor, and finally made a shushing gesture.

"Stone, use your brain."

"The water here is deeper than Puget Sound."

The supervisor lowered his voice, his tone becoming cryptic and ambiguous, typical of a riddle teller:

"This is not a matter of a few police officers violating regulations."

"Let's not talk about the professors at the medical school or the owners of private laboratories, since they were just dragged into this incidentally."

"There are other important figures whose names I cannot mention who cannot allow these bodies to be taken for testing."

Stone was completely confused, but a chill inexplicably ran down his spine.

"But...that's evidence..." He was still trying to struggle.

"No buts."

The supervisor's face suddenly darkened, and his tone became unusually cold:

"Listen, Stone."

"About Vance, and that pile of corpses."

"Green lights all the way. Play dead. Don't cause trouble."

"If you don't want your desk to be emptied tomorrow morning, or to be relegated to the basement to sort through traffic tickets from fifty years ago, put away your damn sense of justice."

"This matter involves too many people and a very dense network of interests."

"Those who understand, understand; those who don't, there's no point in me explaining, because once some things are said out loud, no one will have a good outcome."

"Now, take your files and get out. Forget about it, just pretend those people never existed."

Stone opened his mouth, looking at his supervisor's expression that said, "Say one more word and you're dead."

In the end, he could only pick up the documents on the table with trembling hands, grit his teeth, and turn and walk out of the office without saying a word.