By the look on Lex’s face, the news was worse than she had thought.

“Colton Fox was killed Thursday night. We don’t know if the gang knew he was a cop or just suspected, but it happened the night this bitch ran her exposé on how you—a white girl—infiltrated a Mexican gang.”

That was years ago, when she was right out of the academy. They knew everything—everything they should never have known.

“Thornton,” she spat.

“I went to bat for you, ran this up to the top, had Thornton reamed a new one. He’s not getting away clean on this. But the damage has been done.”

She sat down because she felt sick. “He needs to be fired. Prosecuted! He got Colton killed. That’s on him. Dammit, that’s on him!”

Tears burned behind her eyes. She and Colton had worked so many ops together that it was like being married. And, yeah, they’d hit the hay together a few times. Relieve stress and all that. But more, they were friends. He was one of the few people she trusted in this business. He’d always had her back... And she always had his, until now.

If she hadn’t been sent away, she could have stopped this.

As if Lex read her mind, he said, “You couldn’t have saved him.”

“I have to work it. You can’t pull this from me.”

“If I let you work it, it would be from behind a desk.”

“You know that won’t do shit! I have to go out. I can change—dye my hair. Get new tats. Remember when I went under at the punk club? No one recognized me, not even you.”

“No.”

“I can—what? No? You can’t mean that. Lex—”

“Do you think I like this? Colton is dead. He was mine, my cop, my responsibility.”

She knew this was hard on Lex, but she couldn’t ride a desk. “Chen—” she began.

He cut her off. “You’ve been burned. Your life is in danger. The feds have the Chen case, and he’s out walking free. He will have you killed, Kara. I can’t let you go out on the street again.”

Kara stared at the face of the reporter, frozen when Lex paused the recording. “I could kill her.” She meant it. The damn reporter and then Bryce Thornton. Colton was dead because of them. First Andy, then Colton. How many good cops had to die? It wasn’t fucking fair! Life isn’t fair, Kara, and you damn well know it.

“There’s another option.”

“I’ll take it. Anything.”

Damn, she sounded desperate. All she wanted was her life back the way it was. And now everything had gone to shit.

“The FBI offered you a position. I’m talking to this assistant director, um, Tony Greer, shortly to hash out the details. Then I’ll bring it to you, okay?”

“I’m not working for the FBI.”

“Listen to me, Kara! You are burned. You can’t work in the field. Hell, I don’t even think you would be safe if I put you in uniform and assigned you to fucking airport duty! You need to leave Los Angeles. Chen is going to put a hit out on you if he hasn’t done it already. And either you leave LA without a badge, or you consider their offer.”