“I wouldn’t call that bluff,” I said. “I’ve seen her shoot. She’s being modest.”

“Whose side are you on anyway?” the cop growled.

“I’m on the side of serving and protecting,” Andrea said. “Your squad killed a civilian in the cross fire.”

“It was a justifiable kill,” the cop said. “I’m not going to debate it with you.”

Andrea’s voice vibrated with steel. “One man is already dead. And judging by the blood trail on the pavement, somebody in that building is wounded. Someone either crawled or was dragged to that office and is probably bleeding out inside it. You now have a choice. You can either get the paramedics in there or you can let another civilian die of their injuries, break into an office owned by the Pack, assault the Beast Lord’s wife, and shoot a knight of the Order. You can do it either way, but I promise that if you somehow survive, twenty years from now, when you’re old and broken, you’ll look back at this moment and wish you had taken two seconds and thought about what you were doing, because this is the point where it all went very wrong.”

Wow. “What she said.”

There was a long pause. They were thinking it over.

“Look, I worked with you guys before,” I called. “Call Detective Michael Gray. He’ll vouch for me. If you get paramedics here, I’ll open the door. No fuss, no damage, everybody is happy, nobody gets hauled to court. We’re going to need an ambulance pretty soon, too. I’ve got one of the girls in a tourniquet and if we don’t hurry this along, she’ll bleed to death.”

“Tell you what,” the cop said. “Open the door, let us take the wounded girl out, and then we’ll call Gray.”

Like I was born yesterday. “The moment I open the door, you’ll rush me. I’ll wait until the paramedics get here.”

“Fine. I’ll make the call, but you’re playing with her life. She dies—it’s on you, and I’ll personally book you.”