The detective opened his mouth slightly but couldn't find a word to stand on. Something about Zane's calm didn't feel right. He had seen fear before, but this stillness—it carried something more dangerous.
Violent's mother was the next to explode. She stormed forward, her voice sharp like broken glass.
"They want to take those pictures?" she scoffed. "Then what's left? Nothing! That's the only thing we still have to tie her down! After everything she's done to this family—"
"And now she wants to leave like some innocent victim?" Violent's voice joined, sharp and furious. "We can't let that happen. We let her walk away with those, then we'll never have a way to bring her back to her senses."
Immediately the noise in the room rose like a boiling kettle, voices overlapping, each one laced with venom.
"You useless detective!" Emma's father barked. "You're standing there watching a stranger threaten to force his way into my house? Is this what we pay law enforcement for?"
