Chapter 3: The Girl on the Rooftop (3)
1656 Words
Upon receiving the order from the captain, Lucy immediately switched back to the old operating system and responded decisively,
“Okay.”
The others began clearing the scene, escorting Natalie for a medical checkup, retrieving surveillance footage, and tending to their respective tasks. Before long, only Alex and Adrian remained on the rooftop.
Adrian was about to follow the others downstairs when Alex spoke up, stopping him,
“Wait. I have something to say to you.”
The rooftop breeze swept by, carrying with it the soft glow of the fading afternoon sun.
The two men stood facing each other, their silhouettes bathed in a gentle golden light. One had the sharp, stoic presence of granite; the other, soft and melancholic, like an unfinished ink painting.
The world seemed to pause around them, only the wind remained, and the silence between their locked gazes.
Adrian wasn’t short, but standing in front of Alex, he couldn’t help but feel unusually small. Face to face, he estimated the man’s height to be around 6'3".
Unlike Adrian’s slender build, Alex was tall and solidly built. He wasn’t exaggeratedly muscular, but carried a well-proportioned, striking physique, more reminiscent of a runway model than a police officer.
Despite being thirty-two, he looked significantly younger. His short chestnut hair was tousled slightly by the rooftop wind, adding a touch of wildness to his already rugged and masculine features.
His amber eyes were deep, as if they held an entire sky’s worth of secrets, but right now, they carried a sharp edge as they fixed on Adrian.
“Dr. Monroe, you shouldn’t have said that to Natalie,” Alex said, his deep voice carrying a hint of pressure.
It was Adrian’s first time interacting with Alex, and he hadn’t yet figured out the man’s personality or working style. But he had no intention of backing down.
“I was just doing my job,” he replied with a slight shrug. “I don’t believe I said anything wrong.”
Alex frowned, locking eyes with Adrian, his expression serious.
“Then explain it to me, what exactly did you mean by those last words you said to Natalie?” Before Adrian could argue, he added, “I can read lips, so don’t bother trying to dodge the question.”
A flicker of surprise flashed in Adrian’s eyes, but he quickly masked it beneath his usual calm demeanor.
“Just a few words of encouragement, something to give the girl a reason to keep living. No need to blow things out of proportion, Lieutenant Rios.”
To Alex, Adrian’s words sounded more like an excuse than an explanation. He shot back,
“There are plenty of ways to give someone a reason to live. Why did you choose to encourage her to hold on to hatred? Dr. Monroe, I think you’re fully aware of the consequences your words might have had on Natalie.”
“Living with hatred is still better than dying in injustice, isn’t it?” Adrian replied with a smile. Same calm tone, same laid-back demeanor, he truly didn’t believe he’d done anything wrong.
And that was exactly the problem. Alex immediately zeroed in on the flaw in Adrian’s reasoning,
“Why should she live with hatred in the first place? Dr. Monroe, you’re a psychologist, you clearly could’ve chosen a better path, one that might actually help her return to a normal life. Natalie is just a child. How could you be so cruel as to let a girl that young live the rest of her life consumed by hate?”
Adrian raised an eyebrow, then curled his lips into a smile. But unlike before, this time he let out a short, mocking laugh. Though physically smaller, his presence was in no way overshadowed by Alex. He said,
“Seems like Lieutenant Rios had a pretty happy childhood, which is probably why you idealize everything around you and assume everyone else must’ve had the same. Am I right?
But what did Natalie have? A broken home. A drug-addicted mother who died. A bunch of cruel classmates. A body that’s been violated. A sense of self that’s been humiliated.
After everything she’s been through, do you really think she can just go on living a normal life?”
Alex didn’t agree with Adrian’s perspective. He wasn’t idealizing anything, nor was he naïve. He was well aware that the traumatic events Natalie had experienced would leave deep psychological scars.
“What I’m trying to point out is the way you spoke to her,” he said calmly. “Out there on the ledge, Natalie had already been persuaded,, she’d let go of the idea of ending her life. All it needed was the right guidance to bring everything to a peaceful resolution. There was no need for you to use those words, to stir up the hatred inside her.
Don’t you think carrying that kind of hatred on your shoulders makes life unbearably exhausting?”
Exhausting? Adrian didn’t feel that way. To him, living without purpose was far more disorienting and demotivating than carrying the weight of hatred. But he didn’t answer the question directly.
“Too bad,” he said slowly, the corner of his lips curling into a half-smile. “I’m a negotiation specialist, not Natalie’s therapist. My responsibility was to get her back over the railing safely, not to contemplate whether the rest of her life would be exhausting or not.”
The way he said it, calm, casual, almost smug, made Alex feel an overwhelming urge to throw a sack over the guy’s head and beat some sense into him.
“You…”
Alex hadn’t even finished his sentence when Adrian cut him off,
“Lieutenant Rios, you’re the captain of SCIU, not Captain America. So stop pointing that shield of righteousness at me.”
With that, he stepped forward and tapped a few times on the ID badge hanging over Alex’s left chest with his index finger.
As a man in his prime, male, attracted to men, Alex found himself momentarily breathless when the handsome young man suddenly closed the distance between them. For a split second, it felt as if that slender finger had tapped directly on his heart, not on his badge.
“Let’s go, Captain. There’s still a mountain of work waiting for you downstairs.”
Adrian’s warm voice, laced with a hint of allure, brushed past Alex’s ear, making his brow tighten instinctively.
And before he could say a word in response, the arrogant young man had already turned on his heel and walked away with unhurried ease.
Adrian returned home after completing the final procedures with the local police. Meanwhile, Alex and Lucy had to head back to the station and continue working overtime.
As soon as they arrived at the office, Lucy tossed her crossbody leather bag onto her desk and exclaimed excitedly,
“Oh my God, you guys can’t even imagine it, you weren’t at the scene! Today’s negotiation was absolutely spectacular. Our new teammate, Dr. Monroe, is the crème de la crème. I mean, picture this, he was just standing there, looking handsome, refined, and elegant, like a prince straight out of a European Renaissance painting…”
Silas Bennett pushed up his thick glasses and swiveled his computer screen toward Lucy. On it was the rooftop footage from Crownwood High School earlier that afternoon. The message was clear: We may not have been out there, but we know exactly what happened.
Still, that didn’t dampen Lucy’s enthusiasm. She kept rambling on, unfazed,
“Watching it on a screen doesn’t do justice to Dr. Monroe’s presence. Now that he’s joined our team, our captain’s reign as the most handsome man in the LAPD is officially over.”
Obviously, showering a man with praise in front of three other men wasn’t the smartest move.
Marco Delgado, SCIU’s deputy captain, leaned back in his chair and raised an eyebrow as he reminded her,
“Just to be clear, Dr. Adrian Monroe is an external consultant, not an official member of the department.”
Lucy wasn’t having it. She waved off the comment and argued,
“Who cares about official status? What matters is that he’s a certified heartthrob. SCIU isn’t the Dead-end Squad anymore,nwe should rename it the Handsome Squad.”
Elijah Kane rubbed his slightly rounded belly, then patted his soft, chubby cheeks before nodding as if in agreement with Lucy’s new team name.
SCIU was a newly formed unit, filled with young, energetic members who were all fairly good-looking. Even Elijah, though on the softer side, had a round, endearing charm. At twenty-six, his baby-faced features made him look more like a college grad than a seasoned officer.
With Elijah backing her up, Lucy grew even more animated.
“Eli, you know what? Up on the rooftop, Dr. Monroe actually called our captain an i***t. Ha! Can you imagine it? The look on the captain’s face.. ha ha…”
She was so caught up in her storytelling that she didn’t even register Elijah’s increasingly loud throat-clearing, trying to warn her.
“And what exactly did my face look like?” A deep, stern voice spoke up right behind her ear.
Lucy’s expression changed instantly. She turned to Alex with a sheepish smile, trying to win him over.
Alex let out a cold snort and said,
“Seems like you were very invested in this case. You can write the report once it's closed.”
Lucy’s face drained of color as she let out a pitiful wail,
“General! Your humble servant admits her mistake! Please have mercy on your loyal follower!”
Alex waved his hand dismissively, his expression cold and full of ruthless authority.
“Too late. Off to the execution block, three days and three nights of report writing.”
With that, he strode into the office and called out firmly to the team,
“Emergency meeting. Now!”
- Writer
