The cake was good, although a little too sweet for her taste.
She was sitting on the couch of the breakroom beside Rhys, mostly listening as he caught up with a few of his former colleagues. She smiled as Agent Jones showed her a picture of his newborn baby girl, then got up to grab a coffee from the vending machine.
A woman was already waiting for her coffee, and smiled at Feyre as she grabbed her cup.
"You're miss Archeron, right?"
Startled, Feyre nodded. "I am, yes. How do you know my name?"
"Oh, sorry. I'm Detective Ericksen, I'm in charge of the homicide case that happened at your house." Feyre tensed up, but the detective continued. "I talked to Knight earlier, he told me that you might be interested in getting an update on how things are going."
"Oh. Actually I'd really appreciate that."
"Follow me."
Feyre glanced at Rhys and found him looking at her already. He gave her a reassuring nod, and she smiled in return before following Ericksen out of the room and to her desk, where they both took a seat. The detective opened a file and perused the inside before talking.
"First of all, I want you to know that Detective Knight lied to you that night when he talked about erasing fingerprints from the murder weapon and the body. Those prints, along with his testimony, are more than enough to charge Mr. Hart with first-degree murder."
"Then…" She wasn't sure she was supposed to be asking questions, but Ericksen simply looked at her, so she continued, "why haven't you?"
"We were waiting for Knight to be pulled out of his assignment. Once we arrest Hart and his lawyer gets access to the file through discovery, we couldn't ensure Knight's safety, so we chose to wait a couple of months."
Feyre nodded. She was glad Rhys' safety seemed to have been the priority, even though she wanted Hart to go to jail for what he'd done.
"I don't know if you can tell me this, but what about Tamlin? Will he be arrested too?"
"Mr Atwell? Probably not right away, but eventually, yes, just like Mr Hart. He's an accessory to murder, so he'll face charges. We don't have much on him apart from Knight's testimony, though."
Tamlin would be arrested for helping in covering up Sandy's murder. She wasn't really sure how she was supposed to feel about this. A few months ago, she would have been devastated to imagine him going to jail, but now… Now she was much more at peace with the idea. Another question came to mind, one that she was almost too afraid to ask. But she had to.
"Am I going to be charged with that too?"
Ericksen shook her head. "No. You and Knight have immunity, the thing you signed when you become an informant. We couldn't charge you even if we wanted to." Feyre let out a sigh of relief at that, and Ericksen chuckled. "Don't worry, Miss Archeron. Your job as an informant was extremely valuable, and nobody is forgetting that anytime soon."
It was a little strange to hear, the idea that what she'd done was indeed valuable, and not just something that would be a footnote on a piece of paper. Amren had made it clear that the evidence she had gathered on Tamlin's company's deals with Hybern Inc. would be crucial for their case, but she still had a hard time believing it.
At that moment, Rhys joined them at the desk, taking a seat beside Feyre. Ericksen acknowledged him before focusing her attention on Feyre once more.
"Actually, there was something I wanted to ask you. We've had a full account of the events that led to the homicide thanks to Detective Knight, so I'm fairly clear on what happened that night. But I would be interested in getting your full testimony, too. It would be very useful if we could enter you as an official witness for the case."
"What would that entail?"
"Well, you'd have to give a statement here first, then once the case goes to trial, you will probably have to appear before the court."
"That would mean… It would mean being there with Tamlin and Hart, wouldn't it?"
"Not necessarily. If we deem it necessary, we could have your testimony protected so that you wouldn't have to be in open court. But it's a possibility, yes. We would have you protected, in the eventuality you'd appear in court. And they still wouldn't know anything about your involvement in the investigation against Hybern. Those cases aren't linked directly, so you wouldn't be at risk for that."
"But," she turned to Rhys, "what about you? If you appear in court, won't they know about your true identity?"
He shook his head. "I won't appear in court. It's complicated, but my statement won't have my personal data on it." He leaned forward, and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Feyre, you don't have to say yes if you're not comfortable with this. My testimony is plenty enough to get a conviction, and I don't want you to not feel safe."
She wanted to say yes, she wanted to feel like she could say yes in a heartbeat and not regret her decision. But the idea of seeing Tamlin again was terrifying.
"Do I have to decide right now?"
Rhys shook his head. "No, you don't."
"Well..." Ericksen started, but Feyre saw Rhys throw her a look, and she didn't continue. So Feyre turned back to Ericksen.
"I just… I need some time to think about it."
Ericksen seemed to think for a moment, before she nodded. "Of course, Miss Archeron."
Feyre could feel that her answer wasn't the one the Detective was hoping for, but she couldn't give her a better one right now. Not when she thought of the bruises that were slowly turning a clear yellow on her wrists.
It felt strangely good to be coming back to the house after an afternoon at the precinct. Feyre already knew she loved the place, but settling down on the lounge chairs outside, with a pack of beer and a couple of pizzas, she really felt like she was coming home. Especially with the warm presence of the man seated beside her, currently busy opening a beer for her.
"You've been very quiet since we got home," she started, grabbing the bottle he was handing her. "Is everything okay?"
He nodded slowly. "I'm fine. It's just very strange to be surrounded by all those people all of a sudden. I spent years pushing all of this away, and suddenly I'm eating cake in the break room like not a day has gone by. It's a little insane." He handed her one of the pizza boxes, and she started eating while he kept talking. "It's happy and sad at the same time. Jones had two kids, Martinez got a promotion,... meanwhile I'm trying to remember what it feels like to not have to lie to everybody all the time."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. I knew what I was getting myself into when I accepted the mission, and I'll get over it eventually. It's just that I'm not sure I fit in with them anymore."
"Do you not want to go back to working as a cop?"
He shrugged. "Maybe not. I'm not sure yet, to be honest. Right now all I want is some time to get used to having a normal life again. Being able to connect with people without fearing for my life every second that goes by."
"You connected with me."
The words were out before she even realized what she'd said, and she felt her cheeks heat up when he looked at her.
"True. But you were easy to connect with."
"Really? I'd have thought our meeting was a bad moment for you. What with you unknowingly telling me about a drug deal and all."
He laughed. "It was a stressful night, I'll give you that! But still a good memory," he added with a soft smile, looking directly into her eyes.
"For me too."
They went back to eating for a moment, the sun slowly sinking behind the horizon in front of them. Finally, as Feyre finished an umpteenth slice of pizza and emptied her beer, she said:
"Rhys, can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Your colleagues at the police station, what do you think they think of me?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, to them I'm just the ex-girlfriend of a drug dealer who's enjoying an immunity deal to get out of murder charges."
"Nobody thought that, Feyre."
"How do you know?"
"Well first of all, most of them have no idea who you are. Ericksen knows because she's the lead on the case but that's pretty much it. And I can guarantee you that people don't see you that way when they first meet you. You give off much too positive vibes for people to dislike you."
"Positive vibes?"
He smirked at her, "Very positive."
Saying that, Rhys handed her a new bottle of beer and she grabbed it, enjoying the brush of his fingers against her as their hands met for a brief second. She took a sip of the cold beer and took a second to admire the varied colors of the sunset before asking:
"And what did you think of me?"
"What?"
"What did you think of me when you first met me?"
He stared at her for a second before turning away. "I don't know."
But she had learned how to read him over the last few months, and she knew there was more to it than he admitted. She playfully pushed his elbow to make him look at her again. "Liar! I'm sure you remember."
The colors of the sky were playing tricks on her eyes, because when he answered, she could have sworn he was blushing slightly. "I… I don't wanna say."
"Why?"
"Cause you'll make fun of me."
"No I won't." He raised an eyebrow at that blatant lie. "I won't, I promise." She couldn't hide the excited smile on her face, and she saw him look at her and bite his lip. He looked away again, but this time she could feel the shift in the air between them, and she knew he was going to tell her, so she laid back on her chair and waited. He had been staring at the sky for a good while when his answer came.
"I thought you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen."
She felt her heart starting to race at the answer she hadn't been expecting, but could feel was honest. She wanted to think about how to answer him, but nothing seemed to come to her mind as she looked at him and took him in, a faint smile on his lips as he sipped his beer, his eyes lost in the sky, or maybe lost in the memory of a party so many months ago, on the other side of the river. She wanted to answer, and yet she couldn't seem to be able to form coherent thoughts at the sight of him. But he wasn't done.
"You were leaning on the rail of the garden, in a gorgeous green summer dress, even though the weather wasn't anywhere near good enough for that, and you were so beautiful. But what really got to me was the expression on your face. You were staring at the Rainbow like… like it was a painting, like you were in an art gallery and you were watching a masterpiece in front of you. Your hands were fidgeting around your glass of champagne but you didn't seem to realize it, you were just lost in the landscape in front of you. And you were so beautiful."
For all that she tried, she couldn't look away from him. And suddenly, she felt an urgency inside her, an irrepressible need to tell him what she had kept from him until now.
"It was you."
He turned to her, his eyes still lost for a second before he focused on her. "What?"
"When I left Tamlin, it was because of a painting I made. A painting of the night of the party. I painted the river, and the starry sky, and the Rainbow, and… and you. That's why he was so angry. That's why he came to see you when he was looking for me."
On any other day, she would have expected her confession to make him smirk and tease her, but not tonight. Tonight, she knew he wasn't going to act that way. She could feel the change in the atmosphere around them. It terrified her. She didn't want it to stop.
He looked at her, set his beer on the ground between them and slowly moved his hand to hers, interlacing their fingers.
"What happened to that painting?"
"He destroyed it," she answered in a calm voice, despite the turmoil of emotions that had taken over her body.
His smile faded away. "It's a shame, I would have liked to see it."
She was staring at his eyes, at his lips, at their hands linked together so naturally. And she felt guilty. She released his fingers and turned away, looking at the sunset again, not wanting to meet his eyes for fear of losing control. But she could still feel him staring at her.
Finally, he turned back to the view and said in a taunting voice she knew all too well:
"If you ever want to paint me agan, Darling, I'm all yours."
She rolled her eyes, slapped him lightly on the arm and mumbled an "insufferable" under her breath. But she was grateful to see him go back to a familiar terrain between them. They kept talking as the stars settled around them, the conversation flowing easily between them.