My Thorns (Jenna Ortega X Emma Myers)

Chapter nine

Jenna

Jenna felt numb. She stared at the dead body before her, completely emotionless, as if her soul had left her body and she was left completely empty, drained.

She felt her partner come beside her, barely even flinching when he put his hand on her shoulder like she usually would've. "You okay?" He asked, his tone gentle. He had probably noticed the state she was in.

"Yeah," Jenna breathed out, not moving her gaze from the dead man. "I am."

She had sat on her kitchen floor for what felt like hours, but was probably not even half one, before receiving a call from her captain, telling her that another man had been found dead in his hotel room.

It didn't take a second for Jenna to figure out that it was the one she heard dying a few moments ago.

She felt relieved, to be entirely honest, that they had found him so soon. She couldn't tell anyone about the call, about Enid. But she couldn't stand the thought of going to work the day after knowing that someone had been murdered without doing anything about it. She had chosen that job to protect people.

She didn't feel the same kind of anger as before, though. Instead, she was rather confused. Who was this woman and what was driving her to do that? She said it was revenge, so what had these men done?

"How do you think he died?" Georgie asked after a few seconds, breaking the heavy silence, and Jenna shrugged, turning to face him.

"He has some marks around his neck, like the last one. But it looks like he's been strangled with a wire or something."

"Yeah, I thought so too. D'you think it's the same person who did that?"

Jenna sighed. "I don't know. Could be, the setting is the same, even if the cause of death isn't. We'll wait for the forensic report anyway."

Georgie only hummed, crouching down next to the chair where the body was tied. "This woman is a real freak." He said, and Jenna shook her head sideways, even though he couldn't see her.

"Yeah." She answered, "Yeah, I guess she is."

Before any of them could say another word, the room suddenly went dead silent, all of the cops that were in the room now staring at the door, and both of the detectives turned around to see what had provoked such a reaction from them.

The brunette gulped when she saw her captain standing at the entrance of the hotel room, his gaze, colder than ever, directed right at her as a shiver went down her spine.

What was he even doing here?

He wasn't supposed to visit the crime scene, Jenna wasn't sure she could handle even more pressure put on her. She was barely even holding on.

He didn't say a thing, only gestured to her and Georgie to follow him outside, which they did without saying a word, both knowing that arguing now was useless.

"What are you even doing, Ortega? Huh?" He spat out as soon as they were alone, not even sparing a glance at her partner, and the detective did everything she could not to break at his words.

She was exhausted, still shaken from the call.

She could only stay strong for so long.

"I..."

"No, no don't say a word." He cut her off, "How many people have to die before you learn how to do your job? Do I need to suspend you to get a reaction from you?"

Jenna stayed silent, too afraid to say anything wrong. She knew he wanted her gone more than anything, any wrong step and it was all over. But she wasn't a bad detective, even if he loved to claim otherwise.