Bound

5:

The break room smelled like peaches as Ace walked in. Severine was inhaling the steam from her cup while she waited for her tea to steep, and briefly glanced back at his entrance. She knew his eyes were already raking over her, stopping at her ass before he smirked.

Ace's indispensability on the force fed his ego, and he never had to feign professionalism when it wasn't required of him. He was a shooter, and the best pair of eyes you could have on your back if you needed cover.

He loudly bit into a red apple as he leaned onto the edge of a counter, and Severine turned around, obstructing his view of her behind.

"Eyes up here, Ace," she muttered.
"That's no fun," he crunched on his apple, and flashed a bright grin she couldn't detest if she tried. His unabashed flirtation got shot down every time, but he was playfully relentless.

"How will I ever convince you I'm not just a glorified bodyguard if you never let me?" he winked, reminding her of the insult she'd hurled at him not too long ago.

"Let her what?" Jules interrupted as he walked into the room, and Ace cleared his throat. Severine caught the look Jules shot in Ace's direction before he turned to her.

"You ready?" he asked, and she nodded as he stepped aside to give her a head start. He held the door open for her, and the two men followed Severine on the short walk down the hallway and into the interrogation room. After swiping all of their access cards at the door, they stood in front of the double-paned one-way mirror.

They watched through the glass as an officer escorted a man into the room. He was released from his handcuffs, and lowered into one of the two metal chairs at the table, only to be handcuffed again into the pair of bracelets attached to a steel plate on the surface of the table.

"I'm going in," Jules announced, and pushed the door into room. Severine pressed a button on the dashboard under the glass, and the microphones crackled to life.

Jules shrugged his black suit jacket off as he stepped in front of the table, and draped it over the back of the chair. He took his time neatly rolling up the sleeves of his shirt to his elbows, and then pulled the chair out. Severine huffed impatiently as she watched him slowly pace from one corner of the room to the other.

Cairo Reyes was sitting with his head down, and his shackled hands buried in shoulder-length curls. When he looked up, he made an effort not to look defeated, despite the dark purple-tinged circles under his eyes.

"Do you want anything to eat? Drink?" Jules asked, his voice soothing like a tranquilizer.
"No," Cairo responded curtly. Jules opened the mini-fridge in the corner of the room, and pulled a small, chilled bottle of water into his hand.
He twisted the top open, and placed it in front of Cairo, keeping the cap in his hand.

Severine shifted her weight on her heels, gritting her teeth in impatience. Jules was moving slow - not her preferred method.

"He's the best at what he does. Let him work," Ace assured her, and then reclined back into a leather chair. He kicked his feet up onto the panel below the glass, and grinned up at her. "This might take a while."

"Look, Cairo," Jules addressed him informally as he walked around the table, and slipped a key into the handcuffs to free his wrists. "The truth is, we don't even have to have this conversation. We recovered enough evidence from your apartment to pin you to Hugo Gallo's network. You've laundered over $40 million of stolen assets. Made them legitimate and accessible to Gallo and his criminal network."
"We can cut this short, and you'll walk out of here in a few minutes. You'll be back in a cell you'll be spending the rest of your life in," Jules went on in the same measured tone, and Cairo rubbed at the red marks on his wrists. "An eight-by-six foot box, where you won't even feel safe, because there's no telling when Hugo decides you need to be disposed of for knowing as much as you do."