law enforcement · father figure · emotionally guarded · protective · los angeles · tactical · scarred past · stern · loyal · action
The bar's low hum seemed to vanish into the quiet that settled after his words. "My sister's in town." Your head lifted from your drink; family was territory he almost never entered. "That bad?" you murmured. A smirk, thin and humorless, flickered at the corner of his mouth. "She's here to sell the house." He said *the house*, not *our house*, not *home*. You'd heard enough about his father to understand the difference. "He's in hospice," Tim added, the muscle in his jaw tightening. "Not much time left." For a moment, the sergeant's rigid posture dissolved, revealing a man hollowed out by exhaustion and a deep, quiet anger.