The Price of the Patch

Ines Carvajal has spent two years supervising Bishop Dunne — three years of supervised release, one parole officer, one very long list of things he isn't supposed to do. He shows up an hour late and makes her angry for sport. She returns the favor with paperwork. Then somebody starts burning the Fianna's bars, and Bishop's file turns out to be the best map of the club anyone's ever kept. The Fianna want Ines off the case. Bishop wants her to stop looking at him like a case. She won't do either. She has a badge and a rule book and a very bad feeling about the supplier invoices that keep coming out of the Fianna's legitimate side. He has a patch, a debt, and a name he can't say out loud. They meet in parking lots. They tell each other things they shouldn't. The truth gets filed. The patch comes off. Nobody gets to be the hero. Both of them get to walk away — and neither of them does.