Page 377 of Dark Love

“Why not?” she replies with a bit of irritation.

“If you die down there, you let the filth win. Let my friend and I get you out of here. Then if you still want to die, I’ll take you somewhere beautiful.” This wouldn’t be the first time one of the women I’ve rescued decided to take her life. Their memory keeps me out hunting men that traffic and abuse them.

“You’re really here? You aren’t a dream? You’re going to save me?”

How many times has she thought someone was here to save her? “We’re real.” She needs something tangible to believe we aren’t a hallucination. I slip my watch off. “Here. You can hold onto my watch until we get you out of here safely.” Anything else she could use to hurt herself. “Heads up. I’m dropping it down now.”

There’s barely a thunk when it hits the bottom.

“You’re real. You’re really here to rescue me.” She starts sobbing.

This part I don’t do well with. Tears pull me out of the zone I need to be in to get the job done.

The sobbing stops as fast as it started. “Joan. I haven’t heard from her since last night.”

Joan? There’s another woman? He said ‘save them’. There’s another hole! “Is she nearby?” How could I have forgotten in the moment?

“Within shouting distance. I don’t know exactly where. He never lets us see him take another woman out.”

The other woman… Joan has to be nearby. “Is there anyone else?” Why did I stop once we found this one woman?

“Jane was our third… I don’t… I don’t think she’s alive. There’s never more than three… and we heard him digging a new hole.”

Jane was the body in the bedroom. “I’m going to look for Joan now.” It doesn’t take long for me to find another tarp. The edge is barely an inch from the ground when the scent of death hits me. There’s no saving her. If I had arrived… Don’t go there. You can’t change the past and there’s no point in second-guessing your choices.

I took care of Dahlia yesterday. And that’s something I’ll never regret.

“Got it.” Payne rushes over. “Is there another—”

I sharply shake my head at him. “Let’s get set up for me to repel down.”

“I’m going to do it.”

“You?” Payne knows how to do it, but I’m more experienced.

“It only makes sense. You outweigh me by more than fifty pounds. If need be, you can pull me out. There’s no way I’m pulling you out of there.”

He’s right. “Fine. But can you handle what you may see down there?”

“Whatever happened to that woman, she’s alive. And we’re going to do whatever we can to save her.”

Payne’s solid. “Get out of there as fast as you can. I’m ready to leave this place.”

“It should be burned to the ground.”

He’s not wrong. But it won’t be. In a few days, this is going to be the biggest crime scene of the decade.

Together we set up the equipment, and Payne steps over the edge of the pit. “Watch out below.” He starts to rappel down. A few seconds later, his boots hit the dirt with a soft thud. “Throw me down a blanket!”

“It’s not safe with the ropes.” Payne should know that. He’s flustered.

“All right. We’ll figure it out.” His voice gets whisper soft.

If I leaned down and focused hard, I could probably hear what he’s saying, but whatever it is he either doesn’t want me to hear or he’s trying to comfort her before he pulls her up. Either way, I don’t need to know the details.

Dahlia was going to be in one of these pits…

STOP! You can’t lose focus. You can’t let rage rule. Now isn’t the time.

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