Page 11 of The Lies We Believe

Where are Dale, Gabe, and Max?

“Were they with you at the hotel?” He winced and nodded. “Have you known them long?” I pushed the pad back across to him and kept talking. “I’ll find out for you once we’re done here.” It was my turn to wince at how heartless my words sounded, but if I came away empty-handed, I doubted Bower would let metake River home and look after him, no matter how important he might be for the case.

A whimpering whine tore its way from his chest as he glared at me. His fist crashed into the table, knocking over the bottles of water. We sat there watching them as they rolled to the floor, animosity building in the tense air.

“I—” River cut me off as he banged on the table again, frustration staining his pale cheeks. I held my hands up in surrender. “If I find out about them, will you talk to me?” A tear trickled down his right cheek as he released a pained breath. I held mine, waiting to see if my compromise would work. The ticking of the minute hand on the clock grew louder and louder as time stretched between us. Eventually, he gave one succinct nod. I was up, out of my seat, and out the door before I’d even blinked.

“Everything alright, Benson?” Montoya asked as I tapped her on the shoulder.

Scrubbing my hand over my face, I slumped into my chair and tucked my hands under my legs to hide how much they shook. “Uh, yeah. Do we have an update on the guys that were brought in with River?”

“Sure, I’ll see what we’ve got on them.” Her fingers clacked away on the keys as she searched the system. The rest of the floor had cleared out, bar a couple of rookies who were practically rocking in the corner, a haunted look in their eyes.

“Nixon on the warpath?”

Montoya snorted. “The guy’s an ass, and when he gets fired up, even the photocopier wants to run and hide. Poor kids.”

“Can’t believe he’s still here. The old guy does nothing but shout at people.”

“True, but I believe he has friends in high places, so he gets away with more than anyone.”

“Makes me sick. I joined to help people, not deal with that,” I muttered.

“I know, Benson.” She sighed and tightened her messy bun. “Right. Here we go. So, I have Dale Underwood, Gabriel Drake, and Max Woolf. All have priors?—”

“I don’t care about their pasts. I just want to know if they’re okay and what’s happening with them.”

She turned and smiled up at me, and for once, it wasn’t a mocking one. “You can tell your boy they’re all out. Officers took them to a local hostel, as they refused to give any information. Wait, no.”

“What?”

“They said a woman named Dahlia held them…” Her voice trailed off, her breath hitching. My eyes widened as she kept talking. “Shit. Black Dahlia? I knew that bitch was in deeper than just a strip club. Fuck!”

“If she’s who we’re looking for, we’ll take her down,” I reassured her. Montoya nodded, even though she didn’t look convinced.

Black Dahila had a well-known reputation for operating a seedy as fuck chain of strip clubs in the surrounding towns. There were rumors that the girls and guys that worked there went missing from time to time, but nothing we could prove. Police had raided the establishments once or twice because undercover agents suspected the dancers were kids, but that woman was as slippery as fuck, and every raid turned up nothing but air.

This investigation was now personal to not only me, but Montoya as well. A couple of years back, twins went missing from the neighborhood that she grew up in, and where her parents still lived. They vanished one day from their front yard. Their mom had gone inside to grab their drinks, and when she came out, they were gone. Eight months later, hikers foundtheir bodies dumped at a rest stop close to Little Rock. The perpetrators had assaulted them in every way imaginable, and the trauma their bodies had endured would have been enough to kill them without the heavy presence of drugs in their systems. The thing that stuck out—that has haunted me—was the flower found tattooed on the inside of their thighs. A black dahlia. It was a calling card, a sign of ownership, and one I couldn’t scour from my mind.

“Thanks.” I squeezed her shoulder. “We won’t let them get away with it again, no matter what it takes.”

“These operations are like a damn hydra, though. Take one of the bad guys out and four more pop up to take their place. It’s a war we can’t win, Benson. And I hate that.” She stared back at me, desolation leaching the normal healthy glow from her face. She wasn’t wrong; we were fighting an unwinnable war, but it was one I’d never give up on.

“You and me both. But if taking out one of them saves a child’s innocence, then we’ve done some good. Maybe not enough, but one day….” She hummed in agreement and turned back to her screen, but I didn’t miss the way she dabbed at her eyes.

The newsabout his friends tempered River’s grim mood, at least for now. It was like his walls cracked, and I got a glimpse of what he’d been trying to hide. He cared deeply about those around him, especially if they were unjustly hurt. It irked me how he didn’t seem to hold his own safety to such a highstandard, but I would make sure he learned to value himself and what he had to offer to the world.

The afternoon was an eye opener and would remain ingrained in my memory for as long as I breathed. His messy scrawl filled almost half of the notebook by the time we wrapped up. Each word of his suffering and torment was branded on my soul, even though it was just the tip of the iceberg. They flayed me open with a thousand cuts that felt like they would never heal, but I knew no matter how much it hurt me to read them, it was nothing but a dreary shadow of what he’d experienced.

Guilt ate away at me the more he divulged. My life might have had its own share of heartache and pain, but his continued suffering was incomprehensible. Tears burned my eyes as they spilled down my cheeks, and raw emotion grated through every part of me. I wanted to scream for the injustice he’d endured, to wrap him up in a heated blanket and hide him away from the world like a dragon hoarding treasure.

River was a treasure. He might not see it, but I did, and I’d do whatever it took to make him see how worthy he was of living. Of love.

Thanks to the information River provided, I’d been able to petition Bower into allowing him to be in protective custody with me, rather than with a random uniformed officer at a safe house. I just hoped I could make him feel safe enough to allow me to breach his walls and help him heal.

The urge to take care of him should have scared me with the intensity it flowed through me, but it didn’t. Instead, it settled a part of me that had always been searching for something, like it had needed a purpose and now it finally had one.

As we stepped out of the station, vibrant pinks and oranges filled the sky. The sun was a molten ball, slowly descending below the horizon of building roof tops. Cool wind tickled acrossmy cheeks and rustled the leaves on the trees that lined the street.

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