Page 73 of The Lies We Believe

“She’s staying at the mayor’s log cabin in Lost River, about two hours away up in the mountains.”

Completely dumbfounded by that revelation, we headed back into the station, straight to Bower’s office to bring him up to speed and put in the groundwork to make sure the informationwas accurate before we put a plan into place. True to form, Bower’s rage was incandescent. I was certain his bellows could be felt through the station as the foundations shook.

“The fucking mayor? Are you serious?! We need to make sure this is air tight, because if we do this and it’s wrong, none of us will ever be able to get employment again.”

It took three hours of digging and a call to a former colleague who had left the force a few years ago to start his own security firm—one that operated free from the constraints we were bound by. I chose to overlook the likelihood that he was skirting the law, focusing instead on the bigger picture. This was about more than rules; it was about the greater good. We were on a mission to bring down Black Dahlia and save thousands of lives.

“It’s accurate. Thermal images show she’s there with three guards. I like those odds.”

“Thermal?” Bower raised a questioning brow, but I shook my head. He didn’t need to know how I got them, only that they confirmed what we needed to know. “Alright then, we keep this between us. No one else can know. It pains me to say that you two are the only ones I fully trust at the moment. Plus, if we keep this one small, we should be able to slip out unnoticed and be back before anyone works out we’re gone.”

We were all in agreement and spent the next few hours prepping for our trip to Lost River. Luckily for us, my friend also pulled the true blueprints for the property because the ones that had been registered with building control were extremely inaccurate. Bower would work out how to handle the mayor, as that was an issue for another day. Today, we were wholly focused on taking Black Dahlia out at the knees and making sure she would never rise again.

“Remindme again why we’re in this heap of junk.” I moaned as my knees crashed into the dashboard of Montoya’s truck. The damn thing was ready to be scrapped. I’d had to fold into myself so much, my knees were up by my ears.

“Stop whining. You sound like an old man.”

An ear-piercing alarm rendered through the air, freezing the air in my lungs. “No! No, no, no, no.” My hands shook as I tried to get my phone out of my pocket, but it was almost impossible at this angle. “Fuck, no. This can’t be happening,” I growled and yanked at the fucking thing stuck in my pocket.

Montoya cast a wary glance my way as she struggled to keep her eyes on the road. We were halfway to Lost River, about an hour away from home. We were in the middle of nowhere, and I had no means of getting back to Holme Oaks any time soon.

“What’s going on?”

I ignored her and flicked through the apps on my phone, pulling up the one I needed and prayed to every god in heaven and hell that existed that this was just a misunderstanding. False hope was a poisonous thing, because I felt the wrongness of this in the marrow of my bones.

“Stop the car,” I barked and threw open the door before the wheels had even stopped turning, dropping to my knees on the grass verge and emptying the contents of my stomach.

I felt Montoya at my back. She was wisely giving me space, which I was endlessly grateful for. “What’s going on, Benson?”

“I-it’s River.” I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, removing any traces of vomit. There was nothing I could doabout the stench or the taste. “He's left the house and gone beyond the perimeter boundary. His location shows he’s at the quarry pit in the forest behind my house and has been there for over thirty minutes.” I threw my hands up in frustration, fear licking at the edges of my mind. “He knew not to leave. He wouldn’t do that again. He knew the risks…he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t…”

“Okay?” The look of confusion on her face was my undoing. The icy fear turned to fire as my anger flared white hot.

“He knows not to leave the house.” I was aware I was repeating myself like a stuck record. The same thought repeating again and again, as if it would change the outcome. Stupid, so damn stupid, but there was no place for reason now. “He knows Dahlia has been murdering his friends. She threatened to kill him if he didn’t stop this investigation. He stole something from her that could potentially provide enough evidence to make our case ironclad. Beyond irrefutable-fucking-doubt kind of guarantee.”

“What does he have?” Her perfectly arched brow lifted, her inquisitive nature shining in her eyes as she regarded me, unsure if she should intervene or let me have a full on breakdown.

“He took the USB from her laptop.” Her eyes glazed over as she processed what I had just said while I glared at the red dot on my phone, willing it to move. Something it didn’t, and hadn’t done in the last thirty-five minutes. Fuck!

“So when he was?—”

“Yup.”

“He went to her?”

“He did, in a roundabout way.” I dragged my hand down my face, trying to work out what to do.

How did I get from here to there with no transport? Trepidation thrummed in my veins. Every solution that poppedinto my head fizzled out instantly. My mental capacity was shot. I was fucking inadequate. A failure.

I promised him again. And again, I’d failed him. I’d never forgive myself if he was hurt. I’d told him he was more important to me than my work—than this case—but how had I shown him that by being there for him? Hell to the no. No, I’d gone to work and not left for close to thirty hours. River deserved love, and he deserved someone who did what they said they were going to do. Not someone like me who fed him pretty lies. The lies we believed could destroy us, and I was terrified mine were about to do just that.

“For you?” Montoya eventually asked, snapping me out of my mental collapse.

“So he said.”

“Oh my god, that all makes sense now,” she said with a touch of wondrous awe in her voice. “Stay here. I’m going to call Bower. He shouldn’t be far behind us. He can come with me, and you can take his truck and get back there, stat!”

I didn’t possess the wherewithal to thank her for stepping up and taking over. Her ability to think logically could be the difference between life and death. Fuck! I hope that wasn’t the case, but…Nope, don’t even go there, Bane!

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