Page 78 of The Lies We Believe

“Great.”

I’m showered, changed, and out of my room in ten minutes flat, not willing to linger in my own home. I crossed the hall into River’s room, careful not to touch or disturb anything other than the item I came to collect. Bile lingered on the back of my tongue as I took in all the evidence markers that littered the floor, bed, and doorframe, where a bloody tuft of hair was caught between the splintered wood.

“Keep it together,” I muttered to myself as I stepped over a marker next to a piece of cloth. If I had to make an educated guess, I’d say it was a soaked chloroform rag, or something of that ilk, and was used to either knock River out or disorientate him.

I had told him to put the USB drive somewhere safe, and there was only one place I could think he’d use—the beautifully crafted wooden heart I’d gifted him. If you didn’t know what it was, you’d think it was just another quirky ornament, but I’d lay the outcome of this case on it being in there.

Careful not to leave any new prints, I snatched the heart up and tucked it into the bag I’d packed with some clothes and other essentials for River to use while he was in the hospital. By the time I made it downstairs, Daniel was working on the back door and the deck, going over every inch.

“Daniel?” I called out, and his head popped up from where he’d been kneeling on the decking. “The power was out for the whole street when they took River, but I believe a few of myneighbors have battery backup for their security cameras. Do you think you could get them checked to see if we’ve caught these fuckers’ faces, in case they come for River again while he’s in the hospital?”

He swept his hair back off his face, looking slightly flushed. “Of course. I’ll get Anne on it when she’s back from lunch.”

“Thanks. Keep me updated if you find anything.” I waved him off, grabbed my laptop from its hiding place down the side of the couch, and got back into my car.

By the time I’d parked at the hospital, an idea was crawling around inside my head like an earworm I couldn’t catch. There were pieces of this puzzle that fitted together, but I wasn’t able to find the right placement. I hoped once Montoya and I had gone through whatever was on the USB, that things would be clearer. Keeping River safe was the only thing I could focus on right now, and if I knew twisted individuals like I thought I did, there was a countdown running until they tried to come for him again.

The Mitchell brothers clearly had no issues or conscience when it came to killing. They were far too cavalier with Davis’s body for this to be the first murder they’d ever committed. River’s words from earlier echoed through my mind.

They taunted me about how good it would be to fuck me as I took my last breath and all the things they’d do to the body I left behind.

How long had he lived with that threat hanging over him? If Dahlia knew the Mitchells wanted to do this to him, why did it take so long? Was she using them for something? Did she have leverage on them?

I didn’t know why anyone would want to hurt that beautiful boy. The more time I spent as an officer of the law, the more I learned about the depravities of human nature. The world was full of sick fucks, and I hated I was a part of it.

Jordan stood guard outside River’s room and greeted me with a small smile when I stepped off the elevator. I breezed inside, closing the door behind me. “When did he get here?” I asked Montoya as I settled into my vacated chair. I handed her my laptop before searching my bag for the wooden puzzle heart.

“Bower sent him over after I told him you’d left.”

“Ah.” Guilt lanced through me when I realized I hadn’t enquired how things went after I abandoned them on the way to Lost River. “I’m sorry, I?—”

“I’m going to stop you right there.” I huffed a breath as I poked at the heart, trying to remember the right sequence to open the damn thing. “You did the right thing, so don’t you go feeling guilty for abandoning us, because you didn’t. You went where you were really needed.”

I snorted at her casual dismissal of me walking out of an operation, but who was I to argue with a woman’s logic? “Alright, but how did it go?”

A brilliant smile lit up her face. “As luck would have it, your friend or whatever he is, Boston?” A flush stained her cheeks, and I hid a smirk behind my hand. “Where was I? Oh yeah, your friend Boston had been monitoring the property. When he noticed you didn’t arrive with us, he helped out.”

“He did, did he?” Her flush darkened, and she refused to look at me as she turned my laptop on and did everything possible to ignore me. “That’s all he did?” I nudged her shoulder, but she focused on the collection of photos that made up my screensaver. “So, do you have her in custody?”

“Fuck yes, we do. Boston has some skills!” she said with a level of appreciation I’d never seen in her before. “She’s on a seventy-two hour hold while we secure the evidence to officially charge her. Bower is already getting heat from the mayor, so we need to find something that will stick like shit. Otherwise,she’ll walk, and half our department will be dragged into an investigation, if the Mayor’s threats are anything to go by.”

I glanced over at River, who was still sleeping somewhat peacefully, the little furrow between his brows the only indicator that he was still in pain, even in sleep. I didn’t want to break my promises to him, but with the high possibility his life was still in danger, I had to do everything I could to protect him. “Got it!” Cautious excitement flowed through me as I extracted the USB from the heart and handed it off to Montoya while I stowed the heart back in my bag. Maybe one day I could use it to hide something much more precious for River to find, something he’d wear for the rest of his life.

That thought sparked in my heart as it took root. One day, when we settled somewhere new and recent events were nothing but a distant memory, I’d make River mine in every way humanly possible. It’d tie his soul to mine, so no matter how many lifetimes we lived, we’d always find our way back to each other.

“Pass it over. Let me log in and see what we’ve got.”

“I hope River was right about this,” Montoya murmured as I located the drive and opened it up. “Holy fuck. That’s…that’s…” Hearing her at a loss for words for the first time since we’d met floored me.

River hadn’t been wrong—not at all. My chest swelled with pride for him, for everything he’d sacrificed just to save others from the fate he’d endured for years. Any anger I’d clung to about him running and putting himself in danger melted away. I was in awe of him. Hundreds of meticulously organized files loaded onto my laptop. We had struck gold. Dahlia, or Christine Hamilton, as she had been known to many of the elite, kept details on everything and everyone she’d ever crossed paths with.

We had details of all the individuals on her payroll, from their basic details to where they lived and what part of her operation they worked for. Anything that could be used to incriminate and blackmail them, and details of their families, too. She had records of all the sex workers and slaves and where they worked. Addresses and details on associates and anyone who used her services. Davis was in there, and so was the mayor.

I was riding high when I called Bower and told him what we’d secured. He asked that I send it through to his encrypted server and confirmed he’d liaise with the alphabet agencies to coordinate a cross-country crackdown to take out the biggest players. He was overjoyed at what we’d been able to achieve in the last few days and reluctantly thanked us for all our hard work.

There was one bit of information I kept to myself, and that was the identities of Carter, Eli, and Killian Mitchell. We needed to tread carefully where they were concerned, because it had become apparent that Davis wasn’t our only mole. I refused to risk River’s safety when he was still in such a vulnerable position. I snapped a photo of them with my burner phone and stepped out of the room to talk with Jordan. He was already up to speed on what had gone down and was eager to prove himself.

“Take this with you and go to the security office. Review all the CCTV footage for the last twenty-four hours and see if these three crop up at all. Might be worth putting an alert out on them too, because when they step foot in this hospital, I want to take them down before they get on River’s floor. Got it?”

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