24. Bane
CHAPTER 24
BANE
“ C offee?” I said brightly as River shimmied into the kitchen, hitching the leg of my borrowed sweats up. He looked absolutely adorable drowning in a pair of my sweets and one of my hoodies. He’d refused to let me buy him any more, saying he preferred wearing mine. Who was I to argue when seeing him in my clothes settled that possessive part of me?
Never before had I acted this way about one of my exes. I didn’t care what they wore. I suppose if I thought about it, I didn’t really care what they did or the time we spent together. Nothing had ever felt so right as it did with River.
“P-please.” He slipped onto his favorite stool at the end of the breakfast bar. Shadow darted out of his crate to greet him. These two had become inseparable recently, but I didn’t begrudge the dog much, even if it did make snuggle time on the couch challenging.
Knowing someone was here for River when I had to head in to the station was a comfort, especially when I worked nights. Shadow slept on his bed, curled up at his feet, or beside his chest when his nightmares were particularly volatile.
“Here you go.”
I pushed River’s mug across the counter before pouring my own. I made my way over to him and spun him so he faced me and stepped between his legs. “How are you feeling about today?”
“Umm.” River chewed on his abused bottom lip. When his anxiety spiked, he struggled to maintain eye contact with me. We’d had hundreds of difficult conversations over the last few weeks, so I’d learned his tells when he was struggling to process everything. Today was pushing him to the brink.
“I can stay if you’d like me to?” It wasn’t a hollow offer; no matter how important it was for me to be at the station today, I’d drop it all for him. I think he was finally starting to believe me when I told him he’d always come first.
He sighed, and some of the tension eased in his shoulders. Looking at me through his thick lashes, he tried to smile, but it resembled a grimace. “I-I know…but…I-I will be okay. I think?”
“You sure? It’s not a problem.” It would be to Bower, but fuck him. He’d used our relationship to further his own goals, and it had put River in danger. Regardless of whether it was his fault, I was struggling to reconcile a positive working environment with him at the moment.
“Uh huh, yeah?”
“I’ll have my phone with me, so if you need me, just call.” River nodded and wrapped his hands around his steaming mug. He was putting on a brave face for my benefit, but trepidation shone in his dark-green eyes.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
“I am too. It’s not like you haven’t had video calls with Joelle before.” I shrugged, trying to lighten the mood. “It’ll just be the real-life version of that today, but at least you can curl up on the sofa with Shadow, unlike me. I don’t get puppy cuddles at her office.”
River snorted, and a mouthful of coffee sprayed across the granite. I’d take the win, even though it caused a mess. His momentary smile gave my weary heart wings. They were still few and far between, but healing was a marathon, not a sprint. He needed my patience and love above everything else. And those, I could give him in bucket loads.
“You’re amazing, you know?” I brushed a kiss on his forehead and inhaled his sweet cinnamon and orange scent.
The toast popped before River could respond with some of his derisive snark that seemed to be his new defense mechanism. Luckily for me, Joelle dealt with the brunt of it, now that he was feeling comfortable enough to speak in front of her. Montoya, on the other hand, was still a work in progress. I didn’t know what had happened between them the day she’d driven us home from the hospital, but it’d put him on high alert around her.
We chatted aimlessly while we ate our breakfast and consumed copious amounts of coffee. So much so, I swore my blood was pure caffeine by the time I grabbed the keys for my bike. The sun was shining today, and although it had been a rough night, I was feeling positive about today for the both of us. Life with River was like balancing on a knife edge—it was as exhilarating as it was terrifying. Experience had taught me that when things felt like they were going well, it was only a matter of time until the tables turned and we were drowning again.
River was rinsing the dishes as I pulled my boots on, whistling to a tune playing on the radio when my phone rang. It was like time froze as we both turned to look at it vibrating on the counter. His eyes tracked every step as I walked over and picked it up.
“Benson.”
“How long until you’re in?” Montoya asked. The edge to her voice had me standing up straight.
I looked over at River as he closed the dishwasher. “I’m taking the bike, so twenty minutes? I was just waiting for Joelle to arrive. She should be here any minute.”
“That’s… that’s good.”
“Montoya, you sound distracted. What’s going on?” I jumped as River wrapped his arms around me. His touch was just what I needed to soothe the rough edges forming in my mind.
“Is he there?”
“Mhmm.” I tugged his body in tighter to mine, knowing he could hear her loud voice even though I had the phone pressed to my ear.
“Shit. There’s been another body?—”
“Has the vic been identified?”
“Yes. Davis was first on the scene.” River stopped breathing and went rigid in my arms while my mind was running a hundred miles an hour. Davis was first on the scene… that was pretty convenient. Releasing a heavy sigh, Montoya continued. “Dale Underwood.”
“Noooooooo.” River’s harsh cry ground my heart to dust as he collapsed at my feet. Shadow crowded around him and I hung up on Montoya.
“Fuck, angel. I’m so, so sorry.”
He shook his head, tears streaming down his beautiful face. I knelt in front of him, scooped him up into my arms, and carried him over to the couch. River buried his face against the column of my throat, his tears slicking my skin and soaking the collar of my shirt. I didn’t care, as long as being in my arms brought him even a modicum of comfort I’d stay here until I was soaked.
“Y-you need to s-stop...” An inhuman sound got caught in the back of his throat as his fingers sunk into my shoulders. “I... I can’t lose you, B-Bane.”
I ran a soothing hand up and down his back. “You’re not going to lose me. I promise you.” I cupped his face between my palms and brushed away his tears from his cheeks. “I promise.” I kissed his red nose, his eyelids, and his forehead before resting mine against his.
Each of his shuddering breaths rocked through me, slowly unmooring the control I had over my emotions. In my line of work, I had to remain detached, compartmentalize my emotions while retaining empathy, but seeing someone you loved hurt so much made it almost impossible.
“D-don’t m-make promises you c-can’t k-keep.”
“I would—” The doorbell rang, drawing our attention. “Let me get that,” I said, setting River down on the couch and pulling a blanket over him. Shadow jumped up and curled himself into a little black ball behind River’s legs where he had them tucked up on the couch.
“Morning,” Joelle greeted cheerfully when I opened the door. Her smile quickly fell when she saw my face. “What’s happened?”
“River’s had some bad news, but I’m sure he’ll want to talk it through with you.”
“Of course.” She gave me a facsimile of a smile as I motioned her inside and made her way over to River.
“Would you like a coffee before I head out, Joelle?”
“If you’ve got some made, sure. If not, I’ll take some water.”
“Sure.”
Once I’d made them both a coffee and set a couple of bottles of water on the coffee table, I kissed River goodbye. Joelle was fully aware of our relationship, even if she didn’t approve. I refused to temper my love for River around her. I wanted to reassure him at every turn, so he wouldn’t allow his intrusive thoughts to creep in and twist our reality until it was something dark and depraved. He’d had enough of that in his lifetime. I wanted to be his safe harbour.
Holding his face in my hands, I brushed my thumb over his bottom lip. “I can stay if you want me to.”
Blinking through bleary eyes, River shook his head. “N-no. Joelle is here. Sh-she’ll take care of me until you…” His voice fractured and broke, and my heart stalled as emotion stained his face. When would the hits stop coming so he could truly heal and find peace?
“If you’re sure?” I whispered and ghosted my lips over his forehead.
“I am.”
His strength astounded me. This was the second friend he lost, and even though neither of us had said what this meant, we knew. Dahlia wasn’t giving up, and time was running out. We had to take her down before she took us out. With the stakes as high as they were, I would do anything to make that reality come to fruition as soon as possible.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” I squeezed his shoulder before I stepped back and headed to the garage. With a final glance over my shoulder, I saw Joelle hand River a box of Kleenex.
She mouthed, “I’ve got him.” I nodded and headed through the door.
My bike rumbled to life beneath me as I waited for the garage doors to open. The bright sun that had streamed through the blinds earlier was hidden by thick gray clouds, as if the world was mourning another innocent life lost on the battlefield of this underground war that raged unseen by the general population.
The blacktop fell away as I weaved through the downtown traffic, and before I knew it, I was pulling into the station’s parking lot. Montoya leaned against the wall by the back entrance, her right foot resting against the wall as she spun the squad keys around on her finger.
“Be quick. We need to move before the press arrives on the scene.” I nodded in acknowledgement and headed to the locker room to grab my vest. Luckily for me, everyone was preoccupied and focused on their own tasks, so I was in and out in a couple of minutes. It gave me enough time to focus on the job and stow my worries about River away. Joelle would take care of him and would call me if he needed me.
I pushed the door open and Montoya jumped to attention and fell into step beside me. “What do we know about this one?” I asked and held my hand out for the keys.
She deposited them in my hand before running a hand over her slicked-back hair and let loose an exhale. “Davis was out on patrol with one of the rookies, and a call came over the radio about a fire. They were the first ones on the scene.”
Suspicion weaved its way through my mind. Ever since River told me about Davis, my mind hadn’t been able to let go of it. I watched everything he did under a microscope. I just needed to trust my gut, see it through, and get to the bottom of his betrayal.
“Why do I get the feeling you’re not telling me everything?” I yanked my door open and slipped behind the wheel and buckled in. I checked to make sure Montoya had clipped her seatbelt in and raised my brow, waiting for her to give me the full details.
“You’re not wrong. I’m not sure I can believe it until I see it for myself.”
“That makes no sense,” I muttered as I started the engine and pulled out of the parking space and headed to the exit. “Where to?”
As Montoya relayed the address to me, a sense of déjà vu struck, but I shook it off. We merged into the traffic and hit every red light, making her chuckle as my frustration grew. A few minutes passed before my brain finally caught on to the errant thought that had struck when she mentioned the address.
My eyes widened, and I gasped as we hit another red light. “That was the property we raided the other day? But wasn’t Davis’s patrol route on the other side of town?”
“It was,” Montoya confirmed. “Interesting how it’s suddenly nothing but smouldering rubble, and our vic was one of the guys that came in with River. And Davis just happened to be there as it went up in flames?” She glanced over at me, wariness shining in her eyes. “Davis said there was more at the scene, but he wanted to talk to you in person.”
That little bit of information piqued my interest. “Any idea what he meant by that?”
“Not one. You know he can be a skeevy guy and likes to play power games. I think he likes knowing information we don’t.”
“I guess we’ll find out any second,” I muttered as we pulled off onto the driveway of the big house that had belonged to Christine Hamilton, a.k.a. Dahlia. The wrought-iron gates were wide open, and the sweeping driveway curled through woodland before it opened out to where the large Hamptons-style home had once stood. Flames still licked at the western side of the massive structure. Luckily, the fire department was now in attendance and had jets of water dousing what remained of the fire.
We took the secondary driveway where it forked to the left of the main house and drove around to the guest house. Davis’s car was parked in front of the chalet-style apartment that sat over the three-car garage. Smoke from the fire carried thickly on the wind, but I could make out Davis pacing across the grass, having an animated conversation on his phone, when he should have been working the scene with his partner—even if he was a green rookie. What could have possibly been so important that he had to take a personal call right now? As far as I knew, Davis didn’t have a romantic partner or any dependents. The question niggled at my brain. I spotted his rookie leaning against the side of his squad car, staring intently at the open door to the guest house, his green tinged face filled with trepidation.
We pulled up and parked behind Davis’s car and crossed the brick driveway to the rookie, who now stood to attention. His wide-eyed gaze darted between us and Davis as he shuffled on his feet.
“Barnes, how are you doing?” Montoya enquired and shook his hand. Feeling on edge, I folded my arms over my chest and waited for him to respond. The poor kid was white as a sheet, visibly shaken, and struggled to string a sentence together as he explained the sequence of events that preceded our arrival.
“Is Daniel on his way?”
“Yeah? I-I think so? Davis is on the phone to him now… I think? Told m-me to wait for you here.”
“So our vic hasn’t had a positive identification yet?”
“Y-yeah, well, Davis said?—”
“If Daniel and his team haven’t run it, and the vic doesn’t have any ID on them, how did you confirm who they were?” I was losing my patience with the kid. It wasn’t his fault, but I was spiraling. River was at home, grieving another friend he believed was dead, and now there was a chance they might not be.
“D-Davis said he was brought in the night of the hotel raid a-and that was enough for h-him.”
“Alright, Barnes,” Montoya said. “Why don’t you wait here for Daniel to arrive, then send him up to us. We’re going to check out the scene.”
“Sure.” Barnes kicked a stone and shoved his hands into his pockets. But it was the way his eyes kept darting over to Davis that made my hackles rise.
“You got gloves?” she asked and turned in my direction, her brows pinched together in the gloomy light.
“Here you go.” I passed her a pair and turned to Barnes. “Just to confirm, is our victim in there?” I nodded toward the guest house and waited, growing more and more agitated the longer it took him to answer. It was like he was scared of us. I refused to believe it was the crime scene that had put him so on edge.
Chuckling, Barnes eventually responded to my question. “Oh, y-yeah. He’s up in the bedroom, second door on the left after the kitchen.”
Without another word, Montoya and I entered the property and took the stairs up to the first floor.
“Wow. Even with the smoke obscuring it, that view is still gorgeous,” she said as we stepped into the open-plan living room where the floor-to-ceiling glass windows overlooked the grounds and further in the distance the lake I’d taken River to on my bike.
“Benson? You need to come and see this. Now!”
I blinked and realized Montoya had ventured deeper into the apartment, and judging by the alarm in her voice, she was looking at our victim. Turning on my heel, I headed down the tiled hallway in the direction of her voice at a fast clip. Just as I was about to enter the room, she stepped out and stopped me by putting a hand on my chest.
“What?” I grit out through clenched teeth. The set of Montoya’s shoulders put me on edge even more. “Why are you blocking my way?” I tried to sidestep her so I could get into the room, but she anticipated my move and continued to block me. “What the hell?”
She dropped her head to my chest and let loose a harsh breath that chilled me to the bone. Montoya was a hardened cop for a crime scene to do this to her it had to be bad. “Just stay calm, alright? I know why Davis didn’t share this with us, and I think it’s because he wants you to react.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Just let me in there. We have work to do.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Jacob.” I snapped to attention at the use of my first name. “Trust me when I say this is going to be hard. You need to stay calm. He’s pulling something, I just don’t know what.”
I nodded. “Alright.” She grimaced like she didn’t believe me, and to be honest, I didn’t either, but I said what she wanted to hear.
“I’m here for you, okay?” The soft tone of her voice had the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. What fresh kind of hell was I about to walk into?
Montoya stepped back. I moved into what I assumed was the primary bedroom, judging by the expansive floor-to-ceiling picture windows. That should have been the detail to grab my attention—but it wasn’t. My eyes were riveted to the wall behind the bed where red writing—god I hoped it was spray paint and not blood—dripped down the wall in stark contrast to the bright white paint.
“Jesus fucking Christ. Am I seeing things?” My stomach turned to lead as I read the words over and over, then glanced over my shoulder at Montoya, who solemnly shook her head.
“Unfortunately not,” she murmured and stepped over to the body lying sprawled on the bed. “Looks like he was flayed alive.” She cleared her throat, gagging twice. Her golden complexion had paled, perspiration glistened on her skin and at her hairline.
“Are you okay?” I asked, my voice taut with rage, as I forced my gaze to remain fixed on the body, determined not to let the words scrawled on the wall provoke me. The bitter taste of bile rose in my throat, and I clenched my jaw, grinding my molars to hold back the torrent of vitriol threatening to escape. I knew exactly who had left that message—and precisely what it meant. Blinking away the sting of tears, I fought valiantly to wrestle my emotions under control.
“Y-yeah, this...” She gestured toward the mutilated body. Even though dried blood covered his face, it was unmistakably Dale. “This is some twisted shit, right? He looks like his skin was either sliced, or?—”
“No, the cuts aren’t clean enough for a blade. These look more like whip marks that split the skin.” I sighed. I wasn’t an expert, but I’d seen the work of a sadist Dom that had gone too far once, and the wounds were eerily similar. Hauntingly so.
“The most disturbing thing is the lack of blood on the bed. Judging by the amount covering his face and the wound to his neck, I’d say they tortured him before hanging him by his feet.” She gestured to the deep purple-black bruises ringing his ankles. “Then sliced his throat open and drained him dry. Again, this isn’t where he was tortured or killed, but judging by the coagulation of the blood, this was recent.”
“I think it’s safe to assume that he was tortured and killed in the main house, then brought over here and presented like this… for us to find.”
“That would explain why it’s currently a burning pile of rubble,” she said. “For the fire to have consumed the building that well so quickly, I’d be willing to bet they used accelerants to remove all traces of evidence.”
“Ahh, there you two are.” Davis sauntered into the room looking cool, calm and collected and stood at the foot of the bed next to me. “Interesting one, isn’t it? Any idea what that’s referring to?” He gestured with his head toward the wall, an almost taunting tone to his voice and a smirk on his lips.
With my emotions locked down, I slid on my professional mask. “Not a clue. Have you heard from Daniel? We could use his expertise on this.”
Davis grunted. “He’s on his way.”
“Good. We’ll stay until he gets here and get a preliminary report from the fire chief then arrange a follow up. Do you think Barnes is up to manning the gate?”
“Nothing like throwing them in at the deep end.” He chuckled and clutched his gut. “I heard there are reporters gathering down there already. It’ll be a good experience for him.” Slapping me on the back with a little too much force, he continued, “Alright, well now that you two are here, I’m heading out.” Davis shot me a salacious grin that made my skin crawl, saluted Montoya, and left, leaving a foul smell in his wake.
“Today’s going to be a long one,” Montoya muttered under her breath as she stepped out of the room, leaving me alone with a message written in blood that threatened the safety of the one person I cared about more than my job.