29. Bane
CHAPTER 29
BANE
“ B enson?!” Montoya burst through the door to the changing room like a bull in a china shop. “Get up and come with me. We’ve got a,” she glanced around the room and lowered her voice, “visitor.”
“Now?” Marco, our informant, was the last person I expected to see this morning, especially after last night’s epic disaster. I looked at her in confusion, but pushed my sorry ass up and dragged myself over to her.
“Yes, he said you wouldn’t want to miss this.”
“I’ll just bet he did,” I muttered as I followed her through the station and out the back entrance to the parking lot.
We both checked the coast was clear and moved swiftly across the blacktop through the tree line that separated the station grounds from one of Holm Oaks rolling parks. “Did he tell you anything else?”
“Nope, but he said he wanted to go into protective custody.”
I snorted. “I’m sure that can be arranged.”
It just won’t be the type he’s expecting. There will be no twenty-four-seven guard or relocation to another state for this moron. I know Bower doubts his authenticity, but Marco doesn’t have two brain cells to rub together. The only thing he cares about is coming out on top, and he thinks his deal with us will provide him with that. I can’t wait for reality to slap him over the head.
“There he is.” Montoya pointed to the lone figure sitting under the large weeping willow on a partially hidden park bench. “Should we bring him in after this, give him just enough to think he’s safe, then book him?”
“I love the way your mind works.” She turned a beaming smile my way. I was grateful for this moment of levity and prayed that whatever Marco was about to divulge, along with that goddamn USB drive River risked his life for, gives us enough to lock this case down. Then I can hand in my badge and start over somewhere with River.
“Marco.” Montoya leaned against the back of the bench, facing me. To the casual observer, it looked like we were just chatting and had nothing to do with the guy in a puffer coat with his hood pulled up.
She was more than capable of handling this meeting on her own, but we were partners, and I’d never put her in a position of going out without backup. You could never be too careful in our line of work, especially when it came to informants and turncoats. If they were willing to betray the people they were meant to be loyal to, then they wouldn’t have any qualms fucking us over either.
“What have you got for us?”
Marco shuffled on his seat and stuck his hand in his jacket pocket. I tensed, my hand circling my gun, poised to draw it at a moment’s notice if it was required. “I know where she is and why you haven’t been able to find her.”
“How?” I bit out, tension rolling through the muscles in my arms.
“You’ve got a leak, a big one. The guy has been on her payroll for years. And there are others that will surprise you.” He pulled a rolled-up magazine out of his pocket, opened it, then dropped it in the trash can next to him. “Names and locations are in there.”
Montoya pulled some gum from her pocket, popped it in her mouth, and stepped over the bin. After casting a covert glance around, she lifted the magazine and tucked it under her arm before sauntering over to the edge of the lake bordering the park.
“If this comes through, we’ll get things sorted for you. Until then, sit tight.”
Marco scoffed and muttered under his breath before stalking off in the opposite direction. I stayed where I was and kept an eye on the few people walking around the park this early in the morning. When I didn’t spot any suspicious activity, I whistled the tune to I Ain’t Worried by OneRepublic and strolled back to the station, knowing Montoya was hot on my heels.
Once we made it back to the lot, I pulled the squad keys out and unlocked it. Once we were inside, I turned to Montoya. “So?”
She tipped her head back on her shoulders and looked at the roof, her fingers playing with the pages of the magazine. “He knows Davis is our leak.” My eyes bugged out of my head in shock. A small smile flickered at the corners of her lips. “He also knows where Dahlia is, and you’re not going to like it. If we take this to Bower, he’s going to blow up.”
“Why?”
“Because this goes all the way to the top. It’s the perfect cover. She’s a genius, really.”
I shook my head. “Where is she?”
“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 information was 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.
“Remind me 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 do about 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 popped into 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!
Forty minutes, a heated argument with Bower, and a bellowed “Fuck off! River’s more important than any case!” while I liberated his truck later, I was tearing down the road, sirens wailing and lights flashing, as if clearing the way could silence the panic pounding in my chest. Ignoring speed limits, I pushed Bower’s truck to devour the miles of blacktop separating me from the one person who made my heart beat. Taking the corner onto my street, I drifted into a wide arc at double the safe speed, the urgency in my veins growing stronger with every eerie, passing second.
The violent tremors rolling down my arms and legs weren’t fear—they were pure chemical overload. My body didn’t know how to process the chaos, but it harnessed the energy, fueling me for however long it took to reach River and make sure he was okay.
The tires hit the curb with a bone-jarring jolt, launching the truck into the air before it slammed back down onto my driveway, skidding to a halt. I flung the door open and vaulted out so quickly my legs buckled beneath me. My hand shot out, grabbing the doorframe just in time to stop myself from hitting the pavement. My stomach churned violently, like I was a ship caught in a relentless storm, the taste of vomit an ever-present reminder of my dire situation.
“Fuck,” I gritted out when I realized I’d dropped my phone. It should have been easy to find under the security light that should have come on when I pulled into the driveway, but it was pitch black, almost like someone had cut the wiring to the house. I glanced around, noticing the blanket of darkness covering the entire street. Things were going from bad to worse. I couldn’t see a damn thing.
“There you are.” I breathed a sigh of relief when a notification of some kind lit up my screen so I could find it. Flicking the ad away, I tracked River’s location. It had moved, but not far. Not enough. Alarm bells rang in my head.
Trusting my instincts, I called the local ambulance station and got Sharon’s husband, John, on the line. I gave him the lowdown on the situation as I raced across the backyard, out through the gate that should have been impossible to open, and broke through the tree line into the woods beyond. Branches smacked me in the face, but I didn’t feel them. I felt like I could walk through fire, and it wouldn’t touch me. With only the app and the torch on my phone to guide me, I ran like the wild hunt was chasing me.
“Drop Sharon your location, Jacob. She’s visiting a friend just around the corner. She’ll come help you until we get there. Stay calm and look at everything?—”
“Fucking stay calm?!” I bellowed and cut him off. How the fuck could I? Distracted by sending Sharon my location, I lost sight of where I was going for a split second. Ow! I tripped over something that took my legs out from underneath me. My momentum propelled me into the air before I could react.
Luckily, I managed to tuck and roll without injuring myself because if I had, I would have torn the heavens from the sky in my anger if anything had dared to stop me from finding River. The existential dread suffocating me grew stronger every second he wasn’t in my sight. I turned my phone in the direction I’d come and found a poorly obscured body. This wasn’t a good sign. What the hell had happened here tonight? I dusted myself off and quickly checked them over, horrified by what I saw until it registered who it was. Two bullet wounds, one to the head, the other to the chest. There was no way Davis could have survived that.
“Karma is having a hell of a day,” I growled. “Because if she hadn’t killed you, I would have. If you’re the reason River is hurt, I will find you and make you pay, Davis.” I shook my head and pumped my clenched fist. “Death is too fucking easy for you, you fucking piece of shit. You got what you deserved. Enjoy hell.”
With one last dismissive look at Davis’s body, I started running. I knew I should have called it in, but I had somewhere far more important to be, with someone who held my life in their hands. It was almost impossible to navigate my way through the wild and untamed woods, but they blurred as my vision tunneled, like I was looking through the sight of a gun, focused on the red dot on my screen.
My heart felt like it had detached itself and was furiously fighting its way up my throat, choking me every time I tried to breathe. Air in my lungs didn’t matter, neither did the shallow cuts that littered my face and arms from thorny brambles that hung like coiled snakes. My legs burned as lactic acid built in the straining muscles. Blood coated my tongue where my teeth sunk into as I pushed myself beyond my capabilities.
I burst through a dense patch of shrubs, their tangled branches clawing at my legs and sweeping them out from under me. I hit the ground hard, knees slamming into the damp earth, as my phone skidded away, coming to rest against a large stone. Its faint glow illuminated the decaying trunk of a fallen tree ahead. My fractured mind struggled to process what I was seeing.
“RIVER!” I screamed, my voice raw as I clawed at the slick ground, scrambling to my feet. Dirt and debris clung to me as I launched myself toward him, my breath coming in ragged gasps.
“River? Can you hear me?” I collapsed beside him, trembling hands reaching to cradle his bloodied cheek. My emotions surged uncontrollably, a tidal wave I couldn’t hold back. Hot tears spilled freely from my aching eyes, blurring the awful reality before me. My mind rebelled, screaming that this wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. This had to be a nightmare, a cruel fantasy. Not him. Not like this.
“I’m here, angel,” I sobbed, the words catching painfully in my throat. “I’m here now.” A hundred apologies crowded my mind, but they stuck to my tongue, choking me. I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry, baby. The words tasted like failure and grief. Forgive me. I love you. I can’t live without you.
His eyelid fluttered weakly, revealing a single bloodshot forest-green eye that blinked up at me. But it wasn’t looking at me—it was as though he was staring through me, the vibrant light that once filled it dimming by the second. His bloodied fingers twitched feebly at his side. Instinctively, my hand found his, drawn to him like a magnet. I wrapped my fingers around his and brought his hand to my lips, brushing desperate, trembling kisses over the broken skin of his.
“Y... y-you are my s-seven minutes,” he whispered, blood painting his lips. His hand slipped from mine, fingers falling lifeless and limp against his side. One eye rolled back in his head while the other, swollen and black, remained shut.
“Riv?” The word tore from me, raw and broken. “RIVER?” My voice cracked into a garbled scream, shredding the remnants of my heart. “Come back to me! Please. Please, baby, don’t leave me. I n-need you.” I pressed my trembling lips to his, the taste of him—metallic and familiar—searing into my soul.
The world dimmed, collapsing inward until there was only him. Tears burned hot as they carved rivers down my cheeks, every drop a fragment of hell. With a ragged breath, I raised my shaking fingers to his throat, desperately seeking the faint echo of a pulse. Don’t leave me. Please, not now.
We’d just begun, just started becoming more. I knew it was selfish, but I couldn’t live without him. He was the air in my lungs, the beat of my heart. He’d fought so hard, so long, when anyone else would have let go. He’d clawed his way through every storm and now, when he was finally mine, the world wanted to take him away.
How I hated the world and every goddamn soul in it.
“Where are you?” I screamed into the night, my voice hoarse and desperate. For the first time, I understood why people cursed the emergency services. They were always too slow. Every second dragged like an eternity. Every moment they weren’t here brought him closer to slipping away. His blood clung to my hands, sticky and cooling, leaking endlessly from wounds I couldn’t close.
I didn’t know how much time had passed; minutes, hours, a lifetime. Color drained from everything. I couldn’t even fathom if the sun would rise tomorrow. If he didn’t make it, there would be no dawn, only an endless night until I followed him into the void.
“Benson? Jacob!”
A hand landed on my shoulder, jolting me. I flinched violently, a low growl rumbling in my chest as I shielded River’s limp body. My head snapped up, wild and unseeing, until Sharon’s face came into focus. She knelt beside me, her eyes soft with empathy and laced with the same pain I felt.
“Let them help him,” she murmured, her voice steady but urgent.
Sharon liked River. She’d said once that he was good for me, that I was better with him in my life. But now, her expression gave everything away—the tightness in her jaw, the pinched lines around her eyes. She didn’t think he had much time left.
Time. The one thing we all believed was endless—until it wasn’t. It slipped past us, unnoticed, until the clock stopped ticking and we realized how much we’d wasted. How much we’d missed. I would never waste another second with him again. Not if I could help it. If only I had the chance.
“Let them do their jobs, Jacob,” Sharon said gently, her voice cracking just enough to betray her own fear.
“You can come with us to the ER. I’ll radio ahead and make sure they’re ready at the doors,” John said as he stepped up beside her.
His words didn’t register at first. The thought of letting him go clawed at my chest. Unbearable. Impossible. An inhuman sound ripped from me, raw and primal, as I slowly loosened my grip. My hands shook as I eased back, letting them take him away. Letting him go.
The emptiness as they loaded him onto a stretcher and carried him away was all-consuming.