LENORA

 

One month earlier…

 

There was an eeriness to the interrogation room in the police station.

Completely silent. A single light bulb hanging from the ceiling. Shadows at every corner. A mirror on the side of the wall with people on the other side staring at you.

It wasn’t the first time I’d ever have to come to the station. I’d been there so many times that it was one of the few addresses in Ivory that I memorized.

The cops were always nice when they busted me. I never tried bribing them because they were all too honest to take it. A night in jail and a warning was what they usually gave me before I was back on the street. It definitely helped that Blade had good enough lawyers to defend me if it ever came down to it.

Tonight was different though. They never brought me to the interrogation room before. That alone was reason enough for me to be concerned.

I stared forward into the darkness as I sat by myself. My heart leaped into my throat when the door suddenly opened. I turned toward the woman striding her way toward me.

She was a bit tall, so I could barely see her face underneath the lighting. But her posture alone was enough to tell me she meant business.

A cold stare. A tense jaw. She tucked a hand into the pocket of her pantsuit to flash her badge. Her other hand held a manila folder in it.

“Lenora Gibson, I’m Jane Lieberman. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“I would say the same if the circumstances were any different,” I said. “I don’t think a meeting in an interrogation room is much of a pleasure.”

She gave me a half-smile then looked down at the folder in her hands.

“Lenora Gibson. Age 23. Multiple counts of solicitation and prostitution. Illegal drug possession. This isn’t the first time you’ve ever been arrested.”

“I’m aware,” I sighed.

Lieberman didn’t stop there.

“Father, Thomas Gibson. Died in a car accident at 40. Mother, Lisa. Died from a drug overdose a few years later. Heroin. Brother, Liam. Died in his cell the same way. Heroin…”

She closed the manila folder and stared at me. I looked away from her, my jaw clenched as I tried not to think about everything she just said.

“You’ve been through quite a lot,” she said.

I didn’t respond.

“It’s no wonder that you turned to the way of life you did. It’s remarkable that you’re still here with us. Then again, this is how many arrests this year? Four?

“Three,” I said.

“Three. That’s down from the number of arrests last year.”

“Listen, all right… I don’t know what you’re doing, but you don’t have to tell me my life story. I remember all of the details. It’s my life.”

She was still smiling confidently at me. I kept staring at the table in front of me, trying my best not to look back at her.

Lieberman dropped the manila folder and crossed her arms. I was waiting for her to get on with whatever she was planning. But she didn’t. She just stood there with her arms crossed, observing me like I was some animal at the zoo.

I finally sighed in frustration.

“Listen,” I said. “I work for Jacob Holmes, okay? Blade. Do you know who he is? He’s got good lawyers. I don’t think they would appreciate—”

“Tell me about him,” she cut me off.

“W-what?”

She pulled up a chair and took a seat in front of me.

“Would you like something to drink, Miss Gibson? Do you need some water?”

Her demeanor changed suddenly. I looked into her eyes, trying to figure out what she was doing but there was nothing. I was just gonna have to play whatever game she was trying to make me play.

“What do you want—”

“Tell me about Holmes,” she said.

I shook my head and smiled when I finally realized what she was getting at.

“Nice try,” I said.

“Are you afraid of him? It’s okay. There are a lot of women in your situation who are afraid of their pimps. I can assure you that what you say to me stays between us.”

I shifted my eyes up toward the camera at the corner of the ceiling.

“It’s not recording,” she said. “That’s for official Ivory police business. I’m not an Ivory cop.”

I looked back at her.

I was more than willing to tell her everything I knew about Blade. But he was dangerous for a reason. If he knew I’d said anything, I would pay the price before I even realized it.

“I’ll protect you—”

“You can’t protect me from, Blade,” I said. “Nobody can. I can’t tell you—”

“You’ve already started. If Holmes were just a pimp, you wouldn’t be so afraid of talking.”

I swallowed nervously. Lieberman kept staring at me like she was trying to burn a hole through me.

“Come on, Miss Gibson… I know you want to tell me his secrets.”

“Even if I did, I don’t know them.”

“But you do work for him. He’s responsible for your safety, isn’t he?”

“Blade has more girls working for him than anybody could count. He’s responsible for a lot of women. That’s why so many of them work for him.”

“But not you. You’ve been working for Holmes for a longer time. Most women would have been kicked to the curb. In your line of business, even at your young age, you’re all used up—”

“If you keep talking, his lawyers are gonna eat you for breakfast. I don’t really give a shit either way. I just thought it’d be fair to warn you.”

My threat only made the grin on her face grow even wider. She straightened up in her seat and cleared her throat.

“I know Holmes is planning something,” she said. “The Chinese and the MCs have some sort of deal worked out to move drugs through this city. I don’t know how it works exactly because the shipments have stopped. That’s fine by me. But men like Holmes are coming into Ivory and taking the place of the Triads. Holmes is setting up a drug trade right here in this town.”

“It sounds like you’ve got everything figured out for yourself,” I sighed. “Why are you telling me all of this?”

“I’m telling you because we’ve been tracking Holmes. You spend as much time around him as anybody else. You’re his girlfriend and—”

“I’m not his girlfriend.”

“Whatever. I don’t care what you are to him. But I know you’re close to him.”

“Get to the point.”

“I need your help.”

“You need my help?”

I finally worked a smile onto my face. I couldn’t help but laugh at how absurd it sounded.

“What can I do for you?”

“Holmes is a careful man. He’s always watching his back to the point of paranoia. It makes sense, given the position he put himself in. We haven’t been able to get any agents close to him.”

I shook my head softly when I realized what she was suggesting.

“No,” I said. “You can’t expect me to—”

“Your mother died because of drugs. Your brother died because of drugs. Now you’re working for a man who’s going to be responsible for even more deaths in Ivory.”

“It was my mother’s decision to do what she did. It was my brother’s decision to do what he did. I’m not gonna blame the dealer when they were two grown adults capable of making their own choices.”

Lieberman narrowed her eyes at me.

“You blame your own family for what happened?”

“That’s right,” I said. “There are still drugs in Ivory but I’m still here. Do you know why? Because I choose not to. I stopped when I could have followed them down the same path.”

I kept shaking my head defiantly.

“You can’t protect me from Blade,” I said. “If you want me to get some information from him, it’ll be worse than what any drug could ever do to me.”

Lieberman sighed in resignation. She leaned back in her seat and stuck her hands into her pockets, her eyes locked on me.

“I tried to give you a chance,” she said. “It looks like we’re gonna have to do this the hard way.”

She dug into her jacket. I watched as she pulled out a small bag and tossed it onto the table in front of me. I didn’t have to look at it for very long to know what it was.

“Why are you showing me that?” I said with a shrug.

“You know what it is.”

“I know what it is. What are you doing with it?”

“I’m not doing anything with it. I found it. On you.”

“W-what?” I exclaimed. “I didn’t have anything on me!”

“That’s a lot of drugs. Just looking at it, that’s enough weight to make it a federal crime. Maximum sentence is at least 25 years.”

I stared at the drugs on the table in disbelief.

“You’re trying to frame me,” I said. “You’re trying to frame me with drugs… You’re a federal agent and you’re planting drugs on me—”

“I haven’t planted anything on you. Not yet.”

She stood up from the table and moved over to the side of it. She pressed her palms down on the wood and leaned in close to me.

“It won’t be hard to get your fingerprints on these drugs,” she said. “I don’t give a shit how good Holmes’s lawyers are. With the business he’s involved in and his reputation, there’s no way they can prove you weren’t trying to distribute.”

“Okay!”

I put my hands up, knowing I’d lost. There was nothing else I could do.

“Okay,” I sighed. “What do you want me to do?”

“Nothing right now. But you have to stay close to Holmes. Stay close enough to him to get all of the details. I’ll meet with you whenever I can. Once I get enough evidence, we’ll lock him up.”

“How long is that gonna take?”

“I don’t know. It all depends on how much Blade is willing to tell you.”

I stared at the bag of drugs on the table. The white powder sat there like it was taunting me.

“Help me, Miss Gibson. Help me put away Holmes and I’ll help you.”

“You don’t get it,” I whispered. “If Holmes finds out that I’m working for you—”

“He won’t find out. I promise he won’t. Once we lock Holmes up, you’ll never have to deal with me again.”

Lieberman straightened up and kept looking down at me even though I was still focused on the drugs in front of me.

“I know what happened,” she said. “It’s all there in your file. You were a young girl and Holmes offered you an opportunity when nobody else was there for you. Do this for me, and you’ll get another chance. You’ll be free from having to work for him.”

I clenched my jaw, trying to think of a way out of this but finding nothing.

“Work with me, Miss Gibson. You know this is the best option for everybody.”

I sighed a deep breath.

“If I do this, you have to promise me that you won’t lock me up with him.”

“You have my word. Holmes is the big fish. You’re just the poor girl who got caught up with him. Once he’s behind bars, you’re free to go. But only when he’s behind bars.”

She held her hand out to me.

“Do we have a deal, Miss Gibson?”

I looked up and stared at Lieberman. I would have thought she was good-looking if it wasn’t for her demeanor. Instead, looking into her brown eyes was like staring at the devil.

The devil I was making a deal with.

“Okay.”

I reached up and shook her hand.

She smiled at me.

“Just do everything I tell you to do and Holmes will be locked up before you know it, Miss Gibson.”