Page 82 of Moth
But that wasn’t my first time meeting her—at least indirectly. That was when I caught her leaving the warehouse of the very man standing beside me.
“How well did you know her?” I can’t resist asking the question, though I didn’t intend for it to come out so…hostile.
Rafe raises an eyebrow. “Enough to know that now isn’t the time for petty fights. You here to help or not?”
Warily, I step forward, taking a handful of flyers, and he heads off down the street with his own stack. I don’t know why I follow him. Curiosity?
He tackles the heart of the restaurant district, mingling directly with owners and patrons alike with unmistakable confidence that betrays just how well-known he is around here. Much like with Mr. Shen, those he encounters treat him with the utmost respect, promising to come to him with any news.
Or fear. A few acquaintances of his seem as jumpy and on guard as Mr. Zhang. But most aren’t, treating him the way one might a brother or son. Someone they trust.
In his wake, I find myself handing out flyers to anyone who will take one, but when he moves on, so do I. He cuts a path through the heart of downtown, until eventually, the foot traffic thins, and the streetlamps grow farther apart, casting a sporadic glow. The darkened atmosphere makes me inch closer to him as I scan the nearby alleys.
Suddenly, he stops, beckoning me with a curt nod of his chin. I follow the line of his gaze to a girl leaning against a nearby building, illuminated by the dim light emanating from a bar across the street. A lit cigarette sticks out from her mouth, and limp dark hair hangs loosely down her back.
“You should put those pretty words of yours to the test,” Rafe tells me, eyeing my thinning stack of flyers. “Give her one.”
I start to question, but he shakes his head once. His expression shifts again, softening to reveal a hint of something new lurking beneath. Some elusive emotion that makes me cross the street against my better judgment.
My breaths feather with every step as doubt creeps in. I may be sheltered, but I know what it means to stand on a street corner at this time of night, wearing high heels and little else.
The girl stiffens as I approach. “Who the fuck are you?” She pulls herself from the wall and runs her hand along her bright blue minidress.
“Here.” I hand her a flyer, but she stares blankly at the front of it. The back of my neck prickles with awareness. Rafe is watching me, but I have no idea what he expects me to do other than simply ask, “Have you seen her?”
Her lip trembles, her eyes widening. “No.” She shakes her head as her eyes dart wildly around the deserted block. “Now leave me alone—”
“You sure about that?” Rafe comes up behind me, radiating that enigmatic authority. “Because she’s missing. Her parents have already called the police, and they’ll start looking into her personal life soon enough. Her friends. Anyjobsshe may have held.”
The girl pales and flicks her cigarette onto the ground. “I have to go—”
“Do you think Gino will protect you?” Rafe calls out.
The girl falters. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I think you do,” Rafe says at the same time I feel his hand brush my shoulder. A cue?
But to what?
“I… You’re afraid,” I blurt as the girl remains standing, her slender shoulders heaving with every breath. “Of someone?”
“You don’t understand—” She jumps as a car drives by, and its headlights wash over her. With a fearful glance over her shoulder, she whirls around and scrambles down a nearby alley. “Please leave me alone.”
“Just give me a place to start looking,” Rafe demands. “A street corner. A name. Someone who might want her gone. Anything.”
“I know what you did, you know,” the girl hisses back, crossing her arms over her chest. “Everyone does. You called in the raid. You don’t have any idea what kind of people you messed with.”
“Don’t I?” Rafe demands, sounding anything but cowed. “You want to know the truth? Faith came to me because she was scared of the shit that fucker was getting up to. Gino has no idea who he’s messing with. I know he set Faith up with a crazy fucker who terrified her and did awful shit to her. You want to be next?”
The girl stumbles, her chest heaving. “DW,” she finally rasps. “That’s what she called him. DW. She was afraid of him. I… I think he found her somehow. Where she lives. She texted me, but it wasn’t like I could do anything. I just told her to stay away from him…but the last I heard from her was three days ago.”
“Thanks,” Rafe says. “If you think of anything else, you know where to find me?”
“Yes.” She glances back, eyeing him warily. “But Gino won’t like it if he hears that I talked to you.” She scurries off, fading beneath the shadow.
“Come on.” Rafe snatches my wrist, but I don’t resist as he pulls me through the alley and down another back road. I sense the route is strategic, returning us to the restaurant district while drawing little attention from anyone else who may be on the main streets.
“What was that about?” I gather the nerve to ask him as the Chan Noodle House comes back into view.
He shrugs. “That was reality, bunny.”
“You knew Faith,” I say, letting my brain put the pieces together. “I think I remember her from your club the first night I was there.” The girl who interrupted while he taunted me. “What happened to her?”
“A monster happened,” he says, his voice low. He’s not exaggerating for once. He means that word in the truest sense. “I tried to protect her, but…”
He crumples the remaining flyers in his fist, then hisses through his teeth, “Why don’t you ask your boyfriend what some of his fellow officers like to do in their spare time?”
I look down at my final flyer, smoothing out the wrinkles with shaking fingers. “What are you talking about?”
He lets me go, lumbering in the opposite direction. By the time I whirl around, he’s already half a block down, his shoulders hunched, the flames of his tattoo consuming his left arm. He’s embodying every ounce of that dragon again, radiating rage like fire.
