Luke Dawson finds himself caught up in a kidnapping investigation the day after he snaps a photograph that turns his world upside-down. After a failed attempt to report the incident to law enforcement, Luke is submerged into a world of drugs, sex trafficking, and an increasing number of bodies while he tries desperately to save the life of a woman he doesn’t even know. As he tries to get his life back, he finds himself deep inside a world of corruption, the powerful criminal elite, as well as his own haunting secrets.
THE PATHS WE TAKE thrills with new twists and surprises, all the while bringing light to a part of our world that the majority choose to ignore.
Detective Townsend The hardest part about seeing a lifeless body isn’t the grotesqueness of the blood or bone fragments, it’s thinking about the life that was still left to live and the people who remain behind to suffer. A young girl would never walk down the aisle into the arms […]
Claire The cool metal circled my skin as Donnelly caressed my temple with the barrel of the gun. He told me, “You try to take away something of mine again and I won’t be so gentle.” They blamed me for what happened to Ariel. I just sat there, stone-like. Silent… […]
Luke When I left The Dollhouse, I decided to drop into Phil’s Diner. Phil wasn’t anything like I had imagined; I pictured the stereotypical grandpa wearing some type of sweater and khaki combo. Phil was in his early forties, and his “happy” belly was the result of years of consuming syrupy […]
Detective Townsend The call came in around 5:45 AM. Lieutenant Mason’s rough voice roared even when he whispered, and the words “it’s one of our own,” gave me that sick feeling that starts at the bottom of your stomach and works its way up into your mouth until you can […]
Claire I hesitated to open the door, as if the door were protecting me from the outside instead of keeping me there. I was another forgotten girl. Sometimes the damsel must save herself, I thought. The first step was like daring myself to stick my foot in smoldering lava, but […]
Luke The “XXX” blinked in fluorescent magnificence against the obsidian sky. It was a red beacon of hope for the sex-starved, downtrodden, and desperate men who needed to escape into an X-rated fantasy. The Dollhouse was partially hidden from Route 15 by the trees and might have been disregarded […]
Claire I had never felt so hollow. I was furious at myself for not fighting back, for just allowing them to enslave me to this world that smelled of latex and rose petals. After Michael, a handful of clients came to see Nikki. Most of them the business types, balding […]
Detective Townsend Molly was late. We had agreed to meet, 7:00 AM, at the Adams Library on campus. I sat at a small rectangular table on the second level that overlooked the front half of the first floor. From where I was sitting, I could see anyone coming up […]
Michael I’m in love, I thought to myself as I shut the oak door behind me. The older guy who met me at the gate when I arrived, was lounging on a brown leather armchair in the sitting room, leering at the door as it shut, and then looked at […]
Luke Nancy walked out of the store just before 7:00 PM. I had been sitting in my truck for fifteen minutes, tucked between the east side of the building and the dumpsters, contemplating going back into the store that I had, according to an anonymous witness, robbed earlier that morning. This […]