Page 16 of Mac's Vow

Mac took her hand in his and tugged her toward the recliner he’d been sitting in earlier. He sat down then patted his lap. Alyssa smiled as she sat astride him, then held the cup to her lips and blew. Mac’s gaze zeroed in on her lips and she could feel something hard pressing against her bottom. He was getting aroused. God, how she wished they were alone.

Jimmy cleared his throat then and said, “So, here’s what we’ve learned so far. Grady Mitchell is a class A pervert. His specialty is young girls.” He glanced over at Brad and Cole. “Want to fill Lissy in on everything?”

Brad’s eyes widened. “Everything?”

A muscle in Jimmy’s jaw jumped. “She needs to know.”

Mac’s arm tightened around her middle. She turned her head to find him staring at her. “Mac?”

“This is some ugly shit, Alyssa,” he muttered. “I don’t like it coming anywhere near you.”

She placed her hand on his chest, directly over his heart. “I understand how you feel, but Jimmy’s right. I need to know.”

Mac hesitated, then nodded toward Brad. The other man started to spell out everything they’d learned in the last several hours about thehonorableJudge Mitchell. “The underage porn on his computer alone would have him locked up for a while, but Cole and I weren’t content to stop there.”

“No, I imagine you weren’t,” she said, as she watched both men. They were tense. More so than usual and she wasn’t sure why.

“He’s paid to have young girls brought over from other countries. He’s been doing it for years.”

Alyssa’s stomach pitched and she set her coffee aside. “As in human trafficking? Is that what we’re talking about?”

Cole nodded. “He and Cameron both. It seems they both prefer the girls to be under thirteen.”

All the blood drained from her as his words registered. Oh, God, she’d been dating a man who’d raped children? She shook her head, unable to believe it. “That’s…that’s not possible. Cameron is an asshole, but he’s not a pedophile.”

Brad reached toward the coffee table and shuffled some papers around. He handed her several sheets. It was the transcript from a message thread. Communications back and forth between someone with the username: whiteprivy_jr and someone who only had a series of numbers as their username. “What am I looking at?”

“It’s confusing I know,” Brad replied. “These assholes talk in a kind of cryptic way to avoid certain keywords being flagged by law enforcement. You’ve heard of the dark web?”

She nodded. “I have, but it just always seemed so far-fetched. Like something out of a movie.”

Brad’s eyes hardened. “I wish. Unfortunately it's real. This is how these sick bastards communicate.” He pointed to the paper in her hand. “That message discusses the purchase of a twelve-year-old girl. We downloaded it from Cameron’s home computer, Alyssa.”

Alyssa dropped the paper on the floor, then ran from the room. She barely made it to the bathroom before she threw up in the sink. Oh, God, how could she have been so utterly blind to Cameron? She’d only dated him for six months, but surely there would’ve been signs. Some indicator that he was a child rapist. She threw up again, but only bile came up. She used mouthwash and rinsed. A half bottle of the minty stuff and it still wasn’t enough. A warm, soothing hand on her back caught her attention and she turned her head to find Mac standing in the doorway. His eyebrows were scrunched together. “You didn’t need to know that, damn it.”

Alyssa shook her head. “I did, Mac. I would’ve never forgiven you or Jimmy if you’d kept something so horrible from me.”

He came closer and pulled her into his arms, cradling the back of her head with his palm. “I’m sorry this is hurting you. I feel so fucking helpless here.”

She took a deep breath and let it out. “I knew Cameron had problems. He often had a difficult time with sex. I felt bad for him.” She cursed. “I actually felt sorry for him.”

He pulled back a few inches and watched her. “Don’t blame yourself. That really would piss me off.”

“I’m not blaming myself exactly, but I do feel culpable somehow. I mean, how could I not know what he was doing? That he was even capable of something so disgusting. So twisted.”

“If there’s anything I’ve learned since Jimmy and I have opened up Saint’s Investigations, it’s that there are a lot of perverts out there,” he explained. “And they never look like perverts. They have family, kids, jobs and no one ever suspects the evil shit they’re doing. They’re deceivers, Alyssa. And they’re really good at it.”

Tears filled her eyes as she thought of the young girls The Judge and Cameron have abused over the years. How many were there? “I never thought I’d say this but I’m glad Cameron went all psycho on me the other night. Otherwise, this may never have come to light.”

Mac’s arms tightened almost painfully. “I will never be glad that he abused you, Alyssa, but I am glad we’re putting a stop to their sick shit.”

She nodded. “As far as silver linings go, that’s a pretty good one.”

He stepped back and took hold of her hand. “Come on, let’s get this meeting over with so I can get you all to myself again.”

Alyssa tugged him to a stop and he quirked a brow. “You’re trying to distract me, aren’t you?”

He cupped her cheek and smoothed his thumb over her bottom lip. “That’s part of it.”

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