Page 55 of Betraying Bexley

“You have to tell us something.” Alé stepped in front of Alex before he could enter the house. “What did you see?”

Alex kept his tone low, telling Alé everything while bile bit at the back of his throat. He explained the cutaway and then seeing Valerie at the mirror. He told Alé about the rapes and then he couldn’t speak anymore. It tore at him. He stared at the sky, the sun dipping into the west as late afternoon approached. A chilled easterly wind ruffled his shirt and he shivered. Alex took a hit off his joint and held his breath before letting it out slowly.

“Oh fuck,” Alé snarled. “You heard him. Get your asses in the car. We’re leaving in two.”

Alex hurried inside and grabbed his laptop. The evidence on his phone was the last nail they needed. How they’d press charges, he didn’t know, but that’s where the adults came in. Once they pulled away from the house, he grabbed another joint out of his jacket pocket and lit it up. He needed to calm down before he did something irrational. Before he said something, he’d regret later. He took a hit and passed it to Eito who watched him with too keen of a gaze.

“You left like the devil was on your tail,” Bronx said, handing the joint to Jacolbi. “Never seen you so pale before.”

"Felt like I had the devil on my ass too." Alex stared out the back passenger window. "It's crazy, you know. I hate her. I don't know why either. She's too weak and meek. She has all the power at the tips of her fingers, and she sits there and let those bitches do whatever they want. Why doesn't she stand up for herself? Why, as many times as she's been beaten by her bastard of a father, hasn't she killed him too?"

Bronx blinked. Her lips were parted, frozen as if trying to figure out what to say. Alé glanced at him from the rearview mirror like he'd lost his shit and maybe Alex had. Bexley Iniguez had money and the protection to give her everything her heart desired. Instead, she didn't have anything. She lost a fucking leg because her father saw her having sex with a girl. Her father fucked women with disabilities because he could, but he beat the shit out of his daughter because she was bisexual. In what fucking world did any of Raul's shit make sense?

Eventually the joint ended up back with him and Alex had been content to finish it. By the time they arrived at the base, he was buzzed. One more and he'd be mellow as fuck. They didn't have time though. Alé pulled into the below-ground parking area where they usually parked then got out first. Alex followed the others as they made their way to the elevator. He knew he'd get his ass chewed for smoking, but someone would have to take pity on him especially after what he was about to show them.

The elevator binged and the doors slid open. The ride up had been silent, not that he could still say anything. He thought he’d puke while telling Alé and if he had to keep saying it, he probably would. When they stepped out again, Asher, Noah, AJ, Scotty, and Mateo were waiting for them. Thomas was in the conference room. As he stepped into C&C, Asher stopped Alex. He pushed him out the door and waited for the others to settle in the soundproof room.

“You reek of marijuana.” Asher stared at him. “Want to tell me why?”

“If you saw and heard the shit I just did, you would reek too, as you say,” Alex replied. “Look, I used it to help chill the fuck.”

Asher’s gaze searched Alex’s, for what, Alex didn’t know. “Bad?”

“The fucking worst. It’s probably not good to watch all of it like I did.”

“Son of a bitch.” Asher sighed. “Get your ass in there. Get your shit together as well. Can’t have you fucked up while presenting your findings.”

“I’m buzzed, not baked. I’m good. I swear it.” Alex entered C&C and went straight to the conference table to hook his laptop into the system. When he was ready, he nodded to Asher. The screen popped up then Alex began. “Fair warning, what you’re about to see will make you sick.”

“Jesus kid,” Thomas said. “Now you got my ass puckering.”

Alex gave a nervous chuckled. "I did what you asked. I took a look at the video. I noticed the other night when we watched it, it was too grainy and dark. I thought at first the video was just shit quality. However, the more I thought about it, the less it made sense. All these kids in this high school have high-end tech. No way in fuck someone recorded that and make it look shitty. So I started playing with it, thanks to AJ's cleanup program. This is what I found." He hit play and closed his eyes.

Once the first part of the video ended, he hit pause. "Now, I know what you're going to say, but Alex, we saw this. There's more. This is the bad stuff." He glanced at Bronx and AJ. "If you want to leave, I wouldn't blame you."

“What the fuck kid, don’t head fuck us, show us,” AJ said as she interpreted for Scotty.

Alex blew out a breath. He hit play again, and within a few seconds, Valerie's voice filled the room. He shut himself down to the next five minutes of video, not needing a reminder of what he'd seen earlier. Kenner's laugh made him cringe. The cold, detached way they talked about Bex before they attacked her... He swallowed hard, willing himself not to gag. Before it was over, he stopped it again, unable to stomach any more of it.

“Holy fuck,” Asher snapped. “Where is this video located?”

Alex shrugged. "I got as far as I could before I had to walk away."

Asher nodded. "We understand." He turned his attention to AJ who furiously swiped away tears. "Take it, analyze it, and tell me where it's uploaded or where it came from."

“I will.” She sniffed.

"As for the rest of you, this is the only time you will see that. Any copies you might have, delete them. This master copy will stay with our internal file until the case is closed. Understood?"

Alex’s team’s soft murmurs tore at him. “There’s more. I found Jannica.”

Bronx sat up a little straighter. “How did it go?”

Alex made a disgusted noise. “Listen for yourself and you tell me.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and hit play on the audio recording he made. Every lurid detail was there. Every bit of Jannica’s desires and wants played out in front of the leaders of R.O.O.T and SRT. “She had the audacity to think she got the raw end of the deal. I don’t think she cared about Bex, I think she cared more she got caught.”

He sent the file to Asher’s phone along with AJ’s so that it could be transcribed and transferred to the file as well. It’d been a hell of a day for all of them and it wasn’t over by a long shot. They still had to drive home and pretend to give a shit about whatever homework they might have for their classes.

“You did good, kid,” Noah said. “You got down in the mud and muck today and you came out the other side. You might be covered in shit, but it will wash away. You’re doing this to save a life and sometimes the risks are worth the rewards.”

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