Page 1 of Pain
CHAPTER ONE
Xander glanced down at the file one last time, confirming the location and information. It wasn't as if he didn't already know for sure he was at the right place. He'd been staking the house out for weeks while his team finished gathering information.
Bile rose in his throat as he again read the list of atrocities the man who lived inside the house had committed. Xander could stomach a lot, but this stuff was more than any person should ever have to read about, or worse yet, experience.
He skipped over the photographs. He'd seen them already. They were the same ones the jury had seen when they'd found the man guilty. Pictures so horrible that several of the jury members had cried when they'd been presented.
A quick glance at the house down the block confirmed the man was home. His black truck sitting alone in the driveway like it did every night. The man lived alone, making this job easier than others. Xander wouldn't have to worry about anyone walking in and interrupting his work. He could take his time, play with the perpetrator's mind, hopefully making him suffer the same way others had suffered at the man's hands.
Xander lit a cigarette, taking a long drag off it before blowing the smoke out. He watched it flow out the cracked driver's window as he relaxed his head back, mentally preparing himself for what he was about to do. There was no fear. He'd done this too many times before, and each time, he'd become better at what he did. He'd lost count of how many there had been. No matter how many he took out, another showed up. It was an endless cesspool of the worst monsters who ever lived. Xander enjoyed seeing them suffer for what they'd done.
He set the file on the passenger seat, patiently waiting for the phone call that would put everything into motion. As far as he was concerned, the information he had was enough, but he worked with a team, and he wouldn't put the rest of the group in danger because he rushed things. He would do things by the book, and wait for the final verification to come in before he stepped out of his car.
Taking another drag off his cigarette, he took in the neighborhood. It was a clean, middle to high-income area, filled with families. There were over fifty kids in a three-block radius. That fact motivated Xander to remove the danger from the community. While surveilling the house, he'd watched the perpetrator sit on his front porch and wave at the young kids who rode by on their bikes.
The scum bag was nice to the girls, but it was the little boys that he tried to draw up the driveway to talk to him. When they wouldn't come to him, he'd grab a football and come down into the yard with them. He did everything he could to earn their trust, and Xander wouldn't be surprised if there were more than one victim in the area they didn't know about.
Right now, he was more concerned with the victims they were aware of.
Xander crushed out his cigarette before grabbing his phone. His team should have had verification by now. They'd worked too many hours confirming everything. The evidence was solid, not only did this creep have a file several inches thick that should have kept him locked up for life, Xander and his team were positive he was still actively victimizing others.
The moon was high above him, but the partial cloud cover kept it from lighting up the windows of the car. He stayed in the shadows, aware that many houses on the block had security cameras, and it wouldn't take long for the police to collect them as evidence once he finished.
He didn't worry. The car would come back as belonging to the very police force who would investigate, besides, he'd done this so many times that he covered his tracks well. The only image they would get of him would be a man dressed in solid black, and that was if they could see through the tinted windows at all.
At the sudden beep of his phone, Xander smiled. This was it. He quickly read the text message, relief flowing through him at the words on the screen.
Confirmation. Proceed. STK
"STK," Xander said out loud even though no one was with him. Those three letters were the code confirming the text was from his team. Without the letters, he'd abort the job. Save The Kids. It was the motto of his group. It was why they did what they did. Where the court system failed, his team succeeded.
Pulling the drawstring tight around the neck of the solid black hoodie he wore, Xander made sure his long beard was tucked below the neckline and that as little of his face as possible was visible. He tightened the strap around his gloves, making sure that the sleeves of the hoodie were underneath them. He couldn't risk any of his tattoos showing, and he had many.
Once he was sure that he was fully covered, he rolled up the windows on the car. He was only a few houses from the perpetrators. Some jobs, he parked right out front, but the street light sat just beside this man's driveway, and Xander wanted to avoid that. Making sure he had his tools in the front pouch of his hoodie, he grabbed the file from the passenger seat and stepped out of the car.
The cool night air would have felt good against his skin if he wasn't so bundled to cover his identity. Maybe once this was over he'd go for a run. Work off some of the emotional stress of what he was about to do.
He casually walked down the sidewalk, calmly crossing the street. There were no nerves. He'd done this too many times to be nervous about it. He went into each job cautious, but fully ready to do what needed to be done. He was making the world a better place, and no matter what people might say about him, he had no plans to stop doing what he did.
As he walked up the driveway, he slowly slid the ski mask down from under his hoodie to cover his entire face. He'd spent weeks learning the layout of the house and watching the man's habits. There wasn't anything about this man he didn't know. It was his job to make sure everything happened without a snag. Mistakes wouldn't be forgiven, and one wrong move could easily cost him his life.
He quietly opened the back gate, so he could make his way to the back door. The perp liked to sneak outside every twenty minutes, so he could smoke. It was the one door that was never locked when the man was home. It was also the closest door to where the disgusting pervert sat, staring at his computer screen all night, spreading his disease among the dark web.
Once in the backyard, Xander pulled his gun from his pocket as he slid through the shadows. After he made his way inside, he would have seconds to take the man to the ground before the perp reached for the illegal gun he kept in the second drawer of his desk. The man was a drunken mess, so he wasn't worried. He could probably be in the house and directly behind the fool before he noticed he wasn't alone.
Xander carefully slid the sliding glass door open, glad that for once the perp he was after didn't have a dog. That always made things harder. He wouldn't hurt an innocent animal, but there had been times he had to tranquilize a dog before he was able to take down the target.
The sound of the TV gave him cover from the slight slide of the door. He opened it only enough to squeeze through, leaving it open as he stepped through the small dining area to the living room next to it.
The man had his back to Xander, typing away on his computer. On the screen, Xander saw images he wished he'd never have to see again — young boys being abused by other men who bought them off the black market. Xander's grip on his gun tightened just slightly.
Like every other time he did this, he thought about how easy it would be to put a bullet in the back of the man's head, but that wasn't what his team was about. They wanted the men and women responsible for the abuse to live. To wake up every day in pain, paying for their sins. Death was too easy. These pedophiles deserved much worse.
Not willing to wait any longer, Xander made his move. In three strides, he stood behind the man, the barrel of the gun pressed to the back of his head. "Don't move, asshole."
The man jerked, but Xander was ready. He quickly jabbed the needle into the man's neck before he could pull away.
"Just relax. It's time for you to pay for your sins, Jensen. We know what you've been up to. We're not going to let the courts handle you this time. We've seen how well that worked in the past." Xander smiled as the man started to slump in his chair, but was still alert enough to understand what was going on.
