Page 17 of Pain
"So, what did you think of the guy Bryon wants to bring in?" Dyson asked as he set the remote down, evidently happy with whatever show he'd found.
"He's nervous, but that could be nothing more than having us show up at his door, aware of what he was up to. He was freaked out at first."
"You have that effect on people."
"Right? What the hell was Bryon thinking of sending me with Carter? Anyway, he's obviously stressed. He wasn't as shocked to hear what we did as I thought he would be, well, other than the vomiting."
"He vomited?"
"Only when I explained what I do to the perps." Xander shrugged.
"Please tell me you didn't go into graphic detail." Dyson sighed. "You know that shit freaks people out."
"He needed to know." Xander grinned. "He seems like a good enough guy. Definitely a computer geek. He'll fit in well with the tech guys. As expected, finding his daughter is his main focus, but I saw something flicker in his eyes when we mentioned helping bring other kids home. I think he'll join us. Whether he'll stick around or not is another thing. Right now, he's still fighting for his daughter, but you know as well as I do, the more time goes by, the more he'll start to lose hope."
"Maybe this will give him something to hold on to. I mean, we've found kids several years after they were taken." Dyson glanced over at Xander. "Then again, there is no guarantee his daughter was taken by one of these groups. It could have been anyone. She might be living in France now just because someone wanted a daughter."
It was true. There were so many scenarios, and it could be any one of them. If Matt joined the team, he was going to be a basket case for the first while. There was no promise this would get his daughter back. Truth was, yes, the team wanted to help him find Faith, but even more, they wanted his skills, so they could help so many more children. "Honestly, I think he'll end up joining. If anything keeps him from it, it will be that if one of us goes down, the whole team could go down. It's not just you, Kasey, and me. We might do the dirty work, but it's all approved by the team. We might be the ones with blood on our hands so to speak, but it's the team as a whole who pays the price."
"Which is why I'm so nervous about bringing someone new on." Dyson shifted, bringing his feet up under him on the couch.
"I know, but they took the same chance bringing us in. They didn't know how we'd react when they invited us in."
"Dude, I think they had a good idea. We strung your father up and would have killed him if STK hadn't stopped us."
Xander stared at the folder on his lap, but his mind was back to that night so many years ago when Xander had learned of his father's location. After years of abuse, the bastard had skipped town, leaving Xander and the cops with no leads. Xander was only one in a long line of children his father had abused, but Xander, being his son, figured he was the one with the most right to seek vengeance on him.
He'd talked Dyson into helping, and the two of them had shown up at his father's house once they found out the information. They'd beat the man to where he was barely conscious, then had prepared to kill him by cutting off parts of his body one at a time. It was only the sudden appearance of Bryon and Kasey at the house that stopped them.
Bryon had talked Xander down, promising his father would pay for what he did, but reminding him that death was the easy way out. It was better to let his father spend the rest of his life in prison. Bryon swore Xander wouldn't want his father's death on his hands, but still, to this day, Xander was sure he wouldn't have minded.
Dyson nudged his leg. "Stop thinking about it."
Xander sighed. "I know, I just wish…"
"STK took care of things. He's spending his life in prison. He won't hurt another kid." Dyson reached for the file. "Okay, let's go over this." He flipped to the first page, pulling out photos of the couple. "Let this motivate you." He flipped the photos of the young boys that had been posted on the dark web.
Xander took one look at the photographs and all thoughts of his father faded. Tonight, he would stop these monsters. This was what was important. His past was just that, the past, but this was these kid's reality. This was the present, and tonight he would hopefully help the boys take the first step toward putting it in their past.
CHAPTER EIGHT
"I wish all locations were this secluded." Xander stepped out of the car about five hundred feet down the small dirt road that led to the perpetrator's house.
"Me too." Dyson slipped his gloves on.
They'd just gotten confirmation that the sting was a go, and Xander was restless about getting it done. Hopefully, within an hour or so, the perps would be in police custody at the hospital, and three young boys would be reunited with their families. That was what pushed Xander to confidently follow Dyson to the house.
"You want the lock, or shall I?"
"You, of course." Xander wasn't about to try his lock picking skills when he had Dyson with him. The guy could break into any lock put in front of him. What took Xander five minutes to get open, took Dyson five seconds. On a case like this, every minute mattered.
They went to the back door that opened into the garage and made sure their masks were in place. As expected, Dyson had the door unlocked and them in the garage in seconds. They glanced at each other, giving a nod, and quietly moved on, pushing the door that led from the garage to the house open.
Xander held his breath as Dyson made sure they were in the clear before they both slipped into the house. The lights were on, allowing them to see as he followed Dyson through the rooms, toward a small office the man and woman worked in.
The door was open, and they stood there for a moment, both watching as the man and women both worked from separate computers. The man seemed to be chatting with someone, but the woman was uploading pictures of her in different sexual acts with the young boys she now held hostage.
That was all Xander needed to see. With a nod to Dyson, they both burst into the room, Xander grabbing the female as Dyson took the male. The second they had hold of them, each slid the needle of the syringe into their necks before sharing a smile with each other across the room.
