Page 3 of Pain
Jensen gagged as he stared at them.
"Yeah, I'm sure the kids you rape feel the same way about it." Xander held no sorrow for the man. "Tell your friends I'll be coming for them." After another glance around the room to make sure he didn't miss anything, Xander slipped out the back door. He lifted the ski mask from his face once he hit the driveway, tucking it on top of his head, hidden by the hoodie. The street was quiet as he made it back to his car, the neighbors unaware of what had happened.
Xander got to his car and slid into the driver's seat before he let out a long breath. He quickly reached for his phone, texting his team.
Task complete. STK
Once he'd sent the message, he grabbed a second phone from his glove box and dialed 911. Once the operator answered, he lowered his voice as he told her, "a man needs help at 4123 Sycamore." He didn't wait to answer questions before he disconnected the call and dropped the phone onto the seat beside him.
He took a moment to light a cigarette before casually pulling away from the curb and driving out of the neighborhood. It had been another successful night. One more pedophile was dealt with, and that meant a lot of kids were saved. Sadly, Jensen was only one of many, but Xander wasn't going to quit. He'd fight for the kids, no matter what it took. He never wanted anyone to go through what he did as a child.
As he drove past the lake, he stopped beside it. He stepped out of his car long enough to toss the bag of tools and the burner phone into the water. He glanced up at the moon again, taking a deep breath as he peeled off his gloves and tossed them into the water as well.
Thinking about the run he still wanted to take, he slipped back into the car and headed home. Once he got his run, he'd enjoy a hot shower, followed by a cold beer. Tomorrow, he'd do it all over again.
CHAPTER TWO
Matt reached for the bottle of water beside his computer, taking several large gulps. He needed to eat, but he just wasn't hungry. Everyone was telling him he was losing too much weight, but they just didn't understand. How could he eat when his daughter was missing?
Food wasn't high on his priority list. Finding Faith was.
He rolled his shoulders and started scrolling through the information on his computer. He'd spent the last three weeks trolling the dark web, looking for any clue of where Faith could be. Hell, he wasn't even sure she was still alive, but he liked to think that if she was dead he would know it. After weeks of search parties and too many police interviews, he finally decided that he had to start searching himself. Let the cops look through the fields and lakes, Faith wasn't going to be there. She wasn't the type of kid to run off. Whoever took her had grabbed her as she walked home from school.
Less than half a block. That was how far his house was from the doors of the school. He could see them from his front porch. He'd probably been wrong to allow Faith to walk home alone after school, but at ten years old, she'd seemed mature enough to handle walking half a block. He thought she'd be safe with all the other kids and parents around. How wrong he had been.
The images on the computer screen broke his heart, and the thought that Faith might be abused that way made him sick. He couldn't think about it too long because the fear and anger would grow into something he couldn't handle. More than once he had to rush to the bathroom and get sick after seeing some of the images that people shared.
How had he been blind to this going on? Thirty-four years old and he'd never realized how big the sexual trafficking rings were. He'd heard about them, but he assumed it was mostly older women, not children. Not that one was easier to deal with than the other, but having his daughter out there, possibly in the middle of all this, made him literally vomit.
After weeks of trusting the police to do their thing, without any leads or answers, he decided he had to start searching his own way. First, it had been simply checking hospitals, morgues, and other places within a few hundred miles. It wasn't until he'd joined a chat group supporting parents of missing children that he'd heard about the pedophile rings. At first, he was in denial, telling himself that would never happen to his child, but the more the talked to others, the more real the possibility became.
With no other leads, he dug deeper, learning about the dark web and the sex trafficking rings that, until then, had been nothing more than rumors in his mind. Each bit of information pulled him deeper into the underground world. Learning everything he could, he found many of the children that were sold on the dark web were his daughter's age, and they were taken just as Faith had been, close to home and within areas that most parents deemed safe for their child.
He was a fool all these years. He never thought about it before, but he had somehow gotten it in his mind that there were safe places and dangerous places. He let his guard down when they were in what he thought was a safe place, giving the child abductors the perfect chance to take the most important person in his life.
He stared at the picture of Faith that he kept beside the computer. She was his world. His life changed the day she was born. He finally understood the meaning of the words unconditional love. Even the love he had for Faith's mother paled in comparison to what he had for his daughter. She was everything. When his wife died from cancer five years before, Matt had done everything he could to continue to make sure their lives went on, and Faith had everything she could need. He didn't spoil her with materialistic things, but he did keep her busy, filling her days with things they could do together. He never wanted her to feel unloved. Now, he had failed her in the worst way. He let her down, unable to protect her or keep her safe.
Forcing his attention back to the computer, he scanned the ads for young girls. It was disgusting how many there were. There wasn't a picture of all of them, but each had a description. He avoided the blondes and redheads, focusing on the dark brown-haired girls, hoping, but at the same time, not hoping that Faith was one of them. If he could find her, save her, bring her home where she would be safe, then find a way to make everything all better again, maybe then, he could feel some redemption
That was the thing, even if he did get her back home, would she ever be okay again? Night after night he thought about the things she might be going through. Just when he didn't think his mind could go anywhere worse, something popped up online, showing him differently. The world was full of sick fucks, and his daughter could be out there with them.
The sound of his front door opening startled him, and he rushed to see who was just walking into his home without ringing the doorbell. When he saw his sister, carrying two grocery bags of stuff, he sighed. "Trish, what are you doing here?"
Trish pushed past him, heading into his kitchen. "I brought you dinner." She set the bags on the counter and started to pull a bucket of fried chicken out along with other side dishes, all packaged in Styrofoam containers. "I tried to call, but you didn't answer." She glanced over at him.
Matt leaned against the refrigerator, wishing he'd remembered to lock the door. Not that it would do a lot of good, she was the only other person with a key, but it might have made her think twice about coming in. "I've been busy." He really wasn't in the mood to deal with Trish. She'd been amazing the last few weeks helping him with everything, but now that she was starting to 'mother' him, he wished she would just let him be.
"I know, that's why I brought food. You've been too busy to eat, too busy to answer your phone, too busy to let anyone know you're even alive." She turned to stare at him, her green eyes filled with compassion. "I know this has been hard for you, Matt, but you have got to keep your strength up. Faith is going to need you strong when she comes home."
"What do you think I've been trying to do? I'm trying to get her home." He ran his fingers through his hair as he pushed away from the fridge. "I'll eat when I'm hungry." He ignored her worried expression and left the room.
"You spend every day locked up in this house. Get out there and look with me. Let's hit every park, every playground, every mall. Someone had to have seen her. We've handed out fliers to everyone."
"And I appreciate all the help from everyone, but the fliers aren't working. She's not home yet. I have to do something." He sat back down in his computer chair.
"What the fuck is that?" Trish's hand covered her mouth as she stared at the disgusting images on his screen.
Matt sighed, wishing he had changed the page before she saw it. "It's how I'm searching for Faith. You don't want to see it." He clicked the mouse, opening up another page so she wouldn't have to stare at the naked images of children.
