Page 89 of Secret
"Kase, wait." Noam gripped his shoulder. "I want to suggest something. I was going to bring it up later, but I have an idea, but need to run something by you first. If it's too soon, just say so, I won't be hurt."
"What?" Kasey wasn't used to seeing Noam nervous. He slid his hands down Noam's arms until they could link hands.
"What do you think about me maybe moving in with you, then using my home as a base for the new team?" Noam bit his lip, casting his eyes down as if scared to see Kasey's reaction.
"Hey." Kasey bent in and brushed his lips over Noam's. "I love the idea. I was working up the nerve to ask you if we could live together. I don't care which house. I worried you'd think it was too soon."
"We're together all the time anyway." Noam shrugged. "I just thought that it would make sense. I own my house, we can use it without having to buy a new place. It will look like this is all my idea, keeping Bryon or any other name out of it. I mean, I don't have the room this place seems to, but I really don't need it. If people are working shift work, then I don't need bedrooms or medical rooms. We can line the walls with computers and call it good. The kitchen is there for breaks, the backyard for smoke breaks or to relax. I can leave the living room furniture in so it's like this house and the employees have a place to sit and relax. Do you think it would work?"
"It would, but I don't really care about the team right now." Kasey cupped Noam's face. "Are you saying you want to move in with me?"
Noam nodded. "You won't mind Casper?"
"Not at all. She's welcome. She's already taken over the place. I'm happy to have you both living with me." He was beyond excited. It was more than he dared to dream could happen so soon. "I love you so much." He kissed Noam hard, forgetting where they were or that they had people waiting for them.
Noam groaned as he forced them apart. "I love you too. Now let's get this tour done and get the meeting over with. I have even more reason to want to go home. I need to pack."
Kasey laughed. "I'll help you pack every box." He snuck another kiss before continuing to show him the spare bedrooms and bathroom upstairs.
Once they were back down to the main floor, he led him back to the geek cave. It was an overwhelming room full of tech he didn't even want to try to understand. The walls were lined with computers and other hardware. He tended to avoid the room as much as he could, not just because he didn't know much about computers, but it never failed that he'd see things on the screens he wished he could bleach from his mind.
Staying near the doorway, he gestured to where Matt was working on a computer. "This is where Bryon, Trenton, Matt, and Carter spend most of their time. It's where all the information is gathered, cameras are hacked, and Matt and Bryon access the dark web. I don't come in often. It's too much for me."
Noam nodded. "Probably for me as well, but it's amazing. It reminds me of…" He paused before saying, "a place in Israel."
They hadn't talked much about Noam's time in Israel. All he knew was the little he'd mentioned when waking up from the occasional nightmare or just a slight mention of it during small talk. He didn't ask, figuring when Noam was ready to talk about it more, he would. He knew about how he got his injuries, and that was enough. "Carter has CIA connections. A lot of the software is government stuff. I don't ask. I just know it gets the job done and protects my ass when I'm going to a site."
"That's all I care about. As long as you come home to me, he can hack anyone using any programs he wants." Noam stepped closer to Matt. "Is that the girl Beau was talking about?"
"Yeah, her medical records are longer than most eighty-year-old cancer patient's file, and, I just found this." Matt pulled up a mug shot of a middle-aged man. "Meet Timothy Kent, her new step-father. She's shown signs of abuse long before he came into the picture, but now that he's in her life, it's worse."
Noam leaned closer to read the screen. "He's got priors for rape and child endangerment. On the sex offender's registry and has priors for…" Noam shook his head.
"What?" Kasey moved closer. "He sexually abused his five-year-old daughter and spent five years locked up for that before getting out of prison two years ago."
"I've got a couple free nights this week," Kasey told Matt, sure he'd understand his meaning.
"You might get a call. I'm sure once Beau hears about this, he's going to push for us to do something." Matt started printing off pages.
"This is insane." Noam turned, still looking at all the monitors around the room. "How many hours a day do you do this?"
"There's almost always someone here working. I'm not sure Carter goes home often. He's almost always here." Kasey glanced at Matt. "The rest, it just depends, but the work never runs out."
"Something has to change." Noam shook his head.
"We thought so too. That's why we do what we do. The courts try, but they are bound by too many laws. We are able to do what they can't. We might not stop the desire for many, but we can stop them from acting on it. At least most of them." Kasey headed for the door. "Let's get out of here. I feel dirty in this room. No offense, Matt."
"None taken." Matt sighed as he stacked the papers that were printing.
As they walked back down the hallway, Kasey showed him several other spare bedrooms and another bathroom. "The basement is a game room. I'll take you down before we leave."
When they sat back down, Noam glanced over at Bryon. "It looks like any other house for the most part. Unless you saw the medical room or the geek cave, you'd have no idea it was anything but a home."
"Which is how we like it. Keeps us secure." Trenton smiled.
Noam nodded. "So, I had an idea for a location."
Bryon sat forward, looking interested. "Tell me what you got?"
As Kasey listened to Noam explain, he smiled. Noam was jumping in head-first. Once they got this off the ground, they'd double the number of men they locked up. Just maybe, with all they were doing, they could make a difference and save more children, because if they didn't do something, all the teams in the world weren't going to stop the growing problem of pedophiles in the area.
