Page 88 of Heal
Beau just stared at him.
Bryon laughed.
"I told you we should have gone home. I could have taken care of this there without the hate." Kasey pouted.
"It's not hate, it's tough love," Beau told him as he walked off. "I'll be back in a second."
As Beau gathered what he needed to wrap Kasey's ankle, he couldn't help but smile. Through good times and bad, the team was always there for each other. As serious as the things they saw and dealt with were, they found a way to keep laughing. He couldn't ask for a better group to work with.
"Okay, let's get that wrapped." Beau walked back into the kitchen, surprised to see Carter and Bryon talking as they looked over paperwork.
"I'm glad you were here, Beau. I was just going to snag another bandage from upstairs and wrap it myself." Kasey closed his eyes as Beau moved his leg so it rested on his thigh.
"Don't you have forty of them laying around your house?" Beau teased.
"Yeah, but who knows where." Noam sighed. "I've tried to organize things, but those get shoved in drawers and boxes. I told him we could stop at the store, but I think he likes the sympathy he gets here."
"Yeah, he's not getting sympathy this time. I need the whole team well for this job." Bryon tossed the papers he'd been looking at on the counter.
"What's up?" Kasey asked, suddenly deadly serious.
Beau already knew, but from the look on Bryon's face, it was worse than he thought.
"Small ranch just outside the city. Looks like it's wired like a compound. Cameras every fifty feet, hitting all directions. Inside he's holding fourteen kids that we've counted, but it's hard to say for sure. They keep bringing more in and taking others away."
"Fuck." Beau shook his head.
"Prostitution ring?" Noam asked.
"Looks that way. Carter's just getting access to the computers there, but from what it looks like it's a lot like that place in Sacramento we hit a couple of years ago. Well-armed guards, high security, probably booby-trapped. No cameras in the barns, but I see no signs of horses or livestock. From what we can see from the outside cameras, I'm guessing it's used either as punishment cells or possibly an auction floor." Bryon gripped the edge of the counter tightly. "I'm going to need the whole team for this one. We'll go in Friday night."
Beau's chest tightened. That was the night of the fundraiser.
"Beau, I know you have your event. Go and focus on that. Most nights we don't need your services, but we'll call if we do. There's no point in you wasting your time here when you can be raising money there so kids like these will have a place to go once we rescue them." Bryon stared across the room at him.
"I can skip out early. You guys won't go until late anyway. The fundraiser ends at eleven. I can be here by midnight." Beau was trying to work it all out in his mind.
"No, we're good. We'll call if we need you, but I'd rather you focus on your stuff. I swear we'll call. If anything goes south, you'll be closer than we will. You'll beat us here anyway. I just don't want to wait on this one. With all the stings we've done on foster homes in the last couple of weeks, they have to be sweating. I'm not going to risk them up and moving their locations. There are too many kids here to sit back and wait."
"Will you be okay by Friday?" Noam asked Kasey.
"You know I will. I'm not missing this. Sounds like we're going to need all of us there." Kasey glanced at Bryon. "How many adults are we talking?
"Six that we've seen. If there are more, we may have to hold off and make new plans." Bryon picked up the paperwork again. "Most look older, fifties, only one looks like he knows what he's doing. I'm guessing ex-military on him, but the others, they look like perverted old men who took the job only to be close to the kids."
"I should have identities for some of them before we go in." Carter walked into the kitchen. "I'll have no problem hacking into their camera feed and looping that, it's a cheap setup, just large. Computers are taking a bit of work to get into, but it's nothing we haven't seen before. Trenton and Matt are working on that now. We've got four days to figure everything out. That's more than enough time. We've worked under tighter deadlines."
"We have. I just hate going in when the odds are against us. If crimes keep increasing, I'm going to have to look for others to join us." Bryon looked around the room.
Beau hated the thought of new people joining. It was always a risk, but Bryon was right, they needed the help. What used to be a once a week thing was now almost nightly. He trusted Bryon to know how to find people.
"I can—" Noam started to say.
"No!" Kasey gripped his hand.
"Why? You can go in, but I can't? I'm well enough trained to do this." Noam stared down at Kasey.
"You are, and in a pinch, I'd pull you in, but I need you where you are right now. Your team is picking up first-time offenders and putting fear into them. That's more important now. Catch them, get their names, get them on the sex offender registry, and pray they don't re-offend. Thanks for the offer, Noam, but for now, stay where you are." Bryon nodded at the couple. "And he's right, Kase, you can't tell him no when you go putting your ass in danger all the time. Don't make it a fight between you two."
