Page 71 of Caged
"I don't see why not. Gary would be the team counselor. He'd still see his regular patients. He'd just be adding us on as well. Gary's part in this would be nearly risk-free. Other than knowing facts about a crime, he'd be totally uninvolved if he wanted to be, though as part of the team, he'd be welcome at the team house anytime he wanted. His relationship with Danny wouldn't change," Jeremy told him.
"I wish you'd discussed it with me first." Marshall sighed.
"There wasn't a lot of time. Faith talked to us last night, then we got with you this morning to find out when. We were never really able to talk about it without Danny around. When Faith told us she wanted to, and she was willing to get a feel for their reactions, we jumped on it. The only thing that's been holding me back from talking to Gary on my own is worry that he couldn't handle the fact that what we do is breaking the law. My hope is he's seen enough kids hurt by pedophilia that he can look past the law to see the good in what we do." D stood. "I'm sorry we didn't talk to you first, but we had to take the opportunity when it came."
Marshall turned around without a word and tried to focus on work. He wasn't sure exactly what he was worried about. He wanted to share what he did with Danny, but there was a part of him that was scared Danny wouldn't accept him if he knew. Even more, that he'd be upset that he'd kept it from him all this time and lied about what the team did. Even though he hadn't really said what the team did for work, he'd led him to believe that it was just simple computer tech. Finding out the truth could change everything.
Jeremy gripped his arm. "Let's focus on Colorado Springs. That's what's most important right now. We'll deal with the team issues as needed. Matt's picking Faith and Danny up from the session soon and dropping them off at your place. We'll head over later and see how things went."
Marshall nodded, but he still wasn't happy. There was nothing he could do about it for now. He needed to focus on taking Larry down. Now that he had all the new information, he was even more motivated. Whatever was going on at the ranch, wasn't good. The faster they collected evidence and mapped out the area, the sooner they could move in. He glanced back at D. "You'll allow the team to travel to Colorado Springs, right?"
"Already planned. When it happens, Patrick, Jessica, and I will head down. As of right now, I don't see any point in spending the night. It's only an hour away, but if we need to, we can get hotel rooms and create a cover of being tourists. You and Jeremy will handle things from here and stay in contact by phone. It will be just like any other sting other than we need a new dumpsite and we'll have to be extra careful since we don't know the area well."
"If it's soon enough, you can count Matt and me in on this." Xander smiled.
"Not sure we'll need you on the sting. As of right now, we're only showing two adults and two children, but I'll keep you posted. I don't want to put you at risk without cause and have Bryon up my ass if something goes wrong." D told him. "Though, I'm sure Jeremy and Marshall could always use more help from the computer side of things."
"I thought you were looking for another hacker." Xander seemed fine with the fact he might not get to go on the sting.
"I am, but it's not that easy. I don't have that gut feeling about people like Carter and Bryon do. I wish I did. I've been watching a couple of people, but still haven't found anyone worth the risk so far. Is Bryon adding to the team now that Carter's not around much?"
"He's talked about it, but I don't think he's doing any serious searching. He's talked about needing to fill your old spot more than Carter's."
"Trenton doing okay with Carter being gone?"
"Yeah, seems to be. You know Trenton. He doesn't talk a ton. He does his job, goes home, sleeps a few hours, and comes back. Keeps it simple. I tried to set him up on a date with a friend a while back and he blew me off. The guy just doesn't seem to want a life outside of STK and those random trips up the coast to visit his brother." Xander shrugged. "I've never been able to figure Trenton out. I'm sure there's a story there, but if Bryon knows it, he's never told."
D laughed. "We all have stories that Bryon's never told."
"Thank God for that." Xander got up. "I'm ordering pizza. Anyone have any requests?"
Marshall glanced back at him. "Just let me know if you hear from Matt and let me know how things went. I told Danny to call, but he doesn't always follow through on that. He claims he hates bothering me at work. The guy doesn't realize that I'm sitting here worried about him."
"He's a good man. He's got a lot to work through. Give him time. Faith took forever to learn to trust again. I'm sure it's the same for Danny." Xander gripped Marshall's shoulder. "He'll be okay."
"Thanks, it helps to hear that. And thanks for letting Faith go with him. I don't know what she said to him, but he seemed a bit stronger last night when we got home. There was something different, a light in his eyes that hadn't been there before."
"Faith has a way with people. You can't help but love her." Xander sighed. "Seeing her go off to school is going to kill me. Anyway, I'll get that pizza ordered." He left the room.
Silence fell over the room as everyone seemed to have something to focus on. D was looking through papers while Jeremy and he dug into the layout of the ranch house in Colorado Springs. It was going to take all day to search for cameras in the area and figure out the security in the house, but he'd done this before. This was what he was good at. This time it meant something even more since it was Danny's kidnapper they'd be going after. He was going to give it his all and make sure everything was done right. One thing he looked forward to more than anything was being able to tell Danny that Larry was in jail and would never hurt him again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Tucking his feet up under him, Danny curled up on the couch with the laptop. Most of the time he was searching recipes, but tonight, he was looking for something else. He'd been stunned by the stuff Faith had told them during his counseling session yesterday. Was there really a team of hunters who went out in the night and saved children? Why had they never come for him? Why had he had to suffer twelve years when others, like Faith, were found in weeks or months?
It wasn't that he was upset the others had been found quickly, but why not him? He'd needed help just as badly as any other. From what Faith had said, they'd managed to track a photo of her from the dark web and figure out the location it had been uploaded from. Had Larry never uploaded pictures or videos? Was that why no one had known he was there?
He had so many questions.
Of course, Faith couldn't answer most of them. She didn't know the men who saved her, only what the news had said about it after. She called them her heroes. Danny would've too had they come for him.
He typed in Faith's name first, pulling up articles about her kidnapping. The tiny child in the photos resembled Faith but was not even close to as beautiful as the woman he knew now. She'd really grown up.
There weren't a ton of details about her captivity, which being she was so young was a good thing. He'd been surprised to see a small map in one article showing just how close to home she'd been. It had been right on the street, open for anyone to witness. How had no one seen her get taken?
He skimmed through more articles, then started to research other cases where people had been castrated. There weren't many articles about it. Did that mean this team didn't do it often? Were they picky about who they helped and who they didn't?
Danny sucked in a hard breath as he found another article, but this one was different. It was about the arrest of one of the team members, and there, right in front of his face was a mug shot of D.
