Page 15 of Taken
"Tell me who you are? What team?"
Trenton remained quiet.
"Who the fuck are you? If you’re a cop—"
"I'm not a cop." Trenton glared at him. "Would it matter if I was? You going to save a fellow cop but not an everyday person like me? A cop's life more important than those kids I hear crying all night? You'd do something for a brother in blue but not for those kids?"
His words cut deep. It was true. "I have handlers too."
"Sorry if I don't have much respect for your boss. If he's letting this happen, he's part of the problem. My team would have stopped this the moment we found out about it."
"And let others involved slip away?"
"They all re-offend. We'd get them later. What matters to my guys is saving the ones in danger right now." Trenton looked directly at Ben as they got to the cage gate. "You know this isn't right. Half of us, hell, maybe all of us will be dead or sold as slaves before your boss does shit. How long have you been here already? Sorry if I don't have any faith in your people."
"Who is your team?" Ben asked again.
"Look up the name Dyson Fowlers. That's my team. Trust me, as soon as they find me, this place will burn to the ground. Now get these cuffs off me. I want to sleep." Trenton turned his back to Ben so he could unlock the cuffs.
Remembering the name Dyson Fowlers, Ben slid the cuffs off Trenton's wrists and opened the gate enough he could walk inside. He watched him weakly make his way across the cage before dropping down on the other side. He hated the slight flinch he noticed as Trenton sat down. This was his fault. He'd left the guy with Dr. Frank. This was on him. Hell, as long as he was in this building everything that happened was on him, but what could he do? This was his job. He couldn't force his boss to shut it down right now. He couldn't risk the other innocent cops working undercover. Still, he couldn't help wondering why his team hadn't worked to move faster. Why they were always getting orders to wait and watch. Trenton was right, the kids more than anyone else needed protection.
Hating that the day had just started and he had hours to go before he could leave, Ben walked back over to the table, ignoring his cold coffee. He had a lot to think about. Was there another way? Could Trenton's team do more than the police?
Pulling out his phone, he quickly did a Google search for the name Trenton had given him. His eyes widened when he saw the articles the search brought up. If what Trenton said was true, he was part of the vigilante group that castrated pedophiles. It had been huge news years before when one had been arrested.
He sank down in his chair and read over several of the articles. There wasn't much information there on the team or even the guy they'd arrested. Almost all the articles talked about the castrations and people they'd gone after.
Was Trenton really one of these guys? If so, how the hell had he ended up here? From what he read it didn't sound like his team was very big, but then again, there wasn't a lot of information on them. They were good. There was never evidence left behind and other than the one time the one guy had been caught, they didn't have any pictures of them.
He glanced over at the cage and watched as Trenton curled up in a ball on the cold floor. He wanted to comfort him, talk to him, assure him they'd find a way out, but he could do none of that. And why did he want to? What made Trenton any different than any other person they brought in? Why had he taken an interest in Trenton, but none of the others? He didn't know anything about him. Hadn't known he was part of a pedophile hunting team until just now. Why had he talked to him, asked his name? That was stuff he avoided doing with others brought in.
Wondering how he'd gotten himself into this, and if it was all worth it for a job, he stared at the cages, trying to figure out how to save them all.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Trenton tried to calm his nerves. His body trembled and he fought back tears. He wasn't a person who cried often, but this was pushing him to his limits emotionally. He'd been fucking raped. He fought against people who did this shit, yet somehow, he'd let it happen to him. He'd never felt such a lack of control over his own body as he had as the doctor had held him down and forced himself on him.
He'd fought, but being cuffed made it hard and the doctor had made sure the chain holding him to the exam table had been short. He could hardly move to fight off the doctor's intentions. He didn't fight once it was happening. He got the feeling the doctor wanted him to. It would do him no good to be injured and unable to fight when he finally found a way to get out of this place. His ass hurt, but it was nothing compared to the way it was hitting him mentally.
He thought about Faith and all she'd been through. She'd been a child when it had happened to her. He'd thought he understood, but now, having been taken himself, he knew he hadn't even begun to understand what Faith had been through. He admired her strength that much more knowing how it felt to be the one forced.
He would not feel like a victim. He couldn't afford to. If he lost it now, he'd be putting himself at even more risk. He had to stay strong and find a way out of this place.
Knowing that guy was probably a cop helped, but not much. The asshole stood by and did nothing as people were raped, sold, and killed. He got that working undercover meant he couldn't act on things like usual, but when was enough enough? Even the police wouldn't let this go on. It made no sense.
The sound of the gate being opened had him opening his eyes. He tried to act like he wasn't interested in anything, but he was worried about Ian. He hoped the doctor hadn't raped him, hadn't been able to get it up again, but something told him the doctor was on some kind of medication. He'd been too rough, too hard, too confident. Trenton didn't know enough about those little blue pills men took to know if it would keep the doctor hard after coming once, but he was pretty sure the doc had still been hard after he'd finished with him.
Ian fell to the ground the moment he was pushed into the cage. Trenton resisted the urge to go over to him. It looked like Ian was crying, but he curled up so tightly in a ball it was hard to be sure. There were no physical signs he'd been raped, but he had his back turned away from Trenton's view.
God, this was killing him. He couldn't watch this. If he saw a child get raped, he'd lose his mind. The feeling of helplessness was overwhelming.
The team had to know by now he was missing. They would have found his car, and hopefully, there had been video in the bar of him being drugged. He wasn't sure how much of a lead that would give them, but it was at least a start. Not knowing how far away they'd taken him would make things harder. He could be anywhere up or down the west coast.
Mentally, he went through every step he would take if it was another member of the team missing. He'd search traffic cameras, see if he could get a lead on what car was used to transport him. He'd use facial recognition software on everyone at the bar, trying to find out who drugged him.
He lost himself in the thoughts, forgetting everything for a little while. It wasn't until a still crying Ian crawled to him that he was forced to remember where he was and what had just happened to him. "You okay?"
Ian wiped his nose on his arm. "The fucker raped me."
