Chapter 11

Dan grabbed Jim’s arm. “She has a GPS tracker on. We’ll know where she is. And Joanne has two agents trailing her,” Dan reminded him, pointing to the two cars that pulled out behind the one Trixie had gotten into.

Trixie looked shyly at Jase, staying with her persona of a shy teen girl. She remembered what Diana had taught her about acting. “You need to immerse yourself, Trixie; for this moment in time, you are the person you are portraying.”

Trixie let a soft blush fill her cheeks as she admired the handsome teen. She ignored the older man who was driving them. “It will be cool seeing Katya and Ally in person,” she chattered. “I was totally messing up on the game until they helped me out.” She turned innocent blue eyes up at Dex. “It’s real nice of you to drive us, Mr. Dex, and it’s cool you can stay with Jase and his dad.” Trixie frowned. “My cousins wouldn’t give me the time of day. After mom got into the pills, before she died, they cut us off dead.”

Dex eyed the blond teen, thinking she would fetch a bundle. Those curls alone made her look like an angel. With her being so petite and young looking, she would appeal to plenty of buyers. “Oh, sure; no problem, Tricia; Jase’s my favorite cousin. When he told me he wanted to meet a kid he games with, I had no problem helping him out.”

“So where are we going exactly? Is it an internet café, or one of those stores that lets gamers play?” Trixie asked him eagerly.

“It’s my club. Jase was so into gaming I figured out that there is a huge underserved market. I started it up last year. We’re meeting the girls there.”

“That’s neat. Does Jase work there, too?”

“Sometimes; I have to think about how his mother would have wanted him raised and not overwork him, what with him being fourteen and all.”

If Trixie hadn’t been watching so carefully, she wouldn’t have seen the white pinched look that appeared on Jase’s face. The bleakness in his eyes. Trixie made a mental note to look into his case history when they solved the case. She looked around; they had driven into a more industrial area with a lot of warehouses. Trixie looked at Dex, “How come we’re way out here in the boonies?”

“The rent is cheaper out here.” He pulled up in front of a strip mall full of warehouses. The doors looked like garage doors. Dex exited the car along with Trixie and Jase. They were walking towards a corner warehouse with a faded orange door.

Trixie paused. “H-how come it doesn’t have any name or anything on it? I thought you said that this is a club,” she said, stalling for time.

“It’s a club, alright; a very exclusive kind, kid, now come on.” Dex grabbed her wrist and dragged her forward.

“Hey, cut it out, Mr. Dex. You’re hurting my wrist. Jase, come on, help me out here, what’s going on?”

Jase looked at her emotionlessly. “Just do as he says, Tricia, and you won’t get hurt, ok?”

“No, it’s not ok. Look, I want to go home right now.”

Dex fished out his key ring and tossed it to Jase. “Open the door, kid.”

Jase, avoiding Trixie’s eyes, did as he was told. Dex pulled Trixie inside. The first small room had dim lights and led into a short hallway; he pulled her forward. At the end of the hall were two guards; they stood in front of a grey metal door. “Open up, Togo, I have the last package.”

Trixie let tears fill her eyes to mask her feelings of rage. This was what she had been working towards. She pulled backwards, fighting him all the way to the door. He shook her. “Cut it out, kid, or I’ll smack you.” He shoved her inside in front of him. Trixie looked around, taking it all in. There were young people huddled everywhere, mostly girls but a few boys. They all looked up, most in fear. Several had dark bruises on their arms and legs. Some had marks on their faces. Most were in dingy clothes. They looked lost. Staying in persona, Trixie met the eyes of a young girl near the door. She blinked; it was Katya. Joanne had shown her a picture just a few hours ago. Katya was more than a little banged up. She was also furiously mad.

Katya glared at Dex, “Pig,” she mumbled.

“Little Kat, now, do we need another lesson in obedience?” Dex asked menacingly. He jerked his head at Trixie. “See the little Kat here thought she would back talk the boss, but she learned different, didn’t you, Kat?” He nudged her with his shoe. Kat glared back. She was already black and blue from being hit after biting Dex two weeks ago. When she had talked back to Dex’s boss, she had gotten a black eye and a split lip. Dex nudged her again, harder. “Didn’t you, little Kat?”

“Whatever,” Kat mumbled through her split lip.

Dex smirked, “A couple of sessions between the sheets and you won’t be such a smart ass, you little bitch.” He shoved Trixie forward. “Better rest while you can, kid. As soon as the boss gets here, we’re moving out.” He left, pushing a reluctant Jase in front of him.

Chapter 12

Back in the lead surveillance car, Dan’s lips thinned; he was white with rage. He made a motion to get out of the car. Jo pulled him back. “No, Dan, didn’t you hear? There’s another guy, a layer up from this one! We need to wait.”

He glared at her. “That bastard just threatened a kid, a little girl.”

Joe glared right back at him. “I know; that little girl is my ward.” She hissed back at him. Her grey eyes were nearly as black as Daniel’s. “She’s thirteen, Dan.” Her voice broke. “Do you think I don’t want to go in there guns blazing?” Joanne looked him in the eye, fighting back tears. “I’m all she has and I feel like the biggest failure in the world right now. The world’s worst person. But we have more to think about than just this group, Dan. There are more cells than just this one. We need to get as many of these traffickers as we can. We’re going to have to wait this out overnight.”

Dan’s black eyes searched her grey ones and found truth. He shoved a hand through his hair. “Ok, I agree we will wait.” He hesitated. “When this is over, Joey, will you tell me what happened? How these guys got your ward? Why you have a teenage ward in the first place?”

Joanne nodded wordlessly and grabbed his hand. “I need to call Jim to let him know the op is going to continue overnight.”

Dan huffed a breath. “Let me. It’s going to take a while to talk him down from storming the operation. He’s always been protective of her and this is going to drive him bat shit crazy.”

Joanne nodded; she had seen Jim’s love for the pint-sized, curly haired dynamo first hand. Objectively, she knew Jim wouldn’t hurt her, but he was a big guy and had a temper. “Have at it, then; I need to talk to the others on watch.”

Back in the warehouse, Katya and Trixie were comparing stories. Katya was disgusted. “Yeah, I can’t believe I fell for that asshole Jase’s sad sack story.” She looked lost. “My cousin, I mean my guardian, she warned me all the time to be careful on the computer, you know?”

“So what’s the story on Jase? Is he one of them?”

Katya cocked a brow, her filthy braid hanging down in front of her face. She pushed it back impatiently. “I’m not sure. I know he’s scared stiff of the boss guy. They keep him away from us mostly.” She looked cynical. “Got to protect the bait, you know.”

Another captive, a black haired girl, spoke up. “Come on, Kat, he’s just like the rest of us and you know it. I think he’s related to the boss guy somehow. They kind of look alike.”

“What’s the boss guy’s name?” Trixie asked.

“I don’t know. Dex just calls him Morgan.”

Trixie fought back her excitement. “That’s interesting. Jase Morgan was who I was supposed to meet at the park.”

Just then, one of the girls, who was sitting against the wall, looked up from across the room. Her eyes widened as she took a closer look at Trixie. She opened her mouth to speak.

Back at the FBI offices, Jim asked Joanne’s permission to stay at the safe house that night with Sam. Dan seconded Jim’s claim that Jim spending the night alone was a very bad idea as long as Trixie was out there.

Back at the safe house, that night Jim slammed down the phone and walked into the kitchen. “They’ve decided; they are letting the op go on overnight.” He spoke tersely. “They have one more guy at large that Joanne wants to get first.”

Hallie nodded her eyes shuttered. “I’ll make some coffee, Jim.” She rose, but stopped, surprised, as he touched her shoulder. “Hallie, do you want to talk, about what happened? In university, I mean.”

Hallie looked at him, suddenly uncertain and feeling very young. She had thought that what had happened back then had damaged her already poor relationship with the Bob Whites beyond repair. Yet here Jim was offering an opening to make amends. “I think I do. I need to start by saying I’m sorry, Jim, for spreading a rumor that I slept with you.” Green eyes met blue black in mutual understanding.

Back in the car outside the warehouse, Joanne sat upright as Trixie’s voice filled the car once again. “That’s interesting, the kid I met in the park? His name was Jase Morgan.” Joanne started typing furiously on her tablet. She and Dan began looking through websites and police databases trying to figure out who Trixie was talking about, trying to link the boy Jase with a man named Morgan.

In the warehouse, Ally looked up and opened her mouth to speak as she recognized Trixie from the park. Trixie’s eyes widened and she shook her head vehemently at Allison from across the room. “Don’t,” she mouthed.

Katya’s eyes narrowed. “What’s going on?” She hissed.

Trixie broke off eye contact with Allison. “I just saw someone I know.” She stood and walked towards Allison, sat down beside the teenage girl she had been hired to protect. Trixie whispered in Allison’s ear as she leaned in, as if to comfort the teen. “No one knows who I am Allison, including the bad guys.”

Allison gulped. “What’s going to happen to us?” she said, her voice tearful.

Trixie shrugged and spoke louder. “I don’t know, Ally. You tell me, this is beyond nuts. I can’t believe you got grabbed, too.” Trixie spent the night trying to gather as much information as she could for the cops waiting outside.

Out in the car, Joanne and Dan worked franticly to find the ring leader Morgan. Joanne was the one who found the connection. She pulled up a driver’s license from the DMV for one Jason Demeter Morgan, age 40. “This has got to be our guy; he is a dead ringer for the kid Trixie met up with.”

Dan nodded, his eyes grim. The man was squeaky clean. “We need to know how the kid’s related to this guy.”

Joanne sighed tiredly. She worked the connections online. “I think I have something.”

Dan looked at the face book page. “Jase is his nephew. The boy’s mother died when the boy was ten.” They looked at each other, not wanting to think about how JD had made his nephew help him with his dark plans.

“Looks like he works for an international bank.” Dan growled. “I bet that’s how he made some connections overseas.”

She frowned “I’m going to get some eyes on this guy ASAP and we need to get a search warrant for his home and work before he shows up tomorrow.”

Trixie shifted uncomfortably in her seated position against the cold wall of the warehouse. There was a dampness that permeated the dark room. The clothing that she wore to maintain her cover was incredibly uncomfortable and the wires she had running through her clothes were sticking to her body. She sighed as she tried to settle back and began to sort out the information she had gathered. They had found Allison and Katya, so that was a definite plus in the investigation. They had also found other missing kids. But Trixie was still uncertain who was pulling the strings and controlling the operation.

Although Dexter was definitely the boss of Jase, Trixie believed that they still didn’t have the name of the man at the top. I bet Jim is freaking out, Trixie thought. I saw the look in his eyes when I got into the car. Please, Jim, just keep calm and let us finish this case, Trixie pleaded in her mind. Shifting again, Trixie found that if she laid her head against the wall, she could find some sort of comfort. With the thoughts swirling around in her mind, Trixie actually dozed off.

Jim stared into his cup of coffee, waiting for Hallie to begin her tale. He recalled how Hallie had spread a rumor that nearly destroyed everything between him and Trixie. He should still be angry with her, but he was just too tired and too worried about Trixie. Jim watched as Hallie slowly pulled a spoon through her cup of coffee, seemingly fascinated by the whirls that action created in the cup. Hallie was surprised, when she looked up, to see Jim watching her. She sighed as she tossed the spoon down on the table and took a sip of the coffee. Setting her cup down, she cleared her throat.

“I guess I should start at the beginning,” she said, her voice catching slightly.

Jim nodded, “That would be the best place to start.”

“First off, I really am sorry that I created such a mess for you and Trixie.”

“You’ve already said that, Hallie. I just want to know why you would say such an outrageous thing.”

Hallie shrugged, “I don’t know. I guess I just wanted somebody else to be as miserable as I was.” Hallie looked into Jim’s face, trying to gauge his reaction.

“What are you talking about, being miserable? You and Dan were engaged and were planning your life together.”

Hallie shook her head. “Things weren’t going very well. He was all wrapped up in getting hired by the police department. And every single time he and Trixie got together, they would rehash cases and discuss procedures and how they would do things differently.” Hallie’s voice took on an angry tone. “Why couldn’t he discuss things with me? Why was it always with my cousin?”

“I still don’t get why you would make up such a lie, and an incredibly destructive lie at that.”

“Remember when you and Trixie spent those few months apart, or at least not dating?” Hallie asked.

Jim nodded, recalling how he and Trixie needed to get some things done for their various careers and decided that dating, internships, and seminars did not mix well. He also recalled how lonely he had been without having Trixie in his life on a daily basis. He also knew that Trixie had suffered the same feelings during those few months. When they got back together, they both knew that they could never be apart again.

“Anyway,” Hallie continued. “There was that series of seminars in New York that both Trixie and Dan planned to attend. To make it worse, they decided that they should share a hotel room in order to save money. Do you get the picture, Jim? Those two were shacked up in a cozy hotel in New York City, away from the Bob-Whites and family members for almost a month. I can only imagine that, after a day of crime lectures, they would be so hyped up their boundaries would go down.”

Jim stared at Hallie. “Are you kidding me? Are you honestly kidding me? Trixie and Dan are friends, best friends, but lovers they are not. I can’t believe you could even imagine such a ridiculous thing.”

“I didn’t feel that way at the time. I was so jealous of the friendship between Dan and Trixie that I couldn’t think straight. You were temporarily out of the picture. Dan and I were arguing all the time. Why wouldn’t he have a fling with Trixie?”

“You still haven’t explained why you decided to lie about you and me,” Jim said as he folded his arms across his chest. Her accusation against Dan and Trixie was preposterous, but he wasn’t getting anywhere with her on that front.

“I just wanted to hurt them, make them hurt, and hopefully make myself hurt less,” Hallie whispered.

“But it didn’t work out that way,” commented Jim softly. “Yes, you hurt Dan and you caused a big argument between Trixie and me. But everyone also knew that behavior like that between you and I isn’t who I am. Trixie and I worked through the fact that you said you had an affair with me and came out stronger. You and Dan broke up and he continued to move forward in his life. Here we are, all tied up in this case, and you are still as angry and miserable as ever, Hallie.”

Hallie looked down at her coffee and stirred it again. She felt the tears pricking behind her eyelids but refused to let them fall. Jim was right. She had a made a mess of things. “Jim, does Dan hate me?”

“I doubt it. In fact, I don’t think Dan hates anybody. It’s just not in him. However, he is a very guarded person and I am pretty sure that his guard is up when he is around you.”

Hallie stood up and walked away from the table. She stared out the window at the city, with its gray shadows and pale light. “I wish I could change things but I don’t know how. You might forgive me, but Trixie won’t. She is still furious with me. And Dan…” Hallie broke off as she thought about the man who used to be her fiancé. “I blew it.”

Jim stood up and walked over to join Hallie. At the mention of Trixie’s name, his stomach tightened. He desperately wanted to know what was happening and if she was safe. He hadn’t heard from Dan or Joanne in hours. Jim rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and tried to push his fears to the back of his mind. “I’m sorry, Hallie. I really thought that talking things through would help. But it seems to me that you need to start by figuring out what you want. Only you know that.” Jim turned away from the window and returned to the table. Finding his coffee cold, he went in search of another cup while Hallie continued to hold vigil at the window.

Chapter 13

The next morning Trixie jumped as her arm was grabbed. She looked up into the dark face of Dexter. “Get up,” he hissed, yanking Trixie’s arm. She struggled to her feet. “And keep quiet or you’ll pay,” he ordered as he dragged Trixie to the door, opened it, and pulled her through it.

In the nearby car, Dan and Joanne jumped when they heard the voice. They could hear the sounds of Trixie struggling. “Let’s go. Now!” Ordered Dan. When he looked at Joanne, she just shook her head at him.

“We still need to get the whole group. We are so close. We can still hear Trixie and we can get to her in an instant if we need to. Let’s see where this is going. But,” she cautioned. “Be ready for anything.”

“Let go of me,” Trixie twisted and pulled at her arm in an attempt to get it free from Dexter’s strong grip.

“Shut up,” Dexter ordered as he continued his rough treatment.

“Where are we going?” Trixie demanded.

“If you’re smart, then you’ll shut up. Now do it, bitch,” yelled Dexter.

Trixie allowed herself to be taken down the hall that she had entered earlier. She acted the part of a young girl, but the actions of a detective were in full force. She noted as much detail of the building as she could. She blinked when she emerged from the building and saw the light that signaled the end of a day had come and gone. Looking around, she saw a beat-up van with darkened windows sitting nearby. She hoped that Dan and others were in that van and that they were aware of what was going on. But Trixie didn’t dare linger her gaze on the van too long for fear of drawing attention to it. Instead, she continued to act like a young teenager. Dexter pulled her up to the vehicle that had been her transportation the day before and slammed her into the side of it. Trixie felt her breath leave her lungs and gasped to get it back.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” She asked as she faced Dexter defiantly. “I don’t like this place and I want to go home.”

“You’re going home all right,” sneered Dexter. “Home, sweet home for you blondie.”

“What about the others in there?” asked Trixie as she pointed back to the building she had just left.

“Oh yeah, they’re going home, too.” Dexter opened the back door and shoved Trixie in. She fell to the floor, hitting her cheek on the console in the front seat.

“Ouch, you’re hurting me,” she moaned. As Trixie struggled to sit up in the back seat, she felt the sting of a slap when Dexter’s open palm connected with her face.

“I told you to shut up and I meant it.”

Trixie rubbed the side of her face, which was marked with the outline of Dexter’s palm. Before closing the vehicle’s door, Dexter gave Trixie a hard shove which again sent her to the floor of the car. As she pulled herself back up to the seat, Trixie realized that one of the wires had come loose and was now dangling down the front of her shirt

“What the hell happened?” hissed Dan as he began frantically pecking at his laptop computer. “Trixie is getting hit and all of a sudden we lose the connection. We are going in and we are going in now.” Dan shoved his computer aside and pulled out his service revolver. Joanne grabbed the sleeve of his jacket, pulling him to an abrupt stop.

“Let go of me, Jo. I’m going to go get Trixie. This is over.”

“No, it’s not. I switched to another program and we can hear her now. Plus she has a GPS locator on her. We will still be able to keep track of her.”

Dan stared at Joanne. He saw the tension in her face and felt it in her body. But he also noticed how determined she was to continue with the operation.

Dan exhaled loudly. “You win this time, Joanne. But I’m not going to sit here and listen to some piece of crap hit Trixie. The next time, I’m going in, no matter what you say.”

Joanne nodded at Dan. She then indicated that he should sit back and slid his computer back onto his lap. They both leaned forward as they heard Dexter start his car. Craning their necks, they watched as Dexter backed out and then drove past them.

Trixie was too busy, trying to memorize every detail she could see in the limited light, to fight Dexter the way she should have when they arrived at their destination. “About time you learned your place,” Dexter growled as he dragged her into the garage of the suburban house via a side door.

Trixie kicked him hard in the shin just because she could. She knew exactly where her place was—with Jim. And she wasn’t there right now because there were people like this man in the world and someone had to stop them.

Dexter shoved her to the floor and kicked her. She skinned her elbow as she scrambled away from a second kick. “Dexter, if you kick her again, I’ll have to kill you ahead of schedule,” a cold voice said over her head.

Tricia scrambled to her feet. Her defender was a middle aged man (Trixie guessed he was about forty), just starting to get a few gray hairs among his close cropped brown hair. He wore professional-looking glasses low on his nose. His shirt and tie looked like they belonged below a suit jacket, but he wasn’t wearing the jacket. She moved closer to her defender, sticking her tongue out at Dexter. He growled at her. Her defender put a heavy hand on her shoulder. “And you are a young lady. You will act your age. Now, come with me.”

Meekly, a properly chastised teen caught acting like a child, she followed him into an office. A video camera was setup on a tripod and connected to a laptop. The missing suit jacket was hung neatly over the back of the plush desk chair. She could guess the purpose of the camera; no one would want to pay the money teenage girls were worth without seeing the goods. With overseas buyers, the ring probably couldn’t arrange in-person visits.

Suddenly, she began to sweat. If they tried to make her undress, they’d find the wires. She wasn’t sure how far behind the FBI was; she hadn’t seen the van as they came in, but she wasn’t looking for it, either. Mentally, she started calculating how long she could hold out, and what her best escape routes were.

“Oh, don’t be so gloomy. He didn’t kick you that hard. Smile for the camera,” the new man instructed. Trixie took a deep breath, and sank as deep into her role as Tricia as she could, hoping this video would never be seen.

Dan growled as they parked down the street from Trixie’s current location. He didn’t like what he was hearing. “If you let that video get out on the internet, I will personally kill you,” he told Joanne fiercely. “And then I’ll let Jim have the left overs.”

Joanne rolled her eyes and sent a text to her team with their location and directions to prevent any outbound internet traffic, and to do what they could to find out what the internet users at that location had been up to of late.

Chapter 14

Back at the safe house that night, Jim grimaced, finding his coffee mug empty. Hallie took it from him. “I guess it is your turn to get refills,” he muttered.

“I’m not getting refills. If we’re going to be any use to this case, or even just to the people we care about, we need to try to sleep.” Jim frowned. Sleeping when Trixie was in danger never went well.

“Jim, I get it. Whatever there is between us, she’s still my cousin. Whatever’s happening out there, she’s going to want you to be there at the end of it. You can’t be collapsing from exhaustion at that point.”

“I know,” Jim growled.

“Then go to bed.”

Jim woke, breathing hard; it was a nightmare he had often when Trixie was in danger. The one where Jones caught her and beat her the way he’d beaten Jim. Jim threw off his blankets; sleep would be a long time coming.

He heard a cry next door, from Sam’s room. Quickly, he went to Sam’s door and knocked. “Sam, its Jim. Are you okay?”

Sam came to the door. “No, not really. I had a nightmare.”

“Me too,” Jim admitted. “Let’s go sit on the couch and talk.”

“I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to think about it.”

Jim nodded. “I know. It helps sometimes, though.” Sam snorted. Jim smiled. He remembered a time when he’d have reacted the same way. “That’s okay. You don’t have to talk, if you’re not ready. Is it okay if I talk?”

Sam shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

“Trixie—the blonde—”

“The curly haired girl the agents arrested when she grabbed the girl I was supposed to meet?”

“Yes, that’s Trixie. She’s my girlfriend, and a detective. Mysteries just find her, like metal shavings to a magnet. Even as a teenager—younger than you—she was finding mysteries. Sometimes she thinks I hate the mysteries,” Jim admitted. “It’s not really true. It’s just that her mysteries are dangerous sometimes. She’s almost died, more times than I care to count, chasing a mystery. I don’t like to think that she might get hurt and I wouldn’t be able to help her.”

“You have to watch out for her. Like I have to watch out for my little sisters.”

“I don’t have to—she has two older brothers and a dad for that—but I want to, because she’s important to me, and I don’t want to lose her.” Sam nodded and Jim guessed he was still thinking about his younger sisters. “I worry about her all the time, but it gets worse when I know she’s working on a mystery. Then I have nightmares, like tonight.”

“What do you dream about?”

“I dream that the man who hurt me when I was your age is hurting her. I got used to it; I could take it for myself, but I hate to think he’d ever do that to someone I cared about. I’d do anything to stop him from hurting her.”

“Me too,” Sam murmured.

“But it’s just a dream,” Jim admitted. “Jones never hurt Trixie the way he hurt me. He never has and he never will.”

“How can you be sure?”

“He’s in jail and he will be until he’s too old to hurt anyone. He was arrested.”

“Did you have to face him, in court?”

“No. When I got away from him, I was too scared he’d find a way to get me again and that he’d kill me. He’ll never have to answer for what he did to me, not legally. I wish sometimes that I had faced him. It’s like he got away with what he did to me.”

“How is he in jail if it’s not because of what he did to you?”

“Jonesy—my ex-step-father—is a greedy man. I wasn’t the only one he went after. He tried to cheat me out of my inheritance. After that didn’t work, he tried to get my cousin’s money. Jonesy was arrested for trying to steal my cousin Juliana’s inheritance.”

“Oh.”

Jim hesitated and then decided it was worth a try. “Do you know what the agents are trying to do? What the case is they’re working on is about?”

“They’re trying to find the girl I was meeting—Allison, I think. Someone kidnapped her and they want to catch the kidnappers.”

“That’s true, but it’s bigger than that. The agents looking for Allison know that there are some bad guys out there. They have kidnapped a whole bunch of kids, including Allison. These men are planning to sell the kids. If they sell the kids, they will be hurt; bad things will happen to them that will give them nightmares like ours. The agents know that, and they’re trying to find the kids before harm comes to them. They’re trying to help them.”

“Good for them.”

“They’ll help you, too.”

“Nobody can help me,” Sam replied flatly.

“They can arrest the person who hurts you, and gives you nightmares.”

“No,” Sam said suddenly, with the same force Jim had once used when Mr. Wheeler suggested pressing charges against Jones for abuse.

Jim put a gentle hand on Sam’s knee. “They’ll also make sure whoever you’re protecting—your sisters, I’d guess—are safe, and that you are, too. You wouldn’t have to be afraid anymore, not for yourself or for them.”

Sam shook his head stubbornly. “He told me what would happen if I ever told.”

“I know.”

“How do you know?”

“Because Jonsey told me the same thing. He made sure the neighbors wouldn’t tell, either. He beat me worse when they told him not to.” Jim shook his head. It had seemed helpless then, like no one could possibly help him.

“Sam, they’re going to catch the kidnappers, and arrest them. They will rescue the children who were kidnapped. But, Sam, they researched you when they brought you in. You’re not in the system—your parents didn’t report you kidnapped.”

“I wasn’t.”

“I guessed that much. I’m wondering if your sisters are in the same place as the children who were kidnapped. If they aren’t, the agents need to know, so they can be sure your sisters are safe before they try to arrest the kidnappers.”

“My sisters are not with the others. They’re safe, as long as I behave. Besides, keeping them with the others would risk my mother finding out what he’s up to, like I did. What if he hurts her, too? Threatens her or even kills her?”

“Do you know where your sisters are?”

“They are at home, if he hasn’t hurt them because I didn’t come back. You promise they’ll be safe?”

“I know the agents will do everything they can,” Jim hedged. He hated himself for not promising, but how could he? He had no authority over the FBI, and it sounded like the girls were with their mother. Depending on how much Sam knew, and how much the agents could prove, there might be no way to prove that the children should be removed from the mother’s custody.

Sam nodded, and Jim knew he was about to share everything he’d been guarding up to now. Jim stopped him before he could speak. “You can’t tell me right now who hurt you, and what other crimes he might have committed.”

“Why not?”

“Because you and I both want him to be arrested and put in jail, where he belongs, for a very long time, don’t we?” Sam nodded. “Well to do that, the agents have to build a case. The court has rules about how they’re allowed to do that.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“One of those rules is about how they get the information to build the case. That rule says that they can’t get information from a minor unless there’s someone in the room who is looking out for the minor’s best interest.”

“You aren’t looking out for my best interests?”

“I’m trying to,” Jim agreed. “But the court only trusts certain people to look out for a minor. Hallie’s one of those people. She has to be in the room when you say anything that’s going to help put the man who hurt you in jail.”

“I don’t want to talk to her. I like talking to you.”

“You can still talk to me. She just has to be in the room, so it has to wait until morning, when she’s awake, okay?”

Sam considered. A couple hours couldn’t hurt. If Dexter was going to follow through on his threats because Sam didn’t come home from meeting the Allison girl, he’d have followed through already. He’d be sleeping now, just like everyone else. At last, Sam nodded.

“You can tell me about your last soccer game, though,” Jim prompted. He knew Sam was too wound up now—he wouldn’t sleep until he knew his sisters were safe. Jim knew he wouldn’t sleep peacefully until he had Trixie back in his arms, so they might as well sit up together.

Chapter 15

Trixie woke with a groan. It took her a minute to realize why she was so uncomfortable. It was the wires, and the damn bra holding her girls to a properly teenage-ish appearance. She couldn’t believe she’d managed to sleep. After Jason made her show off for the camera, he had sent Dexter back to the warehouse. Dexter protested, but Jason insisted. Trixie doubted Dexter’s protests had anything to do with her safety and well-being, though she’d almost rather be back in that dank place, where they held the girls, than alone with Jason. He gave her the creeps and he liked to run his hands through her curls, which always made her heart clench, missing Jim.

Once Dexter was gone, he showed her to a cleanly furnished guest room with a daybed. “I know you’ve had a long day,” Jason told her kindly. “Go ahead and sleep.”

“I want to go home,” Trixie said plaintively.

“Soon,” he assured her. “Make yourself comfortable.”

An hour after dawn, an agent knocked on Jo’s window. “Shift change.”

“Already? Damn.”

“What’s going on, Joey?”

“Eighteen hours,” she muttered. “We’ve been at this for eighteen hours.”

“And?”

“Even on our worst cases, it’s our maximum field shift. There are two more agents in a car at the end of the block. One to drive us back to headquarters, one to stay with this fellow and take over for us.”

“I’m not leaving.”

“I don’t want to, either, Dan, but we need sleep, and we need to see what’s going on at the main office with the others.”

Dan wanted to protest; he felt like he was deserting Trixie. On the other hand, if Trixie had been undercover for eighteen hours now, Jim was probably in bad shape. Trixie wouldn’t appreciate it if Dan didn’t do what he could to help Jim through it. She could take care of herself. Jim probably wouldn’t.

“How long before we get to come back?”

“Probably around eight hours,” Jo said wearily as they trudged down to the waiting car. “We have to be off the clock a full six. By the time we’ve checked in at the office and gotten to beds, it’ll probably be an hour. Then, once we’re rested, it’ll probably be another hour to get the day-time updates and decide where best to spend our next eighteen.”

Jo sighed, opening the car door for Dan. “I know you hate it now. I hate it, too. But by the end of your second or third eighteen, you’ll realize why we have this policy.”

Back at the warehouse, their jailors came with the slop they fed the captives once or twice a day. Katya wasn’t sure of the time anymore. Katya had maneuvered things until she and the girl Allison were near each other and near the center of the enclosure. Far from the walls and any unwelcome listening ears. As their fellow captives lunged for the two pots placed on the floor—there was never enough for all of them, so they all fought for the food that they needed to survive—Katya grabbed Allison’s arm, holding her back.

Kat spoke quickly. “You recognized that girl, the one they took away. You said you’d never met anyone from the game before. Who is she? Not who she told our captors she is, right?”

Allison hesitated. “She tried to stop me from meeting Sam, just before I got snatched. Said I wasn’t meeting who I thought and I was in danger. Then a bunch of men with guns burst out and surrounded us. I think they arrested her, but then I got snatched by them.” Allison glared at the door her voice filled with hate for their captors.

“Did she say who she was?” Katya asked urgently. The men with guns might have been one of her aunt’s teams. She knew her guardian wouldn’t give up until she’d been found. However, the time was coming when Katya would need to assist in her own rescue. She didn’t want to be a stupid, foolish, little girl, like she had been when she agreed to meet someone alone who she only knew online. She had known better, and look where it got her! She wouldn’t be a fool twice.

“I thought she said her name is Trixie, and that she was private eye, but they called her Tricia.”

“Well sure. She gave you her real name, but she gave them an alias. She’s undercover.”

“How do you know?” Ally hissed.

“My second cousin, my legal guardian, works for the FBI. I know she’s out there, trying to get me back. She’d want someone inside before she tried to break up this ring. It’s probably even bigger than all of us here. Most of the cases Jo works are. We have to be ready to help; they’ll raid this place before they’ll let us be moved, but…”

“What do we do?”

“Be quiet,” Kat warned. “It’s one thing when everyone’s fighting over the slop, making more noise than an army. But remember we don’t know that the men aren’t listening, to keep us from plotting a revolt.”

“But we are plotting a revolt?” Ally whispered.

Katya grinned, a particular grin she didn’t know she’d picked up from her aunt. One that spread across Jo’s face when she knew she had her target in sight. “Of course. There are more of us than them. It’s time we all dropped the scared kid act.”

“For some of us, it’s not an act!” Ally hissed.

“Then some of us need to find our brave act, or fake it,” Kat retorted. “You know they’re going to sell us to ‘daddy’s’ who want to use us as their play things.”

“I know; it’s sick,” Ally whispered back. “What do we do? You’re leading this ‘revolt’.”

“Talk to everyone you can. Encourage them, and find out all they know. The more information we have on these jerks when we get out of here, the better.”

Ally nodded and then dug in a pocket. “This fell out of the girl’s clothes—Tricia/Trixie’s. I don’t know if it’s important.”

Katya squinted at in the poor light and then smiled. “It’s not worth much without the signal booster Trixie is probably still wearing. I think it’s one of her wireless microphones. I just hope someone is still at the other end. Go, rally the troops, and we’ll make a plan.”

Ally scrambled off to put her head together with one of the steadier boys. Katya drew her knees up to her chest and put her head down, as though she was trying to sleep. She clutched the microphone close to her lips. “I hope someone’s listening. This is Katya. Joanne’s Katya. Tell her I’m sorry; I did know better and I won’t ever do it again, just please get us out of here. They barely feed us and regularly beat us. We number 4 boys and 22 girls. Your undercover, Tricia, was here. Dexter took her away—he’ll be taking her to the Boss. They need a webcast, to entice the bidders. The place where the rest of us are kept is not more than 30 by 30. Katya out.” She didn’t raise her head right away. For all her brave words to Ally, they needed a plan, and she had a feeling she was the only one left with the will to come up with one.