Pain

by E. M. Leya

  "You're serious about this?"

  "Very."

  "Is this something I do on the side, or is it like a job?"

  "It can work either way. Several of the team hold full-time jobs along with helping us, but there is a wage that goes along with it. I promise it's much more than you make at your current job." Carter smiled at him.

  "How much more?" Matt wasn't going to quit work for something he didn't fully know the details on.

  "Let's just say you'll make more in a year with us than you will in five with your current employer." Xander suddenly sat up, giving his two cents.

  "Thought you were sleeping," Carter teased.

  "I was trying but you wouldn't stop talking." Xander stretched his arms over his head. "Damn comfortable recliner you have. I need to get one like it for my place."

  Matt shook his head, confused by how casual Xander seemed to take everything. If he was the one who actually went after people, he had to have a more serious side than he'd shown so far. "That's a lot of money."

  "It's a risky business." Xander smiled at him.

  "And that is the reason you need to think all this over. Once you decide, then we can let you know more details, set you up somewhere safe to work from. Let your home be a safe place again."

  "I can't work from home?" Matt wasn't sure he wanted to do this anywhere else.

  "It's not recommended. We have a house we work from. It's secure, and you'll have me and two others working with you most days. Xander and the others come and go as needed. Staying here puts you in danger if you're compromised. Your home should be your safe place. The one place you don't have to be watching over your shoulder all the time." Carter stood.

  "And if we find Faith?"

  "She's our first priority. We drop everything else and we go get her," Xander promised.

  "I need to think." Matt also stood, closing the distance between them before offering his hand first to Carter, then Xander. "Thank you."

  "No, thank you. I'm sorry we're meeting under the conditions we are, but I'm glad we've met. If you choose to join us, your skills will really bring us a lot of help. Sadly, there's more work than most of us can handle."

  Matt glanced at Xander. "Even for you?"

  "Especially for me." Xander's steel blue eyes met his. "I hope you join us." He tapped Carter on the back. "Can I have that smoke now?"

  "Go, I'll meet you outside." Carter rolled his eyes as he tossed the car keys at Xander. "Don't smoke in the car."

  "Yes, Boss." Xander flipped him off again, but smiled to soften it as he nodded to Matt before heading out the door.

  "Are the rest of the group like him?" Matt asked.

  "Ha, no, Xander is one of a kind, but so are all the others. We're a very mixed group of people, but we are family and we take care of each other like family. If you join us, you won't ever want for anything. We take care of our own." Carter's expression softened. "I'm really sorry about your daughter. I can't even imagine what you must be going through. Even if you don't work with us, if you need anything, just someone to talk to or yell at, call me." He pulled a business card from his pocket. "You can also call if you make a decision before we get back with you."

  "Thanks." Matt took the card, rubbing his thumb over the engraved lettering. "Thank you for everything."

  "Good luck, Matt." Carter turned and started to walk out.

  Matt cleared his throat. "Hey, Carter?"

  The tall man turned around. "Yeah?"

  "Am I still safe here? I mean, you found me." He needed to know he wasn't going to have anyone else showing up at his door.

  "As far as I know you are. I wouldn't worry. Few are as good as I am, and most of them work for our side. If anything seems off or you don't feel safe, call and we'll be here right away."

  "Thanks." Matt didn't take much comfort in that. If one person found him, another could.

  "No problem. Talk to you soon." Carter headed out the door.

  Matt didn't follow him. He heard the door click closed as he sat back down, trying to sort through everything he'd learned. There was a part of him that had wanted to agree to everything right off, but there was another part, the part that needed to get Faith home, that worried getting involved with all of this would make his search for his daughter harder.

  Unsure what to do, Matt set the business card on the desk to deal with later. Right now, he had a daughter to search for and bring home.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  "Wake your ass up!"

  The sound of Dyson's voice calling for him was the last thing Xander wanted to wake up to. He rolled out of bed, pulling his sweatpants on as he stumbled to the front door. He flipped the lock open and didn't even bother to open the door before turning back toward the kitchen. "What the fuck do you want?"

  "Nothing. Figured I'd just come over, wake your ass up for the hell of it, and see how pissed I can get you," Dyson said as he let himself in.

  "Only you would have the balls to piss me off." Xander fumbled with the coffee maker, trying to get his morning caffeine fix.

  "Here." Dyson set a cup of coffee on the counter. "I got you food too." He tossed the bag at Xander's chest.

  "Fuck, I love you." Xander dropped the bag on the counter and reached for the coffee, pausing just long enough to light a cigarette from the pack on the counter.

  "Yeah, you keep saying that, but I haven't seen a ring yet." Dyson jumped up, sitting on the kitchen counter as he took a sip of his own coffee.

  "I won't buy the cow without testing the milk first, and you won't give it up." Xander hissed as he took a drink of coffee, burning his tongue in the process.

  "Do you think I'm crazy? I know what you do for a living. I'm not letting you near my cock or balls," Dyson teased.

  "Whatever." Xander rolled his eyes as he dug into the bag and pulled out two sausage biscuits. "You're just afraid you'd love it." He glanced up at his best friend and grinned. "Why are you here anyway? It's my day off."

  "It was, but I need your help with a job tonight." Dyson met Xander's surprised stare.

  It was rare that they had to team up to take down a perp. The only time it happened was when there was more than one perpetrator on site or a risk of someone else showing up. "What ya got?"

  "It's the Sanders case," Dyson told him.

  "Ah…" Xander nodded, recognizing the name. The Sanders were a married couple. The husband and wife team had recently kidnapped three young boys, holding them captive in their home as they groomed them, so they could sell them to others. All three boys were between twelve and fourteen and had been taken from the same mall on the same day. Security cameras had shown each boy walking with the woman to a black van at separate times. They hadn't been in distress, so she had to have lured them there one way or another. Once at the van, it had only taken seconds for her husband to grab them and pull them in before anyone noticed.

  That had been over two weeks ago. STK had been searching hard, trying to find any information, but it wasn't until one of the boys showed up in a video, that Carter and Bryon had been able to figure out who had them and where they lived. Once they had the information, Bryon had given the go to rescue the kids as soon as possible.

  "I'm going to need a second set of hands. I can't risk the kids getting hurt if one of them should get away from me and get to them first." Dyson set his cup on the counter beside him. "I know you hate dealing with team jobs, but Kasey is doing a job uptown tonight already."

  "I'm in. You know I've got your back." Xander wouldn't let Dyson go into a situation like this alone. Not only did it put the kids at risk, it put Dyson in danger too. It wasn't like he had plans, and even if he did, saving the kids came first. "You've got the information?" He was sure that Dyson had stalked the house, finding out the couple's habits and the layout of the home before planning to move in.

  "I've got the file in my car. It shouldn't be hard. The kids are kept in a locked room in the basement. The couple spends most of their time in a shared office on the mai
n floor. If we do it right, we should be in the office before they realize we're there." Xander bit into his biscuit, thankful Dyson knew him well enough to know his favorite foods.

  "I'll grab the file in a few. I just wanted to make sure you didn't have plans."

  "Like my social calendar is so full," Xander spoke with his mouth full. "What time?"

  "Figured any time after eleven would be safe. The house sits back from others. No close neighbors. There are two cameras outside, but Carter is going to have them looped before we get there. No one will see us coming." Dyson shook his head. "I'm looking forward to this one. The stuff Bryon's found on them is worse than usual. Taking them out is going to be a pleasure."

  Xander took another gulp of coffee before taking the last bite of his breakfast. "Grab the file and we'll go over everything. I need to get a shower first." He tossed the bag in the trash. "Thanks for breakfast."

  "I know better than to show up here before noon without coming with food." Dyson grinned. "Go shower, I'll make myself at home."

  Xander grunted as he made his way back to his bedroom. Dyson was probably the only person who he'd leave unattended in his home. It wasn't that he had anything to hide, but he just didn't like people in his shit. He enjoyed his privacy, and his house was the one place he could find that.

  As he stepped into the shower, he thought about the job they had to do tonight. It would be good to see this couple taken down. There was evidence of them having done this several times. How they never hit Bryon's radar was surprising. Hopefully, they could find evidence of where, or who, the other missing boys were, so they could maybe bring them home in time too.

  He'd planned on spending the day working on the fire pit he was building in his backyard, but a day with Dyson sounded good, even if it was for work. He missed hanging out with him. It wasn't like they never saw each other, but their days of going out every night, hitting the clubs, and having fun had died off over the last year.

  There really wasn't a reason. Nothing had changed. Maybe it was because they were getting older. Neither enjoyed the clubs anymore. Work also took a lot out of them. There were some jobs that were worse than others, and those could take a couple of days to get over. As good as he was at dealing with his emotions, you could only see so much before it got to you.

  Dyson was a good friend. They'd met in the Army, both looking for a way to escape their abusive pasts. They'd been instant friends. When Xander left the service, Dyson followed about a year later, coming to stay with Xander for a while until he could get on his feet. It was then that Xander had managed to find his father.

  He turned off the shower, not wanting to remember. There were some memories best left in the past, and anything to do with his father were among them. He quickly dried off before pulling on another pair of sweats and a t-shirt. If they were just going to be hanging out around the house, he'd go for comfort.

  Dyson was sitting in the living room, the remote in his hand as he skimmed through what was on TV. "You know, you really need to let me help you upgrade this system."

  Xander rolled his eyes. "Because I watch so much TV."

  "Maybe you would if your system was better." Dyson grinned.

  "Maybe I would if there was something decent to watch." Xander sat down, reaching for the file that Dyson had set on the coffee table.

  "So, what did you think of the guy Bryon wants to bring in?" Dyson asked as he set the remote down, evidently happy with whatever show he'd found.

  "He's nervous, but that could be nothing more than having us show up at his door, aware of what he was up to. He was freaked out at first."

  "You have that effect on people."

  "Right? What the hell was Bryon thinking of sending me with Carter? Anyway, he's obviously stressed. He wasn't as shocked to hear what we did as I thought he would be, well, other than the vomiting."

  "He vomited?"

  "Only when I explained what I do to the perps." Xander shrugged.

  "Please tell me you didn't go into graphic detail." Dyson sighed. "You know that shit freaks people out."

  "He needed to know." Xander grinned. "He seems like a good enough guy. Definitely a computer geek. He'll fit in well with the tech guys. As expected, finding his daughter is his main focus, but I saw something flicker in his eyes when we mentioned helping bring other kids home. I think he'll join us. Whether he'll stick around or not is another thing. Right now, he's still fighting for his daughter, but you know as well as I do, the more time goes by, the more he'll start to lose hope."

  "Maybe this will give him something to hold on to. I mean, we've found kids several years after they were taken." Dyson glanced over at Xander. "Then again, there is no guarantee his daughter was taken by one of these groups. It could have been anyone. She might be living in France now just because someone wanted a daughter."

  It was true. There were so many scenarios, and it could be any one of them. If Matt joined the team, he was going to be a basket case for the first while. There was no promise this would get his daughter back. Truth was, yes, the team wanted to help him find Faith, but even more, they wanted his skills, so they could help so many more children. "Honestly, I think he'll end up joining. If anything keeps him from it, it will be that if one of us goes down, the whole team could go down. It's not just you, Kasey, and me. We might do the dirty work, but it's all approved by the team. We might be the ones with blood on our hands so to speak, but it's the team as a whole who pays the price."

  "Which is why I'm so nervous about bringing someone new on." Dyson shifted, bringing his feet up under him on the couch.

  "I know, but they took the same chance bringing us in. They didn't know how we'd react when they invited us in."

  "Dude, I think they had a good idea. We strung your father up and would have killed him if STK hadn't stopped us."

  Xander stared at the folder on his lap, but his mind was back to that night so many years ago when Xander had learned of his father's location. After years of abuse, the bastard had skipped town, leaving Xander and the cops with no leads. Xander was only one in a long line of children his father had abused, but Xander, being his son, figured he was the one with the most right to seek vengeance on him.

  He'd talked Dyson into helping, and the two of them had shown up at his father's house once they found out the information. They'd beat the man to where he was barely conscious, then had prepared to kill him by cutting off parts of his body one at a time. It was only the sudden appearance of Bryon and Kasey at the house that stopped them.

  Bryon had talked Xander down, promising his father would pay for what he did, but reminding him that death was the easy way out. It was better to let his father spend the rest of his life in prison. Bryon swore Xander wouldn't want his father's death on his hands, but still, to this day, Xander was sure he wouldn't have minded.

  Dyson nudged his leg. "Stop thinking about it."

  Xander sighed. "I know, I just wish…"

  "STK took care of things. He's spending his life in prison. He won't hurt another kid." Dyson reached for the file. "Okay, let's go over this." He flipped to the first page, pulling out photos of the couple. "Let this motivate you." He flipped the photos of the young boys that had been posted on the dark web.

  Xander took one look at the photographs and all thoughts of his father faded. Tonight, he would stop these monsters. This was what was important. His past was just that, the past, but this was these kid's reality. This was the present, and tonight he would hopefully help the boys take the first step toward putting it in their past.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  "I wish all locations were this secluded." Xander stepped out of the car about five hundred feet down the small dirt road that led to the perpetrator's house.

  "Me too." Dyson slipped his gloves on.

  They'd just gotten confirmation that the sting was a go, and Xander was restless about getting it done. Hopefully, within an hour or so, the perps would be in police custody at the hospital, and three youn
g boys would be reunited with their families. That was what pushed Xander to confidently follow Dyson to the house.

  "You want the lock, or shall I?"

  "You, of course." Xander wasn't about to try his lock picking skills when he had Dyson with him. The guy could break into any lock put in front of him. What took Xander five minutes to get open, took Dyson five seconds. On a case like this, every minute mattered.

  They went to the back door that opened into the garage and made sure their masks were in place. As expected, Dyson had the door unlocked and them in the garage in seconds. They glanced at each other, giving a nod, and quietly moved on, pushing the door that led from the garage to the house open.

  Xander held his breath as Dyson made sure they were in the clear before they both slipped into the house. The lights were on, allowing them to see as he followed Dyson through the rooms, toward a small office the man and woman worked in.

  The door was open, and they stood there for a moment, both watching as the man and women both worked from separate computers. The man seemed to be chatting with someone, but the woman was uploading pictures of her in different sexual acts with the young boys she now held hostage.

  That was all Xander needed to see. With a nod to Dyson, they both burst into the room, Xander grabbing the female as Dyson took the male. The second they had hold of them, each slid the needle of the syringe into their necks before sharing a smile with each other across the room.

  "You've been a very bad boy and girl, haven't you?" Dyson pulled the syringe from the man's neck before dumping him onto the floor with a loud thud.

  The man stared up at him as the drugs took hold.

  The woman in Xander's arms had gone limp, but he kept hold of her anyway. "You like hurting little boys?" He hissed against her ear. "Well, I like hurting those who hurt children. It looks like karma has come back to bite you." He grinned at her as he finally let her body drop to the floor.

  Dyson set the file on the desk, right beside the female's computer. "You don't mind a bit of pain, do you?" He looked between the two on the floor before glancing at Xander. "Why don't you handle her, I'll take care of him."