“What? Why?”
“Because they made a fucking u-turn. I don’t know why,” he snapped.
Brent blew out a breath as he checked his mirrors and then got the car turned around, “Sorry, Billy. Things are a little tense here.”
“Here too.”
“Yeah. Okay, now where?”
“Head down to Magnolia and then find a place to park for a minute.”
“Got it.”
Brent heard yelling in the background, “Is that my husband?”
“Yeah. He and Drake are on a three-way call arguing with some douche at the FBI.”
“Hmmm, normally the words three-way and my husband would turn me on but not this time. Put me on speaker.”
“You got it,” Billy said.
“Sanders? Is that you?”
“Whitman? What the fuck? Are you all ganging up on me?”
“Ha! You wish. What’s the problem, Tim?”
“The problem? The problem? The problem is that I’m supposed to mobilize a tactical team on a moment’s notice!”
“We briefed you, Tim. You knew this was coming. Are you saying you’re not up to the task, Tim?”
Silence answered them for a least a minute until finally, “Whitman, you’re still the biggest asshole I know. You’ll have your goddamn team,” and then he hung up.
“That went well,” Brent said with a grin.
Drake chuckled, “That poor guy has always had the biggest crush on you, Brent. I almost feel sorry for him.”
“Come on, Malone. You know I’m hot,” Brent said.
Suddenly Billy was back on the phone, “They’ve stopped.”
“Where?”
“I’m sending you the coordinates. You’re about three miles from it.”
“Okay, we’ll scout it and report back,” Brent said then he ended the call.
A minute later, Brent’s voice spoke into the small device in Billy’s ear, “Billy?”
“Yeah?”
“Put me on COMM so everyone can hear me.”
Billy pressed a few buttons on his keyboard, “Okay, you’re on.”
“Okay. First off, Billy, I want you to know that this is not a dig on your abilities or talent, okay? I just think this might be a little above what even you can handle.”
Billy and JD looked at each other because they could hear the slight tremble in Brent’s voice, something he only had if the situation was really, really bad.
“It’s okay, Brent, I get it. What’s up?”
“Is Cole available?”
Billy looked up at JD again because even he knew that Cole Gillette, billionaire hacker extraordinaire and boyfriend of Kelly Braddock, the adopted son of their financial backer Connor, was on a plane with Kelly, Connor and Connor’s husband Cain flying to Wyoming so Connor could introduce Kelly to Connor’s biological daughter Raine – who up until now didn’t even know that Kelly existed.
Talk about your crazy, soap-opera family tales.
“Um, I might be able to reach him on Connor’s plane, why?”
“This place has secret military facility written all over it, right down to the laser, electric fencing that is putting out enough heat to know that if we don’t disable it, we’ll be fried like catfish when we try to go through.”
“I’m on it, babe,” JD said as he slipped his cell phone out of his pocket.
His first call to Cole’s phone went to voicemail, so he tried Kelly’s…but got the same thing.
“What?” Cain barked when he answered the call.
“Has anybody ever suggested that you work on your manners?” JD said.
“Yeah, but none of them have any teeth anymore. What do you need?”
“Why are you so tense? Do you hate flying?”
“No, I don’t hate flying. But I do hate listening to other people fuck when I can’t touch my husband.”
JD chuckled, “Oh, so that explains it.”
“Those two were bound and determined to join the mile-high club even though they are in Connor’s bedroom, Connor’s, which means it’s my bedroom. I don’t like it when people fuck in my bed, dude.”
“I’ll bet you don’t. How’d you like to interrupt them.”
“I’d love to but they’re quiet now so I’m pretty sure my torture is done anyways. What do you need?”
“I need Cole, like five minutes ago.”
A few silent seconds followed JD’s request followed immediately by a banging on a door, “Playtime is over, dickheads. JD needs Cole.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Dude, couldn’t you have covered your junk before you opened the door?”
“It’s a dick, Cain, get over it. Hand me your phone,” Cole said.
“Not a fucking chance. JD? Call Cole on his own damn phone. I don’t want cum smears on mine,” Cain said and then the call ended.
JD couldn’t help but chuckle as he scrolled back and then pressed to dial Cole.
Cole picked up on the first ring, “What is it?”
“Military-type security. Hot laser fencing.”
“Military-type but not military?”
“Not unless the military has decided to start trafficking kids.”
“Oh my god. Okay, can you send me the coordinates?”
“Babe,” a barked laugh said from behind him, “lift your foot.”
“Damn it, Kel, I don’t have time for this!” Cole said but JD could hear rustling sounds and knew he was letting Kelly dress him.
“I know babe, but Dad doesn’t want your naked, post-sex bare ass on his leather plane seats. Who knows what’s going to leak out.”
“Oh my god, Kelly Braddock! You did not just say that!”
“Yeah, babe, I did. Now give me your phone. I’ll put it on speaker and hold it for you so you have two hands to work with.”
“Fine!” Cole said with a huff.
Kelly was still laughing when he put the phone on speaker, “Hey JD.”
“Hi Kelly. You sound like you’ve got your hands full.”
“Always. Right now, he’s seriously considering throwing me under the bus by saying that I’m the one who talked him into sex on the plane when he knows damn good and well that he’s the one who practically dragged me in there the moment we set foot on here.”
Cole scoffed, “I, Kelly Braddock, I would never, you shut up, I can’t believe….oh fuck it, you’re right.”
JD laughed, “Okay, work now. I’m sending coordinates.”
“Got ‘em.”
Cole typed furiously on his keyboard, “Huh. This shows that’s an abandoned warehouse. Who’s on site?”
“Brent, Justice and King.”
“Can one of them send me pics?”
His phone buzzed a few seconds later so Kelly brought up the picture and showed it to Cole.
“What’s our timeframe here?”
“None, really.”
“Hmm, damn it. I was hoping to get a drone over the site to check something but we’ll have to improvise. I need King to stay where he is. I want Justice and Brent to spread out, one about a hundred yards off the left side of the building, one same on the right. Stop when you find a junction box and let me know. You might have to hunt for it, they’d want to keep them hidden.”
Cole continued to search for information on the property while he waited.
“Got one, east end, hidden under a bush,” Justice said.
Cole sat up straighter, “Okay, hang tight a minute. I’m going to triangulate your phone with the other two.”
“Do you need me to wave my arms and act like a chicken too?” Justice said with a snort.
“I just might make you do that J, but only because I’m still pissed that you touched my boyfriend.”
“What?” Garrett said from his spot on the couch.
“Fuck,” Justice muttered quietly into the phone. “Baby, you know I wasn’t a virgin when we met.”
“No shit, Sherlock. But with somebody on your team? That was a tidbit you never sh
ared with me.”
“It was hardly worth mentioning. Neither one of us were willing to bottom so it was a few handjobs and blowjobs, just enough to scratch an itch.”
“Gee, Justice, you make me feel so special,” Kelly said.
“Seriously? Are all of you going to gang up on me now?”
“All of you knock it off. This is shit you can deal with later. Right now, Justice needs to keep his head in the game.”
“Fine, fine. Justice? Turn your camera onto live video and aim it at the box.”
“I’ve found mine,” Brent said.
“Good. Camera on for you too.”
Shaky images popped into the corner of Cole’s laptop, another box contained a map with three flashing dots on it. Cole leaned closer and squinted at the screen, “That little fucking weasel.”
“What?”
“Silas Thorne. He’s one of my major competitors. Not sure why his stuff would be there. He’s as straight-edge as they come. I wonder if he knows where these are.”
“Babe, let’s figure that out later. Can you bypass them?”
“Oh, hell yes. We might’ve been competitors but we recognized talent when we saw it. I used to send my new designs to him to see if he could crack them and he’d do the same to me. This one was easy. Lift up the covers on them.”
“What if the covers are rigged?”
“With what? A spider? Not sure what else they could fit in there, there’s not enough room.”
“Fine but I’m doing it slowly.”
“I’m good here,” Justice said.
“Okay, there should be a round black reset button, do you see it?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, here’s the important part. You’re going to press it a few times but in a certain way. There’s a circle around the edge of it that lights up. It’s got four colors: red, blue, green and yellow. How long you hold the button down determines what color you get. The order of the colors determines whether you set off the alarm or shut it off without anyone knowing.”
“Ooookkkaayy,” Brent said.
“You never want red. Red is bad. You want green, yellow, blue in that order. To get the green you hold the button down for two seconds and then let go. Do that.”
“Done,” both Justice and Brent said.
“Yellow is four seconds. Do that now.”
“Done.”
“And finally, blue is eight seconds.”
While he was waiting, Cole’s phone pinged with an incoming text. He frowned when he saw that it was from Silas. What were the odds of that?
“Done,” they both said.
“Okay, fence should be down now without them detecting. It’ll have to be reset from the main unit inside for it to come back on.”
“Okay. J, head back to King, I’ll meet you there. Thanks Cole.”
“Anytime,” he said and then Kelly pressed the button to end the call.
Cole immediately grabbed it and dialed Silas, “How did you know it was me?” he said without any preamble or hello.
“I get an alert anytime any of my units are messed with but those are two of the ones I sent to you to test.”
Cole’s stomach flip-flopped, “That can’t be right.”
“Yep, got the serial numbers right here, dude.”
“But, but, but that means someone either stole them from my warehouse or sold them on the black market.”
“Okay, now you’re freaking me out. Tell me everything that’s going on.”
So, Cole did. Well, he told him everything that he knew.
When he finished, Silas was quiet for several seconds and when he finally spoke there was an anger to his voice that hadn’t been there before.
“So, what you’re telling me is that my devices, my fucking babies, for fucks sake, are being used to protect a child trafficking ring.”
“Yes.”
“And they were stolen from you. You didn’t provide them to the group.”
“Fucking hell, no, Silas! Why would you think that?”
“You always were wound a little tight, dude.”
“So that meant I was into raping kids? Fuck you, Silas. Just fuck you,” Cole said.
“Okay, okay, okay, I’m sorry. Look, what do you need me to do?”
“Do? You mean you can do something to help?”
Cole could hear the smile in Silas’s voice when he said, “Sweetheart, I can do anything I want.”
“What was that?” Kelly said and when Cole looked at him he could actually see the man’s chest getting bigger as he puffed up. His man was pissed….and jealous.
Cole put a hand on the middle of Kelly’s chest, “Now, don’t go exploding or anything, Kelly. Silas and I are just friends.”
“Kelly? Did you say Kelly? You mean he’s real? Cole, dude, what did you do? Did you kidnap him?”
Kelly barked out a laugh and Cole narrowed his eyes, whether he was glaring at Kelly or, by proxy, Silas, was anyone’s guess.
“No, Silas, I did not kidnap him. He’s my boyfriend….by choice.”
“Whose choice? His or yours?” Silas said with a laugh.
“Silas Thorne, you are about one word away from not being my friend.”
“Aw, Cole baby, relax. I’m just fucking with you. That shouldn’t be anything new for you….you know….me, fucking……with you.”
Cole could feel the growl in Kelly’s chest as it rumbled under his hand. He squeezed his eyes shut, “Silas, please. I’m on an airplane. If you keep antagonizing my boyfriend, he’s likely to go all Tasmanian devil in here. I really don’t want to die.”
Silas laughed, “Okay, okay. Look, macho boyfriend dude, for what it’s worth, I haven’t seen Cole naked………in years.”
“Oh my god, Silas!”
Silas laughed for at least a minute before he said, “I can turn the motion sensors into listening devices and I can give you access to all the cameras.”
“What?”
“I can turn every motion sensor, including the ones they more than likely have on the inside. And I can give you access to the cameras. Will that help?”
Cole ran a hand through his hair, “Fuck, Silas.”
“Is that an offer?”
Cole rolled his eyes, “Stop it. Just stop it. I’m going to give you the phone number of our guy that’s local and on the ground. His name is Billy.”
“Is he single?”
“Silas! This isn’t Grindr here. How fucking hard up can you possibly be?”
“You have no idea,” he mumbled quietly and Cole could hear something in his voice, a fear, a vulnerability that he’d heard before.
“Your SAD?” he said.
He and Silas had talked through many a panic attack when Silas’ Social Anxiety Disorder triggered, but last they talked, Silas had been doing much better.
“Worse than ever.”
“I thought you had a therapist that you liked?”
“I did but apparently I liked him a little too much. He told me he couldn’t treat me anymore because I kept hitting on him. Said it was hampering my treatment or some such shit. I’m a flirt, Cole. I can’t just turn that shit off.”
“Maybe we can find you a female therapist.”
“I’d still flirt with her, can’t help it.”
“Yeah, but if she knows you’re gay, she’ll also know that it’s harmless.”
“I dunno, maybe. What’s this number of your guy?”
Cole rattled off Billy’s number. “I’ll call after we land. We’ll get you through this, Silas. I promise.”
“Yeah, yeah. Go…be happy with your man. You deserve it. Talk soon,” he said and then he ended the call.
Kelly’s hand rubbed the back of Cole’s neck in support. Cole grabbed it and brought it to his lips, pressing a kiss on Kelly’s palm, “I love you, babe.”
Kelly squatted down so he was more eye-level with Cole, “I love you too. His issue gets to you, doesn’t it?”
Cole placed Kelly’s palm against his chee
k as he nodded, “I could’ve easily been him.”
“Then we’ll get him some help as soon as we can, okay?”
Cole nodded and wrapped his arms around Kelly’s neck, grateful that he had this strong man to love and who loved him. He hoped that someday Silas would find this kind of happiness too.
Thirty-Eight
Row felt like he was going to throw up. And he hadn’t seen a single child yet. All he’d seen were rows upon rows of cells. Each one with a threadbare mattress on the floor and a silver metal toilet and sink in the corner and surrounded on all sides by nothing but bars – which meant not a single moment of privacy. And, he realized with a sick feeling in his stomach, each row of cells was on wheels, which meant they could easily be loaded into the back of a semi-trailer and moved from one location to another.
People were kept in these cells, he thought as he fought down the bile rising up from his stomach. Kids.
“What, uh, what are we doing here today?” he mumbled.
“Waiting,” Campbell said with a grin.
“For?”
There was the rumble of a truck engine somewhere outside and then light spilled inside when an overhead door was lifted.
“That,” Campbell said and the fucking asshole looked proud, fucking proud.
“How, how is this okay?” Row whispered.
Campbell’s head whipped around and his eyes narrowed as he scrutinized Row. “We’re giving them a better life, Bates. They were destined for poverty, begging for scraps their entire lives, if they made it past their teens. Now they’ll have a roof over their heads, food in their bellies and they will be loved.”
“Loved? You call what these men do to them, love?” Row was losing it, seriously losing it. His squeezed his fists by his thighs to try to quell the shaking. His jaw was clenched so tight he was sure he was going to break teeth.
Campbell glared at him, “You’re getting paid to do a job, Bates. Fucking do it and keep your damn mouth shut,” he yelled and then he stomped off towards the large box truck that was backing into the warehouse.
As Row forced his feet to move all he could hope for, silently in his mind, was that his back up would be there before he lost his motherfucking soul.
*************
King dug his teeth into the knuckles on his fist to try to keep himself grounded. He could hear both everything that was going on in the van and what was happening in the warehouse. If he didn’t get to Row soon he was seriously gonna go in there like a one-man wrecking crew, consequences be damned. He wished he could somehow tell Row that he was coming for him but Row didn’t have any listening devices on, just two cameras that picked up visual and sound.
Thunderstorms on the Horizon Page 17