MC: Callahan (22 page)

Pres takes a call, telling them to talk to VP. “Take a name from the list, send ‘em with Bull.”

“There are almost forty bids to run through. I’m going to need you to help run them down. You good with that?” Pres asks.

“Yeah, Pres.”

He nods and starts pacing again. “VP, get me four more from your list. We’ll pair from here so we can move as soon as the kids get home. Have them lock down the pussy then get Bob and Driscoll paired and run from Security.”

Kate shows with Anita and the kids. Pres explains what’s happening and then he, VP, and the priest take the girl home. Kate, Danny, and Geek take the small boy.

I take Anita and Jeremy with the older boy. The parents listen and understand. They ask what we’re doing and when they can announce their son is home. Pres told us to get their numbers and we’ll call with an update and when they can call the PD. Anita does a good job. The parents watch Jeremy holding their boy’s hand the whole time. The boy answers their questions, looking at Jeremy for a nod. When we leave the woman asks if Jeremy is going home too. He nods and smiles at her. “He doesn’t talk much,” Anita says. The woman tells her she understands and we leave. We need her to keep quiet for now so correcting her wouldn’t help our purpose. They’re thinking just what Pres wanted them to.

We meet Pres, VP, and the priest at the church and wait for Danny, Kate, and Geek. I call Nancy, telling her I’m going to be late or I’ll see her tomorrow. She loves me and will tell the kids goodnight for me. Thinking about my boys, I smile and tell Jeremy we saved three more. He comes and sits on my lap. “Good job.” I hug him. I love this kid.

Three from Security and one HS show to get Kate, Anita, and the kids home. They brought helmets and tracking for us. I feel like shit all over again for ditching tracking earlier. When I put the helmet on I’m surprised to hear little Ben.

LB: “LP1, you’re partnered with S3. B3 you’re partnered with S2, and Tiny with S1. Tiny, I’m using your name to avoid confusion. Security Brothers, these are your leads. Listen and follow their directives. This is LB with Digs on control. Leads check in.”

Danny: “LP1. Roger, LB.”

Bob: “B3. Roger, LB.”

Me: “Tiny. Roger, LB.”

LB: “You will be guided to your destination then transferred back to me. LP1, Brantley will direct you. You’re being transferred now. B3, Taylor will direct you. You’re being transferred now. Tiny, you stay with me. Head north toward Boston on I95. This is a twenty minute trip. If either B3 or LP1 reach their location you will be transferred to Brantley until you reach yours.”

Me: “Roger, LB.” I feel funny calling him that and with him directing me. He’s damn professional, that’s for sure. I don’t want to say anything but roger to him. He gets me to a house in a broken down neighborhood. We pass the house and park the bikes in some woods. I pull a chain and secure them together, then we walk back toward the house, switching to earpieces. Little Ben is talking to Danny, clearing him and getting someone to cleanup where he’s at. He asks for more duct tape and wire ties. Little Ben directs someone to stop and wait for Danny to get there for supplies. Jessie already had a truck on the way to cleanup. He tells Bob unless he’s waiting for supplies he can leave, cleanup is two out. Transferring him to Taylor, he comes back to me.

LB: “Tiny, I need a status.” I kick the door in and catch the dirty fuck by his hair as he tries to run.

Me: “I need transport. I was just getting in when you called.”

LB: “C6 to Tiny’s location. Tiny, I’ve been instructed to give everyone two minutes to respond for that reason. I should have told you that earlier. I won’t forget again.” He makes me smile. After we ran Ops without support and he’s worried about forgetting to say something.

I wire tie the guy’s hands behind him, then duct tape his head, leaving his eyes and nose clear. “Get his computer, phone, and anything that connects to the Internet,” I tell S1.

Me: “Roger, LB.”

S1 comes back out looking sick. He cocks his head toward the back. I follow through and he pushes one door open. A boy is on the bed, chained to the headboard. S1 points at the camera and we step back.” I point to the boy then the camera. He looks back at me and I make sleep motions. Smart boy closes his eyes. S1 opens the next door to a boy that was beat and chained to the bed. Fuck, I can’t even go to him. S1 holds my arm, pointing to the ceiling. I do the same thing and the boy lies down, closing his eyes. I walk out of the hall and hit the pussy, laying him out flat. I walk out the back door.

Me: “I need Pres here, LB. I have two kids chained with cameras on them. One may need medical.”

LB: “Digs, get the message to Pres.” They patch Pres through with a bunch of words saying so.

Pres: “What have you got, Tiny?” He sounds out of breath.

Me: “Two boys chained to beds, cameras above them. One may need medical attention.”

Pres: “Fuck! LB, are you okay handling this?”

LB: “I would tell you if I weren’t, Pres. Digs is by me and can step in if I drop anything.”

Pres: “Good job, Brother, call Doc and get him to the location. Keep the other Little Brothers off the Ops headsets. I need Geek with Tiny so he can fix the feed for us. Tiny, stay put for now, make sure your pussy doesn’t move.”

LB: “Roger, Pres.”

Me: “Roger, Pres.” Little Ben is talking to Digs then Danny. I go back in the house and notice S1’s gloves are off. “Where are your gloves?” He points to the sink. I punch him. “No one told you to take the gloves off. Get more on and find something to wipe every fuckin’ thing you touched. Unless you want to be linked to the fuckin’ trafficking you better hit
everything
.” He looks like he’s going to be sick but reaches in his pocket and gets more gloves on. Stupid bastard. I tape the pussy to a chair. He’s still out. S1 wipes down the phone and iPod on the table.

Geek walks in and sits down. “Bob has one too. This is fuckin’ sick,” he says with his fingers flying around the keyboard. I type with three fingers, he uses all of them. “Thank fuck, your kids are sleeping.”

“No, I told them to act like it.”

He smiles. “They did good. I’ve got enough feed to run a good loop. You can get them off the beds.”

I go to the boy that is bruised and tell S1 to get the other but leave his gloves on. The chain is attached to the bed with cuffs. I pull my keys and open the cuffs, hanging them from my back pocket, then lift the boy and chain off the bed. He doesn’t say a word.

I take him out to the living room and put him on the couch. This place is a mess, but I don’t want him in the kitchen with the pussy. “Let’s see about getting this chain off you and finding some clothes. Yeah?”

He nods but still doesn’t say anything. His eyes are huge and he’s shaking. “Me and my friends are going to make sure you get home today,” I tell him while I pick at the manacle on his wrist. When it opens he cries. “It’s going to be okay, little man. I’m going to find you some clothes. Stay right here for me, okay?” He nods, wiping his face. I go back to the room and find clothes in the closet. I grab two sets that look like they’ll fit and bring them out. S1 has the other boy on the couch and is working to get the manacle off him. He’s talking softly. The boy is crying but not saying a word. What the hell happens to them that they don’t talk? I help my boy get dressed, then the other. “Can you tell me your names so we can find your parents?” They both start crying again but don’t tell me their names. Shit.

Pres comes in. I hear him talking to Geek. I walk to the kitchen. “They’re not talking. I asked for their names. They just cry.”

Pres wipes his hands through his hair, pacing, then looks at Geek. “Can you keep the feed up away from here?”

“Yeah, I don’t need to be here. I’ll take this laptop with me.” He starts collecting his cords and computers.

Pres looks at me. “I’ll call the PD and leave before they get here. Get your partner and go, cleanup is outside waiting to pick up this pussy.” He points.

I tell the boys that they have to sit until the police pick them up to take them home and the bad man is getting punished and can’t hurt them anymore. They seem to relax. Looking at the bruised boy, I tell him to let the policeman know he’s hurt so they don’t try to pick him up and hurt him more. He nods then hugs me. Fuck, I don’t want to leave them. “Okay, little man, I need you to sit and don’t move until the police come. It would be good if you don’t tell them we were here. We just came to help get you home. You tell them all about the bad man, though. Yeah?” My boy nods then looks at the other one. He nods too. “Good job. Don’t forget to let them know you’re hurt. Take care, little men, and be good for your parents.” My guy finally smiles. He has tears in his eyes, but he smiles. I chuck his chin and stand, looking at my partner. “We have to go.” He nods, ruffling the boys’ hair.

We get our bikes out of the trees and onto the road.

Me: “Tiny to LB Ops, we’re ready for our next location.”

LB: “Tiny, I’m going to transfer you to Taylor. He’ll direct you to your next location.” I hear the click and Taylor comes on, giving me directions to two towns over. We collect the pussy and hit another stop. There are too fuckin’ many. Pres has us leaving them tied up with the computers open and calling PD. At two in the morning Pres calls it a day. Everyone is tired, Little Ben handed off to Jessie somewhere around eleven. S1 looks exhausted. “You did good, Brother. Never forgot the gloves again.”

He smiles, touching his jaw. “I’ll never forget them again.”

“What’s your name, Brother?”

“Strapper.”

“I’ll let VP know how you did tonight. You’re wanting HS, right?”

He doesn’t look so tired anymore. “Yeah, but I need some training to pass in shooting and the written.”

“I’ll work with you. I have a Brother that can help you with the written. I’m dyslexic, I don’t do written. I can get you time on the range. I’ll work with you there and with the course. What’s your schedule look like this week?” I don’t want him thinking it’s just me blowing smoke up his ass, and we need more HS.

He shrugs. “They took me off the schedule. They took all of us that worked with the Officers off. I’ll find out when I go in.”

Good, they’ll be training right away. “I’ll talk to VP and work it out.”

“Thanks, Brother!” he says, excited. We ride back to Security and drop our shit with a Prospect, then go to the meeting room.

Security Brothers, Danny, VP, Geek, little Ben, Jessie, and Digs are already sitting. Danny has a bruise on the side of his face and VP has a black eye. I wonder if I have a bruise on my stomach. It’s still tender, probably a good indicator that I do. It pays to be big. I know the only reason he didn’t hit my face is I would have seen it coming; I’m five inches taller than him. Grinders are on the table with cans of soda and bottles of water. I sit in my spot and Strapper sits with his Security Brothers. I pull a sandwich and eat while they talk about everything but what we did tonight. Driscoll, Rich, Bob, and Pres come in with more Security Brothers. Rich has a black eye too. No one says a word about it. Everyone grabs food and eats. Pres paces until everyone is done. Since we’re all big guys that’s a couple of minutes. Security watches him. The rest of us keep talking until the food is gone.

He stops and looks at the table. “We have eight in holding. Eleven got picked up by PD and seven kids made it home. This is too fuckin’ big for us; every time we find a kid we have at least twenty more bidders. Paul is fuckin’ pissed, but he’s going to help us out. He’ll run interference with PDs and get one of his guys at every location. The news is going to pick it up at some point and keep the bidders quiet for a while. We can wait them out. This isn’t going to end anytime soon, but we don’t have anything going on that will keep us from continuing. This also gives us training time one on one with Security looking to move into HS. I want to keep it going just like we did today. You stay with the partners you had tonight for one week then we’ll switch it up. Officers find out where your partner needs work and get him working on it. Security took them off the rotation so they are free when you need them. Tiny and Danny, VP and Driscoll will work some time with you so you can keep Transport and Building running. Get your help up and in place so you can work training. If you need help let me know. It was a good night. We saved kids and shut down fuckin’ pedophiles and traders. Good job, Brothers, now get the fuck out of here and go do whatever makes you happy.”

Security get up. “Ten tomorrow, meet here,” VP tells them. They all throw chin walking out.

I look at the boys. “You did good tonight. I didn’t expect it to be so professional. It was a fuckin’ good surprise.” Everyone agrees and the boys throw chin, making us all smile.

“If at any time this gets to be too much, you tell me. Nothing wrong with stepping back and regrouping,” Pres tells them.

Little Ben smiles. “We got seven kids home. There’s not one thing in anything that happened in this Op that is cause for regrouping. Seven.” Jessie smiles on the side of him. We all agree.

Danny stands. “I’m going home. I’ll be here at ten tomorrow.” We all get up and head out.

*  *  *

The bikes wake me up. I go to the bathroom and wash my face. He must be exhausted. I run down the stairs, grab a beer, and head out the front door. I’m sitting on the swing when he walks up the porch steps. “Thought you’d need to unwind.” I hold the beer up. He smiles and sits, putting his arm around me.

“I could use it.” He takes a sip and watches the trees blow in the breeze. “We did good tonight.”

“That’s good. Ricky came home upset. Pres called into them and reamed them a new one for hiding an Ops. He wouldn’t talk about it, though.”

He takes a minute. “We should have known better. I’ll talk to him in the morning. Pres was pissed, but he’s onboard and running it big.”

“Ricky will be glad to hear that.” I know better than to ask. I snuggle into him, enjoying the weight of his arm around me. Home. We watch the trees until his beer is gone, then he stands, pulling me up with him. Taking my hand, he walks us in. Checking the locks, alarm, and the kids, we finally make it to bed.

“What do you need, big Tiny?” I ask, knowing he had a rough night even though he said it was good.

“Sleep, with you wrapped around me. I need sleep.” He yawns as he’s saying it. I roll onto his side and put my leg over his. He’s sleeping in minutes.