Taken by E.M. Leya

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

"How did we not know about this?" Bryon paced the computer room as Matt searched for more information.

"It's well hidden and very secretive. They pay for the privacy and silence." Matt kept typing as the printer beside him shot out page after page of information. "The home looks like any other mansion in the area. Most of them are gated with guards. A lot of Hollywood's elites live in the area. It blends in well."

"But the traffic?"

"Also common in the area. Some of the bands who own homes in that area are known for their nightly parties. No one would think anything about cars coming and going. I can't find anything on the dark web about it. Which tells me they run things offline. There aren't going to be images or videos for us to come across. We focus on court cases, videos, and pictures we find, then research from there. This is so underground there is nothing to research. Once I knew what to look for, I can find whisperings of it in some places. Even with those, it's not enough to confirm anything is really going on. They use code words to talk about it. One is wine tasting. They would tell a friend they were going to the Clifford Mansion for a wine tasting. To those who don't know, it sounds innocent enough, but to those who understand what goes on there, it means something else."

Bryon braced his hands on the back of Matt's chair and looked at what he was searching. "Can we get into this place?"

Matt stopped typing and turned to face him. "I don't know. It's big. Bigger than anything we've handled before. There are at least twenty to thirty armed men working at any given time, not to mention the surveillance cameras and other security features we're dealing with. I've got Marshall and Jeremy from the Denver team working on hacking the cameras and seeing what else they can find. It's just too big for me to handle alone. I'm used to having Trenton with me. He's our camera guru."

"Carter will be here in a couple of hours. He's flying in to help. He can get through anything as far as hacking the system. Dyson and his team have offered to come out if we need them, but I'm waiting to see just how big this is and how much danger it's going to put everyone in. I know you will all risk anything for Trenton, but I have to consider every life. I'm not sending my teams in on a suicide mission. If we can't pull this off, then we'll find another way."

"The fuck we will." Xander walked into the room. "We're going in. Tonight if possible."

"Tonight isn't possible," Matt said softly. "We don't have enough information yet."

"Then find the information. I'm not leaving Trenton sitting there another night." Xander's tone left no doubt to his anger.

Bryon understood the anger and the fear. He was going insane thinking about one of his men being raped and tortured. His whole life had been focused on stopping this from happening, and now, it was happening to one of his best friends.

He refused to think back on his friendship with Trenton. They'd worked together for so long they were like brothers. They were family. He'd helped Trenton years ago handle a bad situation and they'd been close since. "Should I call in the Denver team?" Bryon asked.

"Not yet. Kasey and Xander are good shots, I'm looking at maps of the place. We can take the guards out quietly in most areas, but I'm trying to decide if we might be better to do this sting during the day." Matt glanced at them.

Bryon frowned. "You think it's safer in the daylight?"

"From what Ben said, there are no customers during the day, which I find odd, but it is what it is. If we know all the hostages are in the basement at that time, it makes it easier. We won't have to deal with customers upstairs, searching upstairs for hostages. It will all happen in the basement. Hell, there is a chance we could clear the basement without anyone upstairs knowing."

"Great," Xander sat down beside Matt. "But tell me, how are we getting all these hostages out? How are we securing the scene? We can't just go in, secure everything, then call the cops to come in and rescue everyone. The cops are involved this time."

"I'm working on that." Bryon sighed. "I'm thinking vans to move them out, then drop them off at the hospital anonymously."

Xander snorted. "Seriously, like that's going to work. You've been at this too long to think we have any chance of staying anonymous that way."

Matt held up a hand to quiet them. "Noam has an idea, but you're not going to like it. He made me promise not to tell you guys until he was sure it would work, so give me just a little time to connect with him and see where things stand."

"You can't say that and not tell us more. Especially if we're not going to like it." Bryon glared.

Matt blew out a long breath. "Give me a few. Noam should be back from his meeting soon."

"When did you talk to Noam?" Xander asked.

"While you and Faith were on your run this morning. He called to ask some questions and get my opinion on a few things. I gave him the information he needed, agreed his idea had merit. He was going to meet with someone and see how things went."

"Who?" Bryon asked, not liking that his team was acting on their own without talking to the rest of them.

"One of his friends from his policing days, I think."

"Fuck, if this doesn't blow up in our faces it will be a miracle." Bryon started to pace again.

"If we rush in there without a plan, it will blow up for sure. We're good at what we do because we plan everything. There is nothing we don't look at and plan for. I know we want Trenton out of there right now, but we have to explore all our options and look at every bit of information before we make a plan. I know our focus is on Trenton, but there are several dozen more hostages we have to worry about as well. This isn't a simple in and out like we are used to. This might be more than we can handle," Matt explained.

While Bryon knew that was true, he didn't like it. He didn't like feeling out of control. He didn't like one of his men in danger. It twisted his gut in knots to think about what was happening to Trenton.

"Any word from Ben today?" Matt asked.

"No, but we didn't expect one. He's at work and can't communicate from there. If he has anything to tell us, he'll call when he gets off work." Xander reached over and took a swig of coffee from Matt's cup.

"You should go refresh that for me." Matt glanced his way.

Xander grinned. "And you should—"

"Noam's called for a team meeting right away." Kasey stuck his head into the room. "He's about ten minutes out."

"Anyone called Beau?" Bryon asked.

"He's working and can't get away. Said to let Faith have his say on anything medical." Kasey turned and walked out.

"You know what this is about?" Xander asked Matt.

"I have an idea." Matt glanced at Bryon. "Stay calm and listen to everything he has to say. He's got the safety of the team in mind."

"Shit, if you have to warn him to stay calm, this isn't going to be good." Xander stood.

"If it saves lives, it's not bad." Matt got up and leaned in to kiss Xander. "Our goal is to get Trenton home and shut down the trafficking ring. Sometimes things are bigger than we can handle alone."

Bryon wrinkled his brow. "I'm really not going to like this."

"You'll forget about it all if it works and we have Trenton back."

That was true, but his biggest fear wasn't just getting Trenton back, it was what condition he'd be in when they did.

Determined to listen to every option, he made his way to the living room. He smiled at Faith as she looked up from her phone.

"I'm restocking the fridge. You want anything certain?" She asked. "I'm making a list."

"You're the best." She knew how much he hated shopping. "Coffee and coffee filters."

She typed it into her phone.

They'd tried to use one of those fancy once cup machines for a while, but it just wasn't enough. They needed coffee ready to go, and a lot of it. No one had time to sit around and wait for a cup to fill. They'd finish off a pot between all of them before one coffee mug filled from the fancy machine.

Kasey walked in and sat down beside Faith.

"Grocery list." She held up her phone.

"Oh, grab some more of the pizza bite things. We're out."

She made a face. "So unhealthy."

"Good thing I'm friends with a doctor." He nudged her leg with his.

The room fell silent as Noam walked in. He was dressed in a nice, perfectly pressed suit, which was something Bryon had never seen Noam wear. He looked as if he's just appeared in court or something. The look on his face was serious, and he noticed Noam didn't look his way.

Whatever was going on, was going to piss him off, he was sure of it.

"Beau here?" Noam looked around.

"Faith's sitting in for him." Kasey walked over and kissed Noam on the cheek. "Just get this out in the open before Bryon has a stroke."

Bryon flipped Kasey off.

Noam cleared his throat and eased his jacket off. He tossed it over the back of a chair and took a seat. "First, I should apologize for taking action without talking to the team first, but I had limited time to get a meeting with the D.A.."

Bryon's head started to throb. "You met with the district attorney?"

"Yep. And you can kick my ass for it later, but I think this is the only way we are going to handle this. I told Jason, the D.A., about what we knew about. I told him enough to get his attention, but not enough to have him be able to jump out and act on his own. He's waiting on my phone call to share the rest of the information, but I had to talk to the team before I took that step." He rested his arms on his legs as he leaned forward. "I think we all know that this trafficking ring is bigger than we can handle. The chances of one or more of us being killed going in is high. I know we all would risk it to save Trenton but I think we need to take a step back from playing hero on this one and ask for help."

"I happen to know that the D.A. and police chief have been at odds for years. They hate each other. I guess Jason had the chief's son arrested a few years back for a sexual assault and wouldn't give him any deals. Anyway, when I heard the chief was involved, I remembered this bit of information and thought just maybe Jason could go over the chief's head and help us out a bit. I won't go into the full conversation we had, but know I didn't mention the team. I told them I had information from an online source I'd met through our social media stings we do through the police department. If we are willing to step back and let the state handle the trafficking ring, then Jason is prepared to go in with SWAT teams tonight and rescue everyone. Jason says there is a team that doesn't report to the police chief he can use to get around any leaks getting out. Once the hostages are free and arrests made, then he is happy to focus on those names on the list and using the full extent of the law to bring them in as well."

Blood pounded in Bryon's head. "You do realize if we choose not to work with the D.A., then when we do go in, it will bring all the attention to you and our team, thus putting all of us at risk."

"The team won't be at risk at all. All attention would be on me and you know I'm not talking. This was the only way I could see us getting Trenton out safely. If we let SWAT go in, then we can focus on the list and others who frequented the place. The hostages get out and get medical care without us trying to do all that and still remain anonymous. When Jason heard there were several undercovers forced to work there for the last few months, with no action being taken, he was furious. He wants this operation shut down, he wants Chief Jones arrested, and he wants to find out how the chief managed to keep an undercover sting like this going for so long without anyone raising any flags. He's sure others are involved and he wants to know who. If his team goes in, they'll collect forensic evidence we can't. They'll gut the place digging for every hair, every bit of DNA, and they'll have access to all video, files, or whatever else is on the property which we would have to leave behind because we'd need to get in and out so quickly."

Bryon looked around the room. "So you're saying we just hand everything we have over to the D.A. and trust that he's going to rescue Trenton tonight?"

"The D.A. doesn't know about Trenton. He knows there is a large group of people being held at a large mansion in the area that is being used for sex trafficking. He knows there are international ties to this ring and buyers come and go from other countries. He knows the chief is allegedly a frequent customer of what this mansion has to offer, and that the sting to take it down was supposed to end in no more than three weeks, but has now extended into months with no given reason why. I'm sure by now, Jason has looked into the chief's cases and knows the location and what is going on there. I knew I couldn't stop him from looking, but he gave me his word, he'd wait to hear from me and see if he could work with our source to learn more about what is really going on inside."

"Our source meaning Ben?" Xander asked. "He's a cop, why wouldn't they just contact him?"

"Again, they don't know who they can trust. They don't know which of the undercover officers is our source. We suspect some of the officers have some involvement with the trafficking. Jason is guessing that the chief's job is to just hold off any raids until the trafficking ring can close down and move location to rebuild. Things are getting too hot here, and the chief had no choice but to go in, but he can delay anything major happening until the right time."

"Like people being sold to a dealer from Spain." Matt shook his head in disgust.

"My thoughts exactly." Noam nodded.

Faith sat forward. "I don't know about you guys, but whatever option gets Trenton out of there the quickest is what I say we do. If that means the team sits this one out, then we sit it out. We need to get Trenton out of there. I know better than anyone what he's going through. One more night might be just enough to break him if he's not broken already."

"I have to agree." Kasey looked around at the group. "He needs to get out of there. We know we don't have enough people to take on the guards in that place. And we don't have time to call the Denver team in to help. Even with them, it's risky and we could easily lose someone. Trenton wouldn't want one of us dying to save him. I think that would eat at him worse than going through what he is."

Noam nodded. "The police have resources we don't, and honestly, there are more hostages than we can handle getting out of there. Letting the SWAT team go in is the best choice."

Bryon tried to fight back his anger. He knew everything they said was true, but Noam had put the team at risk by going behind their backs. He should have talked to them first. That was something he would deal with later. He looked at everyone around the room, his gaze falling on Xander. "What do you say, Xan? How do you feel about all this?"

Xander brushed his hands up and down his pants leg. "Noam's right. It's the best option. Kasey said it best when he said Trenton wouldn't want one of us dying for him. If the police can have him out tonight, let them go in, but trust me, if they don't go in tonight or there is any sign we are being dicked around, I'm going in first thing in the morning."

Several others nodded.

"Okay, then if we all agree, let's hand it over to the D.A.." Bryon looked around the room. "Anyone against it?"

Not a single voice rang out or hand came up.

"Noam, get him all the information you can but protect the team while doing it. Understand, when this is over, we are going to have another team meeting about you going behind our backs to do this." Bryon was still pissed.

"Understood." Noam nodded, then turned to Matt. "You got any more info I can share with them?"

"A lot, but you won't have a way to explain where you got it."

"I don't need to explain. Jason and I are friends. He'll trust me without question as long as everything matches up."

Bryon watched Matt and Noam walk off, hoping this might be the beginning of the end. He just needed to get Trenton home, then everything else would fall into place.