Unhinged (Necessary Evils #1)(36)

“What do you know about Noah’s case? Get us up to speed,” Avi finally said.

Adam’s shoulders sagged, all the tension leaving his body. He gave them what background he had before adding, “One of the men Noah remembered hurting him was his father’s best friend, Gary. He owns the strip club where Noah works.”

“You work for the man who molested you?” Asa asked.

Noah nodded. “I didn’t know he molested me when I started working there. I needed a job and a place to park my trailer. He seemed surprised to see me. It had been a long time. Looking back, he definitely tested me to see if I remembered anything about when I was a kid. Since I didn’t, he eventually caved.”

“That’s smart. Getting in with him like that. That takes balls,” Avi said, sounding impressed, though begrudgingly. “Have you learned anything about this Gary guy since you started working there?”

Adam glanced at Noah, his face half obscured in shadow. When he didn’t seem interested in answering, Adam did it for him. “We broke into his house last night and scored a key and half of an encrypted hard drive Calliope’s trying to crack. But that’s it. She’s trying to track down where the key came from, but it’s most likely a dead end.”

“Why half a hard drive?” Asa asked.

“We were interrupted while I was cloning it. It was an almost three hour download,” Adam said, eyes flicking to his brothers in the rear view mirror.

“Christ, that’s a lot of kiddie porn. Sick fuck,” Avi noted. “Who or what interrupted you?”

“A stranger,” Noah said. “I’d never seen him before.”

“Conan Greevey,” Adam explained, squeezing Noah’s hand. “Calliope ran him down quickly. He wasn’t trying to hide. Runs the city’s youth programs, which means, given his association with Gary, he’s definitely ending up on our list.”

Adam didn’t feel the need to clarify for anybody which list he referred to.

“These pieces of shit really are everywhere,” Noah said, voice sounding a bit hollow.

“Did Gary seem suspicious tonight?” Adam finally thought to ask.

Noah shook his head. “No more than usual. He interrogated me about the backpack again. I asked him about the cabin.”

Adam cut his eyes to Noah, mouth forming a hard line as his pulse picked up. “That was dangerous.”

Noah shrugged. “I was subtle about it. He claims he sold it years ago, that it belonged to his father. But I think he’s fucking lying. I think he still owns it.”

“How many of them do you remember?” Avi asked Noah.

“What?” Noah mumbled, turning to glance at Avi once more.

“The men. How many do you remember? Four? Ten? Thirty?”

Adam heard Noah swallow audibly and wanted to tell his brother to back off and shut the hell up, but Noah needed to decide if he wanted to answer or not. He made the rules outside the bedroom, that was what Adam had promised.

When Noah did finally speak, his voice was strained. “I don’t remember exactly. I don’t want to,” he clarified, as if he thought they might suggest he dig deeper into his memories. “My father and Gary definitely…touched me…but there were also men who watched. Two or three of them. I have nightmares about hands on me. Voices giving instructions. I think if I see their faces, I can probably tell you who…participated.”

“Besides, even if these men didn’t touch Noah, they definitely touched somebody else’s kids. They deserve whatever happens next,” Adam said.

“Did Calliope have anything helpful to add?” Asa asked, voice droll.

Only that Noah might not be Wayne’s son and could potentially have a whole other family out there. Part of Adam wanted to forget all about that. To just pretend he didn’t know it. If Noah had a real family out there, he might leave Adam behind. But he wasn’t that selfish. He wouldn’t deny Noah a chance to know a real family. But he also wasn’t going to get his hopes up. He’d get the DNA sample from him first, then tell him if there was something to tell.

“We’ll figure out who did this and we’ll make them pay,” Adam promised.

“Yeah, I know,” Noah said, turning to give him a reassuring smile.

“Well, when you do figure it out, we want in,” Asa said.

Adam didn’t answer. He had no problem with his brothers helping and would likely need them if there were several child abusers as Noah suspected.





*



They dropped the twins at their place before heading to Adam’s. Noah didn’t talk much once they were gone, just fidgeted in the passenger seat, seemingly tense with the twins no longer controlling the conversation. Had they said something that made Noah question this thing between them? The idea of Noah leaving, changing his mind about Adam, was like a knife in his throat, making it hard to swallow. Noah was his. Just his. If Noah didn’t feel the same, Adam didn’t know what he’d do.

Asa had called Noah Adam’s new favorite toy, but that wasn’t true. Adam had never had a favorite anything, didn’t form attachments to people or objects. He held a connection to his family because that was what society expected and they had a common goal. Their union kept all of them safe and allowed their father’s experiment to continue. He’d always imagined if he could form attachments it would be to them. He’d protect them, would mourn the loss of their absence, but losing them didn’t cut into him like the idea of no longer having Noah in his life.