Unhinged (Necessary Evils #1)(64)

Noah stiffened against him. “And did you? Find him, I mean?”

“No. Not exactly. When I went through the video a second time, I paid more attention to what was happening before those men arrived, trying to find a picture I could use to run facial recognition software against the missing person database. But I went back all the way to the beginning. The boy was just sitting in the corner, running a toy car over his leg…” Once more, another deep breath. “Gary and another man were talking just out of frame. The mic picked up everything.”

“What did you hear, Calliope?” Noah prompted gently.

Maybe that was why Calliope liked Noah better. Adam had never considered what it must be like for people who could empathize with the victims. Noah and Calliope were the same. Two people willing to wade into the worst parts of humanity despite the toll it was clearly taking on both of them. Especially Noah.

“They were auctioning off ten spots. One night only,” she said, choking on the words. “They sold him to those men. They might not all be part of the circle, or maybe they’re all part of a larger circle. I don’t know how it works or what the fuck they’re doing to those boys, but they appear to have expanded their empire far outside their initial group.”

Noah shot to his feet, water cresting over the side of the tub onto the tile below. “When are we going to just kill these fuckers?” he snarled.

Adam followed Noah from the tub, wrapping him in a towel before grabbing one for himself. “I appreciate the added information, but we already knew these men are scum. That’s why they’re all going to die. One at a time or all together. Their time on this planet is limited. We’re not the cops. We don’t need physical proof to know they’re guilty.”

“That’s not the point,” Calliope said. “They’re selling children. Trafficking them. There could be living, breathing victims out there who need help. They could still be living with their abuser, like Noah was. We have to find a way to figure out who these kids are. Not just this boy, but all of them.”

Adam examined Noah. His skin looked ghostly white and his eyes were hollow, strain etched across his beautiful face. “How do we do that?”

“I think the information on the hard drive you cloned holds the key to everything. I don’t think it's just chock full of kiddie porn. I think Gary is keeping records, maybe even recordings of the auctions, like Holt did before he died. I think it's insurance of some kind. I could mine through the data on what I do have of the hard drive you took from Gary’s house, but I can’t crack it. It’s fucking Fort Knox. I need the encryption key.”

“Encryption key?” Noah echoed.

“Yeah. It’s a string of letters and numbers, like a super complicated password,” Calliope said.

“And you can use the encryption key to crack the hard drive and figure out who the victims are?” Adam asked.

“It would still take a lot of work. I only have a fragment of the drive, but it might be enough with the key.”

“And you want me to go torture Gary to get you this encryption key?” Adam asked, fire shooting through his blood at the prospect of finally getting a little alone time with the piece of shit who hurt Noah.

“Pretty please,” Calliope said.

“Why not just go get the full hard drive from Gary’s house?” Noah asked.

“I’m not opposed to that, but I would still need the encryption key to get any information,” Calliope said.

“And I’ll get it for you,” Adam promised.

“We already have it,” Noah said.

Adam frowned. “We do?”

Noah smiled for the first time in hours. “Yep. I think I know why Gary was so desperate to get that backpack back. It wasn’t the guns or the drugs. It was the crumpled up paper I found in the small inner pocket. It was just a string of nonsense, so I tossed it back in the bag. The encryption key is in your dad’s garage behind a fake panel under the bench in the kitchen.”

“This is why I like Noah better,” Calliope said. “In case you were wondering.”

“So, I don’t get to torture Gary?” Adam said, voice huffy.

“Not yet,” Noah muttered. “But soon.”

“How fast can you go get it?” Calliope asked.

Adam toweled his hair. “I can go now.”

“We can go now,” Noah clarified, then gave a jaw cracking yawn.

Adam shook his head. “No. You’re exhausted. You get some sleep. I’ll run and get the encryption key, drop it at the meetup spot, and be back in an hour.” Noah chewed on his bottom lip until Adam tugged it free and kissed him. “It’s going to be okay. Let me do this.”

Noah nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

“Perfect. Text me when you make the drop,” Calliope said before disconnecting.

“Get some rest, baby. I’ll be back soon.”





Noah did go to bed, and he was exhausted, but it was impossible to sleep. He couldn’t stop his racing thoughts. No matter what he did, Calliope’s words kept creeping back into his head. “They could still be living with their abuser, like Noah was.”

Like Noah.

There were dozens, maybe even hundreds, of kids who were just like him, victims of the worst kind of abuse. The kind that stains a person’s whole life, even when they didn’t remember it. What were those children’s lives like? Had they been lucky enough to forget, too? Had they even lived long enough to talk about it? Were they spiraling like Noah had before he met Adam?