Sex, Lies & Black Tie Read online

  “Shit, Micah. You’re the most frustrating woman I’ve ever known. You should’ve told me a long time ago. I’m sorry it happened. It doesn’t change how I feel about you. I love you like a friend and I think of you as the sister I never had—regardless of what I do or do not remember. Now you’re either going to have to deal with that, or walk away from me all together.” The past few days were taking their toll on my patience. I opened my arms and stepped away from Micah. “This is it, Micah. This is what it is. You’re either fine with it, or you’re not. Either way, I will get Frankie back safe and sound.”

  I threw open the door, storming out, where Fuller waited for me at the end of the hall with Dan.

  “I need to see you, Callahan,” Dan said, pointing to the door of his office.

  I looked to Fuller for any indication as to what was going down. I got nothing.

  “Sit this one out, Fuller,” Dan said, closing the door in his face.

  I sat down and waited for him to take his own place behind the desk. It was late—too late for Dan to still be in the office. That was, unless something big was going down. Something bigger than Frankie going missing.

  “Listen to me,” he said taking his seat. “I don’t know whose cage you’re rattling, but shit trickles down.”

  “I don’t follow.”

  “You goddamn good and well know what I’m talking about. I just don’t know what I’m talking about.”

  “Excuse me?” I couldn’t hold back my laugh. Dan was acting ridiculous.

  “You heard me. You must be on to something pretty damn big for me to get the fucking call I got dragging me back into this godforsaken place at ten o’clock at night.”

  I stared at him. What I didn’t say, couldn’t say, said more than opening my mouth at all.

  “Whatever the hell it is, Mac, for the love of God and for your own damn good—drop it. Drop it now and don’t look back.”

  “What are you saying to me?”

  “I didn’t stutter, Mac. Listen to the words coming out of my mouth. I got a call tonight from higher up than I’ve ever been contacted. These are the kind of people you don’t want to fuck with. Do you understand me?”

  I did understand him. I knew there would be tremendous fallout if I exposed a senior senator as a sex abuser. But at the moment, that didn’t seem to matter to me. After witnessing how easy it was to buy a young woman in the United States of America, I couldn’t in good conscience walk away and do nothing. Maybe this was why Dan couldn’t sleep at night.

  I was going to sleep like a baby for the rest of my life for the simple reason I would never sit idly by and watch an injustice happen if there was anything in my power that could stop or prevent it.

  Still, I needed to take Dan out of the equation. I wouldn’t be working on FBI time. Hell, I was really only half an agent at that. I was disposable as far as they were concerned. The Bureau could distance itself from me all it wanted if they didn’t like the outcome. But no matter what, the son of a bitch who used young boys and threw them out of his limo like trash was going down. As long as I drew breath in my lungs, I wasn’t going to stop doing the right thing.

  “I understand,” I said, lying to him.

  “Why don’t I trust that this is the end of something really big and fucked up that I don’t want to know about or be a part of?”

  “Dan,” I said standing and shaking his hand. “You have my word that no matter what, you won’t be implicated in anything.”

  “Nothing you’re saying gives me the confidence to let you walk out of here, Callahan. Why do you think that is?”

  I shrugged. “I dunno, but I need to go. I have some things I need to take care of.”

  “What kind of things?”

  “Actually Dan,” I said, knowing it was time for a clean break from the Bureau as far as Frankie and the truth were concerned. “We’re thinking Frankie may have just—you know—run away.”

  Turning to leave, Dan stopped me again. “Mac.”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m serious, buddy. Don’t poke the bear.”

  I nodded and left. I needed to get back to Tartarus. Lars was at the helm with the brainiacs and God only knew what they’d found by now.

  I hustled down the hallway, stopping at Micah’s desk, where Fuller sat, consoling her. I was glad she had someone, and Fuller was a good guy. Whether Micah would open up and let him in was an entirely different story.

  “Sir,” he said standing. I knew he wanted to come with me, but after my meeting with Dan, the fewer people who worked with me, the better.

  “Stay with Micah. I’ll contact you. Keep your phone—”

  “You can count on me.”

  I didn’t say thank you. I didn’t even say goodbye. The less I said at this point the better.

  As I took the elevator down to the car only one thought crossed my mind. Just how big a mess had I gotten myself into?

  Rory met me at the door of Tartarus, having seen me on the security cameras.

  “Get in here. We’ve got some stuff to show you. Where’s your phone?”

  “In the Faraday cage Elias gave me, in my bag,” I said tapping my backpack. “Why?”

  “You’re being followed.”

  “What?”

  Hustling down the hallway, I walked into the con room. It was nearly eleven o’clock at night and just as many geeky kids were still working late as there were earlier in the day.

  Lars greeted me with a handshake. “We’ve stumbled into a shit storm, Mac.”

  “What kind of shit storm?”

  “We hacked into the trafficking site selling Frankie, darkcloset.com, using FoxAcid to attack, not their site, but their web browser. Then we used our own network to catch the packets.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “It’s a man on the side kind of attack, but it’s provided a lot of information. You’re not going to believe what we found.”

  “After the conversation I just had at the Bureau, I might. What is it?”

  “There are hundreds of addresses attached to the site. People who’ve bought boys, girls, and women,” Rory said. “We don’t have names yet, only IPs but these aren’t your run of the mill sickos—you know the kind of guys who chain people to the floor of their basement? These are high-powered businesses and government sites. This goes up—way up.”

  “Maybe too far up,” Lars chimed in.

  “What do you have on that son of a bitch Storm?”

  “Not a lot. He’s wasn’t a regular at darkcloset.”

  “Dark Closet?” I asked.

  “That’s the name they’re using today,” Rory said. “Who knows what they were before—or what they’ll be in a few days. Regardless, we have Storm’s email address, and we have his request, including the one for blue-eyed-boy.”

  “Brady Kurtz,” I sighed. “What about Frankie?” I asked, sitting down to think.

  “She’s all set to be dropped at Union Station. Eight in the morning. Your Digicoin payment was put into escrow.”

  “Smart place for the drop off. They can watch her, but they don’t have to stand close enough to be seen in the sea of people. And they chose rush hour.”

  “They aren’t amateurs, that’s for sure,” Lars agreed. “You know you can’t go to pick her up. If they’re as sophisticated as I think they are, they’ll tag you and run recognition software. You’ll be made before you know it.”

  I nodded.

  “They assured us in the confirmation email that she wouldn’t be touched,” Elias said.

  “Yeah,” Rory added. “Eli here has a crush on Frankie. He knows everything about her. He even checked out her monthly period tracker she keeps on her computer. He knows this girl inside and out.”

  “Shut the fuck up, Rory.”

  Rory shrugged. “It’s the truth.”

  “It’s not like I’m looking at her medical records or anything. I mean, I could. But I’m not.”

  “Let’s hope for your sake and hers, Elias, t
hese bastards are true to their word and won’t lay a hand on her.”

  I looked at the ragtag team I’d put together. It was one of the best crime fighting groups I’d ever been a part of. Two young computer geeks, one old one, and a part time Federal Agent. And yet somehow we’d tapped into something so big, Dan Kelley was getting back off threats from way above all of our paygrades. But who could I trust?

  “I’ll pick her up,” Elias said with a calm and resolved presence.

  I looked over my shoulder at him, ignoring his comment. “I need my laptop. I need to log into the Bureau.”

  “Whoa there, chief,” Rory said stepping between me and my backpack. “No way you’re using your laptop in here.”

  “Then who has a laptop I can use?”

  “Come sit at my workstation,” Rory said. “That way I can keep an eye on what you’re up to.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yeah, seriously. I don’t need you mucking around in our system. You could just be masquerading as a guy who can barely check his email. I can’t risk you hacking while you’re here for your own benefit.”

  “For the record, Rory. I can do more than just check my email.”

  “Agent Callahan, what was the first thing you said to me?”

  “Trust no one.”

  “Exactly. And don’t you think after seeing all these high profile businessmen on this list at darkcloset.com I might wonder what you’d be willing to do to keep these names out of the press?”

  “I’m glad you’re thinking ahead, Rory. And I don’t mind you watching over my shoulder. But I give you my word, I’m not going to hack anything.”

  “Seriously, Mac. You owe me this,” Elias said stepping to the other side of Rory’s desk to look at me head on. “Let me pick her up.”

  “It’s true, no one knows him,” Rory said.

  I took a deep breath. “I don’t know what I might be sending you into, Elias.”

  “I’m willing to take my chances.”

  “Oooo, the love story is getting good now,” Rory teased.

  “Shut up, Rory. I’m serious. Let me pick her up. I know what she looks like. I know who she is. I wouldn’t be noticed in the rush hour crowd at Union Station. And I don’t look like a scary old man from the FBI. I look like a normal—you know—”

  Rory smiled and cocked his head to the side. “Hipster?”

  “I can’t put you in harm’s way. It should be someone who’s at the very least carrying a weapon in case something goes wrong.”

  “So give me a gun.”

  It was my turn to cock my head in amazement. “I can’t just hand you a gun if you’ve never used one before. That’s like—”

  “It’s like giving me a woman,” Rory said. “Sure, it would be exciting to hold, but when it came time to do something with it, I wouldn’t know where to begin and I would probably just shoot my, you know…too early.”

  I appreciated Rory’s analogy, but I appreciated his honesty even more. “Son, I can promise you, a woman is easier and a hell of a lot more fun than a firearm.”

  “C’mon, man,” Elias pleaded.

  “Give him a break, Mac. He’s made love to this girl and he’s never even met her. Let him be her knight in shining armor. Guys like us never get that kind of chance.”

  I nodded. “Fine. But Agent Fuller is going to be on site just to make sure nothing goes down.”

  Bringing a clinched fist in front of his face Elias hissed, “Yes.”

  Rory tapped away at his keyboard and suddenly in front of me was the sign in portal for the virtual network of the Bureau. “Well, son… you know more than you say you do.”

  “Have more than you show, speak less than you know.”

  “Words to live by.”

  I began to log in and then stopped. “Do you mind?” I asked, hoping Rory wouldn’t be offended I didn’t want to share my login and password with him.

  “Not at all. But you know—”

  “I know. I know. If you wanted into my email it wouldn’t be that hard.”

  Once inside the system, I looked up the official report on Frankie. She was merely tagged as a missing person. Dan had moved quickly to take the case off the radar. I was glad. I didn’t want any red flags to be present for the darkcloset assholes. If they thought the Feds were on to them, who knew what they would do to Frankie just to prove a point. Next, I sent a high priority email to Agent Fuller to call me. I checked my email. Most of it was routine, but the last message was from a dot onion account. There was no subject line. “Rory,” I said, pointing to the address in my inbox. “Should I open it?”

  “I mean, if the U.S. government can’t handle an anonymous email, then I don’t know who can.”

  I double clicked on it, not knowing what to expect. What was staring me in the face was a list of hyperlinks—all with FBI tags in their html. They were coming from the Bureau’s server.

  I clicked on the first link. A video filled the screen. It was Dax. Playing in his room with a dump truck. I could see the entire space clearly—as if I was watching the baby monitor at home.

  “What the hell?”

  The next link gave me another video—Katy asleep in her crib—also the view from the baby monitor in her room.

  The third video was Sam. Typing away on her laptop, the built in camera at the top of her screen had been activated as if she was skyping someone. She wasn’t—she was talking to herself and writing an email to Dax’s school.

  Finally, the last link was a video of my Samantha. Naked in the bathtub, I could hear her speaking in a whisper, “Stroke it. Fuck me hard.” It was the conversation I’d just had with her a little over an hour ago.

  “What the hell?” I said standing up, kicking the chair out from under me.

  “Jesus,” Rory said. “Is that your wife?”

  At that moment, Sam cried out in ecstasy, her leg slung over the side of the tub. I stopped the video, closing the screen. “They’ve fucking bugged my house.”

  “Mac,” Rory said pointing to the screen. “Look.”

  At the bottom of the email was one line of text. If you want them to live, walk away.

  19

  MAC

  I paced like a wild animal. “Give me my phone. I need to call Samantha. I’ve got to get her and the kids out of the house.”

  “Look, Mac,” Lars said coming to my side. “I know you’re emotional about this—I would be too. But we need to move through this carefully. One false step and who knows what could happen.”

  “How did this happen?” I asked Elias and Rory.

  “They’ve done a simple hack into the system at your house. It’s the monitors in your kids’ rooms.”

  I nodded. “What about Sam?”

  “Her laptop. It’s why that view is from her screen.”

  “And the bathroom?” I asked, doing my best to keep my fury at bay.

  Rory shook his head. “If you don’t normally have a camera in the bathroom—”

  “I don’t!” I shouted.

  Rory bit his bottom lip. I knew he felt bad for me, but it wasn’t making it any easier to see my naked wife in the tub having phone sex with me.

  “Someone’s planted a camera in your bathroom. It could be anything—shampoo bottle, perfume, a Kleenex box.”

  I pulled the burner phone from the pocket of my jeans, and leaned into the computer to look up the number of someone I could trust in Alabama. It was late, but I knew if I asked, he’d be ready to help without hesitation and without questions.

  “This is Randall.” He answered the phone with an edge to his voice. If someone had called me this late, I would’ve done the same.

  Randall once worked at Lone Oak under Miss Celia, but became a bodyguard for Samantha on more than one occasion. I trusted him with my life. More importantly, I trusted him with Sam’s.

  “Randall, it’s Mac. I’m sorry it’s late, but this is an emergency.”

  “Of course.” The tension in his voice quickly turned. “Tell me
what you need.”

  “I need the help of someone I can trust. And I trust you.”

  “Anything Mac. You know that.”

  “I’ve gotten myself into some serious shit. The family’s been threatened, Randall. I need you to get them out of Shadeland.”

  “Where am I taking them?”

  “I’ll let you know once you’ve got them in hand.”

  “No problem.”

  “And Randall, Samantha may be upset. I need you to keep her calm until I can get to her, okay? We need to play this off as if everything is fine.”

  “Got it. Is this the number you want me to use?”

  “No. I’m tossing this phone. I’ll be in touch.”

  “Hey, Mac.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of the family. You have my word.”

  I hung up and knew the next call wouldn’t go as well.

  “Hey, sweetheart,” Samantha cooed. “You weren’t kidding when you said you were going to call back for more.”

  “Baby, I need you to listen to me carefully.”

  “What?”

  “Pack up the kids.”

  “What?”

  “Pack them up now. In the morning, Randall is coming to get Dax, Katy, Celia and you. I’m getting you out of Shadeland and away from Lone Oak.”

  “What are you talking about, Mac?” she said, hysteria rising in her voice. “We can’t go anywhere. I have three hundred people coming to our house in two days. I can’t leave. What’s this all about?”

  “I don’t want you to panic when I tell you this.”

  “What?”

  “They’ve tapped into the security cameras at Lone Oak, Sam. I’ve been sent a threatening message.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “Baby, you’re being watched.”

  “What?” she whispered. I could hear the sudden fear in her voice. The silence on the other end let me know she was taking a moment to let it all sink in. “Is this because of Frankie?”

  “Not her in particular, but something that’s unraveled as a bigger part of it.”

  “I thought you were just getting Frankie home to Micah. I don’t understand. What exactly are you involved in Mac?”