Golden Trail

  “They took pictures of her.”

  Layne’s stomach pitched and Merry jerked away, probably looking for something to throw and Rocky moved forward, her hand curling around her brother’s bicep and he stilled.

  “Not like that but it still wasn’t good and she didn’t like it,” Rocky whispered quickly then her eyes went back to Layne. “She said they were pictures with her clothes on. She says they told her they were recruiting models, she’d go to New York City, she’d be in magazine ads. She did it with Alexis and another girl. Tiffany Emmerson. She didn’t say anything about the pictures because Alexis and Tiffany were excited about it, talked her into keeping quiet but she still didn’t like it. But him being alone, making a grab for her, that’s what freaked her out. She said even a Youth Minister should know not to offer a ride to a girl alone and definitely not push it when she declines.”

  Smart girl, thank fuck.

  “Tiffany Emmerson sixteen, long, dark hair?” Layne asked and Rocky’s eyes got wide.

  “Yes,” she answered.

  “Drive a red Ford Focus?” Layne went on.

  “I don’t know. Why?” Rocky answered.

  “Hunch,” Layne muttered, knowing exactly who Tiffany Emmerson was, too old but up for it except she didn’t know what “it” was. Fuck. He looked at Merry. “That’s a blonde, a redhead and a brunette.”

  “Collecting types,” Merry murmured and Layne nodded.

  Layne looked back at Rocky. “She place the woman there?”

  Rocky nodded to Layne. “Yes. Said she was touchy.”

  Layne bet she was.

  Jesus.

  “Said she gave her the creeps,” Rocky continued and got closer to Layne. “She said she didn’t have a problem with Gaines until he took her to that woman and she definitely has a problem with him after last night. He was just the Youth Minister and she didn’t really think much of him, except he was the Youth Minister and he was cute. But she didn’t like that woman.”

  “Was the touching inappropriate?” Layne asked and Rocky shook her head.

  “No, just familiar and frequent. She played with their hair, positioned their bodies for the photos, put makeup on them but it was all normal photo shoot stuff as far as Giselle knew. Except Giselle said it was a lot of makeup and Giselle didn’t like the poses.”

  Christ.

  “So why didn’t she call her parents to come and get her?” Layne asked and Rocky shook her head again.

  “I don’t know, sweetheart. She’s fourteen and she was freaked. She said if her parents knew she did the photo shoot, they’d be angry. They’re overprotective, especially after her sister got sick. That’s why she didn’t phone them. She thought she’d be in trouble if they found out. She wasn’t thinking straight, just got scared and hid. Tripp called and texted and her parents called and texted and the more they called, the more scared she got. But she got my call and she thought she could trust me so she called me back.” She paused, Layne nodded and Rocky continued. “The photo shoot was about a month ago but nothing after that even though Gaines offered it, Giselle wouldn’t do it and she doesn’t think Alexis or Tiffany did either but they were trying to talk her into it. They’d made a girl pact, it was an all or nothing thing. Then she said Gaines spent a lot of time with her after that, talked to her a lot, tried to make friends and she felt weird about it because he was pushing another shoot. She said she’d swear she’d sometimes see him, when she left school, in his car outside her house but she’d look again and he wasn’t there so she thought she was seeing things. But last night, she wasn’t seeing things.”

  No, she wasn’t seeing things.

  Ryker needed this intel, if they were doing it to Giselle, they could be doing it to Alexis.

  “This happened last night, why’d she cut Tripp out at school yesterday?” Layne asked.

  Rocky’s expression cleared and her lips twitched. “Alexis’s advice. Told her she was making it too easy on Tripp. Told her to play hard to get. That was nothing to do with Gaines or any of this. She’s almost more worried that Tripp is going to be mad at her than she is about her parents or Gaines.”

  Jesus, teenagers playing games. Starting young. It felt like Layne had a lifetime of that and he sure as fuck was glad that shit was over.

  “They change clothes?” Layne asked and Rocky’s face grew confused.

  “Change clothes?” she repeated and Layne moved close to her, putting his hand to her neck.

  “Change clothes, Roc, at the photo shoot. Even alone, if they did it, they could have had cameras on them,” Layne explained and Rocky swallowed.

  “I didn’t ask,” Rocky whispered.

  Layne jerked his head toward the ceiling and whispered back, “Ask baby, hurry, before her folks get here.”

  “Shit,” she muttered, looked at her brother then walked out of the room.

  Merry moved to Layne.

  “So, what’s the play, brother?”

  “He’s out,” Layne stated instantly, looking at Merry. “I outed him to the reverend as exactly what he is. He doesn’t know it yet but he doesn’t have a job anymore. Pastor Knox would not let him work undercover and we’re not workin’ that angle with that perv. No more recruiting. This model business is out too. We tell the Speakmons, we tell Ryker, who’s seein’ Alexis McGraw’s mother and we tell the Emmersons.”

  “Then they’ll flee, they’re outed and got no way to recruit.”

  “Maybe and maybe not. We turn Gaines, we may be able to get him to talk them into trying to play it another way. They’re dug in, set up, they spent a lot of time on this and they were goin’ in for the kill. They got a lot invested and, because of that, there’s a lot to keep them here. They need to dismantle the operation, they lose big. We turn Gaines, we get him to get them to cool it, convince them he’s still got the girls, he leads us to them and we take them all down.”

  “Rutledge?”

  “We don’t get what she’s got on him, we find him, you’re gonna hafta flip Rutledge in the interrogation room.”

  Merry smiled.

  Layne didn’t return his smile. He pulled out his phone and called Ryker.

  “Yo,” Ryker answered on the first ring.

  “Alexis safe?” Layne asked.

  “Yeah,” Ryker answered.

  “How sure are you of that?” Layne asked.

  “Sure enough, since I been callin’ my babe probably every fifteen minutes since I heard that girl was missin’. Alexis is at home. Ticked. She’s grounded because she mouthed off bad when Lissa cut her off from Youth Group.”

  Every fifteen minutes and cut off from Youth Group. Layne believed it. Proof Ryker was the man Layne thought he was.

  “Right, they’re keepin’ an eye on the girls. Don’t know why but they’re followin’ them. You need to brief your babe and you got a friend you can trust, you put a man on her house.”

  “Shit,” Ryker muttered then said, “roger that.”

  “Gaines sweating?”

  “He’s tied to a chair watchin’ your man clean his gun. He’s findin’ it fascinatin’, bro.”

  Layne didn’t laugh.

  “All right, Ryker, I need you to get me four things from this guy. One, why’d he go after Giselle last night? Two, are Towers and Rutledge still in town? Three, are they lookin’ for Giselle? And four, if they are, why’s he gettin’ a blowjob from Tina Blackstone?”

  “You got it,” Ryker replied.

  “I’ll want more later, start with that and anything else you wanna know.”

  “Ditto on the you got it,” Ryker repeated.

  “Keep listening to the apartment. If he’s gettin’ head from Tina because they’re not tweaked by Giselle running then the woman might go back to the apartment. We’ll need to hear what she has to say.”

  “Devin’s all over that,” Ryker told him.

  “Right,” Layne replied. “Tell Devin he’s on clean up. He needs to make sure the Reverend doesn’t talk. Youth Group is suspended for
the time being, no explanation, that’s it. Nothin’ else leaks.”

  “I’ll tell ‘im.”

  “Later.” He closed his phone and flipped it open to call Jasper.

  Jasper answered on the second ring.

  “What’s up, Dad?”

  “We have Giselle. She’s fine. Totally fine. Tripp with you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Tell him now.”

  He listened to Jasper say, “Dad’s found Giselle. She’s cool, Tripp-o-matic. It’s all good.”

  “Where is she?” Layne heard Tripp ask.

  “Her parents are coming to pick her up.” Layne answered but didn’t wait until Jas relayed this information before continuing. “You boys finish gathering intel from Giselle’s friends. We need everything we can get on Gaines. When you’re done, you can go home to your Mom’s. And Jasper, I need you to locate Tiffany Emmerson. If you don’t have her number, find someone who does. I want you to call in to me when you know she’s safe then I want one of your boys glued to her until I can get to her parents.”

  “Another favorite,” Jasper muttered.

  “You got it, Bud,” Layne muttered back. “Closin’ ranks, son.”

  “Gotcha,” Jasper replied. “Later.”

  “Later, Jas.” Layne flipped his phone shut and looked at Merry. “I need your Dad. We’re spread thin and I gotta have ears on that apartment. Can you call him and get him to the office?”

  Merry nodded, pulled out his phone and stepped away.

  Then Rocky walked into the room.

  “They didn’t change clothes,” she announced when she got close. “They told them what to wear to the shoot. It was skimpy and Giselle doesn’t do skimpy. Alexis told her she could borrow something but Giselle wouldn’t do it. She told me Alexis and Tiffany did but the woman, the photographer and Gaines didn’t make a big deal out of it that Giselle didn’t.”

  “Good kid,” Layne muttered.

  Rocky got close and slid an arm around his waist so he slid his around her shoulders.

  “She’s feeling a bit foolish, sweetheart, thinks she made a big deal out of nothing. Worried her parents are going to be angry, Tripp… I didn’t know what to say.”

  Layne had looked down at her while she was talking and when she stopped, he asked, “What did you say?”

  “I said always go with your gut, you get a bad feeling, you get safe and then you find someone you trust, which was what she did. I didn’t get into Gaines, I just told her she did the right thing and everyone would understand.”

  Layne squeezed her shoulder and muttered, “Good answer, sweetcheeks.”

  “Probably be a good idea you get Tripp to text her, say he heard she’s all right, he’s glad and she should give him a call when she can.” Rocky pressed closer and whispered, “She likes him, baby, like, a lot.”

  Merry moved back to them, he was off the phone, his head tilted to listen to the car pulling into the drive and then he looked at Layne. “Parents,” he murmured then started to the front door.

  “You call him, Roc, he’ll like to hear that from you,” Layne told her and she nodded, smiled up at him and her arm got tight around him.

  Then her head turned to the door they heard Merry opening.

  “We better talk to Adele and Wade,” she whispered, eyes still pointing in the direction of the door.

  “Yeah,” Layne sighed and he kept his arm around his woman as he led her to the door.

  * * * * *

  When Layne arrived at his office, Dev met him at the outer door.

  “You got here just in time for the good part,” Dev whispered on a scary smile.

  “He talkin’?” Layne asked.

  “Yeah and I’m wonderin’ ‘bout her now, she picked this guy,” Devin answered. “First, that boy is stupid as shit. I reckon he got by on his looks his whole life and that worked for him so he uses about a quarter of the eleven percent of the brain that other people use. Second, he’s scared of her, he’s scared of us, he’s scared of everything. Last, he don’t care who he works or who he works for, he just wants to stay pretty.”

  “Pretty isn’t gonna serve him very well in the hole,” Layne observed.

  “Yeah, I explained that to him. That’s one of the reasons why he’s scared of us,” Dev replied.

  “You get my answers?” Layne asked and Devin nodded.

  “First, the woman is gettin’ impatient. She’s got clients all lined up, a party, big money, they need those girls but can’t get a lock on ‘em because of Giselle. The girls have made it clear they move as a unit and Giselle’s doesn’t feel like movin’. Towers is unhappy as in un… hap… pee,” Devin answered then grinned at Layne. “This is not only ‘cause Giselle doesn’t want shit to do with them but also because Giselle found herself a boyfriend and they couldn’t find any time with her away from Tripp.”

  At that, Layne grinned back. It was a small grin but it was a grin because Tripp had done good and because his son would be pleased he did his part to keep Giselle safe.

  Devin continued. “Now she’s runnin’ outta excuses for her clients who are chompin’ at the bit after seein’ the girls’ photos. The two other girls are good to go, his words, words, I’ll add, that made your boy Ryker go a bit scary, Tanner, and when I say that, I mean he scared me, he got so fuckin’ scary.”

  “He cares about Alexis,” Layne muttered.

  “Well, that’s plain to see,” Devin muttered back then kept talking. “Anyway, Giselle was muckin’ up the works. Towers was puttin’ on the pressure and he was gettin’ desperate, started followin’ her and acted on his own. He found his opportunity, Giselle alone without Tripp at her side, and he took it. When she bolted, he freaked, told Rutledge. According to Gaines, Rutledge is nearly as scared of this bitch as Gaines is. Told him he’d take care of it and keep it quiet. The woman doesn’t know shit. Gaines, bein’ what I know now of Gaines, shrugged his shoulders. Once he handed off to Rutledge, he went his merry way and his way is paved with all things merry. Apparently, when he isn’t spreading the word of God while workin’ at settin’ up teenagers to get gang raped, he’s been bangin’ this Tina person for months, amongst others.”

  Layne nodded, thinking briefly of Tina Blackstone. Tina would open her legs for anyone but she’d make a world record of it if that someone was good-looking. And she didn’t care who they were or what they did. He seriously doubted Tina would blink if she learned she was getting hit by a guy who was recruiting for a child prostitution racket. To be fair, she might shiver a bit but then she’d shake it off and move on.

  Devin got out of his way and Layne set aside thoughts of Tina and walked into his office. Dev followed him and Layne saw TJ Gaines or, as Layne knew him now from the phone call he’d made getting his identity from his prints, Jeremy Goulding, tied to one of his office chairs and looking about ready to piss his pants.

  “You,” he whispered when he looked from Ryker sitting in Layne’s desk chair and cleaning his fingernails with his huge, freaking knife to Layne.

  “How’s it goin’, Jeremy?” Layne asked, walking to his desk and leaning on it.

  Jeremy’s head jerked.

  “Yeah,” Layne said softly. “I know who you are. Got solid evidence you’re guilty in the State of Indiana of identity theft and know you got a warrant out on you in Tennessee too.”

  Jeremy’s eyes slid beyond Layne to Ryker then to the side to take in Devin then they shot back to Layne.

  “Big step up,” Layne remarked, “Movin’ from small time cons, all women, to child prostitution.”

  Jeremy’s pale face turned gray. “That isn’t part of my deal.”

  Layne’s brows went up. “No?”

  Jeremy shook his head.

  “Saw you kiss Tiffany Emmerson’s neck. Saw Alexis McGraw put her hand on you. Heard you shared gum with Alexis, mouth to mouth, after it had been chewed,” Layne noted and he felt the sudden wall of rage coming off Ryker slam into his back, just as he’d intended.

&n
bsp; Jeremy felt it too and he bucked his body, scooting his chair back, his eyes locked on Ryker.

  “Sit still, Jeremy,” Layne said quietly as Dev moved in behind Jeremy.

  Jeremy’s eyes didn’t move from Ryker but he did as he was told.

  “I didn’t... I didn’t,” he stammered, “I didn’t do that.”

  “You callin’ Alexis a liar?” Layne asked.

  Jeremy’s eyes darted to Layne. “No!” he cried.

  “So you did share gum with her,” Layne pressed.

  “I… no, she shared gum with me,” Jeremy amended.

  “Okay,” Layne said then lied, “I see the difference.”

  “It’s just a job,” Jeremy explained quickly as Layne heard and felt Ryker move behind him. “I didn’t like it, I’m not into girls, I’m into women, you know, like your lady.” Layne’s back straightened and his face changed and Jeremy’s body bucked again. “No! No! I mean, she’s pretty. I’m complimenting her. I’m just saying I’m not into girls. But that was my part of the job. And Nic said she’d take care of the girls, she said she always takes care of the girls.”

  “Takes care of them how?” Layne asked.

  “Every way. Money, clothes, attention. Girls love that shit and Nic loves them. She’s good with them. It isn’t as creepy as you think,” Jeremy explained and Layne had trouble controlling his sneer and the urge to open up the flesh of Jeremy’s face with his fist.

  “You’re wrong,” Layne whispered. “You are way wrong. It’s as creepy as I think. Fuck, Jeremy, it’s creepier.”

  “They’re not as young as you think either,” Jeremy quickly went on.

  “Sorry, man, but you’re wrong about that too. Giselle’s datin’ my son and she’s fourteen, she’s exactly as young as I think,” Layne told him.

  “Yes, I mean with Giselle, yes, she’s… she, I’m sorry about her, okay? She wasn’t the right one. Nic told me who to pick and I knew Giselle wasn’t the right one but I had to do what Nic said. But the other two, they’re fourteen and sixteen goin’ on thirty,” Jeremy replied.

  Ryker moved again, Layne knew he’d been standing, now he was making his way around the desk.