Secrets in the Dark

by K D Michaels

Pratt laughed as she patted her uncle’s arms. “They are growing so fast. Cody will be twelve this year and the twins will be five years old in three months. Cody has been asking for more siblings but I’m just not ready yet.”

  Diesel jumped up out of her seat and extended her hands to the man who joined the group. “Hi, I’m Detective Cheryl Diesel, Red’s co-worker.”

  Pratt groaned as she shot Diesel a dirty look. “The grand poo pah of slutsville! Ladies, this is my Uncle Larry, as in Deputy Director of the FBI Larry Keon, and very happily attached, trampopotamous!”

  The two men standing behind Keon chuckled causing Diesel to look towards them. “Hellooooo nurse! Who are you two tall drinks of water?”

  Pratt pointed their right hands out to Diesel. “Happily married, luckily for them, whoever they are.” Pratt turned to look at the two men, “Sorry gentlemen, we don’t let her out very often. Unfortunately, our sergeant forgot the muzzle and leash back in California.”

  “Should have brought your ball gag to use for her.”

  “Didn’t you use it last night for your one-night stand? Oh wait, was it the big guy with the monkey spanking problem?” Pratt fired back at Raso without missing a beat.

  Diesel cheered, clapping as she sat back down. “Dayum, shots fired baby. Oh, I know, let’s get everyone together, have a few drinks and discuss the case over a game of monopoly.”

  “Is that what you gypsy’s call orgy’s now?” York asked with a raised eyebrow, causing Cortez and Pratt to choke on their laughter.

  Hottie number one, as Cortez, Pratt, Raso and York had dubbed him, leaned into Keon. “Are they always like this?”

  “This is actually mild for them. It’s how they deal with the shit they see. No different than the rest of us.”

  Hottie number two joined the discussion, leaning in, while watching the banter between the women. “What do you mean ‘the shit they see’?”

  Keon looked over at his goddaughter then looked back at the two men. “These women aren’t just your normal detectives. They are a special task force used by their Sheriff to go after human traffickers.”

  “Uncle Larry, do you know anything about a club called the Covenant?” Pratt joined the small group, oblivious to the reaction from the two men.

  “Ummm, it’s a very private sex club that caters to the BDSM lifestyle. One of the best in the area, if not the state.”

  Diesel laughed, rolling her eyes. “They can’t be that good if they had let that asshole in.”

  “Can it, Diesel. Hold your judgement until Cortez and York speak with Mr. Sawyer tomorrow.” Sgt. Brocard looked over at the three men, “Robinson and his crew hid for three years. We really don’t know anything until we have our meeting with the owner and find out how he got into the club.”

  “Sarge is right. Mitch Sawyer didn’t have Robinson or any of the other names we gave him on his list of guest or members when we called him earlier. He’s willing to meet with us to look at the photos of the suspects and see if he can find something to helps us figure out why Robinson had a guest band for the club,” Pratt backed her team leader up.

  Hottie number one coughed as he gestured with his hand to follow him. “Ladies, our private room is ready for us. Keon mentioned meeting in there while we all ate.”

  3

  Alpha Squad followed the three men into the large private room that semi packed with a large group of big men, who were already seated at a couple of the tables in the room.

  “Fuck a rubber duck,” Raso grouched as she looked around the room. “What are the fucking odds squidward would be here for his military training?”

  “Hello lasses! What are ye doing here?” Highlander walked up to the group standing in the doorway, leaning down and giving his wife a brief kiss that had Pratt leaning into it as he pulled away.

  Pratt smiled up to her husband, enjoying the smell of his cologne he wore when he was stateside. “Hello yourself handsome. I take it you’re training is here in Tampa?”

  “Aye that we are love. They have us training some with Trident Security on some new maneuvers and equipment they are developing for SEALs and themselves.”

  “Wait, you’re training with Trident?”

  “Aye” Highlander drew out the ‘e’ in his answer, hesitant as he watched his wife look at the unknown men around them.

  “Ice is right…fuck a rubber duck!” Pratt looked down at her feet, shaking her head before looking over to Cortez.

  “Why?”

  “Those three guys from the crime scene, they are part of Trident Security.”

  “Shit on a stick!”

  Diesel walked over to the two women, laughing a little too loud. “Well, at least squidward and the three hotties didn’t see you take out SSA Dumbass earlier.”

  “SSA Dumbass?” Keon asked, looking over at Pratt confused.

  Pratt looked at her sergeant, “I’m fucking kicking her ass sarge!”

  York placed a hand on Highlanders arm “Calm down there, big guy! It was nothing serious.” York then looked over to Keon after smirking, “One of your agents, I think his name is Stonewall, grabbed Pratt’s arm to yell at her, she gave him a warning in all fairness, but he wouldn’t let her arm go, he was trying to cuff her when she flipped him onto his ass. She may or may not have injured his shoulder and wrist.”

  “Bullshit! Xena Princess Warrior over here broke the jackass’s wrist when he grabbed her to try and cuff her, claiming she was trespassing on a crime scene. Even with Agent Baker telling him that he was the one who called us since the ‘vic’ they were dealing with was someone we’ve been hunting for the last three years. His ignorant ass didn’t care,” Diesel informed the room, laughing at all the stares from her to Pratt.

  “Victim? Ye found Dakota?”

  Pratt looked sadly at her husband. “No. I have to say with that situation, thank God it wasn’t her. The vic that the feds found was Peter Robinson. He was shot then fed to a gator.”

  “Poor tator gator, probably laying on the bottom of the swamp dying of food poison.” Diesel shook her head, causing her teammates to groan and roll their eyes, “Unless he was one of them meth head gators.” Diesel put her hand to her face and looked up to the ceiling like she was praying.

  “Shut up Diesel,” Alpha Squad all yelled at the same time.

  Keon coughed, hiding his laughter when he touched Pratt’s arm. “Since you ladies already know Lt. MacLeod and his team, let me introduce you to the rest of our group.” Keon stopped when he noticed York place her hand over Diesel’s mouth at the same time Rameriez placed her hand over Raso’s.

  “Alrighty then, moving on, ladies, please let me introduce you to Trident Security. This is Ian Sawyer and his brothers Devon and Nick. Next to Nick, you have his husband Jake Donovan, then Ben Michaelson, Brody Evans and Marco DeAngelis. I had asked them if they could help you out with your situation while you’re here in Tampa.”

  “Thank you, gentlemen, we appreciate your help more than you know. I’m Sgt. Helen Brocard. This is Detective Laura Pratt, Lindsey Raso, Tarilyn Cortez, Renee York, Kaitlyne Rameriez and our class clown, Cheryl Diesel.”

  “Diesel, I swear to whatever fucking diety you worship that I will cunt punch you if you utter a word of whatever it is you have twirling around in that head of yours.”

  “But Red! I have to get it out! If I don’t, it’ll back up and come out in other ways that wouldn’t be good for the closed environment we are in right now.”

  “What’s wrong lass?” Highlander asked concerned with the comments and actions.

  “She’s wanting to make a joke about Mr. DeAngelis’s name.”

  Marco laughed, hands on his hips as he smiled over at the women, “Ah, the Marco Polo jokes? Trust me ma’am, I’ve heard them all. My call sign is Polo.”

  “Maybe so Mr. DeAngelis, but you’ve probably never heard it Diesel style. I’d rather not have you guys hating us before you get to know us,” Sgt. Brocard told the men, laughing hesitantly.

 
Everyone sat down, enjoying their meal and light banter as they got to know each other. Halfway through the meal, noticing that Highlander was somewhat looking aggravated, Keon leaned over towards Pratt.

  “Important messages from a woman I hope,” Keon nodded towards Highlander.

  “Umm, well, I sorta kinda reached out to Uncle Gene for help with the possible overseas connections and other issues also. He’s been messaging me to let me know he’s on his way to Tampa with two of his best people. They should be here shortly,” Pratt fidgeted under the stares of her husband, Keon and Sgt. Brocard.

  “Ah, you’re going all out on this one, aren’t you?”

  “Yep” Pratt popped her ‘p’, before putting the straw in her mouth and started drinking from her glass. Setting her glass down, Pratt pushed her plate to the side and leaned onto the table, crossing her arms on the table. “This one is personal Larry. Not only is Dakota family, but her case opened up a whole new world that’s really made us step up our game. Gene wants to know more. I want all of us to put our heads together and see if we can’t find a way to deal with this issue.”

  “This is sad, you all started dinner without us.” A tall blonde Adonis said from the private room doorway.

  Brody laughed as he looked towards the doorway. “Always here for the food huh?”

  “Is there anything else?”

  “You missed my sparkling personality?”

  “Laura! Looking beautiful as always.” A tall silver fox, who kept himself in obvious shape walked over and hugged Pratt before turning to Larry and shook his outstretched hand. “Laura, Larry, this is Carter and Jordyn Alvarez. I’ve asked them to help out with your situation.”

  “Thank you everyone. I take it from the earlier greetings you all know each other.”

  “I come around for the food every now and then,” Carter smiled down at Pratt, winking at her as he shook her hand before moving on to another Alpha Squad member.

  Pratt laughed. “As my uncle said, I’m Pratt, this is my team…” Pratt went about introducing her teammates. “Everyone, this is my other godfather, Gene McDaniels.”

  Diesel looked between Larry and Gene then to Pratt. “Ok I got to ask, if these two silver hotties are the good guys, how in the hell were they friends with your fucking parents?”

  “Please tell me she did not just insult us by accusing us of being friends with those two?” Larry looked over at Gene, irritated.

  Pratt stepped between Diesel and the two men, laughing and putting her hands out as to separate the three. “Okay, one, hell no they aren’t friends with my parents. My parents hate the ground these two walks on with a passion.”

  “They are a waste of space and their air would be way purer if they didn’t exist.”

  Highlander coughed covering up his agreement with Gene’s statement. When Pratt looked over at her husband, he cocked an eyebrow in question at her stare.

  “Larry and Gene treated me and Dom as if we were their kids. We all met when I was a kid. Larry and Gene were bodyguards for a former Senator and his now ex-wife. Their daughter went to the same school as I did, a couple of grades behind me. They were at the school one day when her mom was there, witnessed my mother going off on me after I got into trouble for punching a kid who was bullying me. They confronted her, and let’s just say the rest is history.”

  Gene looked over at Larry and chuckled, “What she’s not telling you is that the kid she popped had also been bullying the little girl of the Senator. A few days later, I ran into Laura at a store with her mother and sister. Burned my craw when I saw the mother being a bitch to her while giving the sister whatever she wanted. All she wanted was a new pair of shoes since hers were getting bad, her mother, and I use that term lightly, was yelling at her. I bought the shoes she wanted, showed up at the school the next day and gave them to her. Larry and I went to the house and warned the mother if she said or did anything about those shoes, she’d be sorry.”

  “We tried to recruit her brother at the FBI a few times, but he wouldn’t have a thing to do with it. He wasn’t going to do anything that kept him away from his sister more than he already was,” Larry chuckled, looking over at Ian and the others.

  “Yeah, yeah, blame that shit on me still don’tcha?”

  “What exactly are we dealing with here?” Alvarez asked, watching Pratt who gestured to Sgt. Brocard.

  For the next hour, Alpha Squad, Highlander and his team brought the men of Trident Security, Larry, Gene, Carter and Alvarez up to speed on the entirety of the investigation and answering their questions as they went along.

  Devon looked over at his brother Ian, then at the others in his team. “Why does the name Dakota Hamilton sound familiar?”

  “Dakota is the daughter of Dale ‘Bear’ Hamilton, a SEAL who died ten years ago in Afghanistan. Was stationed out of Little Creek for several years before he went to San Diego to have his parents help with Dakota.”

  Sounds of ‘son-of-a-bitch’ rang out around the room from the men of Trident Security.

  “How did she get on these people’s radar? Granted it doesn’t take much these days.” Devon paced, his mind reeling from the news he just received.

  “Dakota was the primary target. We found out from Tina, the other victim, Candy sold her to someone, or a company, named Ares. Tina was given to a ring who sold her on an encrypted website to a serial killer who specialized in cutting his victims every day for a week, for hours on end, before they die. Once he kills them, he dumps the torso’s out in the open somewhere while he sold the legs, arms, and the head on the black market to even creeper creeps.”

  “Jesus fucking Christ” Ian and the others mumbled.

  “If the website is encrypted, how did you get in?” Brody asked, sounding curious, confused and amused all at the same time.

  “When we saw that Tina and Dakota’s electronics, such as their phones, tablets and laptops they used to chat with the suspects, were wiped clean of everything, we realized it sounded eerily familiar with another case of a missing girl whose body was later found in Sacramento. Found out through the twatsucking douchecanoe that killed her, that was how he found his three victims. When our computer expert tried to hack the site, the firewalls were beyond good. We ‘convinced’ the suspect to give us his website username and password.” Pratt avoided her husband and uncle’s gazes as she talked about the man they interrogated.

  Larry looked at Pratt for a few moments, leaned forward placing his elbows onto the table. “Do I want to know how you ladies ‘convinced’ this man to give up that kind of information?”

  Alpha Squad looked at each other in silent conversation until they all shrugged at the same time.

  “Probably not, unless you and Uncle Gene want to take the blame for the training.” Pratt, tongue in cheek told the two men.

  Larry and Gene looked at each other then shook their heads. “Red, we can’t take the blame for the rest of the team, only for you, so no, don’t tell us how you did it.” Larry shook his head as he leaned back in his seat, sighing heavy.

  Marco cleared his throat. “Have you guys been able to find anything on this Ares that the other girl spoke about?”

  “No, Tina Jones is also the daughter of a SEAL, named Eddie…”

  “Fuck” Sounded around the room.

  “She couldn’t give us much more other than Dakota was sold to someone named Ares. Tina even confirmed our suspicion about Candy selling her,” Cortez stood up and started pacing, thinking as she spoke.

  “All the vics we’ve found, dead, alive and those still listed as missing, had three things in common…” Rameriez started counting the items off on her fingers.

  York took up where Rameriez stopped, “All electronics were wiped completely clean after they’ve been reported missing, the same photo of a guy they thought they were really talking to…”

  “The third?” Carter asked the women when they stopped to look at each other for a second.

  Raso placed her hands behind her in
a stretch before she took a deep breath. “When they were taken by this trafficking ring, the victims were later found dead in another city, but most often than not, in another state, within a week of their abduction. What’s even worse is their deaths were ghastly.”

  “How many victims could have possibly been abducted by this one ring?” Alvarez asked what the others were wondering.

  “As of yesterday? Using a new search parameter that we’ve come up with to look for abductions alone, going as far back as ten years, nearly one hundred and fifty victims. We’ve found maybe half of those victims have been identified across the country after they’ve been reported missing,” Pratt answered, shocking the men, including Highlander who wasn’t aware of the other side of the investigation his wife and her team did.

  “What search parameters were you using?” Brody asked, pulling out his phone to do some of his own work.

  “We used the condition of the electronics and the physical appearance of the girl since they all tend to be somewhat close to the same in looks. Using just that and then another search adding in the photo that several of the victim’s families and friends we spoke with, all confirmed was used as the person they were talking to. Some didn’t know what the guy looked like or much about them, but some of the girls did the normal girl thing and talked about the guy they were talking to and showed the photo to their friends, a couple showed their siblings and stuff like that.” Sgt. Brocard handed Brody the list they had compiled of the search and what information they had come up with.

  Brody looked at the file that Sgt. Brocard handed him for a few moments before opening it. Looking through the file for a few moments, he looked up, giving each woman in Alpha Squad a look before moving on to the next then looking over to Ian.

  “You have a photo of each girl that went missing and their information here. Including some of the cases you have.” Brody amazed at the in depth search this team did.

  “We have another file of possibilities as well.” Diesel announced, making everyone stop what they were doing to look over at her, “We are still looking at several more Jane and John Does across the country. We know if we go further back than ten years, we’re going to find a shit load more victims to add to these folders.”