Kasey set the pizza on the table as he glanced around the team house to see who was already there. "Eat up." He grabbed two slices for himself before going into the living room and sitting down on the floor, his back pressed to Xander's legs in front of the couch.
Xander kicked at him. "Dude, I need to get up."
"Here." Kasey offered him one of his slices. "Can't your husband serve you?"
Matt narrowed his eyes. "Careful, you're already on my shit list."
"Why, what did I do?" Kasey turned to stare at Matt.
"My daughter can't stop talking about the trampoline place you took her to. She wants a membership there," Matt grumbled.
"Well, that's a good thing, right? She wants to go out and have fun." Kasey didn't see the issue.
"You going to go with her all the time?" Xander nudged him with the toe of his boot again.
"Sure, I wouldn't mind. We had a blast." He was more than willing to hang out with Faith more often.
"Would you be taking your new boyfriend with?" Xander teased.
"Who has a new boyfriend?" Carter sat down.
"From what Faith says, Kase is seeing someone. She says he's cute." Matt stood, going to get pizza.
Kasey playfully slugged Matt in the leg as he went by. "I met someone, but it's too soon to know if it's serious," he lied. He wasn't going to tell them that he'd never met anyone he wanted to be serious about the way he did Noam.
"Do we get to meet him?" Becca grinned at him across the room.
"In time. It's new. Give me a chance to win him over before I toss you guys at him."
"You trusted him enough to introduce him to my daughter," Matt called from the kitchen.
"True, but she's a lot nicer than you guys are. I didn't have to worry about her embarrassing me." Kasey reached for the soda he'd brought with him.
"We would never." Carter laughed.
"The hell we wouldn't." Bryon stood in the hallway watching Kasey closely.
It was impossible to know what Bryon was thinking, but he was sure they would be talking about Noam soon. How much he would tell Bryon about Noam was a different story. The second Bryon found out that Noam was a detective, he'd start to worry about everything. "You're the one I worry about most, Bry."
"That's because I've known you longest and have more stories to tell." Bryon walked in, followed by Trenton. "Beau won't be here tonight. He's stuck at the hospital. He has nothing to report." Bryon sat down across from Kasey. "Are you happy?" Bryon asked.
"I think I could be," Kasey told Bryon honestly.
Bryon gave a single nod. "Okay then." He sat up straighter taking his focus off Kasey and looking around at the whole group. "Welcome, Boys and Girls, today we have a shitload of new cases to get through, so can I have your full attention please." Bryon's voice rang out.
Everyone stopped talking and turned their attention to Bryon.
"As you're aware, we've had several kids go missing in the last few months. We've been working to find them, but haven't found many leads. Well, just an hour ago, Carter found images of our missing girls starting to circulate the web. These images are being sent through chat apps and not the usual dark web streams, which actually might make it easier to track where they are being uploaded from. Carter and Matt will be digging into that over the next few days. As for the young boy, we haven't had any luck, but we're still digging. I'm going over to talk to Gretchen later today to see if she has anything for us."
Kasey bit his lip, aware that Noam was working both cases. If they got a break, it would help take the stress off him. He hoped Gretchen, the local psychic who helped the team, would be able to give them something to work with. She had been the main source of information that made it so they could bring Faith home when she'd been kidnapped.
"You got something to say, Kase?" Bryon looked at him.
"No, was just thinking it all through." Kasey smiled, hating he had to lie to Bryon about anything, but he wasn't ready to admit to him that he was dating a detective. That was a conversation he wasn't looking forward to having. When the time came, he wanted to be ready to leave the team if he was given an ultimatum, but as of right now, he wasn't ready to do that. He loved the team and what he did. If he could find a way to work and still see Noam, he was going to do it. He just needed to be careful that neither found out about the other for the time being.
"Kase and Dyson, you up for a sting tonight?" Bryon glanced back and forth at the two of them.
"Sure," Kasey said.
"Yeah, what we got?" Dyson sat forward.
"Married couple. Janice and Don Williams. They've been abusing their grandchildren and posting their photos online. Both the male and female are actively abusing both male and female children. Don was fired twenty years ago for having sex with one of his high school students and is a registered sex offender. His wife has no priors, but after seeing the things she's been forcing the children to do to them and to the other children, we've decided that they need to be stopped. Trenton will have the file ready for you by five, but I've got the house layout and surveillance images ready for you to review as soon as we are done with the meeting." Bryon turned to Xander. "Tomorrow night, I've got a thirty-year-old male for you. He's on parole, been out a few months. Priors for child rape. He's posting photos of himself and the neighbor's daughter together. She's twelve. Yesterday, he posted himself with another young girl, but we have yet to identify her. It should be a simple job, but it's an apartment complex, so if you want a second with you for security, talk to Dys and Kase and figure it out."
Xander nodded. "I'll let you know once I look at the location information."
Kasey was more than willing to help if Xander needed it. Houses were much easier than apartments. They had several options entering a home. With an apartment, there was usually only one door and many times it was on the upper floors. With neighbors close, thin walls, and often security in the area, they had to be extra careful.
"Becca, the Wilson case goes to trial on Monday. I want you to keep an ear out. We stung him three months ago. I'm sure there won't be an issue getting his conviction, but on the off chance something goes wrong, I want to know about it. He was the one who was taking kids from illegal immigrants in trade for helping them get false paperwork."
Dyson grunted. "We should have killed him."
Xander nodded. "We should be killing them all."
"That's not how we work. I know it's a thin line when it comes down to it. But trust me, I don't want any of us facing murder charges if we ever get caught. At least now, there's a chance we won't spend our lives behind bars or get the death penalty, but if we start taking lives, then all bets are off. I hate it as much as you do, but we have rules for a reason. We get aggressive or sloppy and the whole team is in danger."
Kasey picked at a stray string on his shirt as he listened to Becca and Bryon talk about a few other cases that were going on. He had to give Becca credit. She was the best at finding out information and keeping them up to date on pedophiles they didn't have files on yet. Sadly, it was almost daily that the police caught another person hurting children. The team kept records on all of them. They might only go after the worst of them, but knowing who was doing what let them have a heads up on who to keep an eye on. Even the worst of them started small.
"Reminder, make sure your gun permits are up to date, I have new plates for your car, Dyson. Yours expire the end of the month. Trenton is up next for dinner at our next meeting, and other than that, just be safe." Bryon sat back.
Becca looked up. "How are things going with the social media thing you guys were talking about?"
Carter sighed. "Just when you think there can't be any more perverts out there." He grimaced. "Within ten minutes of me getting online as a twelve-year-old boy, I have over thirty grown men messaging me. Out of those, half just want dirty chat, but the other half are willing to meet up if I want to. I can't keep up with all of them, so I take the ones who seem the most aggressive and talk to them while hacking into their system and setting up a file on them so we can keep watch. It's more than we can handle honestly. The good thing is, these idiots don't know how to be careful. Hopefully, I can get case files on them before they actually find their way into the dark web and learn how to protect themselves."
Trenton sighed. "It's disgusting the things these men send to me. Images no child should see. And the shit they want to do or ask me to do. I tell them my parents won't let me video chat, but if a real kid was out there and able to do video chat, I hate to think what they are being exposed to, or worse, asked to do."
Bryon nodded. "It's something we are going to need to watch and figure out. It is helping, and we will be visiting some of them in time. I just need the resources and time to go through the files and see who is reoffending and deserving of our time."
Kasey pushed up, moving past everyone to go get more pizza. "Where's the file for tonight?"
Trenton stood. "I'll grab it."
Dyson came to stand beside him at the kitchen table. "You okay driving tonight?"
"Yeah, sure." Kasey pushed the pizza box back as he sat down. "We'll go over the case file, then I have to run home for a bit, but I'll meet you back here at ten?"
"Sounds good. Hopefully, we can get them in bed. Will make it easier." Dyson sat down next to him.
"Here ya go. I'll have the rest ready tonight for you to leave for the cops. The house is small, but neighbors are close, so you'll have to be careful. Security cameras on the house two doors down, but nothing else in the area." Trenton passed Dyson the file.
"Thanks." Kasey leaned closer as Dyson opened it.
They spent the next hour going over everything. It looked like a simple job. They would gather supplies once they came back to the team house.
As always, a nervous excitement flowed through Kasey as he left the house and headed home. It wasn't that he enjoyed doing what he did, but there was always a rush that came with the danger of it. It was his adrenaline rush. Sadly, it was as addicting as any other high. Before each sting, he played it out in his mind for hours before actually going, thinking over the layout of the house, imagining everything that could go wrong and how he would handle it.
Once home, he finished the laundry he'd been doing before the meeting and picked up around the place. With it being only him, there wasn't much, but he liked to keep it clean. He was just about to run the vacuum when his cell phone rang. "Hello?"
"Hey, how's your day?" Noam asked.
"Good, you just saved me from vacuuming." Kasey sat down on the couch. "How are you feeling?" He'd only talked to Noam once over the last few days after a migraine hit.
"Better. I'm up and moving. Even came into the office for a few hours. I was hoping I could see you tonight."
Kasey frowned. "I'm working tonight, and possibly tomorrow night too. I won't be done until after two or later, probably."
"That sucks. How about Friday night? Dinner at my place?" Noam asked.
"I think I can pull that off. I'm on call, but seldom have to go in. We can get through dinner before either way. Need me to bring anything?"
"Nope."
"I'm sorry I can't see you tonight. I could drop by for a bit before I go in." It wasn't smart to distract himself before a sting, but he really wanted to see Noam.
"It's okay. I'm going to stay late at the office and catch up on things." Noam got quiet for a second. "Do you think you might want to stay the night on Friday if you don't get called in? We can go out for brunch or something Saturday morning, maybe take Casper for a walk."
Kasey's stomach flipped at the thought of spending the night with Noam. "Yeah, I think I'd like that."
"Good, then bring a change of clothes," Noam whispered. "I need to go, the boss just walked in. Call me later if you have time, if not I'll talk to you when you wake up tomorrow."
"Okay, have a good night."
"You too."
Kasey hung up, smiling like an idiot. As careful as he was trying not to fall too fast, it was hard. Noam was perfect in every way. The things that had destroyed his last relationships weren't an issue with Noam. And no matter what they did together, be it watch TV or go for a walk, they had a great time together. The conversations never lagged, and he found himself wanting to be around him all the time. He'd never thought about falling in love, being in a committed relationship. He never thought he'd find someone who could look past his issues, but now that he had, his heart wanted to leap in and take things faster than it was safe to do.
Telling himself not to get too involved too fast, he went back to cleaning. He had a sting tonight, and he needed his mind on it, not on the man who he was slowly starting to love.