Kasey was so tired, but he was looking forward to a night off and being with Noam again. They had dinner plans at Noam's tonight, and Kasey would make sure they were both in bed early to catch up on the sleep they'd lost. He'd already convinced Noam to let him pick up something for dinner and save them both from having to cook.
"Everything go okay last night?" Carter walked out of the geek cave and into the living room where Kasey was waiting to talk to Bryon.
"Yep, in and out. The apartment was one of the worst we've had to get into. Xander managed to pick the lock without anyone seeing us, but it was tense. Cameras in the hallways and outside. I hate those kinds of places."
"I took care of the cameras, so you'll have no worry there." He sat down in one of the chairs. "Trenton and Matt have found another warehouse. It's in Nevada. Are you up for travel in the next week or two?"
"How big?"
"It looks like six or seven adults, but twenty or more women and children from what I can tell. Bryon would go with you guys on this one, but that's still four guys to seven. Not the best odds even if you can sneak up on them."
Kasey's chest tightened. How much danger was he willing to put himself in for the cause? "Have Xan and Dys said yes?"
"I haven't talked to them yet. Bryon is going to call a meeting tomorrow, so we can all talk about it. If it's too big, we'll just send the information to the locals and let them deal, but I know you guys like to get hold of these types personally. This one might be too large though."
That was the problem with keeping things small. They needed more men to work with them, but the risk of inviting anyone new into their circle was huge. Trusting the wrong person could put them all in prison. "Yeah, I need to talk to the other guys about this one. I'm not sure. Especially with it being out of state. We don't know the area, the cops, nothing. At least here we know people and places. We can hide out fast if we need to. We have Beau if we need him. There, if things go south, we'd have no choice but to go to a hospital. That's the last thing we need."
"I'm still doing surveillance. We should know more by tomorrow. No one will blame you if you turn this one down. My gut says hand it over to the police and walk away."
"Yeah, these guys aren't into it for the pleasure like the others. This is a business to them. Cutting off their cocks won't stop them from being money hungry. They'll get out and jump right back into things. It's their customers we want."
"I'm working on that as well, but again, most are out of state." Carter sighed.
"I'm up for a prolonged road trip as long as we are doing one or two at a time. It's the warehouses, the large groups that get me nervous."
"Me as well." Bryon walked into the room. "You okay? You look beat."
"Didn't get a lot of sleep. I'll be fine once I catch up." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm just checking in to see if you need a briefing about last night. I told Xander to stay home with Faith and I'd come in."
"Yeah, Matt got here an hour ago. He told me Xan wouldn't be in. As long as there were no issues, you're good to go."
"When we got in there, he was on some new website I'd never heard of before. Xan glanced at it and it looks like nothing but child porn being posted. We thought you might want to look into it in case it's something new you haven't heard of yet." It was rare that Bryon wasn't up to date on all the new apps and websites. He was deep in the dark web and was given VIP access to anything new that opened.
"What's the name of it?"
Kasey pulled out a piece of paper that Xander had written the name down on and passed it to Bryon. "He was uploading pictures when we walked in. He had plenty of the kid we knew about, but also several others. They were photographs, not copies."
"Fuck." Bryon read the name and shook his head. "No, I didn't know about this one. I'll investigate it this afternoon. You made sure the other pictures were left with the file?"
"We put the file on the desk right next to it, the computer was still open to the page he was uploading pics to. We didn't touch a thing."
"Good, hopefully the cops will be able to identify the kids." Bryon stared at Kasey. "You sure you're okay? You need to talk or anything?"
Kasey shook his head. "I'm good. Just a lot going on."
"The new guy?" Bryon grinned.
"Yeah, but he's great. Like I said, I'm just tired."
Carter stood. "I'll let you two talk. See you tomorrow." He waved as he headed back down the hall.
"So…" Bryon grinned. "Tell me about him."
Kasey didn't know what to tell. The last thing he wanted was for Bryon to find out he was dating a cop. "He's from Israel, but has lived here for quite a while. He served in the IDF, he is a gun collector. I'm not sure what else to say."
"Does he know about you yet?"
Kasey didn't like the way Bryon said that, as if not liking sex was a disease. It wasn't worth arguing the point now though. "He does. He's fine with it. In fact, it kind of works for both of us."
"Seriously?" Bryon looked shocked.
"Between you and me, right?" Kasey asked.
"You need to ask me that, Kase?"
Kasey blew out a breath before speaking. "He's got an injury. Getting aroused is painful for him. Painful enough that it keeps him from getting aroused most of the time. Like I said, we get each other. There's no pressure with him. I can be myself and not have him tell me I'm a freak or push me for more."
"When do I get to meet him?"
That was a good question. There was no way Bryon could meet Noam without them talking about what Noam did for a living. "When things get a little more stable and the two of us aren't so new, I'll make sure you meet him."
"Good, I look forward to it." Bryon slapped him on the shoulder. "I'm happy for you."
"Thanks. It's a nice change," Kasey admitted. "I gave up a long time ago thinking I could find someone who could understand me, but I think Noam does."
"There's someone for everyone." Bryon grinned.
"Is Becca your someone?" Kasey raised a brow.
"Becca deserves someone better than me." Bryon's mood changed instantly. He stood and started to pick up stuff off the coffee table.
"She loves you. We all see that." Kasey was probably the only one on the team who could bring this up with Bryon.
"She's young still. Hell, she's nearly half my age. She has too much life to live."
"I think you're the one who told me love doesn't know age. Love has no boundaries."
"Don't throw my words back on me. You know I was talking about my grandparents."
"It worked for them. Your grandmother was thirty, your grandfather fifty, right?" He'd met them once years ago and had never seen a couple more in love.
"He also died, leaving her to live out her last years alone. Becca needs someone closer to her age. We're just enjoying each other's company for now. Sooner or later, she'll meet someone who is meant for her."
Kasey shook his head. "You're too hard on yourself. You refuse to see what the rest of us do. She loves you, and I'm pretty sure you love her."
"Eh, you're seeing things you want to see." Bryon walked to the kitchen.
Kasey got up and followed him. "Maybe, but I think you see it too. You're just in denial. You've never seen yourself worthy of love. There's probably some psychological reason for it. The trauma in your past or some shit like that. I don't know what the fuck it is but get over it and let someone love you already."
"Drop it, okay, Kase? I don't need someone to psychoanalyze me." Bryon leaned against the counter.
"I'm just sayin'." Kasey slapped him on the back. "You're not getting any younger. Enjoy the time you two have. She's not going anywhere, so you can keep ignoring the truth or you can make an honest woman of her."
Bryon grunted.
Kasey's cell phone started to ring.
Bryon grinned. "Saved by the bell."
"Funny." Kasey glanced at the screen on his phone, smiling when he saw Noam's name.
"Go talk to your man." Bryon pushed away from the counter.
Kasey answered, "hi, you making it okay?"
"Yeah, I've been too busy to think about how tired I am." Noam sounded stressed. "I wanted to let you know I might be a bit later than I thought. I'll call you when I am headed home. I just didn't want you to head over and me not be there."
"Do you want to postpone tonight? Get some sleep?" Kasey worried Noam was pushing himself too hard. He'd heard the mental stress in his voice when he'd told him about having to talk to the families today.
"No, I want to see you. We can be lazy. You have to be tired too."
"I am, but I'm not working."
"You home?" Noam asked.
"No, visiting with Bryon." It was as much of the truth as he could tell.
"Well, enjoy yourself. I've got to meet with the district attorney in an hour, then head to the office for a bit. I'll call when I leave there. Guessing it might be closer to seven tonight."
"I'll grab dinner and be over when you're home. Don't push yourself too hard." Kasey wished he could do more to help him. He almost felt guilty because it had been his actions the night before that caused Noam to have such a rough day.
"I will. Talk to you then." Noam hung up.
Kasey sighed, thinking about how several times now Noam had responded to the home of the person that the team had stung. He was playing with fire. If Noam knew he was one of the vigilantes that were taking down pedophiles, he'd have no choice but to turn him in.
Noam was good about not talking about his cases, but in time, he was sure the subject would come up, and Kasey needed to be ready for it. He had to make sure he looked shocked and surprised that someone would go around cutting peoples' cocks off.
Fuck, how was it that he finally found a man who he could see himself falling in love with and their jobs paralleled each other enough that it put him in danger?
He stared out the kitchen window, wondering if he could really bring himself to quit the team. What would he do if he did? He didn't have any skills. He'd worked construction for a while, but had hated it. He loved what he did now. He didn't want to quit, but he didn't want to give up Noam either.
It wasn't a decision he had to make right away, but it was one he would need to probably make in time. No matter what, he needed to watch his step. It wasn't just his life on the line, but the whole team's. Not to mention all the kids who would suffer if the team was taken down. He couldn't let that happen.
With nothing to do but wait, he headed back into the living room, not in the mood to go sit home alone. The last thing he needed was to overthink the situation. Like the rest of his life, things would hopefully fall into place as they should, he just prayed that he didn't end up in a prison cell when it happened.