Golden Trail (70 page)

Merry nodded.

“I’m alone,” Giselle whispered from behind
him and Layne turned, dropped into a crouch and got close to her
face.

“You’re alone?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Why are you here alone, Giselle?” Layne
asked.

She shook her head, stepped back and ran
into the bed. Her body got still and she stared at him.

“Rocky,” she whispered.

“I’ll call Roc,” Merry murmured and Layne
stood.

“No, Merry, we gotta check the house. I want
to make sure it’s clear before Rocky gets here.”

Merry nodded.

“I’m alone,” Giselle repeated and Layne
looked down at her.

“We’re just going to check,” Layne said as
he heard Merry moving through the room, opening the closet doors.
“You stay here, keep that door closed, don’t go anywhere, stay
quiet, yeah?”

She nodded.

Layne’s eyes moved to Merry then they moved
out.

“I want eyes on this door, Merry,” Layne
whispered after they closed it. “She could make a break for
it.”

“Why?”

“Don’t know. Somethin’ tweaked her.”

Merry nodded. “I already checked down.”

“I did too.”

“You in or out?”

“In, you’re on the door.”

Merry nodded again and Layne nodded
back.

Layne opened doors and Merry didn’t leave
the landing. He entered the rooms, checked closets and bathrooms
and came back out.

“Clear,” he said after the last one. “Call
Roc. Then call Colt.”

Merry nodded, holstered his weapon and
reached for his phone.

Layne went to Giselle.

* * * * *

“He’s in your office,” Devin said into
Layne’s ear.

Devin and Ryker picked up TJ Gaines.

“Good,” Layne replied, his eyes on Rocky who
was crouched in front of Giselle and Giselle was sitting on the bed
in the room he’d taken her to. He was standing with Merry and Vera
out on the landing, his mother slightly removed. She was talking to
Wade and Adele Speakmon, telling them their girl was safe.

Layne couldn’t hear anything from the room.
All he could see was Giselle whispering and Rocky nodding.

“You get her?” Layne asked Devin.

“Not her. He was with another her. He was
gettin’ a blowjob from some woman Ryker says is named Tina
Blackstone. You know her?”

Tina Blackstone. Shit. Everyone knew her and
everyone knew to avoid her.

But Tina Blackstone wasn’t Giselle’s age.
Tina was older than Rocky.

“You sure it was Tina Blackstone?” Layne
asked.

“Don’t know her, boy, but Ryker does. He
called her that, she answered to it so, yeah, sure enough.”

“Tina Blackstone’s got a big fuckin’ mouth,
Dev,” Layne told him.

“And your boy Ryker has a persuasive way
about him, Tanner. Trust me, the bitch won’t talk.”

Well, at least that was good.

“You want us to sit on him or you want us to
get him to talk?” Devin asked.

“Sit on him. Let me see what’s happenin’
here,” Layne answered. “But forward thinkin, you need to make him
talk, use Ryker. Let him loose. No rules. Scare the piss out of
him. He needs to be more afraid of us than that bitch he works for
but no visible marks,” Layne instructed.

“Tanner,” Merry whispered and Layne’s eyes
cut to him.

“You didn’t hear that,” Layne whispered
back.

“We makin’ a double agent here?” Devin asked
but he knew, he was clarifying.

“That bitch know we got him?” Layne
asked.

“Far’s I know, no,” Devin answered.

“I’ll call when I know more. He may walk out
of there in cuffs or we may need him. We need him and you can’t
break him, again, he walks out of there in cuffs. You can, he’s
just switched sides.”

“Oh,” Devin whispered, “we’ll break
him.”

Disconnect.

Layne flipped his phone shut.

“Brother,” Merry murmured and Layne looked
at him.

“We rush this, we take him down and him
alone. We turn him, we get her and Rutledge.”

Merry got close. “This may have escaped you,
Tanner, but we got a tweaked teenaged girl in there. Her parents
are gonna blow this and you do not want your end messy.”

“I know her parents are gonna blow this,
Merry, that’s because it’s blown. But if I make a mess, you gotta
do what you gotta do to clean it up and you gotta keep a close eye
on Rutledge if he hasn’t already disappeared. He intercepted the
missing person call last night. Went to the Speakmons’ house alone
then sat on it.”

Merry’s brows went up.

“Yeah, you haven’t heard about it means he
didn’t share. You got a teenaged girl missin’ in this ‘burg, every
cop in the Department will know and every one of them would be on
the hunt. Whatever happened, they thought she was gonna blow them.
He intercepted that call means he knew the Speakmons would call it
in. That means he was waitin’ for it. That means somethin’ happened
last night with at least Gaines, maybe the woman. He can’t hide his
shit anymore, Merry. That proves he’s linked to at least Gaines. We
got them both. Gaines comes in limpin’, that’s the least of your
worries.”

Merry got closer, “I want Rutledge out
now.”

“I got no problem with her losin’ her
protection,” Layne returned. “But you call it out now, you have to
open an investigation. You got dirt, he’ll need to explain, boys’ll
be lookin’ over their shoulders, whisperin’ but that shit takes a
long time, Merry. And he’ll bolt but, like I said, he could have
already bolted. You hold out, we get what she’s got on him, he’s
never seen again.”

“Then no investigation, I’m just swingin’ my
ass out on this right alongside yours, brother. I want him just as
tweaked as that girl is in there,” Layne studied him and Merry
nodded. “Yeah, brother, I heard her.” He leaned in closer and his
voice dropped lower. “I fuckin’
heard
her.”

“Means you could get dead and I could get
dead,” Layne whispered back.

“His desk is beside mine,” Merry hissed.

Jesus, the Merricks.

“Patience, Garrett.” Layne kept
whispering.

“She said, ‘I won’t do it again,’.” Merry
reminded him.

“Patience, brother. We’re close.”

“I want this done,” Merry repeated his
sister’s words of that morning.

Layne leaned to an inch away from his
friend. “I do to, Merry but cool it. Let’s see what she has to say.
Then
we’ll decide the way to play it.”

Merry stared in his eyes then he nodded.

Vera approached. “Parents are coming over
now,” she whispered.

Layne nodded to his mother and wrapped an
arm around her.

“I don’t think I want to be your
receptionist anymore, honey,” she said when she rested her weight
into his side.

“Didn’t think so,” Layne murmured, giving
her a squeeze then going alert when Rocky stood, she rested a hand
on the side of Giselle’s head then slid it down to cup her cheek.
Then she bent low, said something, turned and walked out of the
room.

“Vera, would you –?” Rocky didn’t finish,
Layne’s mother hustled into the room toward Giselle.

Rocky’s eyes went to Layne then to her
brother then she walked down the stairs.

Layne and Merry followed her.

She was in the kitchen and they barely got
close to her before she started whispering.

“He came after her last night, when she was
walking to the game. Gaines. Said he’d give her a ride. She said
no. He stopped and got out of the car. She said no again. He made a
grab for her and she took off. At first she hid. Then she waited.
Then she came here thinking he might go to her house. She broke in
through a window.”

“Why didn’t she call her parents?” Layne
asked and Rocky locked eyes with him.

“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.