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.

“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.”