BRIAN

It took a lot to get the others to agree to give Ben the location of the house. The problem was they still had guys undercover in the house and not all of them as guards or buyers. They didn’t want to agree to Justin bringing Blake, but he surprised them by becoming a pitbull about it. I knew why, it was because they still expected the Justin they detailed in reports. They didn’t really expect him to have an opinion, but to hide when faced with the big scary feds. Justin and I sat there as they made excuse after excuse about not wanting to blow their operation just because Justin managed to piece it together and somehow found out what Sapperstein had been doing. Every they said was as if Sapperstein was the only one involved. Then they condescendingly asked Justin for proof of Julian or his father’s involvement. 

“Right now I’m still trying to find how Julian is involved…” Justin tells him.

“In other words you’re just guessing without facts.” Agent Hill interrupts. “We can’t accuse someone without solid proof, which unlike you we are trying to get. I’ve been told how you feel about us not doing anything, but you need to understand we have yet to get PROOF.”

“Hill…” Agent Caraway said, in hopes to calm Hill down.

“No. He doesn’t get to sit here and treat us like we’re wrong, when if he’s right, than he sat around letting his boss get away with the same shit, while he helped the fucker.” Hill tells him.

Justin looked at me after that tyrade. The whole time we’d been sitting here they avoid saying Julian could even be connected. They were walking around the idea, but apparently they believed he was. Which explained why the guy was being an asshole, he thought Justin was involved too. 

“I wouldn’t have helped ANYONE do something like this.” Justin tells him.

“Yet every time we closed in on him, somehow the fucker managed to keep us from touching him.” Hill said sarcastically.  

“Hill…” Agent Caraway warned.

“Explain that.” Justin demanded.

“Actually we were hoping you could explain it.” Agent Caraway replied.

“Since it seems to all point to you helping him hide any involvement.” Hill tells him.

“Justin’s job was to catch hackers. Where in that do you get Justin’s involvement?” Ben asked.

“That’s why they were trying to take me to Virginia. They think I helped.” Justin tells me.

“We aren’t talking about his legit job.” Hill tells Ben.

“Than what are you talking about, if not Julian?” Justin asked.

“Look, things will go easier on you if you don’t try to implicate Yates in your and Saperstein's side business.” Hill tells him.

“I never met the man until a couple of days ago.” Justin tells him.

“Are you going to stick to that?” Hill asked, turning on the monitors. “See, the problem we have is while your trying to implicate Julian Yates, everything we’ve seen has you somewhere in the middle of this.” He tells Justin.

They showed Justin at Babylon, they focused in on Gary standing in the background, as Justin stood at the catwalk. Then showed us video of Justin walking into Julian’s building, and Gary and Justin looking at each other, then Justin walking away. Ames talking to Sapperstein before following Justin, then handing him a file. Looking at it without bothering to look into anything, it made a case that Saperstein's connection was to Justin. And that’s when the pitbull came out.

“So, based on your stalking of me, you figured out that I went to Babylon to what? Connect with Gary Saperstein? That Ames, who tried to force me to go with him, was somehow our go between? And that because the fucker looked at me like a piece of meat and that it made me uncomfortable, that somehow I was involved in this? Let me explain what you’re seeing. I was at the club not because Saperstein owned it, but because I WANTED to watch Brian. While you were busy making up fairy tales about my involvement, what you were seeing was me wanting to find out what made BRIAN KINNEY someone I couldn’t ignore. While you were off making up theories about what I was doing, all you would have had to do was ask Ben, since everything I do gets handed to him when I’m finished. You spent a lot of time stalking me, but seem to miss what happened after I walked away, leaving Sapperstein waiting for Julian.” Justin tells him.

“Saperstein got up and left after you walked off.” Hill tells him.

“Show me, prove it.” Justin demanded.

“We can’t.” Caraway tells him.

“Why not?” Ben asks.

“Because after Justin got in the security room someone erased everything. The only thing we have is footage from outside the building. Do you want to know what that showed us, Justin?” Hill asks him.

“Sure. Since you seem to believe it meant something.” I tell him.

“Ames telling Saperstein he’d get Justin somewhere easier for them to talk.” Hill tells us.

“Ames has been very talkative about Justin, and it raised a lot of questions.” Caraway tell us.

“What was I doing that would be called in question?” Justin asked.

“The walks all over Pittsburgh. It seems while no one really seems to understand what you were doing, you passed by the street kids you now want to protect almost nightly. Then a couple nights later Saperstein invites them to a party and they seem to vanish. It’s a bit of a coincidence isn’t it, you walk by and then the kids go missing?” Hill asks smugly.

“Then let's rewind that statement, Justin walks by alone, or with Ames?” Ben asked, making me want to laugh at the smug look coming off Hill’s face.

“How many reports do you have about me?” Justin asked.

“Enough.” Hill mutters.

“In any of them, do you have my financials?” Justin asked.

“We have what we could find, but we also know what your capable of.” Caraway tells him.

“Do you? How about you call your major crimes division and asked them to come up here.” Justin tells him.

“Why would we?” Hill asks.

“Just tell the man in charge that you have the White Rabbit wanting to talk to him.” Justin tells him.

“Justin?” Ben asks.

“Really, what’s with you and the bunnies?” I ask.

“I watched a lot of Alice in Wonderland in the foster homes.” Justin tells me.

Hill scowled while making a call then spent the next few minutes assuring the guy on the other end that Justin would stay where he was. Justin meanwhile rolled his eyes when Hill looked at him like he didn’t believe what he was hearing.

“We need to see the director.” Hill tells Caraway.

“Why?” Caraway asks.

“To explain how the White Rabbit managed to get in the building without anyone knowing.” Hill tell him.

JUSTIN

Brian waited with me without asking any questions. I sort of felt bad for Hill and Caraway, looking at what they thought was evidence. Yeah, I could see why they thought I was involved. 

“Something happened to the footage from after I walked into the security office.” I tell Hill.

“The guy said you were left alone in the security room, and that you got up and talked to Saperstein before he walked out.” Caraway tells me.

“Actually I started backing up the program I was there to fix, then watched as Julian and Saperstein got in an elevator together. They were talking and Julian seemed pissed about it.” Justin tells him.

“We don’t have anything to verify it happened.” Caraway tells him.

“Nothing Julian would give you. Let me guess, Julian reluctantly handed you the footage.” Ben asked.

“While he assured us over and over that Justin might not even know what Saperstein was doing. He even went so far as to say he’d make sure we couldn’t touch Justin.” Caraway tells us, rubbing his face when he realized they’d been played.

“Before they kick us off this case for fucking up; why do you believe Julian Yates would be involved?” Hill asked.

“It looks like Julian was once again trying to protect Carter Yates Jr. If we’re right, Carter and Saperstein thought up the business, but neither could pull it off. Saperstein, because he doesn’t have the brain power, and Carter, because he’d likely ruin the merchandise. Julian doesn’t have that problem, his tastes are more in the normal range. He prefers willing participants, but if this were to get out it could tarnish the Yates name. The problem we run into is that Julian is smart and will likely make sure everything points away from him and towards Saperstein.” Ben tells them.

“He was especially concerned about Justin.” Hill tells them.

“Recently his interest in Justin has changed.” Ben tells them.

“I escaped my glass box. He never bothered with me because until I met Brian he didn’t think I’d do anything but what he wanted.” I tell them.

When the head of the crimes division showed up, Hill and Caraway were told they were going to be reassigned for not investigating me further. The thing I saw while Hill was treating me like I was a suspect was that the man hated what his job was requiring them to overlook.

“If you pull them, then I stop.” I tell Special Agent Richards.

“You’re blackmailing me?” Richards asks.

“Am I? I just thought I was telling you that I wouldn’t keep making your job easier by sending you everything you couldn’t find on your own.” I tell him.

“They thought you were a suspect, how does that make you believe they should still be involved?” Ben asks.

“Because they both hate that they had to sit back while someone above them told them not to stop what was happening. You sat back for weeks and let people lose everything even when I handing you the information on a silver platter about the asshole embezzling his clients funds. In fact, you didn’t bother to do anything until I threatened to release the information that you had along with the email I sent you, time dated. Until it affected you personally you didn’t care, Hill does, but his hands are being tied by someone like you.” I tell him. 

“What do you want Hill and Caraway to do?” Richards asks.

“I want to know where the house is, and get access to the computers. I also want a couple of friends there in case I need help.” I tell them.

“We don’t have a problem with Miss Chandlers being there, but I’m not sure why you want a drug abuse counselor there.” Caraway says.

“The Mad Hatter was taught by me.” I tell them, smiling at Richards.

“We are going to have to talk to you and the Hatter.” Richards tells me. “I’ll clear it. Give the Rabbit what he wants.” He tells Hill and Caraway, leaving the room.

“Who owns the house?” Brian asks.

Hill blows out a breath before looking at me. “It’s listed under a corporation overseas, everytime we think we have something it’s sold to another one.” 

“I might have someone who could trace it back to the source.” Brian tells them.

“Hunter could help him.” I tell him.

“Hunter?” Hill asks, looking through the information in my file.

“Yeah, just don’t judge him on his mouth or age, the kid impressed me. I might have caught him, but he let me.” I tell them.

It took a few days for Hill to arrange for the house to be busted, and we were brought in without anyone seeing my crew. It wasn’t what I expected at first. The house was just as big as George’s house, and the grounds were beautiful until you knew what it was covering. They had three kids there, all drugged, barely dressed. Every room was designed to look like a showroom. Brian whispered to me that it was where the buyers could view and test out what they were bidding on. They left Daphne and me in the office to see what we could get off of the computers. I’d left the discs with Hunter so he could help Ted when he was disappointed about not helping me. Carl was busy distracting Stockwell and keeping Saperstein from being able to do anything but hire a lawyer.

Daphne got a call and left me alone while I waited for the program to break the password. I got up to look around, wondering how everything could look so normal yet hide something so horrible. Brian came in, looking as tired as I felt. He was dealing with business, me, and anything else everyone needed. Brian sat on the sofa, no longer wanting to see anything else.

“It doesn’t seem like a house of horror.” I tell him.

“From the outside you can hide anything.” He tells me.

“Have they gotten anything out of the three guys they found?” I ask, sitting next to him.

“Blake doesn’t think we will until they flush the drugs out of their systems. They’re so high they don’t even know where they are and can’t even tell anyone what happened five minutes ago.” Brian tells me.

“Do they think they were here to be sold?” I ask.

“I think they’re just here for amusement. They’re older than the kids we are trying to find.” Brian tells me.

“I keep thinking about those kids.” I tell Brian.

“We’ll find them.” He tells me.

“Hopefully their as strong as you are.” I whispered to him.

“If they aren’t then we do what we can to help them.” He tells me.

I looked up when the door opened and Daphne walked in looking pissed. Which made sense when Carter Yates came in behind her, holding a gun to her.