After Frog calmed down a little, they all headed back into the den. Frog sat with his head on Thario's knee, and Thario strokedFrog's head and neck, always keeping one hand on the dog. Being drugged had to be disorienting to the dog. As a human, the few times he'd gone under for surgeries had sucked. He hated coming out from under knockout drugs.
“The guy who did this, what’s his name?” Squat asked.
“Brent.”
“What about last name?”
“Not sure. He gave me one name, but I don’t trust what he told me. I should have looked into him more, but the information I had seemed good.”
“Are you sure his first name is Brent?” Apple asked.
Thario shrugged. "Good question. He answered to that name quickly the few times we met face to face before."
“So you’ve met him before?”
“Yeah. First was at a conference I spoke at. Then we met up at a coffee shop in town. Everything seemed above board. I met him at the coffee shop after we spent years working on the same projects to bring children home who’d been abducted. I really thought I could trust him.”
“So he wasn’t acting weird?” Asher asked.
Thario shook his head. “No. It seemed all good. I don’t know what happened. Every time I met with him, he fooled me, and there wasn’t anything in the emails or texts.”
Danika tapped her lips with one finger. “So he knew where you lived.”
Thario nodded. “I didn’t tell him. I guess he figured it out. Maybe he followed me home from the coffee shop. But I’m careful. I don’t have any answers, and I know I should. I should have known better.”
“Don’t beat yourself up,” Amelia said. She’d been relatively quiet so far, but now she moved so Thario could see her. “Really. You don’t know what he did. He could have attached something to your vehicle, or maybe he just followed you. There are somany ways for someone who is evil to screw you up. And we know this guy is evil and determined. I know you’re careful, but even being careful doesn’t mean people won’t be more calculating than you are discreet.”
Sharp nodded, and so did a few of the other guys. He felt bad about how much they'd left Thario on his own to do things. It wasn't good for Thario to take on so much without them stepping up to lend a hand.
Sharp moved to sit closer to Thario. “We should have been helping you more.”
Thario shook his head. “Dude, you’re all still active.”
“I’m not,” Griz said.
“Yeah, but you were,” Thario said.
Griz shrugged. “Times are changing. I’m not sure you should be doing this stuff alone. People are meaner. They would just as soon smile at you as shank you in the side.”
Thario frowned. “I don’t think it’s that bad.”
Danika snorted. “You say that after you were almost killed by someone who was supposed to be helping save people.”
“Brent must be doing this savior thing for another reason. You know, like a double agent.” Griz’s observation hung over the group, silencing them.
If the guy was some sort of double crosser, working to stop trafficking so he could traffic women and children without being caught, that would be devastating.
Asher sat forward. “Do you all think he was working with groups to dismantle trafficking so he could actually figure out a way to do it without being caught?”
Thario shrugged. "Maybe. I mean, if you really wanted to traffic humans, what better way than to learn how people take them down so you don't end up getting caught?"
“Damn, that’s awful,” Sharp said.
Griz drew in a deep breath. “I think that means you have to change your base of operations.”
Thario nodded. “Yeah. I can’t rebuild on that lot.”
Sharp’s phone rang, and he glanced down, seeing that the call was coming from the police department. “The police are calling.”
