22. Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Two
B y the time the light of dawn was creeping through the window, the bit of confidence Oakley had gained from finally having a use for his skills had waned. When Vanessa came out with an inquisitive look, fully alert and ready to join the security detail for the day, he met her eyes and shook his head.
She walked right up to him and brought her lips to his. Wrapped her arms around him for a quick hug, then cupped his face in her hands. “You said this would take some time. It’s been one night. I’m not worried.”
“All right, but stay safe out there. And call me if anything comes up?”
“I will.”
Alone in his room again, he programed another bot to search the web, this time setting it to alert him if certain combinations of keywords were used. He had to be specific enough not to catch every single fan discussing the band, but not so much that the combination would be unlikely.
One of the searches brought up a few tweets and some private messages, but he didn’t go through them all, simply looking at summaries to see if anything stuck out. He was somewhat happy Vanessa wasn’t here to see what he was searching for, because he felt sick even having thought up the words.
The names of the bands, the names of the women, several slurs and death.
How messed up was it that he still had to narrow down the search?
Trying again, he used the more threatening parts of the messages that had been left for Annette. This time he got less than a dozen hits. Most of them from the same place, a forum that had several servers overseas and wasn’t connected to any known platform. There was no way into the forum without knowing the passwords, but he managed to figuratively sneak in through the back door. What he saw wasn’t what the members of the forum would, it was all codes, but he could read that as easily as if they were words on a page.
He could also see the IP addresses of every person commenting. None of them had VPNs—the site was blocking those, likely to avoid anyone taking actions anonymously that could impact the whole forum without facing repercussions themselves.
Pouring himself a cup of coffee, he began reading over the different posts and going through the replies. There were a few videos and he clicked on an older one, jumping as the door to his room opened and an erotic scene appeared on the screen. Complete with very loud moans.
Cheeks blazing, he considered closing his laptop as Vanessa came closer, holding a paper bag and two coffees.
But she simply shook her head. “Hey, if you needed a break I don’t blame you. You’ve been at it for almost ten hours now. I just figured I’d stop by with lunch and see how you were doing.”
“This isn’t me taking a break.” He sighed as she sat beside him, handing over a sandwich as he turned the screen. “I think I found the forum.”
On the screen was North, looking much younger—Oakley didn’t want to think about how young, but he was clearly in his teens—at what looked like some kind of office party. Bent over the dessert table, completely naked, he was being…used by the men. One after another.
Not fighting back, but when the camera moved to his face it was clear he was simply tolerating what was being done to him. When he opened his eyes it was as though part of him wasn’t there.
Hopefully he’d been able to put that time of his life behind him, but Oakley would pay extra close attention to his lead singer in case there were lingering issues he might need help with. He was only in his mid-twenties now, about Oakley’s age, so who knew? It wasn’t like Oakley was completely over his own issues and they weren’t half as damaging.
“Damn it, that poor kid.” Vanessa shifted her gaze, jaw tense. “Is there any way to delete that before it leaks?”
“Yes, but then they’ll know someone found the forum and they’ll move it.” Oakley took note of the video’s location and turned it off. “As soon as we find who we’re looking for, I’ll remove the video and search for any more that might be out there.” He looked at the other files in the thread he’d been reading. “This isn’t the only explicit video. There are some of the others as well. A few of Brave. One of Malakai. I think they’ve been finding any videos of the bands that have been uploaded and copying them here before they’re deleted. That happens in other forums, so it’s not our biggest concern, but I doubt any of the guys want these out there.”
“I agree. Reese would have someone on staff checking through the regular platforms, but it looks like XVI Hours will need you to do that for them.” She brought her hand to her throat, looking a little sick. “North most of all.”
“I hadn’t even considered this might be a problem, but now that I know I’ll set up a different set of alerts for sensitive material involving the band. I can get it taken down before anyone has a chance to copy it. I might even create a virus to corrupt the system of anyone who tries.”
Vanessa stared at him. “You can do that?”
He inclined his head. “Umm…you should probably know for several years my mobility was limited. I went into a coma when I was eighteen after a car accident and my recovery was slow. When I was able to type again, I spent all my time learning everything I could about computer programing and practiced coding obsessively. I needed to know I was still capable of doing one of the things I enjoyed.” Her automatic nod told him she probably didn’t get exactly what he meant by that, but he forced himself to keep going before he lost his nerve. “I couldn’t feed myself, or…or do anything when I first regained consciousness. My mother was my sole caretaker—even though she could’ve paid someone to do it. She was just so happy I was alive.”
Gaze softening, Vanessa took his hand. “Which is why she’s still trying to take care of you.”
“Yes. But I don’t want her to have to.”
“She doesn’t anymore. Look at all you’ve accomplished.” She gave his hand a little squeeze. “She must be damn proud of you.”
Was she? Oakley hadn’t really thought about that. He’d only gotten a couple of chances to call her and most of the conversations were him convincing her he didn’t need money and that he was eating and sleeping. That he hadn’t had any setbacks.
Once she really believed he’d be okay, would she be proud?
He hoped so.
But back to the forum. He clicked onto a new tab and pointed at a file among a block of code that was highlighted. “This is a picture of Annette’s dressing room where one of the first letters was found. It was sent to her home address the same day and scared her the most because it was meant to show they could find her anywhere.”
“And they were so impressed with themselves, they decided to share.”
“Yes, but that’s not what stuck out to me. See this person, BT4EvR? At the beginning of the thread they mention meeting a man employed to clean the venue and going on a few dates with him before XVI Hours was scheduled to perform. BT4EvR thanks someone called Beats09 for his advice.”
“His? How do you know?”
“He posts a lot and is referred to in others by that pronoun.” Oakley opened another thread. “He knows a lot about the music business and he’s been telling these obsessive fans how to gain access to the band without getting caught. He’s egging on the dangerous ones.” He opened the thread he’d found most concerning. “And he’s paying people for any information they can find. This part of the forum is a little easier to access and I think that’s intentional. Someone will post a link to a tweet from an excited fan—say Brave’s spotted outside a Walmart. They’re paid almost immediately. When someone says they don’t believe there’s money involved, people start posting screencaps of their receipts.”
When he opened one of the screencaps, Vanessa shook her head. “Names and all. They’re fucking bold.”
“They feel safe. This forum has been operating for almost ten years. Whoever set it up wants to make sure he knows everything about Winter’s Wrath. And now XVI Hours.”
Folding her arms over her chest, Vanessa spoke softly. “Can you find any mention of Tate?”
Oakley nodded, opened up an internal search, and typed in Tate’s name. One thread was labelled ‘Junkie’. His throat tightened as he clicked on it.
Someone who called themselves ‘The Provider’ started off by thanking everyone for helping him to complete his mission. Their reward was several explicit pictures of Tate. All with him looking strung out. He wasn’t facing at the camera. A few videos followed as The Provider updated the thread almost daily, starting to add points of purchase where people could buy the drugs Tate was on.
“When are these from, Oakley?”
Oakley checked the dates, his blood running cold. “This summer.”
“Holy shit.” Vanessa covered her face with her hands. “How do we…fuck, who is ‘The Provider’? Do you think we can track him down?”
“Yes. I haven’t seen anyone other than Beats09 who can’t be tracked. His IP is constantly changing so he knows what he’s doing and must be one of the admins if he’s getting away with it. But The Provider is a regular contributor.”
Vanessa tapped the screen. “These are videos, aren’t they? Play one, maybe we can get an ID on the fucker and get that to the cops when we send them the rest of the info.”
This was not going to be pleasant, but Vanessa had a point. An IP address was good, but there was the chance that a local coffee shop or library was being used. Which meant they’d need every detail they could get.
He opened the video and it began to play.
Lying in bed, Tate watched the man approach, shaking his head. “Not yet—”
The video had been edited so whatever name he’d said was blanked out.
“No, I don’t want you to do that. I’ll be good. Just…somewhere else. My arm’s starting to hurt and I have practice this week.”
Whatever the man with him said was muffled, but Tate nodded and pressed his eyes shut as he undid his jeans and pushed them down. A needle was pressed into his inner thigh. Set aside. Then a big hand pulled out Tate’s dick and began stroking it.
“Wait. Just wait…”
As the drugs took over, Tate relaxed into the touch. He remained still as the man climbed onto the bed. The man turned, pushing Tate’s leg back as though to make sure the angle was right so the camera that was too low to show his face caught him pulling out his own dick.
Vanessa reached out and slammed Oakley’s laptop shut. Leaping to her feet, she rushed into the bathroom. Oakley quickly followed, swallowing hard as she dropped to her knees and puked into the toilet. He smoothed his hands over her hair, holding back the fine braids until she was finished.
She looked up at him, tears in her eyes. “Winter’s Wrath isn’t mine to protect, not officially, but I want to. The security team is amazing, but they weren’t able to keep him safe. How can I? How can I keep any of them safe from shit like this?”
Crouching down, Oakley pulled her into his arms. “You can’t prevent what already happened, but I wouldn’t have been able to find any of this without you. You made it so he’ll never have to go through that again.”
“Did I though? He hasn’t told anyone.” She let out a frustrated groan. “Why would he let anyone do that to him? What’s the point of the drug tests?” Her voice rose. “He’s so hooked he doesn’t even know he’s being used as porn promo to get others on the same fucking shit! You’ve seen him, this shit would fucking kill him!”
“We don’t have to tell him we saw this.” Oakley rubbed Vanessa’s back. “We just make it go away. Including the bastard who’s been using him.”
A tap at the door brought him to his feet even as Vanessa deftly stood, looking ready to kill someone.
Probably best if he was the one to answer the door.
“North?” Oakley stepped aside to let his lead singer in. “Is everything okay?”
Looking completely drained, North shook his head.
Oakley put his hand on the other man’s shoulder as he drew him into the room and pushed the door shut. “Come sit down.”
A few minutes later, after having North settled on the sofa with a cup of coffee, and Vanessa next to him with a bottle of water, Oakley sat on the coffee table, facing them both. Vanessa had her typical contained and tough bearing back, which would be a comfort to North, but Oakley could tell she still felt sick from what she’d seen. She needed the band to see her as completely in control, but she was holding on by a thread.
If she had a gun in her hand and ‘The Protector’ in her sights, she’d probably feel much better. He couldn’t give her that, but he could do his own job and give her time to recover.
He turned his attention to North, who was holding his mug with both hands and staring at the floor. “What happened, North?”
Setting his mug on the table beside Oakley with shaky hands, North lifted his gaze. “I’m breaking his trust by telling you this, but I don’t know what else to do. I can tell he’s getting ready to pull away from me again. And I love him. And I won’t let him go back to…” Tears spilled down North’s cheeks. “That man is going to kill him. This isn’t about me. If Tate doesn’t love me back, I can deal with that. I just need to know he’ll be okay.”
“What man, North?” Vanessa put her hand over the one North had fisted on his knee. “We can help you, but we need to know everything.”
North nodded and swallowed hard. “His name is Ray. He knew Tate when he was a kid. Got him hooked on drugs then and lost that control when Tate moved in with his grandmother. But he found him again. He’s the reason Tate broke his arm and fucked up his eye. He’s been…blackmailing Tate to…to…”
“We know.” Oakley frowned at the sharp look Vanessa shot him. North having at least a basic knowledge of what they’d discovered would encourage him to give them whatever information he had. “I’ve located a forum with people who share information on the bands and give each other advice on how to find you all. The ones stalking Annette are using this forum. I have enough to give to the cops so they can be tracked down. But Ray is different. There’s probably enough to nail him on drug trafficking, but Tate was with him willingly. Do you know why?”
Another nod. “When Ray came after Tate in Italy, I recognized him. He’d shown up at another venue too. I wanted to fucking kill him. Connor stopped me, but then the man goaded him, talking about how he’d…done stuff to Tate as a teen.”
Oakley couldn’t get the image of what had happened to North as a teen out of his head. Learning Tate might have been a victim as well must have been devastating for him. “This is why you were both arrested?”
“Yeah. But Ray has the whole thing recorded.” North ground his teeth. “He dropped the charges when Tate agreed to surrender his whole fucking life to him. He’s using that recording to keep Tate. Tate’s afraid of what the video going public will do to Connor.”
“Reese and Jesse can handle whatever that fucker throws at them.” Vanessa’s tone was hard. “They’ll protect Connor.”
“Tate doesn’t believe anyone can. The video must look bad. Connor snapped. He would’ve killed Ray if the cops hadn’t shown up. He might’ve listened to me eventually, but…I don’t know.” North rubbed his thighs. “Either way, it was enough to trap Tate.”
This made things more complicated. They needed that video before they could decide how they wanted to handle Ray. If they sent the cops after him now, everything Tate feared would happen. Which would make what he’d gone through pointless and potentially put both bands in serious trouble. North had been there too, and it didn’t escape Oakley that with how close Tate and North were, the impact on him was part of why Tate had accepted Ray’s terms.
Thinking over the whole situation, Oakley wasn’t sure he’d have acted any differently to protect those he loved. If someone came to him with a threat against his mother, or Aunt Reese, or…or Vanessa, there’d be very few limits to what he’d agree to do.
Oakley looked around the table for his own drink, thanking Vanessa when she handed him her water. He took a long swallow and focused on North. “Have you told anyone else?”
“No, everyone else will freak out and Tate’s so on edge he’ll ghost the second he suspects anyone else knows.” North’s brow furrowed. “He trusted me.”
“Yes, he did, North. But he’s in danger and you made the right decision.” Vanessa patted the lead vocalist’s shoulder. “Do you think you could convince him to come talk to us himself? If I can get my hands on that video we’ll have a better idea of what we’re up against.”
Oakley nodded quickly. “Someone like Ray probably has the video on his phone. He’d use it as a constant reminder. From what I’ve seen, he has basic editing skills, but if we’re lucky there’s at least one copy that he hasn’t tampered with.”
“So we need to get him here?” North sounded worried. Then his expression changed, his lips curving slightly as his eyes darkened. “You know, if he’s within reach there are more permanent solutions we could come up with.”
Before Oakley could point out all the reasons that was a bad idea, Vanessa inclined her head. “Yes, but there’s no ‘we’ in that. Go see if you can reason with your man, North. I’ll handle the rest.”
After North had left the room, Oakley folded his arms over his chest and frowned at Vanessa. Which likely made him look ridiculous, he felt like a scrawny housecat standing its ground against a lynx.
Still, they had to be on the same page here. “Vanessa, we’re not killing anyone.”
“Unless there are no other options? Agreed.” Vanessa wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled at him. “I’m not prone to rash actions, Oakley. You’ve got enough on your plate with getting all this information to the cops so we can eliminate one problem. The dangerous fans stalking the women. Don’t worry about me.”
“I can’t help it.” Oakley sighed and pulled her in for a hug. “Look at what Ray did to Tate. Now you’re trying to get him within reach so you can destroy the video before turning him in.”
She nodded, still not seeming overly concerned. “Tate’s vulnerabilities were used against him. He’s also very young. I’m a soldier. I’ve been in much worse situations.”
Inhaling slowly, he did his best to let go of the doubts nagging at him. A woman like Vanessa wouldn’t tolerate him being overprotective or making her job more difficult in any way. He had to trust her to know what she was doing.
Like she was trusting him.
At least he finally had something positive for her to tell the bands. The stalker—or more like group of stalkers—weren’t going to be a problem for much longer. Once this information was in the right hands, the tour could continue and he and Vanessa could focus on what XVI Hours needed long term.
A few therapists on-call would be a good start.
He brushed his fingers down Vanessa’s arm as she slipped away from him, looking forward to actually have some time alone that didn’t involve hacking and discussing potential homicide. “I’ll stop trying to mentally calculate bail money into the band’s expenses and get the detective on the phone.”
“If he’s a jerk to you, come get me and I’ll straighten him out.”
Oakley blinked at her.
She held up her hands. “I got it. You’ll let me do my job and I’ll let you do yours.”
“And neither of us have to like it.”
“Not even a little bit.” She cupped his cheek, smiled at him, then slipped out into the hall. Holding the door open, she glanced back. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t discuss it. What we had already was good, Oakley. I don’t want to lose that.”
If nothing else, there was at least one thing he was sure of. “We won’t.”
One last nod and Vanessa let the door close, leaving Oakley with nothing to do except make that phone call. Which took a lot longer than expected.
While forwarding copies of details he’d found in the forum, along with instructions that could be used by the technological crime unit to follow his path through the ‘backdoor’, Oakley noticed a new post in the Junkie thread.
“You still there, Godstone?” The detective sounded much more patient than he had when the call began, likely because he finally saw that Oakley had something valid to offer. “You know I could send an officer over to collect your laptop if it would be easier.”
Like hell. Oakley couldn’t scrub his system until Ray was dealt with. But he gave the detective the most polite—albeit distracted—reply he could. “That won’t be necessary. One moment please.”
Reading over the latest post, his stomach twisted into a tight knot of dread. He quickly sent the last bit of information the investigators would need for the one case they could handle. Then shut his laptop.
“I gotta go.”
He ended the call in the middle of the detective’s protest, grabbed his phone after copying a few codes he’d need, and sprinted from his room.