Randall Meechum’s POV


    Das FBI Field Office


    “Randall! Get your ass in here!”


    I had just walked out of the empty office where I’d ducked to talk to Talia and was walking back to my desk in the cube farm when she yelled for me. Senior Agent-In-Charge Rosalie Martinez was poking her head out of her office and was pissed. I didn’t know what I’d done, but it really didn’t matter now. “Coming, boss.”Property ? N?velDrama.Org.


    She held the door open and gestured for one of the chairs in front of her desk. She looked absolutely exhausted; things had been going nonstop since that night at the ballgame. “Are you sleeping, Rosalie?”


    She sat heavily behind the desk. “Ain’t nobody got time fo dat,” she joked, but it didn’t deflect from her fatigue. “I got at least four hoursst night, get off my ass.”


    “How many more are we going to pick up?”


    “I think we have them all for now,” she said. “The press is going nuts, and now this.” She turned herputer to show the news article that she had pulled up. SEX SLAVES SUE SOFTWARE CEO, the headline red. The picture was of Todd Martinn, the young and wealthy software executive I had arrested at the start of the sweep. He was being perp-walked, cuffed with his head hanging, as I and Agent Reba led him to booking. UNDERAGE VICTIMS SEEK $100 MILLION.


    “We knew this would happen, as soon as the story broke thewyers would be all over this. There’s too much money to go after.”


    “Yeah, well, this one had a head start. Check out thewyer’s name.”


    I read the story quickly, finally getting to the quote from the intiff’swyer. Lou Walls. “Lou was Tania Stillwater’swyer when she gave her statement, we met in his office up in Sulphur River.”


    “He’s been a busy man. He must have smelled blood in the water and struck fast. He has partnered up with the Dasw firm Dewey, Dewitt & Howe and they represent Tania plus nine of the victims who were rescued from the ind.” She leaned forward. “We’ve kept those names strictly confidential due to their age, so I find it interesting a small-townwyer from your hometown is suddenly leadwyer for a case like this.”


    “What are you really asking, Rosalie? Do you think I leaked it?”


    “I hope to hell you didn’t.”


    I looked her in the eyes. “I didn’t leak it, but I didn’t have to,” I said evenly. She sat back. “Tania was an excellent witness, and she lived on that ind for two plus years. She was bound to know the real names and backgrounds of the other girls there, they slept in cages in the same room the whole time. She gave us all the details, and herwyer knew them as well. It wouldn’t take much for him to contact their families and seek to represent them. Hell, he might have started before they were even found.”


    “Why?”


    “Tania would have insisted. Nobody knew what happened to her, or if she was alive. She just disappeared without a trace, just like the other girls. If I was her, I would have tried to find the parents of the other girls just to let them know they are alive.”


    She sat back, thinking about it. “They would have raised holy hell if they knew the girls were being held overseas. It would be one press conference after another.”


    I shook my head no. “I’m pretty sure Tania and Lou advised them against that. With the girls held by the Cartel and the corruption in the police down there, making their im public would put the girls into a shallow grave within hours. No, he yed the long game. As soon as the indictments were issued, he was ready with a civil suit.”


    “How can they have enough to file?”


    “If he’s smart, he’s interviewed each of the girls since they were returned home and gathered his own evidence. This Martinn guy is a good one to start with; rich, scared and guilty as hell. He’ll settle with them because hiswyers will make him. Even without a conviction, could you imagine a jury trial? Tania and her memoryying out every visit, every lewd act hemitted? Shit, a hundred million is a bargain. I bet they’re preparing dozens more, and trying to pull even more victims in. It’s a fucking rainmaker for thesewyers.”


    She thought about it for a while. “It will interfere with our cases,” she said.


    “Not really. It’s like dominoes; the civil case, they get discovery, they can’t hide behind the Fifth Amendment without the jury being able to take that as an admission they did something wrong. Any evidence or testimony, any discovery interviews, it all bes admissible in criminal court. You can’t afford that, so you settle. Or, you dy, but then after you are convicted you lose even more. It’s about time these ambnce chasers did us a favor and took these men down.”


    “I need you to look at me, Randall, and tell me you haven’t worked with Mr. Walls or Miss Stillwater on this or revealed any portion of our investigation.”


    “I’m not working with Lou or Tania, but it’s time I came clean on something. I’m involved with Miss Stillwater, romantically involved.”


    Her eyes got wide and her mouth dropped open in disbelief. “You… a WITNESS… she’s only eighteen years old? What the FUCK are you thinking?”


    “I’m thinking I’m the luckiest man in the world, because this job brought me in contact with the most beautiful, amazing woman who is now my fiancé.”


    She shook her head and looked at me. “You’re engaged to her. Tania Stillwater, a girl a few weeks removed from sex very.”


    I justughed, I had her. “No, not Tania. Her older sister, Talia Stillwater. We met while I was back home, and it was love at first sight.”


    Rosalie’s shoulders slumped and she leaned back into her chair. “Jesus Christ, you had me going there. It’s still not good, she’s a family member of a victim in an active investigation.”


    “I know. Look, I didn’t give her any details of our investigation, but I did pass on that the girls on the ind had been rescued when we went to Key West. Her sister was really worried about them. They had all made a promise that if any of them got free, they would tell their families about them.”


    She nodded. “Still, this stinks and I have to report it. Your involvement with her could taint the entire investigation, Randall!” She looked down at her desk, trying to think of what to say in response. “I need a statement from you, and Internal Affairs might get involved.”


    “That won’t be necessary,” I said. I stood up, removing my shield and cing it on her desk followed by my gun. “I just got off the phone with Talia; I was offered a job where she is, working corporate security for apany near Pittsburgh. I was heading back to my desk to write my letter of resignation when you called me in here.”


    Her jaw was catching flies again. “You’re quitting? NOW? We’re doing so much good!”


    I nodded. “You were right, I’m too personally involved. I’ve seen the effect on the family, boss. As satisfying as all the arrests were, you don’t know how hard it was for me to resist.”


    “Resist what?”


    “Beating them within an inch of their miserable lives,” I said.


    “You could transfer, work something else. You’re a good agent, Randall, I don’t want to lose you.”


    “I appreciate it, boss, but I want my wife and future family to have more stability than this job requires. I want to spend every night of my life with her.”


    “You’re sure?” I nodded my head. “Go type the letter and turn over your notes and assignments to Reba. I’ll get started on the paperwork.”


    “Thanks, Rosalie.”


    I got up, and she came around and gave me a hug. “We’re going to miss you around here,” she said.


    “Just keep putting the bad guys away, boss. I’ll be fine.” I walked back out to my desk, sitting heavily. Reba’s cube was next to mine, and she looked over the partition with a quizzical look on her face. “I resigned, effective immediately,” I said.


    “What the hell, Randall? You can’t just quit!” That got the attention of pretty much everyone in the office. “Is she making you?”


    “No, it’s not that. I just epted a job offer doing corporate security up by where my fiancé lives by Pittsburgh.” They looked at me in shock. “I don’t regret being an agent, but I want the stability this job can’t offer me.” I epted their congrattions, including lots of ribbing about being off the market and how the singledies of Das would miss my attention.


    “I should have known something was up when we went to the game,” Lindsey said. “Not only did you go without a date, but you didn’t even nce at that waitress with the huge rack.”


    “Once I met Talia, I stopped thinking of other women,” I said.


    “When will we meet this woman?”


    “I don’t know. I have to type up my letter and get my ce packed up,” I said. “I can’t wait to see her again.”


    “Do you have a picture of this wonder woman?” I just smiled, pulling out my phone. I brought up a picture of her sitting on myp at the dinner table back home, we were looking at each other like nothing else in the world existed. “Wow, she’s beautiful,” Lindsey said.


    “Young, too,” Reba added. “You robbing the cradle here?”


    “She’s a little younger than me,” I said. “Nothing that matters to either of us.”


    “You’re a lucky man, Randall. Take care of her, and take care of yourself,” Lindsey said as she gave me a quick hug. “I gotta go.”


    The others finally left me alone and I typed up a resignation letter, printed it and signed it. There wasn’t much in my drawers, all the stuff I wanted to take fit in a Xerox box. Leaving it on my desk, I went back to Rosalie’s office. “Here’s my letter,” I told her after I knocked on the open door.


    “Come in here,” she said. “You can’t just walk out like this, Randall. This is government, there are forms to fill out, exit interviews, debriefings.”


    “I just want to move on, boss.”


    “I know you do, so here.” She handed me transfer paperwork to the bank robbery division in Pittsburgh. “Take a couple of weeks of your back vacation, then go process out at the Pittsburgh field office.”


    “I didn’t ask for a transfer, Rosalie.”


    “If you don’t, you’ll spend a week stuck here in Das instead of being with your woman. Do it up there when you’re ready, and maybe you’ll change your mind.” She turned and picked up my gun and badge. “Keep these for now.”


    I wasn’t getting out of it that easy, but I did want to get going. “Thanks, boss.”


    “Now get out of here, I’ve got bad guys to catch.” Iughed as I hugged her goodbye, then grabbed my box and walked out of the office.