"Let's start with keywords and just search. Try sexual assault and Denver. Let's see if that gives us anything." D moved his chair closer so he could see the computer screen better. That was a mistake, because he caught a whiff of Jeremy's cologne, and now, he wanted to bury his nose against his neck and inhale him.
He forced his thoughts on what they were doing. Jeremy wasn't someone he could fuck. They were partners, and they had to keep things professional. Besides, the last thing he needed was to hit on Jeremy and have him freak out. He couldn't get a good read on him to tell if he was straight or gay, which usually meant the guy was straight. Though, he'd been wrong before.
One thing was for sure, if he didn't get laid soon, he was going to lose his mind. It had been over a month and with all the shit that had been going on, he was losing his control. He needed the escape he found through sex, even if it was just a quickie in the bathroom at one of the clubs.
He wondered if he covered his tats, maybe wore a pair of glasses or something, if he dared go out just for a few hours. He could use a few drinks, and getting his cock satisfied would take the edge off and help him to focus on the job he had in front of him.
"D?" Jeremy touched his thigh. "You okay?"
"What?" D shook his head. "Sorry, was thinking. What did you say?"
"I said, what about this guy?" He pointed to a current news article.
D leaned in to read. It was about a man who had caught a soccer coach forcing his niece to fondle him. The guy had attacked the coach, stabbing him in the groin. Charges were filed on both men, the pedophile for sexual assault, and on the man for assault for stabbing the guy. "Shit, he might be perfect." D didn't dare get his hopes up. It was one thing to react to something you walked in on, but another to make a career out of cutting peoples' cocks off. "Search his name and see what else you can find. Print off each article so I can look them over."
Could it be this easy? No. Approaching anyone scared the hell out of him. He had to be sure they would be willing to join before talking to anyone. He couldn't assume anything.
"Hey, check this out." Jeremy sat back, allowing D to see what he was looking at.
D read the short article about a doctor who had attacked a man who had brought a child into the emergency room. The child had shown undeniable signs of sexual abuse, and when the man had told the doctor to mind his own business and just fix the child's broken leg that he'd been brought in for, the doctor had beaten the man.
Seriously, it couldn't be this easy.
"Print that off. How long ago is that dated?" D asked.
"The doctor? That's from almost two weeks ago. The doctor is on leave pending an investigation. He's facing charges for beating the man, but the man and his wife were both arrested for abuse and two other children were found in the home with evidence of being abused also." Jeremy grinned at D. "I shouldn't be smiling about this, but I thought it would be a lot harder to find people to work with us."
"It's still not going to be easy. Just because he had a quick reaction this one time doesn't mean he's willing to do what we do." D took the printed paper that Jeremy handed him. "It is a start though. I'm going to have you start running background checks on both of these guys. We'll see what we come up with. If there is nothing in their past to worry us, then we'll start watching them and seeing what they are up to now."
"I'm glad I'm behind the computers and you get to do all the leg work. I'd be scared as hell to go out there admitting to people what we plan to do." Jeremy clicked away on the keyboard.
"Oh, I'm not looking forward to it. I don't know how to even begin. I just know I want to get hunting again. I'm worried that once we do start hunting and have our first castrated people left behind, it will draw the cops to this area looking for me. I mean, I escape California and suddenly new attacks start happening here. It's going to be pretty obvious that it's me, right?"
"Probably, but from what Carter said, the group is untraceable. Only if you get caught on the scene is there a risk." Jeremy turned to him.
"True, as long as we do our jobs as well as Bryon and Carter do theirs. One mistake and we're all in trouble." D sat back. "How worried do we need to be about them hunting you down?"
Jeremy shrugged. "I don't think too worried. I was facing murder charges, but I'd managed to bail out since I had no criminal record and it was a crime of passion so to speak. I think the fact that I worked for the government also helped. There were a lot of people who didn't think I should face charges at all, but the law is the law, and I did kill a guy."
"Some people deserve to die," D told him. "I've been tempted to cross that line with some of our more extreme cases, but in the end, knowing they will suffer the rest of their lives is enough. Sometimes I think it's better than murder." He was still curious what caused Jeremy to commit murder, but again, he wasn't saying. "Let's grab some lunch and look these papers over, what do you say?"
"Sure." Jeremy closed down his computer. "We've got bread and meat for sandwiches."
"That works." D walked into the kitchen. "We can make a run to the store tonight. Get all that shit we made a list of yesterday."
"That works. Can we get beer or is that not allowed in the house?" Jeremy asked.
D laughed. "We are getting beer for sure. I want everyone sober when we're doing stings, but I don't mind everyone having a beer every once in a while, and some nights, after a very long day, it's something we all will want."
"Look at you talking like we have a team already." Jeremy pulled the meat and mayo out of the fridge. "Mustard?"
"Please." D worked the twist tie on the bread open. "The sooner we start thinking like a team, like a group, the better it will be. One or two for you?"
"Two, please." Jeremy started to make the sandwiches.
"So, tell me more about you. Not the new you, but the old. What did you do for fun?"
Jeremy shrugged. "I worked a lot. Didn't have a lot of time for hobbies honestly. I binge watch TV on my days off, I liked going for runs every night after work, but once all this shit happened, I couldn't even go out. The media and other people were always following me, asking questions, or tossing accusations at me."
