Page 16 of Merciless Obsession
Slowly I broke eye contact with Nazai and gave Ezra my attention again. “From the research I’ve done over the years, I believe the girls who are taken and not murdered are being sold off. To or by whom, I don’t know.”
“Your sister was thirteen when she was taken, right?” Lucas cut in. It was the first time he’d spoken since he’d been here.
I glanced at him and nodded.
His face hardened. “Do you remember ever seeing this girl on there?” He turned his phone screen to face me.
My face scrunched and I glanced at the screen, a light brown skin girl was displayed.
“Lucas,” Nazai cut in.
“Let her answer,” Lucas said tightly.
My eyes bounced between them. “I don’t know.” I squinted at the picture. “The girls’ appearances are always changed from what I saw. The flyer is only visible for a handful of hours then it vanishes.”
“My best friend was taken eleven years ago.”
“How old?”
“Thirteen.”
“Mhm, meets the criteria. But if she was around you then I doubt she was taken by the same people I’m going after.”
Lucas pulled his phone back and glanced at it. “What makes you so sure?”
I cocked my head to the side. “Did you miss where I said low income? You’re not low income and I doubt you hang out with anyone who is.”
His eyes darkened. “She was with her cousin when she was taken. They were with their grandparents for the summer in The Sticks. Her cousin popped up dead a month later but she was never found. Her cousin was found just like your sister.”
“Then more than likely your friend was sold off.”
The room grew quiet. “You’re a good hacker,” Emmet cut in, startling me. His stare caused me to grow unsettled. It was intense, but blank and calculating at the same time. “It took me some time to get into your home computer. I couldn’t get into everything but I was able to get the information you had on my family.”
“When the hell were you on my computer?” I whipped my head to Ezra. “You took him to my house!”
Ezra smirked. “My brother’s the best there is. You should be honored that he just complimented you.”
I bit the inside of my jaw. “What exactly did you locate?” I crossed my arms again, squaring off with Emmet. I had set up a few types of steganography so unless you knew what to look for you wouldn’t find anything important.
The security on my computer was top notch. I set it up myself. With me digging into these disappearances I had to make myself untraceable. What I was doing was dangerous. No matter how good of a hacker someone was, it wouldn’t be easy for them to get into my hard drive or find out my identity.
Emmet slid his eyes to Nazai who shook his head. Emmet stayed quiet.
“Okay, then how did you find out I was behindShadows of Silver Stone?” My blog was attached to an alias and the IP scramblers and VPNs I had set it made it ten times harder to lead back to me.
“It took some time but I eventually found some flaws in your encryptions, leading me back to you.”
“Bullshit!” I spat, sitting up. My system was foolproof.
A mocking smirk formed on his mouth.
“You two can have your geek squabble later!” Nazai cut in. “The reason we’re here and why you were taken….” His eyes narrowed on Ezra. “Was because of you blogging about our family. Whatever you believe you know about us is false. Our dad isn’t involved with any child trafficking or whatever you think is going on.”
“I don’t think anything, I know for sure.”
“How?” Lucas asked.
“I have my sources.” There was no way I was putting all my cards on the table with these people. “And I know you run an underground clinic for criminals who can’t go to the hospital. Ezra is a defense attorney whose biggest clients are well-known organized crime members, yet your dad was a ‘well respected judge’. Emmet… Well, it seems we have more in common than I would like to admit. And you.” My eyes leveled on Nazai.
