Jace and his crew were heading back to Cali a week later, which would’ve been about the time that I would’ve been leaving as well had Catalina not called. I’ve become so engrossed in the work we were doing though, that I worried about what was going to happen to any young girls that got snagged by these people.
Mancini assured me that he had teams of people working, but I’d be on call all summer all the same. I didn’t mind keeping my hand in, I just didn’t see how I was going to get here and back in time if something came up.
So far the raids were on the east coast not more than a few hours away from campus. My home is hours away even by plane, so I didn’t quite get him, but knowing him he already had something up his sleeves.
Our little team had come a long way in five months and now worked together like a well oiled machine. Track did most of the tech work, he was good at infiltrating organizations online, still don’t know how, while Jace, Shane, Jared and I were the men on the ground so to speak.
Alec was the driver and coordinator, the one who got us there and stayed in touch with Mancini while we were en route and on the inside. No one ever explained to me how we were each chosen to do our part, it just seems like we fell into it. But with a man like Mancini I’m sure nothing had been left to chance. He’d chosen each of us to play our individual part based on our abilities.
The technology we used was some of the best, high grade; I’d go so far as to say military grade if I knew what the military was using, and I wasn’t surprised to learn Mancini had been the one to provide it all.
The more I learned about these guys the more in awe I became. Once they started opening up I realized that though I might be older than they are by a year, they were years ahead of me in experience.
My whole focus the past four years has been Caitlin and I. Dealing with Colton Lyon was enough to keep anybody occupied for ten lifetimes, but now learning that there was so much going on in the world, some of it in my own backyard, was very eye opening.
When I asked Jace and the others why they got involved, why not leave it to older more experienced men and women, their answer was that it was our generation that was being violated so why shouldn’t it be us looking out for them too?
I got it, and the more I got it the more I understood why Mancini had chosen to involve me. I can honestly say I’d come a long way in five months, not only physically, but mentally as well.
I now see the world in a whole new light. But one thing still remains the same; she’s still the bright shining star in my sky. In fact, after wading through the filth of the last few months, she’s even more beautiful, more precious and perfect to me.
I didn’t know how much I needed to keep her safe, never imagined that she was at risk, but from what I’ve learned, all young women are at risk and it doesn’t matter who or where they are. That one has kept me up nights.
Because I still don’t know if Mancini had dragged me into his world just to teach me how to protect her in a general sense. Or if there was something more sinister at play, like she was under threat and her dad knew and was protecting her.
It made me look at our situation from a different perspective. The reason he kept refusing to let her go to college when she was so obviously ready. If it was just to keep her away from me, he could’ve sent her somewhere else. The Colton Lyon I know would never deny his beloved daughter something she wanted.
Only now after months of dealing with this did it occur to me that maybe there was more to it than just a man trying to keep his daughter away from her teenage boyfriend. And the idea that I might be on the right track scared me more than anything I’ve had to deal with since getting tangled up with Mancini.
But who could I ask if I was indeed finally on the right track? I went over it again and again in my head, every little detail that I might’ve missed over the last year or so, that’s when it started. Before that Mr. Lyon was his usual over protective self sure, but somewhere along the way about the time she turned sixteen is when he really amped it up.