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“Do you know the boy?” I asked, and Jesse shook his head.

“I saw him in here earlier, but he isn’t a regular, so I’m not sure what his name is. He seemed fine when I saw him, but he appeared to be drugged when the guy was shoving him in the car.” Jesse sounded livid, and I was sure he was. He’d gone to great pains to make sure this was a safe space for the boys who came to his club, and most likely, he was blaming himself for not protecting this particular boy.

Julius sighed. “I thought so when I saw him in the hallway. He looked confused, like he didn’t know who the guy was or where he was taking him.”

“I called the police, and they’re on their way. We have the whole thing on video, but I’m sure they’ll want to talk to you, Julius.”

“Of course,” Julius said.

I looked at him and was glad to see that he seemed less shook up now that he’d had a minute to catch his breath. I picked up the glass of water Caleb had gone after and handed it to Julius. I motioned for him to drink it. He huffed and rolled his eyes, but downed the water.

“How long will it be before the cops get here?” My guess was that his adrenaline would crash pretty soon, and I really wanted to get him home before that happened.

“They should be here any minute,” Jesse said. “I told the guys at the front to bring them back here when they arrive.”

“Good.” I turned back to Julius. “You didn’t recognize the men?”

“No, I’ve never seen them before. Of course, I haven’t been here in a few months, so they could be new.”

Jesse shook his head. “The guy who led the boy outside was in here tonight. Paid cash for a beer but didn’t hang around to chat. I’d never seen him before that.”

“We’ll get Kat the footage and see if she can get any hits on them,” Wolfe said. “If anyone can ID them, she can.”

Wolfe wasn’t wrong. Kat was the head of the Three Bears tech department, and she was the best there was. We had no idea how she managed to do half the stuff she did, and to be honest, we probably didn’t want to know. There was something to be said for plausible deniability.

A minute later, the bouncer for the club came up with one of the local police officers, Carmine Russo, in tow.

“Here he is, boss,” the bouncer said to Jesse. “Need anything else?”

“No, thanks, Mitch.” Jesse reached out a hand, and Carmine shook it before shifting his attention to everyone at the table.

“So the call said someone was taken?” he asked.

“Right.” I motioned towards Julius. “Julius is the one who saw what happened, but there’s also camera footage for you to look at.”

“Thanks, we’ll get to the footage in a minute,” he said to me, and then smiled at Julius. “I’m sure you are ready to get out of here, so why don’t you tell me what happened.”

Julius ran through the whole thing again. Carmine only interrupted him a couple of times so he could clarify something, so it didn’t take long for him to tell the story.

When he finished, Carmine looked back up at the rest of us. “And no one knows who the boy was?”

“No, we don’t. This is the first time I’ve seen him, and he seemed to be here alone. We have a good look at his face on one of the cameras, though.”

“Okay, Julius. Are you sure you didn’t know them, and they didn’t know you?”

“I’m sure.”

“Alright. That’s all I need from you right now. You’re free to go.” Carmine reached into his pocket and pulled out a card, handing it to Julius. “Call me if you think of anything else.”

“I will.”

“Great. Okay, Jesse, let’s go look at this video.”

“You can come home with us,” Mika said.

“Or with us,” Caleb added.

“Thanks, guys, but I just want to go home to my own bed.” Julius smiled weakly at them and then looked at me. “Not exactly how I thought my night was going to end.”