The Bone Collector - The Watch #1 - Ch. 10 (Patreon)

This is grossly unbeta'd and unedited and I've read it so many times I'm going blind. Just ignore any typos or blatant mistakes. 

Park

Park had just enough time to decide he would stay quiet—hoping his uninvited guest would go away—before the door burst open, the intruder not waiting for his invitation. Park’s brows ran for his hairline when Kendrick was suddenly standing before him. The man rarely came to the school, but this was twice in just a week. And Park was sitting in his office chair, dick out, Gift’s hot breath ghosting over his skin in a way that made him want to groan.

“Kendrick?” Park grunted by way of greeting, hoping his tone implied the question attached to his name.

Gift’s gasp sounded gunshot loud in the silence. His blunt nails dug into Park’s thighs, making him flinch. Luckily, it didn’t appear that Kendrick even noticed.

Instead, he frowned, his tone somewhere between irritated and disgusted. “What’s wrong with you? Are you unwell?”

“What? No? Why?” Park all but yelled, before reminding himself to calm the fuck down.

He cleared his throat then adjusted his position which unfortunately had Gift’s lips brushing against the sensitive head of his cock, making his breath stutter and his jaw clench. Fucking hell.

Kendrick continued to stare him down. “Your color’s off. I can’t have you getting sick.”

“Aw, I didn’t know you cared?” Park deadpanned, earning another quiet huff from under the desk. Park’s gaze flicked downward even though he couldn’t see Gift.

But he could feel him.

The boy was now rubbing his soft round cheek against Park’s erection, like a cat bumped up against someone to demand pets. Fuck, why did that feel so fucking good? Was Gift trying to actually kill him? His mouth was a desert. Why didn’t he have water on his desk?

Kendrick rolled his eyes. “I need you to do something for me.”

Park blinked at him, distracted, forcing his brain to concentrate on forming words. “What’s that?”

Before Park could respond, his dick was enveloped in warm, wet heat. Park couldn’t stop the way he hissed, shifting in his seat once again, hand sliding below his desk to snatch at Gift’s hair, trying to tug him away. But he easily resisted, only doubling his efforts, his soft tongue working the underside of his cock with an efficiency Park found admirable if not a little suspect given Gift’s lack of experience.

He forced himself to remain still, though he was certain he looked mildly constipated at this point. If Park struggled too much there would be no hiding the obscene noises about to start falling from Gift’s lips.

“What is wrong with you?” Kendrick snapped. “Do you need a doctor?”

“Leg cramp,” Park managed, grimacing. Once more he could feel Gift’s breath huffing against him on a laugh. Park was going to make him pay. He was going to tie him up and edge him until he fucking cried. Until he was begging for relief. And even then maybe he’d refuse.

Kendrick gave him another look like Park’s injury was somehow an inconvenience to Kendrick himself. “You should have that looked at. Don’t we have a medic or nurse around here?”

Park’s insides shuddered as Gift twirled his tongue along the underside of the head of his cock. He cursed the slight wobble in his voice as he said, “I just went too hard at the gym. What can I do for you? Or did you just come here to enquire about my health?”

Gift’s soft palm wrapped around the base, stroking Park awkwardly from his cramped position. Even so, it felt incredible, sending sparks along Park’s nerve-endings until his jaw muscle ticked at the force it took not to react.

Yeah, he was going to kill Gift for this, take him apart slowly, punish him thoroughly. He swallowed thickly. Shit. He needed to stop that train of thought or he was going to come down Gift’s throat with Kendrick standing right there.

Fucking hell.

“I got a call from Anchali,” Kendrick said.

Gift froze. Park too, his erection flagging at the sound of her name. “What? Why? Why would she call you?”

Kendrick ignored his question to ask one of his own. “Did you know she was friends with Payton’s father?”

Park frowned. What? “Why would I know that?”

Kendrick gave him a superior look. “Isn’t she your closest friend?”

Not for long. Not once she realized the depraved things he’d done to her son…that he was doing to him even as they spoke.

Gift seemed to have recovered his composure, kitten licking along Park’s shaft as if Kendrick hadn’t just invoked Anchali’s name like Voldemort. Park’s stomach muscles spasmed as Gift’s hand snuck up under his shirt to rub his lower belly.

Park couldn’t help but look down to check Gift’s hand was still out of Kendrick’s line of sight. What the hell was wrong with this kid? Was he insane? He bit back a groan, cock once again achingly hard as Gift’s head dipped lower to lick over his balls. How could he even reach there? He was like some sort of dick-sucking savant.

He forced himself to give Kendrick a tight smile. “I don’t keep track of my friends' acquaintances.”

Kendrick scoffed. “Yeah, well, she heard about the student’s latest assignment from Payton’s father and she’s…concerned about Gift.”

“Gift? Why?” Park asked.

Kendrick looked at Park like he was stupid. “Because he’s her only child?”

Something tightened behind his ribs, a quiet irritation digging under his skin like a splinter. “Does she think I would put Gift in harm’s way?”

Gift was far safer with Park than he’d been when she’d sent him off to live alone at an international boarding school, then a private university. The same university where someone had tried to take his life only a few months prior. Who was she to imply Gift was unsafe in Park’s care when she’d been pawning him off on other’s almost since he was born?

“Clearly.”

Park’s hand found the back of Gift’s head and carded his fingers through his hair, the gesture soothing the flare of rage Kendrick’s statement stoked within him. Gift wasn’t with her anymore. He was with Park. And while Park was clearly making some questionable decisions when it came to Gift, at least he hadn’t abandoned him to the big, bad world at the age of seven.

Kendrick’s next statement dragged him from his thoughts. “Are you even listening?”

Park shook his head. “It’s just a teaching exercise. What is it she’s afraid is going to happen? Gift isn’t even in the assassin program. He’s about as far removed from danger as he can get.”

Gift no longer had his mouth on Park’s cock, but was resting his head on his thigh, clearly enjoying the way Park’s nails scratched at his scalp. Park would do this until the end of time if it meant Gift would just keep his mouth to himself until he got rid of Kendrick.

Kendrick shook his head. “She asked that I have you work with Gift so he’s not alone while he, and I quote, ‘ Runs around playing detective with a bunch of maniacs who would sacrifice him to save themselves’.”

Gift snorted from under the desk, the sound only slightly muffled by Park’s pants. He coughed in a poor attempt to cover it. Kendrick narrowed his eyes at him. “Are you sure you’re alright? You’re acting weird. Weirder than usual, that is. Which is saying something around here,” he muttered.

Park gave him a tight smile. “Mm. You know how leg cramps are, right?”

Kendrick seemed to ponder this. “Annoying?”

“Just like that,” Park said, his hand sliding over Gift’s mouth to remind him to be quiet, grimacing when he took the opportunity to slide them into his mouth, sucking on them gently. Luckily, he was quiet about it.

What the fuck was Park supposed to do now?

Kendrick flicked his gaze from Park’s face to his lap then back up again, looking like he was attempting to solve a complex math equation. “She intends to call you this evening to speak to you but she said she would consider it a personal favor from me to ensure Gift was safe before then.”

As if anyone had ever, in Park’s twenty years in the field, relied on Kendrick to keep them safe. He’d been their handler in name only. Anchali knew this. Why would she want Kendrick involved at all? What the fuck was she up to?

Before he could think too much on it, Gift’s soft tongue slid between Park’s fingers, before pulling back to lap at them like a puppy. Nothing about that should have been hot, but Park had never been so fucking hard in his life. His dick clearly no longer deterred by Anchali’s name.

Kendrick needed to get the fuck out of there. “What is it you want me to do? Just spit it out. I was…in the middle of something.”

Kendrick looked at Park’s unopened laptop and his near empty desk, brow raised. “He can help you with the investigation—under your supervision—but he is under no circumstances permitted to leave the campus without you. Understand?”

Gift’s mouth stopped moving, as if waiting to hear Park’s answer.

He slumped back in his seat giving Kendrick a look. “Message received,” he said, then hissed as Gift’s teeth bit down on his finger.

Fucking hell. He was a monster.

Kendrick’s gaze fell to Park’s lap again, shaking his head. “You really should have that looked at.”

Park ignored Kendrick, slipping his fingers from Gift’s mouth, attempting to covertly wipe them on his work pants as he brought them back to rest on his desk, Gift’s saliva cold as the air hit his skin. Could Kendrick see his fingers were wet? Some sick part of Park wanted Kendrick to know Gift was on his knees for him even as they sat there having this mundane—and frankly unnecessary—conversation.

He leaned back and pinched the bridge of his nose. Why was Anchali being so difficult about this? Gift was hardly in harm’s way looking into a cold case. Park would have never allowed him to participate otherwise.

“I will make sure she knows that Gift—” Park’s jaw snapped shut hard as Gift’s mouth closed over his cock once again, tongue dipping into his slit. “Isn’t, uh, isn’t put…” Jesus Christ. “Isn’t in danger,” he said, unable to hide the strain in his voice.

Kendrick eyed him with disgust. “See that you do.”

With that he turned on his heel and left, letting the heavy door fall closed behind him. Park counted to sixty before he slid his chair back, his dick falling from Gift’s mouth with a pop. Park leveled a glare at the boy who smiled at him with spit slick lips.

“What is wrong with you?” Park asked, exasperated. “Are you trying to get both of us kicked out of here?”

Gift’s smile slid from his face, making Park’s heart twist. “You didn’t like it? Did I do it wrong?”

Park sighed, once more pushing Gift’s hair from his eyes. “No, ouen. In fact, it’s a little alarming how good you are at this.”

Gift held up his phone showing him a step by step guide to blowjobs from a website Park had never heard of. “I found this while I was waiting.”

Park groaned, rubbing both palms over his face. “Please tell me you’re not on the school’s wi-fi right now?”

Gift grinned, shrugging sheepishly. “So…can I finish?”

Park stared down at him, then ran his thumb along Gift’s bottom lip, cock twitching when Gift’s smile faded, his mouth opening easily, eyes trained on Park’s. “We shouldn’t…” Park hedged. The light in Gift’s gaze dimmed, his disappointment palpable. Fuck. “But I cannot say no to you.”

Gift looked at him, his surprise evident. “Really?”

Park huffed out a fond laugh. Only Gift would think giving Park a blowjob was a reward. “Yeah, ouen. Do it.”

Gift needed no further prompting, enclosing Park’s cock in the tight heat of his mouth. Fuck, this was heaven, Gift on his knees for him was fucking bliss. But watching his pink tongue dart out to lick the precum that dripped down his shaft was almost too much to bear. Almost. When Park’s fingers slid back into Gift’s hair, he moaned around him, sending delicious pulses of heat up his spine.

Park shifted, gently guiding Gift’s mouth up and down his cock, doing his best to keep himself still. He didn’t want to hurt him. Gift was a quick fucking learner, each time he slid down, he hollowed his cheeks, sucking all the way back up, the sounds obscene in the silence of the office. Park couldn’t bring himself to fucking care.

Gift looked so fucking beautiful, so debauched, on his knees for him. “Fuck, you’re doing so good, baby. So pretty. Your mouth is so pretty. It feels so fucking good.”

Gift pulled off with an obscene pop, eyes glassy, lips red and slightly swollen. “You can be rough if you want to. I-I like it. Or I think I will. Try?”

Park groaned as much from Gift’s words as his hopeful expression. “You’re going to kill me, I swear.”

“Please?” he whispered. “Na?”

Park’s cock throbbed as much from Gift’s whispered pleas as the sight he made on his knees, slightly wrecked, begging for Park’s cock. “Fuck, dek dee. Okay. If that’s what you want.”

Gift’s pupils blew wide. Gift really liked when Park called him that. It was so obvious. It didn’t make it any less hot.

He fisted his hands into Gift’s hair, tugging hard enough to rip a gasp from his throat, before pressing his cock back between his lips, giving into an urge he’d had almost since the day Gift had arrived, pushing the head up against the inside of Gift’s cheek, watching it bulge obscenely. “So good,” he whispered.

Gift flushed a deep red, but he opened his mouth, relaxing his jaw, making himself as pliable as he could for Park to use him. So, he did. He pulled back, then rocked forward, watching mesmerized, as his dick disappeared between Gift’s lips.

Gift stared up at him, looking almost dazed, lids heavy and mouth stretched around Parks length. He was going to be jerking off to this memory for the rest of his life. He rolled his hips upwards, pressing deeper with each thrust, eyes locked on Gift, looking for any signs of discomfort or that he wanted to stop.

But there was none. If anything Gift seemed to want more, he fought the hold Park had on his hair, just to do his best to sink lower, a whine of frustration falling from his lips until Park just gave in, fucking into the perfect heat Gift’s mouth. “Oh, fuck. That’s it. Holy shit. Your mouth should be illegal. You’re doing so good. So good. You look so pretty when you let me use you like this.”

Gift whined while Park tried to keep some semblance of control. He wanted to remember that Gift was inexperienced but it was hard when he was begging Park to fuck his throat with every desperate look, only seeming satisfied when Park fucked deep enough to make him gag.

Park could feel that familiar ache low in his belly. This felt too fucking good. Gift had teased him for too long. He wasn’t going to last much longer.

He tried to pull back but Gift fought him, releasing a breath through his nose before taking him all the way, throat convulsing. Park’s hips pulsed upwards in tiny thrusts, addicted to the tight squeeze of the muscles there fighting the intrusion, using Gift in a way that should have left him feeling ashamed, but honestly had him two seconds away from spilling onto his talented tongue.

“I’m close,” Park warned, earning another whimper from Gift, who only doubled his efforts. “You gonna swallow for me?” Another whine. “Yeah? You want to taste me, ouen? Want me to use your mouth?”

Gift’s answer was a muffled but enthusiastic yes.

Park’s thrusts were wildly off rhythm now, just chasing that feeling that was right there, just out of reach. That’s when he heard it, the unmistakable sound of skin on skin. Gift was jerking himself off while he sucked Park off. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. When had he even unbuttoned his pants? Had he been touching himself as well as Park the whole time Kendrick had been there?

Fuck, that was hot.

“You touching yourself, ouen?” Gift groaned around him, the sloppy sounds increasing. Park took that and the way Gift was slightly shaking as a yes. “Did I say you could touch yourself? Did you even ask? I thought you were supposed to be my good boy?”

A quiet sob escaped Gift’s lips as he pulled off. “Na? Na, P’. Please?”

Park could have teased him a little longer, but he didn’t. For a million reasons, not the least of which was them getting caught like this. “Go ahead, dek dee. Make yourself come. Let me hear you.”

To Park’s surprise, Gift took him back into his mouth, working himself faster as he sucked sloppily at Park’s aching cock. There was no finesse, just Gift slurping loudly on him while he jerked himself, but it was more than enough to push Park right over the edge. “Gonna come, ouen.”

It was the only warning he could manage before he was pulsing onto his tongue, watching as Gift swallowed it all. He didn’t take Park’s spent cock from his lips, just whined around it as he fisted himself two more times, then cried out.

They stayed like that for a minute, Gift’s head resting on Park’s thigh, his hand stroking Gift’s hair, both breathing heavily. Finally, Park pulled Gift up and settled him in his lap. It was dangerous, but he wasn’t going to leave Gift on the floor after this.

Gift lifted his cum covered hand, showing it to Park, nose wrinkling in mock disgust. He couldn’t stop himself from grabbing his wrist and pulling it to his mouth, watching Gift’s eyes go wide as Park licked each of his fingers, one by one.

“You taste good,” Park assured him.

Gift’s lips parted, a broken gasp falling from his lips. Then he pulled his hand from Park’s lips, using his other hand to drag him closer. “I don’t believe you,” was all he said before capturing Park’s mouth in a filthy kiss that had him sucking the taste of himself from Park’s tongue.

When Gift pulled back, Park kissed his forehead, neither of them talking for a long while.

Only once they’d righted their clothes and Gift was sitting on the corner of the desk, Park practically standing between his knees did Gift finally say, “Why is my mom getting Kendrick involved in this?”

Park shook his head. It was a valid question but one he didn’t have the answer for. There was no real reason for Anchali to have inserted herself into this at all. If she had truly been that concerned, why had she sent Gift to Park instead of hiring him private security where she could keep him close?

“I don’t know, ouen. But we can’t ignore this.”

“Ignore what? There’s nothing even happening. So far, all we have is a rich dead girl in a cheap dress in a dirty trailer park. Not exactly the espionage games you and my mom used to play.”

Gift wasn’t wrong. But that didn’t bring Park any real comfort. Something was going on. Something far more insidious than just Anchali wanting to protect Gift, Park just couldn’t figure out what the hell it was.

“We’ll figure it out…I’ll figure it out. But for now, go back to class before anyone notices your absence. I’ll see you for the meeting after school, okay?”

Gift’s face fell and he stared at him with hurt in his eyes, suddenly looking every bit of his age, the vulnerability feeling like a kick to the stomach. Park sighed, pulling him in and dropping a chaste kiss to his cheeks, then his nose, then his mouth. “We’ll talk more later, dek dee.”

Gift eyed him warily. “You promise?”

Talking later was a bad idea. The worst idea, because it was clear, to Park at least, that he had no ability to say no to Gift. And Gift was determined to lose his virginity and Park sure as hell wasn’t going to let anyone else touch him. “Yes, ouen. I promise.”

###

"I found something,” Persephone said as soon as Park called the meeting to order.

“We found something,” Lennon said, giving Persephone a dirty look.

Persephone leveled a flat stare at him until he collapsed back against his seat, then she looked to the others. “As I was saying, I found something.”

“What is it you found,” Gift asked before Park could.

Persephone narrowed her gaze at Gift’s neck, a smug look on her face as her gaze flicked from the new darkened marks on his neck to Park. After Gift’s impromptu blowjob, Gift had insisted on a minor make-out session with him before he agreed to go back to class.

Why was Persephone looking at Park? Were they being obvious? What did it even matter? They were both adults. This isn’t a high school. It’s a graduate school. But even as he thought it, he knew it mattered. It mattered because Park could be accused of playing favorites with Gift, even though they could already say that as he was Gift’s…guardian? Bodyguard? Park didn’t know what he was to Gift anymore.

Persephone finally dragged her gaze away from Park to turn her tablet towards them. There, on the screen, was the dead girl’s social media page. “Did you know the dead girl was an influencer?”

“She had a name,” Gift said, frowning.

Park’s heart squeezed. His sensitive boy. No, not his. Christ.

Persephone gave an agitated sigh. “Fine. Did you know that Madison Byerly was an influencer?”

Park watched as they all exchanged looks. But it was Park who frowned. “A what?”

He didn’t miss their snickers. He looked to Gift for clarification, but it was Payton who answered.

“An influencer. One of those kids that are, like, famous for being famous on social media,” Payton said.

“What kind of influencer?” Gift asked, narrowing his eyes at Persephone’s tablet. “Her social media profiles are still up?”

Persephone scoffed. “Of course, not. That would be morbid as fuck. I used The Wayback Machine.”

“The what?” Dove asked.

Park was glad someone else asked, he was starting to feel his age.

“It’s a web crawler that archives websites and allows you to go back and access a web page as it was on or before a certain date,” Remi said, not even looking up from his phone. “But it's shit for social media.”

When he didn’t elaborate, Drake sighed. “And why is that, professor?”

Remi flicked his gaze upwards. “Because social media uses dynamic content which fucks with the bots that crawl the internet collecting data. That means only certain elements will be on The Wayback Machine because of the way it mines and displays the content.”

“So those videos don’t play?” Luca asked. “It’s just kind of like a screenshot?”

“No, not exactly. The videos don’t play, but I can see certain hashtags and links,” Persephone said. “I also found her insta-bio.”

“Her what?” Park asked, already tired.

“It’s like a url where you can list all your social media links. Or, any kind of links, I guess. Her parents never deactivated her account and since it was free, the site just left it up,” Persephone said. “That’s how I found all the links to the products she was hawking.”

“Like what?” Dove asked, leaning in and squinting at the new page Persephone presented.

“Mostly it's the same stuff. Skincare, makeup brands, clothes from boutique stores. But there was one that was like an…outlier.”

She showed them a blown up picture of a pixelated spiral and beside it the words Chatterland Adventures.

“What the fuck is Chatterland Adventures,” Dove asked with a snort.

“That’s what we wanted to know,” Lennon said. “So we looked it up. It’s an online game for, like,  little kids to talk to each other using avatars and handles to make it safer.”

“Why is a fifteen-year-old lifestyle influencer pushing a kid’s game?” Luca asked.

“Money?” Morgan asked just as Park asked, “Lifestyle influencer?”

Morgan smirked at him. “Basically, she just spent her days explaining how amazing it was to be rich and famous.”

Payton scoffed. ”Hey, don’t knock it. I personally have half a million followers on TikTok, people came to me all the time trying to sponsor me. If it wasn’t against the rules, I totally would have done it.”

Mos scoffed. “I have over seven hundred thousand followers on Instagram.”

Drake scoffed. “One point three million, baby.”

“Yeah and you’re all hot and rich, of course, people are gonna follow you,” Remi muttered. “It’s not quite the accomplishment you think it is.”

Drake cooed at him. “What’s the matter? Jealous?”

“That you’re so insecure you have to seek validation from twinks and skanks on the internet to feel better about yourself? No, I think I’m good,” Remi told him, pushing his hair from his eyes.

“Damn, someone’s in a bad mood today,” Drake muttered. “What’d I do now?”

Remi continued to glare at him. “Like it even matters.”

They all watched the exchange, some curious, some amused, some, like Park, confused. He had no idea Remi and Drake were anything but asset and handler. He’d rarely seen them speak in class. But whatever Remi was mad about seemed personal.

They seemed polar opposites in every way. Drake was every bit the rich, spoiled psychopath he was raised to be. Remi was a sweet, quiet, sensitive kid despite being raised by wealthy parents. Of course, he was neurotypical. Maybe that was the difference.

It was why Archer and Mac had been sure they should work together. But they’d also insisted on matching Payton and Gift so…he questioned their judgment to say the least.

“Why do we think her being an influencer matters?” Jay asked. “If anything, doesn’t it make it even weirder that she ended up dead in a trailer park? How does a kid’s game help our case?”

Dove looked at him like he was an idiot. “Because it's another piece of the puzzle.”

“The police reports didn’t say anything about sponsors. Maybe they ruled out that as a possible motive?” Diego asked, feet kicked up on the desk, holding his phone in his hand like he was playing a game online. Diego had a habit of looking uninterested in almost everything, but Park knew if he asked him a single thing about the discussion at hand, he’d have no problem answering.

“Or maybe they never even bothered,” Luca said. “We should still look into it, right?”

“Can we ask West to look into it?” Gift asked.

West taught cyber-security to both the handlers and the assets. Or he taught them how to work around cyber-security. He was a black hat hacker recruited by the FBI straight out of high school after he successfully hacked several unhackable government websites simply to say he was there. He was kind of an asshole but the same could be said for most of the staff.

“Park said we’re not allowed to get help from the staff,” Payton pointed out, a strange look on his face.

Park opened his mouth to say there had been a slight change of plans but Remi opened his mouth. “I can do it.”

“Do what?” Mos asked, looking at Remi like he was insignificant.

Remi met Mos’s gaze and held it. His voice was surprisingly confident as he said, “I can look into the game.”

“Look into it, how?” Drake asked.

Remi rolled his eyes, pulling his laptop from his bag and booting it up. “I can access users, IP addresses, credit card information. What do you need?”

“We don’t know what we need. We don’t even know if this is a massive dead end,” Dove reminded.

Before Park could remind everyone to take a breath, Luca looked up from his phone. “What’s with the pixelated tornado?” he asked. “When you google the game it shows a cartoon Farris wheel and a rollercoaster as their logo. So why the symbol.”

“It’s a code,” Mos said.

They all looked at him. “How do you know that?” Lennox asked.

“Because I’ve seen it used before,” Mos said.

“You’ve seen this symbol before?” Gift asked, eyes wide.

Mos shook his head. “No, but something like it. It wasn’t a kids game where the whole idea centered around chatting. It was one of those games where you could play-through straight to mission or you could just hang out in the game doing side quests.”

“Sandbox games,” Remi said, already typing away on his keyboard.

“What kind of games?” Diego asked, frowning.

“Sandbox games,” Remi stated again, a tiny bit of irritation creeping into his voice.

“Never heard of them,” Morgan said.

Remi fixed her with a flat stare. “Oh, no you definitely have. Roblox? Minecraft? Second Life? All sandbox games.”

“Oh,” Morgan said, then looked at Mos. “You play those kinds of games?”

Mos scoffed. “You act like it’s impossible that I would play video games.”

“So you do?” Jay asked, frowning like he hadn’t known that and appearing somewhat put out about it.

Mos rolled his eyes. “Fine. No, not really. But that doesn’t matter because I know what symbols like that mean in these…”

“Sandbox games,” Remi muttered.

“Yeah. It lets people know they’ve found who they’re looking for,” Mos said.

Persephone frowned. “Who they’re looking for?”

“In the game,” Mos said. When they all continued to stare, he sighed. “Fine, people who might want to…engage in criminal activity under the radar…could hypothetically build a meeting spot within a game and use that symbol to let their clients know they were in the right spot to do business.”

“Are you saying that your dad uses video games to run guns to criminals?” Dove asked, looking impressed and surprisingly excited by this news.

Mos, however, was not impressed. At all. “Right, because my dad is an arms dealer he must be doing something shady. My father runs a legit business. My college friends used to meet in these games to set up times to exchange pills.”

“Pills?” Gift echoed.

“Yeah, Adderall, Percocets, Vicodin, Vyvanse. It was a convenient way to make things happen.”

Morgan scoffed. “Why not just use Snapchat like everybody else?” At Park’s raised brow, she added, “I’ve heard.”

“Because Snapchat isn’t foolproof. Just because pictures disappear off of your phone, doesn’t mean they disappear off Snapchat’s servers. They’re there for a while and Snapchat will hand over your info to the cops,” Remi said, his typing not even slowing down.

“So do you think Ms. Teen USA over there—” Jay said, pointing to Madison’s picture— “Was some kind of drug peddler using a kids game to arrange deals?”

Morgan shivered. “I’ve also heard of grown men using games like this to groom kids, but I can’t imagine a fifteen-year-old girl doing this. It just seems so…ick.”

Dove closed Morgan into a tight hug,then looked at Park. “So…how do we proceed? Like, are we allowed to…question people? Like her friends? Do we have to do everything legally?”

“I hope not because I’ve already violated several laws and I’m not even in yet,” Remi said. “Just let me just get in and have a look around. Even if nothing looks weird with the users, I can feed the data into a computer and look for any kind of pattern recognition. It could help.”

“In the meantime, shouldn’t someone just…play the game?” Diego asked.

Park shrugged. “That’s up to you guys. As for interviewing witnesses, let’s table that until we have more information.”

“I’ll have something in the next twenty-four hours,” Remi said with more confidence than Park had ever heard.

“Are you sure?” Drake asked.

Remi rolled his eyes. When he noticed they were all staring, he flushed. “As you were. I’ll let you know when I have what we’re looking for.”

The others turned back, dismissing Remi. “Okay, so what do we do in the meantime?”

“Is anyone else pushing this game?” Park asked suddenly.

All of them took their phones in hand, fingers flying as they attempted to answer. “There’s thousands of accounts using the hashtag chatterland adventures” Gift said. “This would take a hundred years to look at them all.”

“Jesus, how popular is this game?” Jay asked, scrolling.

“What kind of videos are there?” Park asked.

“Mostly screenshots of play-throughs,” Gift said, frowning. “They look harmless. Innocent enough. Maybe it’s an accident?”

“It’s hardly an accident kind of hashtag,” Persephone said

“Mostly?” Park questioned, looking at Gift.

Gift nodded. “Yeah, every now and again there’s just a photo of an empty lot or a parking garage.”

Gift clicked on an image and showed Park. He squinted at the parking garage photo. He almost missed it. A flier the same dull gray as the cement, was slapped to the outside of the building. Park wouldn’t have noticed it except whoever slapped it up onto the concrete wall had done so with black electrical tape. Still, the image blended so well it disappeared against the backdrop. But it was there. Something nobody would notice unless they were looking. A pixelated tornado.

“There’s also just pics of random houses. There’s definitely something shady about this.”

“Check any picture you find with a house or empty lot or parking garage,” Park said.

“Check it for what?” Morgan asked.

“For that pixelated tornado. Maybe it is how they find each other in the real world,” Park said.

“How did the cops not notice this? How could they just ignore something so random?”

Payton shrugged. “Laziness?”

“Didn’t you say this case made international news, Luca?” Diego asked.

Luca glanced up from his phone, nodding. “But only for a like a minute. Apparently the investigation went cold when the parents stopped cooperating and when there’s nothing exciting to report, the reporters disappear.”

“Why would the parents stop cooperating? Could they have had something to do with it?” Gift asked.

Payton shrugged. “I mean, anything is possible I guess, but it seems unlikely. You know? Why would their seemingly pampered princess end up dead in a trailer park? There’s far more…efficient ways to get rid of someone as everyone in this room knows.”

Park had to agree with him. He wasn’t a parent, but he’d taken out enough people over the years to know that parents tended to show remorse after killing a child. There was no remorse in that crime scene. They hadn’t cleaned her up or covered her body. If a parent had done this, the crime scene would have shown some signs of hesitation. Besides, brutally stabbing someone to death was a crime of passion, not something a parent would do. It didn’t make sense.

“Alright, Remi you keep working on finding out what you can. Half of you look for anymore influencers who might be pushing the game. Maybe there’s some kind of commonality. The rest of you keep scanning that hashtag. Look for anything that consistently seems out of place and make a note of it. We’ll regroup tomorrow.”

“I thought you weren’t supposed to be helping,” Payton asked, voice deceptively innocent.

Park glowered at Payton, feeling like there was something deeper to his involvement with Kendrick’s visit. “Things change.”

Payton snickered, his gaze falling to Gift’s neck. “They sure do.”