Opal

CONTENTS Introduction Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Epilogue Also by Freya Barker About the Author OPAL Copyright © 2022 Freya Barker All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or by other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author or publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in used critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses as permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the author, mentioning in the subject line: "Reproduction Request” at the address below: [email protected] This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any place, person or persons, living or dead, any event, occurrence, or incident is purely coincidental. The characters, places, and story lines are created and thought up from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. ISBN: 9781988733821 Cover Design: Freya Barker Editing: Karen Hrdlicka Proofing: Joanne Thompson GEM: a privately-funded organization operating independently in the search for—and the rescue and recovery of—missing and exploited children. Although, at times working in conjunction with law enforcement, GEM aims to ensure the victims receive justice…by whatever means necessary. * * * GEM Operator Opal; multifaceted, versatile, a chameleon. She hides in plain sight, adapts, and infiltrates. When Opal goes undercover in a youth center several teenagers have disappeared from, she’s shocked to find a ghost of her own traumatic past at the helm. However, her worry for the missing kids is greater than her concern being recognized and she risks her own safety to discover the truth. To complicate matters, a familiar FBI agent shows up conducting his own investigation and almost blows the whistle on her. It takes some doing to convince him to join forces with her but as it turns out, they work well together. In the course of uncovering an organized group of child molesters, they find themselves falling—for each other. PROLOGUE Janey and I get dressed for bed quietly. Mostly because we know we’re being watched. Compliance comes easy when even at only seventeen you’ve been made to believe you have no rights, no importance, no voice. Yesterday we were told it was time for more ‘personal development.’ Like Pavlov’s dogs, we immediately fell silent as we climbed into the van taking us from the group home to our destination, our minds automatically detaching from our bodies. It’s how we protect ourselves, knowing the next however many hours our bodies are no longer ours to command. “Kate?” I barely get into my bottom bunk after turning off the lights when Janey’s whisper sounds over my head. “Yeah?” “Do you think Raj will come back?” I glance over at the single bed on the other side of the room, barely visible in the dark. Up until two months ago, Raj would sleep there. The three of us arrived here at Transition House within a few months of each other and shared this room for the past three years. Raj was a year older than Janey and me, but the three of us became close. As close as sisters, something none of us had ever known. As the eldest, she’d looked after us as best she could, comforting us with the promise of better times ahead. I miss her soft voice in the dark room as she would talk to distract us from the dark thoughts that inevitably crept in with nightfall. Especially on nights like these, when I could still feel unwanted hands on my skin. She was simply gone one day, without so much as a goodbye. It was the day after she ONE Opal “…are you there?” Janey’s voice crackles through my earpiece. I slide my hand under my hair and push the tiny button behind my ear twice for yes. If I wasn’t in the middle of a group of volunteers, waiting to be briefed by a search coordinator, I would’ve stepped away and used my voice, but I might draw attention to myself, which is something I don’t want. “Keep an eye on James Genzel, one of Ricky’s teachers. Fifty-one, five foot nine, glasses, dirty blond, and balding. No facial hair.” My eyes immediately roam the crowd and zoom in on the slightly overweight man standing about twenty feet from me, at the edge of the search group, as Janey’s voice continues to fill me in. “School secretary says he left school in the middle of the day for a health emergency, and she didn’t see him until yesterday when he showed up fidgety. Her words, not mine.” I hit the button twice more to let her know I got all that and start inching my way in Genzel’s direction. It’s not unusual for perpetrators to join the search for their victims. Some of those sick bastards feed off that, and they’ll often spend more time observing everyone around them than actually doing any searching. It also wouldn’t be the first time a perp tried to steer a search away from where they dumped their victims. Either way, if the teacher had anything to do with thirteen-year-old Ricky’s disappearance forty-eight hours ago, his behavior could give him away and I’ll be watching. “Can I have your attention please?” The rich voice belongs to a tall, gray-haired man wearing sunglasses that obscure a large