‘I knew one of the guys arrested in the Toybox sting. Back in high school, we played together on the baseball team.’

Feeling like she’d been sucker-punched, Alyssa gripped the back of a chair and waited for the rest.

Shadows filled Tony’s eyes as he continued in a wobbly voice. ‘Our senior year, there was a rumor that he’d raped a girl. I won’t get into the nitty-gritty, but suffice it to say, the details floating around were awful similar to what we uncovered up in Placitas.’ He wiped one hand across his mouth. ‘We weren’t friends, and the rumor kept shifting and changing. In the end, I didn’t do anything about it. I didn’t report it. I didn’t confront him or even ask the girl. I did what everyone else did. I swept it under the rug since it didn’t have anything to do with me.’

‘Tony,’ Alyssa began, ‘you can’t—’

Tony’s hand snapped up, palm out. ‘Please, Lys, let me finish, or I’ll never get through this. When I saw his name come up on that list of suspects in May, I nearly lost my mind. Especially when I remembered that room, that cage those girls were held in. It makes me sick. I failed. No, I wasn’t a cop then, but I still could’ve done something.’ His voice broke.

‘Then one day Holly came in with Rachel and Jersey to see you, and it all came tumbling down on top of me. Everything I did was covered in layers of second and third guessing to the point I was afraid I was going to end up getting me or Joe killed. Me, I didn’t care about, but Joe, I did. I tried talking to the counselor about it, but frankly, I was too ashamed, and I felt like it was her job to tell me none of it was my fault.’

‘None of it was or is your fault, Tony,’ Alyssa interrupted. ‘You were a teenager. You reacted in a normal teenage way. Reporting that boy might’ve resulted in stopping him, but it wouldn’t have changed the course of that trafficking ring being created. I hate to break it to you, friend, but you don’t have that much control.’ When he returned her lopsided half-smile, she had hope that things would be okay.

‘But let’s look at the bright side, shall we. Because of your hiatus, you were able to save Addis and Emerson. The universe works in mysterious ways, you know.’