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Chapter 16: Repercussions

"Alright, there's gotta be a phone around here somewhere," Dave said, sticking his head out his bedroom door. Dave quietly stepped out into the hall and shut his door behind him.

Dave quietly tiptoed down the hallway, sticking his head in every room he could find to see if he could find a telephone in any of them. But, he wasn't having any luck.

"That's strange, there were phones in almost every room yesterday. I wonder why they decided to take them down?"

'Well, I know there's one in Dad's room. But going in there might as well be a suicide mission,' Dave thought as he touched his cheek where his dad had slapped him earlier that morning, 'And I don't wanna relive that again.'

Dave stopped and thought for a few moments as to where he could find one, without his father knowing.

'Maybe Claudia knows where one is. I can ask her and...', Dave turned around and bumped right into James Nickel and Austin Johnson. The two business partners smirked as they looked down at the dazed teen.

"Hey Champ, where are you headed off to?" James put on a smile as he looked down at Dave.

"I'm just looking for Claudia, Sir," Dave replied all calm and collective, even though being around the two men made him feel uneasy.

"Sorry Kiddo, we haven't seen her," Austin chimed in, "But your old man sent us to come get you for breakfast."

The two associates didn't give Dave time to respond, instead they put their hands behind Dave's back and lead him into the breakfast nook. The walk to breakfast was extremely uncomfortable for Dave. Both James and Austin had to keep their hands on Dave in someway. They both would caress their hands up and down Dave's back, arms, and shoulders. In a normal situation, Dave would have told creeps like these two to screw off and go stick their heads where the sun doesn't shine. But this was by no means a normal situation. He was in a foreign country with his hostile father and his creepy ass friends. He wasn't exactly in the position to be telling anyone what to do, if he didn't want to pay for it later at the hands of his father.

"David, there you are," Derrick happily announced as Dave was lead in the room. "My, my, don't you look stunning. See how much better you look without those ridiculous sunglasses on," Derrick said as he patted Dave on the shoulder.

"Yeah, if you say so," Dave said leaning his head down. Even though he was now wearing his toughest poker face that he has had to pull off in years; he didn't want his father to read his true expression in his eyes.

Fear.

He didn't want to give that man the satisfaction of knowing that he installed fear in Dave Strider. The boy who was the very definition of the term 'cool kid'. Possibly the only kid on the face of the earth that could step on a nail, barefooted, and still give the world that 'I don't give a shit' look.

And now, without his beloved shades, the only thing hiding his true emotions were the bangs that hung in his face.

"Now David, what did I say about looking at someone when they are talking to you?" Derrick said lifting Dave's chin up, forcing Dave to look the man dead in the eye.

"When someone is talking to you, always look them in the eye," Dave said quietly.

Derrick smiled and kissed his son on the forehead, "That's a good boy."

Breakfast couldn't have been anymore awkward for Dave. Not only had Derrick taken the liberty of fixing his plate, again. But while he was eating, all the business partners were staring at him like a cow waiting to be slaughtered. And what made things even worse for Dave, he didn't see Claudia anywhere. Claudia was the only one he felt that he could really trust and not seeing her when he was around the others made him feel very uneasy.

'Where are you Claudia?'

"Son of a bitch!" Claudia slammed her head down on the computer desk in frustration. She had been looking, digging for a solid hour and she couldn't find anything. Absolutely nothing about any suspicious site or anything. She had gone to the company's website and looked for any possible clue as to hinting exactly what and where this exclusive site is and could be located. Nothing.

Even her computer hacking and code breaking skills weren't helping her any. She tried hacking into the company's website, to see if there was a specific link or code that she needed to get to the website. But every time she tried to punch something in, the system would automatically pick her up and kick her out. This was the tenth time she had tried in the past hour, and her patience was running very thin.

"I can't give up," Claudia said with her head buried in her hands, "What if they're planning on doing something awful to Dave."

'I can't go to the police without sufficient evidence. And all I have right now is just speculation, and you can't pin somebody on child abuse and possibly murder just on my word alone. If I'm going to pin that sicko, I'm going to need rock solid proof. If I go to the police, as is, the evidence at best would be circumstantial and at most the only thing Derrick would get is just a recommendation for parenting classes and MAYBE a fine and he walks. Then God only knows what he would do to Dave...'

Claudia sat back in her chair and ran her fingers through her hair, trying to think. There's gotta be something that she wasn't doing, something she was over looking. But what?

"Wait a minute..."

'What about Derrick's computer? I have tried hacking into that yet. If he was selling pictures of Dave on this website, then I thought that a link or code website would be hidden somewhere on his company's website. I didn't think to try and hack his computer. What an idiot, Claudia!'

Claudia mentally slapped herself for not doing this sooner.

She immediately looked into who all was piggy backing off the mansion's wifi coverage. She seen six connections; one for each of the business partner's computers, except one.

"Derrick's..."

'Damn, of course, he probably has his own coverage. I should know better than to think that he would be as foolish as to use somebody else's wifi, that is if he had something to hide.'

Derrick using his own coverage made it difficult for Claudia to find, let alone hack, Derrick's computer from hers.

Difficult, but not impossible.

It would take time, but Claudia was sure that if she tried hard enough, dug deep enough, that she could track it down and hack her way into Derrick's computer and uncover all his dirty little secrets.

Claudia just hoped that by the time she could, would, that it wouldn't be too late.

"Well all, it was a pleasure sitting down and chatting over breakfast; but I'm afraid that there is work that needs to be attended too," Derrick said, standing up from the table.

"David, if you would my son, please go to your room until it is time for the next shoot. We can't have you running around and getting all dirty," Derrick patted Dave on the shoulder.

"Hey Derrick, why don't you let him stay and hang with us for a while. I'm sure he'll be fine," James said

"Well I appreciate your enthusiasm to become more acquainted with young David; I'm afraid father knows best," Derrick politely explained, "David..."

"Yes sir," Dave immediately obeyed his father and hopped up.

"Good boy."

'Thank God...' This was only time that Dave could say that he agreed with his father. He did NOT want to be left alone with them, under any circumstance.

Dave walked faster than normal out of the breakfast nook and quickly made it back to the safety and security behind his bedroom door.

While his business partners continued chatting in the breakfast nook, Derrick slipped off to his study to continue his other line of work involving his 'side business'. He had big plans for his young son, very big indeed. His new clientele wanted to see more of Dave and many of them requested to see videos of the boy.

Derrick smirked and clicked on an icon on his computer. Immediately, live videos of Dave in his room fill the screen. During breakfast, Derrick paid a few of Claudia's less than faithful servants to install hidden cameras throughout Dave's bedroom and bathroom. And they were being directly uploaded to Derrick's special little website.

His clients wanted videos, they got them.

And this was just the beginning.

After the day's shoot, he had a very special treat in store for his clientele.

'Come to think of it, I think I'll send good ole' Dirky a free copy of how much fun we had today,' Derrick thought as he connivingly chuckled.

But soon, Derrick's smile faded as he thought of one impending problem.

'Claudia...'

'I was fairly certain that I sent her a pretty clear message this morning about what happens to people when they stand in my way. What if she goes and sticks her nose where it doesn't belong? She was always good at that. Oh well, if she does, then I suppose I'll just have to take care of her just like all the others.'

Derrick Strider had a rap sheet a mile long. From the time he was a teenager, he was constantly getting into trouble when people didn't do what he told them to do. Either beating them up or paying them off until he got what he wanted them to do.

Perhaps this attitude stemmed back into Derrick's early childhood when his father would beat him when young Derrick didn't do what his ruthless business tycoon father told him to do. Behavior like that, it rubs off on someone. By the time he 17, he had already been arrested for assault and battery, twice.

His father eventually had enough of paying off his son's debts to society and laid a firm warning on him. Clean up your act or you are done for.

Oh Derrick most certainly did clean up his act. And by clean up his act, I mean clean up the mess he made by getting rid of anyone who got in his way. Most of the time though, he paid people to clean up his messes for him, he was too big of a coward to do it himself.

By the time he had met Cynthia, he had two 'messes' cleaned up already.

"Cynthia..." Derrick uttered.

Cynthia Grace was the only person that Derrick Strider could say that he truly ever loved. When he met her, something in him just clicked. Like finding that long lost piece of the puzzle. He desperately wanted to change, for her.

But old habits die hard.

After Cynthia gave birth to Dirk, his old habits started to flare up again. The first time Derrick laid a hand on Cynthia out of anger, he begged her, pleaded with her to forgive him. Out of love, Cynthia forgave him, and Derrick promised that that would be the last time he would ever hit her again.

It was a promise soon to be broken. When Cynthia wouldn't do something for Derrick, he would hit her. And then feed her the same sob story all over again. And out of blind love, Cynthia would forgive him.

But soon, enough became enough.

One day, Cynthia has brought a baby Dirk with her to see his father. It was one of the only times Derrick had time to see his son, so he was excited to see them. When Cynthia let Derrick hold their 18 month old son, baby Dirk started crying. After trying to get their baby to calm down without having any luck, Derrick became angry. He slapped his 18 month old son across the face to 'give him a reason to cry'.

Cynthia snapped. She grabbed her son from Derrick and slapped him as hard as he slapped her baby. She told Derrick that she was going to the police and she never wanted to see him again. Derrick quickly grabbed her by the arm and begged her to stop and forgive him. When she refused, Derrick decided to play hard ball. He told her he could get rid of her and Dirk would whined up in an orphanage. Or that he could have Dirk taken away from her.

Absolutely terrified at what Derrick could do, she didn't file charges.

The next day, a huge bouquet of flowers, 3 dozen yellow roses, appeared at her door with a heart felt, tear stained, 5 paige long letter expressing his most sincerest apology, expressing to her how much he truly loves her and begs for her forgiveness. And attached to the letter, was the first healthy check from Derrick.

Not knowing what else to do, Cynthia called Derrick and told him that she forgave him.

This was the cycle of abuse that continued for 16 more years.

Cynthia would visit Derrick. Derrick would hit Cynthia. Then Derrick would apologize to Cynthia, telling her that he loves her. And then he sends her a fat check.

The last time Derrick saw Cynthia was the night Dave was conceived in May of 1995. Derrick and Cynthia had went out for their 17th anniversary. The had dinner at a fancy restaurant and had went to go see a movie. By the end of the night, they both had a good time. And Derrick had something he wanted to ask Cynthia. He got on one knee and re-proposed to her from all those years ago. Cynthia was alighted and accepted, thinking that Derrick had finally changed. The two went back to the hotel room Derrick had rented and consummated the relationship.

The morning after, Derrick proved Cynthia wrong yet again. After the first thing Cynthia says back to Derrick, he back hands her in the mouth. 16 years of abuse memories flooded back to Cynthia and she called their relationship off.

The last memory that Derrick has of Cynthia is her bruised face turning around and staring at him as she walked out the door.

That face is forever engraved in Derrick Strider's memory. That beautiful face, bruised and bloodied by his hand. He did love Cynthia, he really did. But now, he had a new Cynthia. Every time he looked at Dave, he saw her. The blond hair, the oval, petite face shape, the freckles on the nose and upper cheeks, all from her.

And he had him all to himself. And well, anyone else who was willing to pay high enough.

Derrick continued watching Dave through the monitor while contemplating on what to do if he had to clean up another 'mess'. Though he didn't think it was necessary, he believed he was too smart and hid everything too well for anyone to ever find. But still it was nice to have a backup plan just incase things went south.

'South? Why of course! That's a wonderful idea!'

Derrick minimized the screen and done a quick search on the Caribbean until he found a perfect getaway.

"The Dominican Republic, yes. Nice, beautiful, peaceful, poor extradition laws. Yes, it's perfect. And I think David will like it too," Derrick grinned at the computer screen.

Derrick exed out of the search and opened up the tabs containing the videos. Much to Derrick surprise, Dave had fallen asleep on his bed.

Derrick smiled at the image of his sleeping son on the monitor, "Well, I suppose we can start the shoot after lunch. There's no hurry. And besides, I'll have more to get everything set up for later."

"AHA FINALLY!" Claudia felt like her eye balls were about to fall out of her head but she finally able to break into Derrick's system. She had been working it for four straight hours, and she had to go around her butt to get to her elbow; but oh did all her hard work pay off. She hit the mother load.

Since she couldn't find a trace of Derrick's computer anywhere, she decided to hack into one of the business partners computers to get to Derrick's. She ended up hacking into James Nickel's personal computer. On his computer, he had saved the most graphic images from the website AND Nickel was currently on the website getting live coverage from the cameras hidden in Dave's room.

Through Nickel's computer, she found her way to Derrick's sick little website.

The images on the screen made Claudia sick to her stomach.

'How, how can someone deliberately do this, to their own child!' She wanted to scream, cry, through a chair out a window, do anything that would release all the anger that was pent up inside of her. But she couldn't, she couldn't afford too. A child was in grave danger and she finally had the proof she needed to stop it. And she could be caught at any moment.

She scurried in her desk draws, trying to gather up all the CDs, flash drives and floppy disks she can find so she can take everything to the police and finally have these sick bastards arrested.

It took her thirty more minutes, but she finally got all 1500 images, 16 videos, and Derrick and all his partner's names down into just 5 flash drives, that she secured in her pocket. She now had her rock solid evidence. By the time she was done, Derrick and his sick buddies would be going away for life. And then Derrick would never have contact with Dave again.

Claudia quietly tiptoed her way out of her room, down the hall and almost out the door and scott free when,

"Where do you think you're going?" Derrick said with James Nickel and Austin Johnson standing behind him.

"None of your damn business you sick bastard!" Claudia barked.

"What's that in your pocket?" Derrick said pointing to the slight bulge in her pants pocket.

Before she had time to respond, Derrick had James and Austin grab Claudia from behind and they pulled out the incriminating evidence.

"These wouldn't happen to contain any thing we wouldn't want the authorities to see now would they?" James asked pulling out the ring of flash drives from Claudia's pocket.

"I know everything Derrick! I know all about your sick little website! How could you do this to your own child?! For God's sake Derrick, he's your own flesh and blood!" Claudia screamed. "You can do whatever you want with me, just please don't hurt him! Please let him go!" Claudia pleaded.

Derrick's only reply, a half assed smirk.

"Nickel, Johnson, clean up this mess. I have a shoot to prepare for."

With that, Derrick turned around and walked back up stairs, completely deaf to Claudia's screams as she was drug down to the basement by James and Austin.

Now that he had Dave completely under his thumb and Claudia out of his way, Derrick felt it was time to get up close and personal.

My name is Autumn Artist and I am addicted to Law & Order: SVU...