Page 101 of Tristano

“I know I’m a liability because of what I used to do, but I promise you, I mean you no harm. I only want to help, no matter what that might look like.”

Bash stays quiet as he looks at me with a glint in his eyes. Is that respect?

Killian slaps his brother-in-law on the shoulder. “How about she comes with mine today?”

“That works,” he says while still staring at me. “When this is all over, we will have a sit down and figure out what it is you want. If you want to stay at home, that’s fine, but if you want a job, we will find you one. How does that sound?”

“I can’t stay home. I need a job.” I nod.

“Alright, then let’s get going. We’re wasting daylight.”

* * *

I nodat one of Killian’s men. Grunting, he pulls the train door open. I sigh when I see it empty.

“Fuck,” the guy grumbles as we walk toward the next car with a closed door.

We’ve been going at this all day in the sweltering heat. So far I’ve heard others over the comms find a few transients and homeless people. Other than that, nothing promising though.

“How’s it going?”

I turn and look over my shoulder and see Conor walking toward me with a bottle of water.

“Thanks,” I say as I take it from him. Cracking it open, I take a drink before I respond. “So far nothing.”

“Both a blessing and a curse.”

“Right?”

“I heard that they found a dead body in one of the cars in Staten Island.”

I cringe. “That had to have smelled bad with this heat.”

“Better them than us.”

“Do they think it was related?”

Conor shakes his head. “No, the guy had a needle in his arm.”

“Are we going or what?” my assistant snaps.

“He’s so welcoming,” I mumble.

Conor chuckles. “Yeah, Teddy is a little impatient.”

My eyebrows fly upward. “His name is Teddy?”

“No.” Conor smirks. “We call him Teddy because when he first joined, he looked like a teddy bear.”

“Huh. If he is a teddy bear, he’s a grumpy one.”

We step forward and get into position. After three more empty cars, we hit the jackpot.

Teddy slides the door open and I see one girl with a gag in her mouth, arms bound above her head. I recognize her immediately as the teen from the video.

“Fuck,” Conor grunts.

“Holy shit!” Teddy exclaims.

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