Page 92 of Tristano

Serena rolls her eyes.

“I need to go to the office. Do you want to go with me? I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

“Will they be cool with it if I do?”

“I don’t see why not.” I shrug. “It might be boring though.”

“It can’t be any worse than sitting here,” she says as she walks to the door, slipping on her shoes.

The ride to the office doesn’t take long. I chose a house close for this reason. I always wanted to be available.

As soon as we step into the office, it’s complete and utter mayhem.

“What in the world…” Serena whispers to herself.

Greer slams her hands down on her desk. “Goddammit!”

Killian leans down and whispers something in her ear.

“Where do you need me?” I ask as I step forward.

Enzo turns toward me, and I watch as his shoulders drop.

“Shit’s hitting the fan. We have been keeping everyone on high alert. A girl has been taken inside the city this time. We caught it on one of our cameras. We have a team out there trying to catch up, but I’m afraid we might be too late. It’s not only here though. Chicago’s been hit as well. One of the working girls beat the guy off her friend with a shoe. She was able to escape,” Enzo says.

“We’re sending teams out,” Killian says as he rubs Greer’s back. “We’re going to warn the girls. See if anyone will wear a tracker like in Chicago.”

“I’m going to call in an anonymous tip to the news stations and hope they will report that women shouldn’t be traveling alone at night right now,” Greer adds.

Sitting at my computer, I pull up my program. It didn’t catch anything, which frustrates me. Then I pull up the video footage of the girl taken here. She was taken in Manhattan.

My blood chills as I watch it happen. She’s not some working girl. This is a teen walking home from school, it looks like. The man stops her, seemingly asking for directions. When she goes to walk away after helping him, he stabs her in the neck with something. Within seconds, she’s in a car that was waiting.

“That looks like the man Meredith described.” Serena moves closer.

“You think so?” I turn my head to the side a little.

The video isn’t great, but he does look tall and has blonde hair. I try to enhance the image to see his wrists, but it’s too grainy.

“It could be.” She hums.

I continue pausing the camera frame by frame to see if there is anything we can use. The car is a modern sedan with no distinguishing features. The tag is conveniently covered. I can feel myself getting worked up. I want to smash something.

Then she touches me, and all the tension melts away. I’m still angry we can’t find these guys, but she’s with me. It’s enough to calm me.

“I-I have an idea…” Serena says hesitantly.

Greer looks over at us. “Go on.”

I watch as Serena rolls her shoulders back and takes a deep breath. “The city is too big to have eyes all over, despite having both families come together. When they took us, they moved us by train. What if we staked out the railways? Or maybe the harbors for the shipping containers?”

Everyone pauses and turns toward her, and stares.

She shifts from one foot to the other while I try not to smile.

“That’s a really good idea…” Greer says hesitantly.

“It could work.” Killian nods. “We could stop all the trains leaving the city and search them if we need to, and we already have access to the harbors.”

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