Page 18 of Trick's Trap

Tahlia followed Gina around the counter where the chef was preparing line after line of puff pastries. He was garnishing them with thin slices of foie gras and a berry compote.

Her stomach rumbled. Tahlia tore her eyes away from the food. “It’s not like I’m asking for a handout, or even an advance. I only want last night’s pay.”

Gina stopped. Her expression was not precisely sympathetic, but she didn’t appear ready to shell out any cash either. “See here, I hire from that shelter you’ve been staying in a lot. I get that a girl just has to disappear sometimes. I want to help, because believe it or not, I’ve been there. But I need to balance that with keeping a roof over my kid’s heads. Besides, I don’t have any cash on me. And there’s no way in hell I can drop everything to go get it now.”

She broke off to gesture to the chair near the back door. “The way I see it, you have two choices. You can go sit in the corner and wait until this is all over, or you can borrow a white shirt from my bag and grab a tray. If you do the latter, at the end of the night, I’ll give you the full two days wages, plus a small bonus you better not mention to any of these other guys. So what do you say?”

Tahlia took a shaky breath, surreptitiously glancing left and right. It felt as if there was a bright spotlight on her, but she knew it was all in her head. What if Patrick or Maia showed up as guests?

“I’ll do it, but if I suddenly dive under a table, please pretend not to notice.”

Gina nodded, patting her on the arm. “Thanks. These two weddings are huge for us. It’s the first time we’ve worked this hotel. If we can get on the Caislean’s list of preferred vendors, we’ll be all set—I can pay the kid’s college tuition without my deadbeat ex-husband’s help. Now go to it.”

Tahlia nodded, tying the apron around her waist.

A few hours later, Gina kept her word. Tahlia had her wages plus an extra thirty dollars. It had been an extremely stressful evening, but she was reasonably certain no one spotted her. Feeling hopeful for the first time in memory, she went to the bus station where she’d stored the bag with the rest of her cash.

Her plan was to leave immediately, but the next bus heading to California didn’t depart until the following morning.

Staring forlornly at the closed ticket counter, she debated going back to the shelter, but it was after one AM. The doors closed at midnight.

Resigned to spending the night on a wooden bench, Tahlia found an empty seat in a relatively well-lit corner of the station.

This is fine.She’d slept in much worse places. Before Gina vouched for her at the last shelter, that list included the sidewalk in Williamsburg and a cardboard box behind a dumpster in Dumbo. This would be a cakewalk compared that.

Slipping her arms through the straps, Tahlia hugged the bag to her chest before settling down for the night, vowing not to sleep. But the long hours on her feet took their toll. She drifted off despite the bright light behind her lids.

A slight jostling woke her a few hours later. Tahlia opened her eyes with a start, but it was too late. A knife was cutting the second strap of her backpack. Before she could react, it was pulled away from her.

“No!”

She shot to her feet, pounding after the scumbag stealing all her worldly possessions. Yelling incoherently, she reached out, the tips of her fingers grazing the back of the dirty black hoodie he was wearing.

Before she could get ahold of it, she felt a hard shove from behind. Tahlia went down, landing on her knees. An intense stabbing pain arced up her left leg as it struck the flagstone.

Red flashed across her vision as she parted her lips in a silent scream. Gasping and sobbing, she tumbled forward, hitting the floor hip first. She couldn’t prevent her head from following it. It struck with force on the stone tiles.

For a moment, she lay there, too overwhelmed to move. Tears streamed down her face, obscuring her vision as a second man ran past.

All she registered was a flash of silver piercings in a gaunt acne-ridden face. He gaped at her before following the first assailant.

The pair disappeared before she could pick herself up.

Chapter 11

Trick was multitasking like a freak. He’d just finished a conference call with the contractor on the Sydney expansion while drafting a pleading message to the great Chao himself.

He hadn’t wanted to go back to Boston. Tahlia was in New York and as long as she was, it was where he needed to be. But he couldn’t run the investigation alone and his most trusted contacts in law enforcement, his brother-in-law Jason and his partner Ethan, were based in Boston.

Missing persons was not their purview, but he and few of their high-powered friends pulled a few strings to get them officially assigned to Tahlia’s case. After he and Maia saw Tahlia in New York, they’d spent most of their after-work hours on it as well.

Right now, the two FBI agents were camped out on the couch and pair of love seats that formed the conversation nook in his office. They were poring over evidence photos and making calls, but after his latest move contacting Chao, he was regretting suggesting they make this their home base.

The call he was desperately waiting for came a few minutes later.

“We have an agreement,” Chao said in Mandarin.

He rose from his leather office chair, turning his back to the agents to face the floor-to-ceiling window. The Boston skyline was growing steadily darker as the last fingers of sunlight dipped below the horizon.

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