Page 84 of Faron (The Golden Team #8)

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T he place was almost-built. Concrete floors. Exposed beams. A work in progress, like the woman unlocking the front door beside me.

Aponi hadn’t said much since she picked me up. Didn’t have to. Her silence said enough. She was carrying something heavy, and she hadn’t decided yet whether to let me help or not.

The door creaked open. Fluorescent lights flickered to life overhead, buzzing like flies in the heat.

“This is it,” she said, stepping inside.

The future. Her second chance. The thing she hadn’t known she needed until someone offered it to her.

I let the door close behind me. “Smells like paint.”

“And hope,” she muttered, heading straight for a file folder on the desk.

She tossed it open. Photos. Names. Police reports that didn’t add up. Two missing girls. Similar age, similar profile, no connection—except geography. Both vanished within ten blocks of here.

I studied the photos. One girl smiling with her arms wrapped around a soccer ball. The other staring straight into the camera like she already knew the world would fail her.

“You think it’s trafficking?” I asked.

“I think it’s something,” she said. “And I’m tired of waiting for the system to care.”

Her hands were shaking. Just a little.

“You don’t have to do this alone,” I said.

She looked up. “Don’t say that unless you mean it.”

“I don’t say anything I don’t mean.”

She stared at me for a beat longer than she needed to. Then looked away like it burned her to hold eye contact too long.

“Fine,” she said. “We do this together.”

I nodded. “What’s the first move?”

“There’s a pawn shop two blocks from the last known location. They don’t talk to uniforms. But I know the guy behind the counter. He owes me.”

“Then we go tonight.”

Her eyebrow lifted. “What, no plan? No backup?”

I shrugged. “You said you wanted me. This is what that looks like.”

Her lips twitched, just a little. “Remind me to be more specific next time.”

I took a step closer, dropped my voice low. “I hope you won’t.”

The air between us snapped taut.

But she didn’t back away.

Neither did I.