Undercover | a. hotchner |

Chapter 23

Two weeks later

The last few weeks were relatively the same as the previous ones. It was getting to be routine, every few days Carmine asked for a payment to be delivered to the front desk. We had given him a total of four hundred thousand dollars.

It was nice, living in this luxury but we still had a job to do. A task to complete so we could go back home in the coming days. It felt like we had been in New York forever but in reality it was only around a month.

Strauss said at least a month and I was counting on the minimum. I didn't want to stay longer than I had to.

Aaron and I couldn't enjoy ourselves as much as we wanted to, it was fun nonetheless.

"Mr. Hotchner, what are you making today?" I walked back downstairs and into the kitchen. Aaron was leaning against the counter.

"Pizza, I don't feel like cooking." He put the pizza on the counter. I sat across from him and pecked his lips.

"Have you talked to the team about Reid." He nodded.

"He's a lot better. He was planning on coming back within the week."

I opened my mouth to speak but was cut off by the elevator door. "Em is that you." I called out.

When I didn't hear anything back it piqued Aarons interest. I went across the counter, standing next to him. I tried to focus on the footsteps I was hearing and there were multiple. That's not Emily.

Aaron and I ducked behind the kitchen counter, I peeked over and saw four men with shotguns.

He grabbed the suppressed nine millimeters that were under the counter and handed me one.

Hiding in the kitchen didn't give us a lot of cover. We needed to get into the loft for some high ground but we were pinned down.

They didn't know where we were, I could hear them moving around, one of them got closer and closer to us.

I heard one of the men walking by when Aaron slipped out of the kitchen behind one of the men. He wrapped his arms around his neck, putting him in a choke hold. He tried to fight back but Aaron's forearm almost crushed his windpipe.

He placed the man down on the floor and moved throughout the penthouse, careful to not make as much noise.

I didn't know where the other three men were and that's when I decided to head out. Moving along the floor.

I saw one going down the stairs from the loft and a shot rang out. Hitting one of them in their cheek, the sound of the body tumbling down the remaining steps echoed through the room.

I waited a few seconds for the other two men to come out, when they didn't I started my way up into the loft.

What I didn't know is that there was another man up there. Hiding behind a wall, he hit me with the butt of his gun and knocked me out.

Aaron checked the bottom floor and saw one man on the balcony. He raised his gun and fired quickly, his body hit the stone automatically.

He was unaware of my situation, that up stairs I was laying on the carpet.

Aaron slowly made his way up the steps, turning the corner he saw me laying there and his heart dropped.

He kept his gun raised and continued looking for the last man.

He looked in the closet, seeing nothing. He was about to step back out when he heard a gun cock right on his back. He took a deep breath and exhaled.