Please Don't Go (The Story of Us Book 3)

Chapter 33- Valhalla

The day that shook the BAU started with an abnormal case. Two different houses burned to the ground. One a supposed gas leak and another an apparent cover-up for a murder-suicide. The moment the case was presented, Amanda and Emily had a bad feeling. Things between them hadn't been the same for the three weeks following Amanda's confrontation. She knew Emily was lying to her and Emily had no idea that Amanda was already on Doyle's hitlist under a completely different name.

It took them two days before they got a lead on the man behind the attacks, one that shook Emily to her core: Ian Doyle. With her team now tracking down the very man that threatened their lives if she involved them, Emily knew she had to get out. Amanda could see the instinct to run building up behind her eyes but when she went with Prentiss and Derek to a crime scene of a black market ID dealer, Amanda knew what was coming the minute she saw the other body.

When Emily went outside to force herself to vomit so she could head back to her apartment and get her affairs in order to leave, Amanda follows her. "Tsia wasn't it?" She asks the raven-haired woman. "From what I know of her, she was a good agent." Emily's head shoots up to Amanda as she realizes that the blonde knows a lot more than she disclosed when they originally met.

"What do you know about Ian Doyle, Amanda?" She demands but the blonde just shrugs nonchalantly with a blank look on her face.

"More than I'm willing to tell you. You see, Emily, I wanted to help you, and maybe I could've but I can see it in your eyes already. You're going to leave. You're going after Doyle on your own and it's going to get you killed. I could've prevented that but now I have a new task. Making sure the only casualty of your own stupidity is yourself. Derek was right, you should learn to trust people. If you had, Tsia would still be alive, hiding out with Clyde."

Amanda turns to walk away but Emily grabs her elbow, violently jerking her back around. "How do you know about that?" She hisses and Amanda looks down at the harsh grip before peeling it away painfully and watching the hurt light up Emily's eyes, bringing her a sort of grim satisfaction at hurting the woman the way her death would hurt her family.

"I know a lot of things. You think you're the only one with problems, Emily? Newsflash, you aren't. I've been ensuring that nobody I care about ends up a casualty of your carelessness while handling my own problems. Lucky for me, I managed to condense them into the same solution. Just know, you still have a way out. All you have to do is ask."

"What way do I have," she questions, suddenly desperate and Amanda's eyes soften.

"We can take him down together and if that doesn't work, my specialty was always making people disappear." For a moment, Emily considers it. Running, hiding like Clyde had accused her of. She could do exactly what she had wanted Tsia to do. But no, the team was already looking for Doyle, if she disappeared now, they were as good as dead. She had to kill him before he killed them.

Amanda saw the fight go out of her eyes and acceptance seep in, making her shake her head. She turns around but Emily turns her back, more gently this time. "Amanda, this is my fight, I need you to understand that. I love you, all of you and I'm doing what I can to protect you. Tell them what you want after I'm gone, but I'm going to make sure nothing happens to any of you. This is the way it has to be, there is no other way." Amanda wants to argue but she knows she can't explain.

Just as Emily was sworn to an oath, Amanda was sworn to an even more vicious oath, one that she couldn't prove had been broken just yet. "Do what you want but don't say I didn't warn you."

___________

That was the last thing she said to the older agent. It only took about an hour for the team to notice their teammate was missing. Spencer put together that she was Lauren Reynolds and Aaron, back from Paternity leave two weeks prior, tried to call her, only to find her phone in her desk, making them all realize that she ran.