Unshed Blood | Criminal Minds

chapter twenty-eight

- CHAPTER TWENTY - EIGHT -

PENELOPE GARCIA'S heels clicked against the floor as she hurried over to Aaron Hotchners' office. She had been talking with the others to try and find the apartment that Lorenzo had given them and now, she had managed to find it. She knocked on the door rapidly, "Sir. I found him. I found Arlo."

Hotch instantly looked up from his paperwork, the others had stayed back behind and were in the conference room waiting for the confirmation from Penelope. "Good work. Tell the others, let them know that they should get ready to head out there, SWAT will meet us on sight."

"What should I tell Soren?" Garcia asked, feeling slightly more worried about the brunette girl. "She doesn't need to be here for any of this, Sir."

"I understand that, have her wait with you in your office." Hotch created the idea quickly, Garcia's room had a lock and passcode on it so no one could get in or out without the code. "That will be all, Garcia. Thank you."

She nodded, confirming she was going to listen to his instructions as she raced over to the conference room where the others were. Soren and Emily had just returned back from their toilet break, but the others could see the look of hurt across Soren's face. "My loves, Hotch needs you to gear up and get yourselves ready. Soren, you are coming with me."

"You found him?" Reid questioned, but they weren't at all surprised. "Is SWAT meeting us on sight?"

"Yes, they are. So you lot better hurry up." Penelope Garcia ordered them all, her heels clicking against the ground as she gestured her head for Soren to follow her, the brunette did without any hesitation.

Once they had gotten into Penelope's 'cave' as she called it, they both sat down on the comfortable chairs being surrounded by Penelope's toys and bold decorations. Soren nervously tapped her foot against the ground, a nervous tick she had always had as Penelope got herself ready to connect the team to one another as they all got into their SUV's.

Penelope noticed how nervous Soren suddenly became and was trying to reassure her, but for once, she didn't know what to say. "They are going to be okay, you know?"

"I just have a feeling." Soren breathed out. "My father is meticulous, he's always one step ahead so there's absolutely no way that Arlo doesn't know that we are onto him and that we have Lorenzo."

"Lorenzo was calm when Derek arrested him, right?" Garcia suddenly asked, her eyes wide as she looked at Soren.

"Yes? Why would he be calm and then suddenly so angry when me and Derek spoke to him?" Soren questioned out loud, trying to figure out what was going on until it all clicked. "It's a trap."

"What?" Garcia breathed out.

"Garcia, call them and tell them it's a trap!" Soren exclaimed, suddenly pacing around the room as she grabbed her phone, whilst Penelope called Hotch and Rossi, Soren called the others but they weren't picking up the phone which was only worrying them more.

"None of them are picking up, what do we do?" Penelope frantically asked Soren as she typed on her computer, trying to find out their location but so far they were stuck in one place which was the road before the apartment they were supposed to finding Arlo at.

"We find them. Send paramedics and more police to their location, even if they have arrested Arlo, it will be good that they have the extra back up in case anything goes wrong." Soren thought strategically, running her hand through her hair as she sat back down. "Try and contact them again until they pick up."

"Okay, okay. I can do that. I can do that." Garcia repeated to herself as she did everything that Soren had told her to do. "What are you going to do?"

"Help you find them."

*

They felt the impact before it truly hit them. They had decided to split the team up, whilst the SWAT team were already there, waiting for them at the apartment to receive their orders. Hotch, Reid and Emily were in one of the black SUV's whilst Derek, Rossi and JJ were in the other. They had been driving up the road that was deserted before they got to Arlo's apartment when the impact hit them.

Derek had been driving the car with JJ and Rossi when he felt the impact of Hotch's SUV hit him, causing him to swerve to one side, loosing control of the car as Derek attempted to gain control of the vehicle again. Hotch was in the other car, also trying to stop them from crashing but it was too late.

The debris of the vehicles caused them too crash into a tree that was on the left hand side of them. The impact from the car had caused the tree to impact the car more on Derek's side, causing him to groan as the pressure increased on his ribs, his head smacked forwards as he was knocked out from the impact, along with JJ and Rossi.

Meanwhile, in Hotch's car the impact had also caused them all to be knocked out too. Arlo Hale had planned everything out, he knew they had captured Lorenzo Russo and they had him in their custody but that was only a matter of time. He had prepped Lorenzo on what to do and say when they eventually interrogated him, but he was also betting on them bringing Soren along with them.

Arlo stepped out of his car, his boots crushing against the glass that had broken as he inched closer and closer towards the SUV's that had crashed just moments ago. As he walked closer, he moved closer towards to Derek's car, he had heard about his little 'relationship' with his daughter and he also knew that Derek cared for her. After all, he had been watching.

He broke the car window open, checking Derek's pulse as he confirmed that his heart rate was slow, a few minutes later and Derek would be dead. Instead of bothering with Derek, Arlo moved onto Agent Hotchners car, he moved forwards, breaking the window again as he spotted Hotch. He was leaned against the steering wheel, his eyes closed and blood dripping down his head.

Arlo moved his hand around, picking it up just as it started ringing, showing the contact number of Penelope Garcia. He chuckled to himself, picking the phone up.

"Sir! Thank goodness you are safe, we figured it out. It was a trap all along!" Garcia rambled out as she breathed out in relief.

Arlo chuckled again, making Penelope furrow her brows. "I'm afraid Agent Hotchner is a little...preoccupied."

"Who is this?" Garcia questioned as Soren walked closer towards her, listening into the conversation as her breathing stopped.

"Tell Soren that her boyfriends team have been in a little accident." Arlo informed them. "You tell her that."

Before Penelope had a chance to say anything else, Arlo hung up the phone. Soren breathed out, letting the paramedics know what had happened but Penelope was panicking and she needed to calm her down. "Penelope. Penelope." She tried to gain her attention but it wasn't working. "Pen! Calm down, everything is going to be fine!"

"No, it's not because he is going to kill them or if they aren't already dead!" Penelope gasped, her minds running wild.

Soren rushed over, placing her hands on Penelope's shoulders. "Stop! They are alive for all we know so don't say that. They need us right now, and you freaking out isn't going to do us any good. So sit down, contact the paramedics and find them."

Garcia exhaled, calming herself down as she sat back down, contacting who she needed too before she turned back to Soren a few minutes later. "They got them. Derek, Hotch and JJ were knocked out and still are, but the others woke up and managed to help them. We need to head over to the hospital now."

"Let's go."