When You Least Expect It | Aaron Hotchner

two

Olive

"Our victims all went missing after visiting a highly exclusive club called Indulgence, every one of them on a Friday night."

"Sounds like a sex club," Adrian comments, interrupting Prentiss during the briefing being held for a case we were supposed to be aiding them in.

"That's because it is," Prentiss answers. "Our struggle is that the club caters to the top one per cent of the city who are willing to pay big bucks to keep their identifies private and is strictly anonymous. Clubgoers are required to wear masks throughout the entirety of their visit and sign NDAs before they enter. No names, no strings attached," She explains, "We tried tracing his credit card details, but our unsub only uses cash to pay for all of his transactions and seems to take his anonymity incredibly seriously.

"He does, however, seem to have a type. His victims are all females in their mid-twenties with shoulder-length brown hair, light brown eyes and are around five-two in height."

From the corner of my eyes, I see Danny's chair swivel towards me. He folds his arms over his chest, watching me with appraising eyes and right away, I know what he's about to say before he even opens his mouth to speak.

"So, what you're saying is your unsub's target victim...is Olive?"

The room turns to look at me and I resist the urge to fidget under the force of their collective gazes.

Reid cocks his head at me, "Yes, she does fit the bill quite well."

Exchanging a glance, Gabe and Danny both grunt out a noise of approval at the same time.

"This could work." Gabe quirks a questioning brow at me, "You up for it?"

"Alright, can we please slow down for a second?" Agent Morgan cuts in, "What exactly is she supposed to be up for?"

"Well, if Grey is willing, you may have just gotten yourselves fresh bait to lure your unsub out with," Adrian supplies and I pin him with a glare for referring to me as bait.

In return, Adrian simply offers me one of his sparkling smiles that seem to have ladies falling at his feet left and right, which was something I struggled to relate to. It must've been the fact that I knew every single one of his nasty habits, and like an annoying little brother- despite him being one year older than I was- he had a lot of them.

There's a beat of silence in the room as if everyone was taking a moment to consider their options.

Eventually, it's Hotchner who breaks that silence. "No, it's too much of a risk, not to mention dangerous," He says, looking over at Rob for support.

My boss, however, is used to us taking risks that have been ten times more dangerous than this one was.

"If Lieutenant Grey is agreeable, I don't see why not," Rob shrugs, "It's a solid plan and right now, we don't have much else to go on."

"I could gain access to their cameras," Mia adds, "We'll have eyes on her the whole time."

"Grey?" Rob turns to me.

Wordlessly, I jerk my head in a nod, giving him the go-ahead and he rises from his seat.

"That settles it, then. Lieutenant Grey will go undercover at Indulgence this coming Friday night. Let's hope that will be enough to draw our unsub out."

Rob dismisses us from the meeting and everyone starts filtering out of the room.

I rise from my seat with a sigh and Gabe falls into step next to me as I leave the room. Knowing him, he was about to start talking my ear off about the details regarding the undercover job we were about to pull.

He doesn't quite get the chance to, because the second he opens his mouth, a voice calls out to me from behind.

"Lieutenant Grey, may I have a word with you, please?"

I look over my shoulder to see Hotchner saying in the doorway of the conference room with a hand braced against the door frame in a way that oozes confidence.

My eyes snap back to Gabe's when he lets out a snort before leaning in to whisper, "Maybe wipe the drool off of your face first?"

As tempting as it was, I managed not to smack Gabe in the back of the head like I had really wanted to under Hotchner's watchful gaze.

Instead, I ignore my partner and make the short walk back towards the conference room.

He holds the door open for me, letting me enter first. As I squeeze past his imposing frame, our arms brush against each other, the simple touch making goosebumps rise on my skin.

"Sir?" I raise a questioning brow as he closes the door behind him.

Folding his arms over his chest, he lets out a deep sigh and says, "You don't have to go undercover if you don't want. It's going to be dangerous and I don't want you to have to feel obligated to do it."

"Respectfully, Agent Hotchner," I start, "It feels like you're the only person here who seems to be concerned about this."

"That's because this isn't going to be a walk in the park."

I tip my chin up in challenge, "Are you suggesting that I'm incapable of handling it?"

Hotchner raises his hands in front of him in a placating gesture, "That is not my intention, Lieutenant. I just want to make sure that you know what you're getting into."

"I do," I answer, "I know how to do my job, and I do it well. Again, respectfully, sir."

I notice the way the corner of his lips tilt up just a hint like he's trying to suppress a smile. "Adding the word 'respectfully' to every sentence does not make it any better, you know that right?"

"Trust me, I'm well aware. I've been instructed by our liaison officer that I should use it to avoid any unnecessary conflict."

There's a hint of amusement in dark eyes as they take me in as if he's trying to figure me out. Tough luck for him, though, since we're pretty much trained to only let people see what we want them to see.

"Well, if that's all, Agent Hotchner. I've got a job to do and some case files to catch up on," I tell him, "Hate for anyone to insinuate that I don't know what I'm doing." Turning on my heels, I head for the door, but not without some last parting words."

As I turn into the hallway, I wasn't sure if it was just my imagination, but I could've sworn that I heard him chuckle.