DARK RED ★ a.hotchner

001

CHAPTER 1
A NOT SO FRIENDLY INTRODUCTION

VALENTINA'S RED BOTTOMED STILETTOS CLICKED AGAINST THE HARD FLOOR OF THE BULLPEN, the sound echoed in the building as many people sat by their desks looked up at her.

The woman hardly looked classy, her skirt was too tight and raised at least 3 inches above her knee, the shirt she wore was a plain black vest tucked into her skirt as a cropped black blazer rested over her shoulders.

despite her clothes consisting of a lack of colour, the woman's bright red lips stood out sorely, the corners pulled up into a cocky smirk, her sunglasses perched lightly on the bridge of her nose.

Valentina loved the attention, hell, she craved it. The feeling of envy radiating off of insecure women and the lustful gazes of her married coworkers made her ego rise tenfold, she was hot.

and she knew it.

It didn't take long for the brunette to arrive in the place she needed to be, heading straight for an office she could only assume was the unit chiefs, ignoring the questioning glances passed across by the rest of the team as they wondered who the hell this random woman was.

the beautiful she-devil raised her fingers, curled into a small fist as she lightly knocked on the glass, a murmur of "come in." coming from the person sat inside.

"Agent Hotchner?" the woman questioned, taking her glasses off as the man raised his head to look at the unfamiliar face, watching carefully as she slowly fold the arms of her glasses.

"yes that's me.. may i ask who you are and what you're doing here?" the frowning man asked, his eyebrows furrowed to create a small crease in his forehead as he flickered his eyes judgementally over the young woman stood before him.

"Agent Valentina Cruz, sir. I recently had my transfer approved to be moved to this unit."

"and what unit were you previously assigned to?" the man huffed, reaching to the side for his papers, flicking through to see if he had missed the transfer approval documents.

"the counter-intelligence unit, sir." the brunette responded, pursing her lips as she rolled her eyes, "excuse me sir but if you're looking for my transfer documents, you won't find them. Your superior Erin Strauss signed me over to you shortly after my application was received."

"Strauss approved you? to be transferred to my unit, without my permission?" the tall man huffed, his lips curling downwards further in distaste, how could this woman approve new agents without even consulting him.

"sir, i am not trying to be offensive, but she is your superior, she controls your job. i'm sure you can understand and accept the new recruits or... you can sit on your ass, doing nothing but sulk. face it or not Hotchner, this teams needs more hands, brains and eyes at all times." the woman scoffed, her eyes piercing into the man in front of her as he sat with a stoic expression on his face.

"Agent Cruz, may i just say, speaking to your superior with such disregard and lack of respect is extremely unprofessional." the dark haired man glared, his eyebrows furrowed as he glanced the woman up and down.

"With all due respect, sir, i'm hardly the unprofessional one. you're sat here completely disregarding my position because of a petty feud you have with Strauss." Valentina's lips curled into a small smirk as she stepped forward and place her hands, palm down onto his desk, leaning forward with such an arrogant expression that made Hotch question if she was an FBI agent or a model. "to be quite frank with you, Hotch. You need me here a whole lot more than i need you."

Despite the blatant disrespect the woman had previously shown him, and the snide remarks she had made throughout the interaction, Aaron Hotchner couldn't help but admire the woman's confidence and bravery, he could tell this woman knew what she wanted.

"Considering i have no choice but to respect Strauss's decision in recruiting you, the debrief will begin in five minutes. you better be as good as you think you are." The man huffed, looking back down at the forms that rested on his desk in front of him.

"trust me sir, i'm better." the woman chuckled, pushing herself into a standing position as she smirked and turned around, her raven hair flicking over her shoulder as she stride out of the office and into the bullpen, where her fellow co-workers stared at her in intrigue.

This was going to be fun.