𝙰𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚝 𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝙾𝚍𝚍𝚜 | 𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚛 𝚁𝚎𝚒𝚍

A Lucky Game

"You wouldn't survive a day in Mexico, Spencer..." 

————-««»»————

"Hey, there she is," Morgan made an unnecessarily loud greeting as Aitana walked into the conference room.

Aitana let the files in her hands drop on the table with a thud and gave him a sharp look. "Are you going to do this every time I come back from a school break?"

"I will when it stops being annoying," Morgan shrugged and smirked. The others at the table snickered.

Aitana rolled her eyes and plopped down in the chair furthest from Morgan.

"How's it going, kiddo?" Rossi asked her a moment later when he thought Aitana wouldn't snap anymore.

"Okay," she said. "It's mid-November now so we'll be heading into finals very soon again. God, I feel like I just started the semester."

"Two months ago," Spencer remarked, "I have the exact countdown if you want to be accurate."

Aitana smiled dryly at him. "Pass, but thanks. What are we in here for? It's Sunday and I should be at church right now. My grandmother's still around, so..."

"Unfortunately, psychopaths don't usually take the weekends off," JJ said with a lamentable sigh.

Penelope came in a few minutes later with Hotch, the former looking a tad shaken about something. Hotch brought up the case to the group, being the one who accepted it in the first place.

"Danny Savino, the floor manager at the Sapphire Lady casino in Atlantic City was found dead in his office this morning. Blunt force trauma to the head. An empty wallet and money clip left next to the body."

The picture of the corpse certainly left some questions in the air. It looked like a poker game gone wrong on the ground.

"This guy's got a record," Morgan wolf-whistled as they got a copy of said record.

"Savino was a member of the Agnoli crime family," Hotch said. "They're active in the Atlantic City area.

"It looks like a robbery gone bad," Emily remarked. "Why was the BAU called in?"

"Eight one-dollar bills surrounding an 8 card."

"That's highly ritualistic," JJ said, her brow furrowed.

"Could it be like one of those crazy good luck rituals a gambler makes?" Aitana suggested the theory as she kept studying the pictures in their file copy. A bunch of random dollars spread around the corpse — it could be.

"Savino has ties to organized crime," Hotch said, "So it could be related to that. Either way, agents in New Jersey are worried about things escalating."

"A mob war?" Aitana said, her body stiffening.

"Well, it doesn't take much to ignite a mob war," Rossi said, "And collateral damage means nothing to these guys. If we don't get a handle on this soon, innocent people are gonna die."

Hotch agreed completely and so set the timer to meet at the jet. The team arrived accordingly and took off soon enough.

"No question. Godfather II, hands down," JJ said, laughing at the question that stumped Emily beside her.

"No, no, gotta be Scarface," Morgan said from his seat opposite the two women.

"For me, The Untouchables," Emily finally gave her response. "Spence?"

"Mm, probably Le Cercle Rouge, the 1970s French classic. But "Den Tredje Vaagan" is definitely a close second."

"Yeah, that was my runner-up, too..." Emily said thoughtfully, causing the others to laugh. "What about you, Aitana? Best ever gangster flick?"