His Undercover Lover

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Penelope hadn’t brought any clothes to exercise in so first thing the next morning, they went shopping. Well, first thing, after Derek’s exercise regime, the shower time-share, breakfast and a sound/vision check on the spy cams.

Penelope’s camera was wide angle, so JJ and Reid could see almost 180 degrees. Morgan also wore a camera and his job was to keep an eye out for the people that Penelope and her camera couldn’t see, people who might be watching or following her.

“God, I hate this type of clothing,” Penelope said as they browsed the isles of Jackson Sports.

“Why?”

“Look at it, it’s all so samey,” she said, holding up a white t-shirt. “No style.”

“I don’t know, I think I might like seeing you in this.” He held up some kind of all-in-one unitard.

Penelope giggled. “I might as well go naked as wear that.”

“You won’t hear any complaints from me.” He hung the garment back on its rail and draped an arm around her shoulders while they browsed.

Garcia didn’t see anything that caught her eye and she was about to give up and get black pants and plane t-shirt, when a sales assistant approached.

“Can I help you with anything?” she asked giving Morgan a big smile.

Penelope instantly hated her. She would have said no but Morgan spoke before she could.

“Sure,” he gave the sales assistant, whose name badge declared her to be Lindsay, one of his beautiful smiles. “My baby girl here needs some workout clothes, but something with a little more personality than you have here.”

Lindsay looked Penelope up and down, taking in her size and rather loud dress sense, then plastered a friendly smile on her face as she looked back to Morgan.

“We deal more with pro and semi-pro athletes, so I don’t think we have what you’re looking for, but she could just wear loose clothing. My sister, she works out in men’s clothes or oversized garments.”

“Anywhere around here that we could get something like that?” he asked.

“There’s a Macey’s a few blocks over.”

Penelope pulled a face, she was so not a Macey’s girl, but the assistant wasn’t looking at her anyway. She was often more invisible than ever when she was out with Derek, especially to other women, and it was one of the few occasions when she wished that she was she wasn’t.

“Thanks. Come on, Gorgeous.” Morgan used the arm around shoulder to guide her away but as Linsday turned her back, Penelope heard her mutter something. She couldn’t make out the words but she knew roughly what it would be. Something like, ‘The walk will do you good.’

***

They hadn’t visited Macey’s, instead Penelope had stopped in at the next department store they passed, and bought black sweat pants, a dark t-shirt and sneakers. The assistant in that shop had been much more helpful, actually looking Garcia in the eye and asking her what she was looking for. She cast an appreciative eye over Derek (and really, who didn’t?) but her gaze didn't linger.

After that they went to the gym that the first victim had attended, getting there for noon. The guy behind the desk, Brian, was very helpful and he showed them around the gym, demonstrating how to use each machine and offering advice for her workout, such as how much weight to lift in the beginning, what sort of speed to set the treadmills and cycles to, until she was used to them. He was very chatty, asking what her fitness goals were ("Just to be a little more active, I work a desk job"), what she did for a living, where she was from, how she and Derek met and many other things. They met a few of the other staff members who were on duty, a woman and two other men, and Brian suggested that she might prefer Janet as her personal trainer; apparently a lot of women preferred another woman.