nina cried power [SPENCER REID]

twenty-eight.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT:
ROOMIES

❖ ❖ ❖

"When you said you'd be back for me, I didn't realise you meant this soon."

Nina doesn't blow into the rage Spencer expects when he, quite without permission from his own brain, utters that sarcastic remark; unreadable but altogether relaxed, her eyes just follow him as he takes a seat at her bedside, before she says plainly, "It was a surprise for us both. But all the decisions I've ever made, would be changed if I'd made them whilst knowing what I know now."

Spencer feels Emily glance at him, can see the pale shape of her face in his peripheral vision, but he can't look away from Nina. She's as white as her bedsheets, aside from the red feverous flush of her cheeks, and her skin is clammy all over. It's a miracle she made it back and didn't just collapse on the street, he thinks, and feels a strange instinct to reach out and take her temperature with the back of his hand.

Instead, he says, "I read your diary. I know what decisions you made. There's no excusing them."

This statement, and the sarcastic one he made as he took his seat, have both been harsh. And he realises why: this is the first time that he's dominated the chess board; he's winning their little game, finally.

"I'm not making excuses," Nina says. "I'm saying I didn't know."

"Didn't know what?"

"You know what," she snaps. "Ed's dirty little secret. The girls. The trafficking. I didn't know." Her eyes soften, so suddenly that Spencer blinks and the anger is gone, replaced by a look of desperate surrender. "You know. We sat in that car and bantered about tax evasion -- for Christ's sake. You know I had no idea."

This time, Spencer managed to tear his eyes away to share a glance with Emily, who stands at the end of Nina's bed. Security have left; they are the only three people to occupy the room, and it feels oddly like telling off a child in trouble.

"I found out when someone called Garcia texted JJ's phone," she explains. "I had it on me when I got out . . . I just don't understand. Why didn't you tell me?"

When Spencer looks back at her he sees that the question is aimed at Emily -- who had, of course, been in the hospital looking after her all that time.

"Why would we share secrets of our investigation with a criminal?"

"Oh, I don't know -- because I could help you," Nina retorts, and her eyes lock back on Spencer, swimming with cold loathing, "Which is what I came back to do, by the way."