Chapter 2

Assembled around the round table, the team members felt angry looking at Henry and Will's pictures mounted on the white victim's board. The search of the crime scene had found no further evidence. The UnSubs were diligent, leaving only the hidden bodies of the zookeepers and will's cellphone.

" We have nothing, Hotch," Emily voiced her opinion to the group

" I can't search the surrounding cameras. I don't know if I'm looking for a car, van, SUV or flying saucer. I am so sorry, Jayje, we will find them, I promise you." Garcia sighed in disappointment at being unable to contribute to finding her Godson and his father.

Looking at his sombre group of profilers, Hotch knew he needed to keep them busy.

" Garcia, I want you to check around the off-site server site for a week; they had to surveil it sometime the same for the zoo's security office. Dave, Morgan go through all the threats made against the detective and recently released prisoners. Emily, JJ, go through his nanny and teachers lives again to see if we have missed anything. I will go through your life, JJ. It's the procedure for situations like this." Hotch detailed his team jobs to keep them busy.

JJ took Emily into her office while Rossi and Morgan utilised the round table room.

EJ

Will struggled with his bonds secured to the very stout wooden chair in the cellar. They held firm, only causing him to scrape and rub his wrists raw. Hearing footsteps above his head, he stopped waiting for his visitors to turn on the lights.

"William, William, look what you have done to yourself. You naughty boy, we will do the hurting. You do not have to help us, you know." chuckled Amanda. " William, this is going to hurt a lot; we need to get Emily's attention. A severed ring finger with a wedding ring attached should do the trick very nicely." Amanda coldly told Will

Aiden stood behind Will, silently enjoying the moment building the anticipation for the detective. Grabbing his left hand, he separated the ring finger and slid the blades of his garden Shears down to the base and squeezed, closing the blades together." will's scream was defining as his complete ring finger fell to the cellar floor.

Amanda picked the amputated finger up and wiped the blood from the ring, and placed it in a box.

EJ

After searching through Esmeralda Henry's nanny, the whole team had known since Henry was born, finding nothing for the second time, Emily stretched her neck and looked across at her colleague. JJ was bearly holding onto her emotions, knowing they were stumped until the kidnappers contacted them; Hotch was keeping them all busy trying to keep their minds off their missing friends.

" Come with me," announced Emily, hand-stretched out. " No arguments, I am playing the best friend card," smirked Emily

Reluctantly a curious JJ took the offered hand and allowed Emily to pull her out of her office towards the stairwell. Emily guided JJ out onto the roof of the FBI building over to the side.

Pulling her best friend into her arms, she squeezed her tightly. " let it all out, Jennifer, before you explode." Whispered Emily

Those small words of kindness from her friend broke the dam. She let go of her emotions and the tears of frustration cascade down her face. Emily held her shaking friend tightly as she cried her frustrations out.

" I would give my life to save your little man and get him home to you; you know that, don't you, Jennifer?" Emily asked her emotional friend, wrapped in her arms.

She felt the blonde nodding her head. " Take your time, sweetheart. Let it all out. Then I will make us an excellent coffee, and we will get back to it." Emily told her friend.

JJ silently thanked her friend with a squeeze of her arm as she walked towards the stairwell.

EJ

Emily Sat at her desk to quickly read an email she had been waiting for from the police department in Bangor, Maine, sending a quick response; she started to rise when her computer beeped, indicating the receipt of an internal system message.

" Sit up straight, agent; I'm watching you. Do everything I tell you, or we hurt Henry and William. Open your top desk drawer. NOW!" Emily quietly reads her message

Opening her top desk drawer, she noticed a Metro PD detective badge sitting on a small thin box. Her computer beeped, indicating a new message had arrived.

' Act normally Agent Derek Morgan is approaching, remember William and your godson.' Reads the new message.

Emily minimised the message and looked up at the indeed approaching Derek Morgan and smiled at her partner.

" We have food in the round table room Princess. Are you coming up to eat?" enquired her partner

" I need to return an urgent call to a detective I have been consulting with. Don't let JJ eat all the curly fries before I get up there." smiled Emily

" Not asking much, Prentiss, getting in the way of JJ and her curly fries that could be life-threatening." laughed Derek as he walked away.

Maximising the messenger app, Emily suddenly felt her heart skip several beats as she read a name she thought she had buried deep in her past.

' Well done, Laureen Reynolds. Now open the box.'

EJ

Jodie Black enjoyed sitting in the deserted office two floors below Emily, watching the buildings camera feed on her iPad. Her mother, Amanda, had done some of her computer magic. Jodie was hidden from the security cameras in this room; her network connection to the FBI network would indicate she was in Strauss office.

She was zooming in as tight as she could to Emily's face, ready to observe her reaction to finding the detective's ring finger in the box. Emily opened the box and instantly fastened it closed.

" Damn woman, what a cold bitch." disappointed Emily, hardly flinched her face, almost a blank mask.

EJ

Having learnt as an ambassador's daughter how to control her facial features, Emily was shocked and heartbroken, knowing now this was about her or her undercover persona Laureen. Will had lost his finger because of her. She momentarily allowed her mask to slip before she regained control. That moment she promised herself she would do whatever they wanted to get Will and Henery back to Jennifer.

' left side pocket of your go-bag is a phone. Take it and walk to office 6-34.b the door is open I will ring once I see you have arrived. Any deviation from my commands will result in a more significant part of William arriving on Jennifer's doorstep. Understand Laureen Oh sorry, Emily?'

Emily nodded to the camera and pulled the phone from her go-bag, and walked to the requested office, quickly glancing at the round table room, making sure she wasn't being observed.

EJ

Closing and locking the door of the designated office, Emily looked into the security camera and waited for her phone to ring. Mere seconds later, the phone started ringing.

" Emily Prentiss," she replied, feeling stupid.

" Oh hello Emily, you're doing superbly, now listen very carefully. I will only tell you once for free make me repeat myself we hurt the detective. Do you understand me, Emily Elizabeth?" the female voice asked

"I understand. What do I call you?" asked Emily in Profiler mode, trying to get a feel for this woman.

"You can call me Ma'am for now." Jodie smiled

"What do you want me to do Ma'am," replied Emily playing her game

Thoroughly enjoying herself, Jodie still hated Emily showed no emotions on her face. "Pick up your car keys from the shelf. Leave your clutch piece on the desk with your boot knife and your personal and work cell. Apple Watch on the desk along with anything else you have, Penelope could trace." smiled the youngest Black

Emily quickly complied with her instructions, leaving everything on the desk, " Ok, Ma'am, all done."

" Now, you will walk down to the parking lot normally, anything more than a hello or smile, we hurt the detective. You will drive back to your condo using cruise control, keeping two mph under the speed limit. I don't want you stopped by law enforcement. You enter your parking structure as normal parking correctly by reversing into your allocated space. You will be contacted with further instructions once you have turned your engine off and placed the keys under the seat. You will refer to him as Sir. Do you understand Emily Elizabeth?" Jodie asked, enjoying the power she felt over this woman.

"Yes, Ma'am. What about William and Henery?" inquired Emily, very subservient. She could tell this woman was lapping up the power she felt controlling her

" Follow your instructions and wait for further instructions once you have arrived in your parking structure." snapped Jodie

"Yes. Ma'am." Replied Emily reminding herself not to push for information follow her orders. From what's she already knew, it was apparent a lot of time had been put into this operation.

EJ

Emily opened her car door and slid behind the wheel, noticing fuses on her cars mat, obviously preventing her from using her cars communication equipment.

Flashback CIA Bldg 2006

Emily was sitting opposite two men and a woman in a windowless office at CIA headquarters in Langley. Emily Prentiss had been chosen for a deep cover operation. She had been suspended after her partner had been kidnapped, tortured and then murdered by a group of gun smugglers. Emily and Robson, her partner, had chanced upon the gun smugglers whilst on routine interviewing of witnesses. After a short exchange of gunfire, Robson Wolfe, her partner, had taken two rounds to his vest after pushing Emily out the way. The bullets would have hit her in the head.

The impact of the rounds in his vest knocked him down some stairs knocking him out. That was the last time Emily had seen Robson alive. Twelve hours later, she stood over her partner tied to a chair; two ice picks protruding from his shoulders, multiple stab wounds. The bastards had suffocated him using expanding foam down his throat, cutting his airway off.

Her boss had suspended Emily pending investigation of her Partners death. Emily had visited her pregnant partner's wife to explain exactly what had happened. An experience Emily never wanted to do again. To kick her more while she was down, her fiance of three years had left her because she was pregnant. For just over a year, she had been having a relationship with her trainer from the gym.

" Emily, we need a female to go deep undercover to get close to an arms dealer known as Valhalla that is stage two of our operation. Stage one is to get yourself noticed and build your empire. Previous attempts have failed. They were quickly discovered as fakes. The backstops we had prepared were perfect, just too excellent. They stood out like a flashing red light getting both agents killed. You will have to build your little empire by yourself. Shall we say hostile takeovers? You will have to kill Emily. Does that cause you any issues?" asked Clyde Easter, head of the group.

" No, the more, the better; weapons dealers are a very endangered species as far as I am concerned," Emily answered with venom in her voice. Easter knew Emily was a broken woman after the death of her partner. She was perfect should she be successful or die. He knew they were manipulating this woman, but for him, success was the imperative in his operation. Emily Prentiss was a very expendable asset.

EJ

Emily had been required to speak with the house Psychologist before accepting this assignment

" She is perfect. Did you see her eyes when she answered your last question? If she gets arrested or killed, she goes rogue, killing them for revenge. If she is successful, we bury the Op deep in secret red tape. In the secure archives, never to see the light of day. It is a win-win for us." smiled Scott Stonebridge from Mi6

" I like her. She has that badass vibe already." smiled Kirsty Eagles CIA " When she accepts the assignment, we get her to severe all her attachments and start her training."

Clyde Easter was glad they had reached the same conclusion as him.

EJ

" Cut the crap with the Psychological visit. We all know I'm a time bomb waiting to explode because of Robson. I am just what you need; I'm in." smiled Emily, not giving a damn if she walked away alive from this.

" fine, you in, Emily. Here is your new life; learn it. Your life depends on it. Once you start, you on your own." Kirsty handed over a binder

"Lauren Reynolds. I like it." smiled Emily

End flashback

Emily shuddered as the cold fingers of destiny stabbed her in the heart. Whoever took William and Henry wants revenge on Laureen for slaying a loved one. Unfortunately, during her time as Laureen, she had killed too many people; she wanted vengeance for her partner, that's why she used the ice picks and suffocation.

Reversing her car into her parking space, she turned the ignition off and placed her keys under the seat as instructed, and waited for her cell to ring.

EJ

Amanda Black packed the bloody and beaten body of William LaMontagne into the large cardboard box. After his last beating from Aiden, combined with his blood loss from his amputated finger, Will suffered mild blood loss. He would require a unit of blood, maybe two, and he would be fine once his various broken ribs repaired themselves; Amanda aimed to shock Emily's BAU colleges, of course; she had planned on this being Jennifer.

"You will soon be in Jennifer's arms, William, remember this is all Emily Elizabeth Prentiss fault; she tortured and murdered my beloved husband. Well, not Emily, her alter-ego Lauren Reynolds. Once Emily arrives, I will release Henry as long as she behaves herself. How much does she love her godson? If her digital frame is anything to judge it on, he will be fine." Laughed Amanda as she closed the lid.

Loading the box onto, the trolley Will's box was loaded into the back of the stolen van and driven off to his drop off spot.

EJ

Emily jumped as the phone in her hand started ringing and vibrating, dragging her out of her daydream.

" Yes, Sir," Emily answered, remembering her instructions.

" Good Girl Lauren, get out, leave your door open, leave your jacket on the passenger seat and walk down one level and get into the back of the pickup bed. Lay down and place the bag over your head and wrap the masking tape tightly around your neck and I do mean tight. Then fasten the handcuffs around your wrists behind your back. Do not utter a sound, or we hurt Henry; the detective has been released as promised. Don't hold out any hopes about your team discovering anything from your condos security cameras they will see yesterday, just like the zoo. You are all alone, SSA Emily Elizabeth. You have five minutes, don't dawdle." warned the male voice.

Emily's last hope was discarded in her jacket. She had a small GPS unit sown into the lapel no bigger than a grain of rice. Emily was indeed on her own reliant on the team finding her without any help from her.

Without hesitation, Emily climbed into the back of the pickup finding the black hood; she pulled it over her head and applied the tape tightly around her neck. Once completed, she laid down, snapping the handcuffs around her wrists.

Aiden had watched Emily from a parked car. He tightened the cuffs around Emily's wrists and snapped a set of ankle cuffs around her ankles as he pulled off her boots, throwing them under the parked car next to them. Wrapping tape tightly around Emily's hood around her mouth satisfied, Aiden warned her not to make a noise or bang anything. Securing the tarp covering the back of his pickup, he pulled out of the condo into the Washington traffic.

" We will be with you in Twenty minutes, mother, to swap cars." Aiden gleefully told his mother

EJ

"911, what is your emergency?" asked the call handler

"There is a suspicious van parked in the derelict furniture factory out near pine. I can hear groaning come from a large box in the back. It looks like it has blood oozing out, hurry." Amanda hung up and stopped the digital recorder playing the male voice she had edited together.

"Hello, Lauren," she smiled as she watched her son drive in with his precious cargo on board.