Chapter XXVII
"We are each of us angels with only one wing. We can only fly by embracing one another." ~ Luciano de Crescenzo
When Gloria opened her eyes, the sun was out but it was still early in the morning. The first thing that her mind registered was the calmness. She was lying on top of David, on her front, her legs dropped on one side of his, her face hidden at the base of his neck, one hand on his shoulder, one on his chest under his, while his other hand was around her, still on her scars. She didn't know how they had ended up like that. Apparently, she had fallen asleep. Dave had lied down on the bed taking her with him and he had dropped his jacket over her.
She couldn't see his face but she didn't want to move. She could feel lighter. She had let many years of torment to finally get expressed. She wouldn't have done it if he wasn't holding her. She was too scared to do it on her own. And after, there, in his arms, that was a moment of peace. The heat of his body, the feel of his goatee on her forehead, his cologne mixed with his scent, the rising and falling of his chest against hers were soothing.
David knew she was awake since her breathing had changed. He just let her take her time. He had kept watching her while she had been sleeping. After crying hard for over an hour, her tiredness and her lack of sleep had gotten the best of her. They didn't have the luxury of a rest. But she needed it and thankfully it was peaceful.
She didn't know how many minutes had passed, when his fingers on her hand started making lazy circles and she lifted her head up to him to find him smiling softly at her.
"Are you a bit better?" he asked.
She nodded. She tried to shift, but he tightened his arm around her, fearing that her flight and fight responses had kicked in all over again, and she stopped moving.
"You should be stiff," she explained.
No, she wasn't going anywhere. She couldn't. There was that power of his body that was working like a magnet to hers.
"I'm fine. I'm more than fine," he replied.
Yes, he was. As long as she was in his arms he was.
"Thank you," she whispered.
"There is nothing to thank me for. All that matters to me is for you to be well," he brushed her hair behind her ear.
His eyes wondered on her cheek. He finally examined her bruises up close. He had come worried and she had made him worry even more.
She placed her head on his shoulder again.
"I am not here for revenge or in some kind of self-endangering act. I just have to. I'm trying, Dave... I am..." she tried to reassure him, "I know there are people that have faced worse... That I shouldn't..."
"It's alright." he stopped her softly, "Just don't go down the guilty road now."
His arms circled her fully as he turned them to the side so as not to lose eye contact.
"It's OK to hurt. Just ask for anything you need, anything, at any time. You are not alone."
He had that same expression in his eyes, the one he had last night, the one that made her spill her darkest secrets to him in an effort to show him how much worthless she was. But he had stayed, he had held her, he had touched her wounds and that look was still there.
"What do you want from my mess, Dave?" she murmured.
"You, Gloria. You."
Gloria dropped her face overwhelmed with the simplicity of his answer. She knew since last night that she wasn't imagining things, but still it was one more of the things she wasn't sure she could process fully. She was supressing her own feelings but were they mutual? How could they? What about all the other issues around? What about her, herself? How could she be worthy of someone like David? She couldn't be the person that he deserved while she had just admitted that she was failing to help herself.
He coaxed her face up with his hand on her chin.
"You mean so much to me, stella mia."
"David..." she started at a loss of words, unsure of what to say.
"Shh... We'll talk when the time comes. Not now," he pressed his fingers on her lips.
She was looking at him in the exact same way she had looked when he left for Heathrow six years ago, in that soft but unreadable way. Eventually Dave understood those incomprehensible eyes. She was forcing down words that she was afraid of voicing. They kept staring at each other, his fingers tracing her lips. Her hand reached for his cheek tentatively, probably afraid of making some wrong move all over again. For a moment Dave wondered how they had ever thought they could fight what was going on between them. But he needed her to be sure, to have a clearer head, to speak out of her real self and not out of need to get a grip. He didn't mind if his feelings got hurt, he only minded for her best.
The truth was, though, that what was going on between them wasn't built on words, but on that deep need to touch her, to kiss her, to make love to her and he couldn't resist that part completely. His mouth came closer to hers. With the first soft touch, her eyes closed. He placed slow, tender kisses on her lips and they moulded into them. His tongue sneaked on them and they parted more welcoming him in. She wasn't challenging him. She was just letting him guide her. It was like the very first kiss they had ever shared. Before her wild side had come to view, that was how she had let him in, probably because she needed him to teach her how to be cared, probably because it was her way of surrendering herself to him. He sensed a breath being released after caught in her throat for short, a breath that sounded more like a sigh of relief.
David knew everything and he was still kissing her like the most precious thing in the whole world, showing her that she wasn't as cheap and broken as she believed, not to him. Gloria gave up on all thoughts. She was always a prisoner to his ministrations. When all this ended, she would try to find the courage to explain that the way she felt for him was probably the only clear thing in the mess of her head, simply because it pre-existed it, to tell him what she wanted to tell since the morning he left for that airport, to tell him how she had never forgotten that kind author she had met so unexpectedly, she had fallen for so unexpectedly, as well, how she... And then Gloria caught herself finally thinking of a tomorrow.
"Everything is going to be alright. Everything," he whispered close to her lips, "Just don't forget yourself. You are precious, tesoro. Take care of you. OK?" and she nodded pulling him into a tighter hug.
She pressed a couple of kisses on his cheek and neck, her fingers caressing his hair, sliding under his shirt. He was rubbing her side, occasionally lifting her loose blouse and touching the soft skin, as he kissed her shoulder. They stayed like that for a while, comforting each other in their very own way. Their bodies always had a dialogue of their own. Those nights of the past, they had matched. Her body had succumbed to his. His flesh had awakened in unprecedented ways. It had nothing to do with her deprived senses or his abilities in the particular field. Their bodies had just expressed what words couldn't and even more. With a mind of their own, they had gotten attached to each other. That was why David couldn't keep his hands off her. That was why he could keep her nightmares away just by holding her hand. That was why she always talked as long as he touched her even in the simplest way. Sometimes when feelings can't get out there in any other way, they take the most basic form of all, the carnal one.
They were still lost in each other, when David's phone rang from an incoming text. He finally took his hand away reaching in his pocket for the phone, even though he could guess what it was. His time was up.
Gloria assumed the same thing. She took a breath and her mind started going back to the case. She sat looking at the wall in thought.
"What are you thinking?" he looked up from the screen, as he sat up too.
"Clear Skies..." she replied realising how ironic that sounded, "Probably Hathaway initially worked for them."
"No one knows and the guy is not talking."
"And he won't. But... He does what he does for money. But I don't think the guy is completely immoral."
"Gloria, he lured you out and then he was arrogant over it," Rossi argued.
"He plays a character," she reminded him that with people like him you can never be sure, "In private spying there are no rules and no choices most of the times. Even if you disagree with something, you know too much for them to leave you alone."
"That's why you never got into it?" he asked, she had said something about 'knowing her job market' a couple of hours ago.
"Do I look like someone that can blindly follow orders while I disagree with their purpose?" she replied half-jokingly, raising an eyebrow, "Not that I want it but I would never have the choice. Agencies can be ruthless, you know, and I am on a leash. In any way, Hathaway may be cornered to work for whom he does to save his own skin, but he doesn't really want to. What has stuck with me is that he walked willingly into an FBI building, while he could have found other ways to lure me out. I worked for Interpol and the very first rule I followed was to avoid police and authorities while undercover. Maria Lloyds' behaviour disgusted him genuinely. David, he asked almost word by word what a decent agent like you does with me," she changed the real verb that Hathaway had used.
"And that can't be the character?"
"I don't know... I just have a feeling that this man can be convinced to help us with something. Actually he is asking for it."
"Fine. If you feel that strongly, I'll talk to him again."
A soft rhythmic knock from the door interrupted him.
"That's Emily," Gloria informed him and stood up to let a much problematised Emily in.
A million thoughts were racing through Emily's head and she knew that Gloria with one look could tell that something was up. But Emily could, also, assume from her friend's swollen eyes that she had fallen asleep while crying. The walls weren't thin. Emily had slept through anything that had happened during the last hours in the room next door.
"Rossi, you are still here?" she asked in surprise, seeing the older man standing up and straightening his shirt, which was far too wrinkled for the always carefully dressed Rossi. Emily didn't need to be a profiler to figure out roughly what had taken place.
"Yeah. The fire exits of this building lead to a number of alleys, nobody is there. But I should be going anyway."
"And one more thing, Dave," Gloria rushed to speak, "Clyde will bring Malone in at some point, won't he?" Dave nodded, "Not that Malone wouldn't deserve it but don't leave him alone with the man."
Dave and Emily frowned. Was she implying that Easter could lose his temper with the snitch? David thought it was impossible. On second thought, though, Emily knew that, as it looked, Easter had been too occupied to deal with his friend's loss, at the end of the day he was a man capable of many things.
"I know what I'm talking about," she added, guessing their surprise, "Trust me on this."
"Alright," he reassured her, "Be careful both of you," he rubbed Emily's arm and then approached Gloria, his hand going to her cheek, "OK, stella mia?" he asked again more quietly.
Emily watched the scene in front of her, as it managed to take her mind away from her own problem and actually made her smile a little.
"Yeah..." Gloria breathed and closed her eyes under Dave's caring gaze.
He caressed her face with his thumb and he lingered a bit. He knew that he had to leave her, even if it hurt. He was just promising to himself that was the very last time, ever.
"Hold on," he finished and finally sneaked out of the room.
"And that's when I thought I would never see it," Emily commented.
"See what?" Gloria cleared her throat.
"David Rossi in love."
When Hotch stepped out of the parking where he met the person from Secret Service that he had finally convinced to help over an old favour, he was dumbfound. He didn't even know how to find the person that was finally in that hospital in New York. Wrong. Garcia could find anything. But the contact had to be as personal as it could be. The only person that could help with this was Ambassador Prentiss, who Emily hadn't called since she came back to the US, because she didn't want her mother around while they were settling down as a couple. Hotch didn't know if the Ambassador even knew that he was with her daughter. What a way to meet his in-laws...
"What's up with you? You look like a million of things race through your head," the redhead changed the subject quickly.
Emily got edgy again. She looked around the room. She knew it would be moments before her friend would answer her own question.
"You took the test, didn't you?" Gloria indeed said, "And it was positive."
Emily let a breath and nodded. In spite of all the circumstances, a smile lit Gloria's face.
"Hey! Congratulations, my friend!" she hugged her but Emily returned the gesture only slightly.
"Do you think considering everything that's going on around it's the best time for parties?" she said drily, sliding away and she sat on the bed.
"No. But that's good news, isn't it?" the British woman frowned.
"We are meeting Brooder in three hours."
"I am. You are not. You are leaving this precarious plan and you go back with the others and that baby's dad."
"Ria, you know very well that this can't happen. Brooder and whoever else is with her are going to make the big moves now. I can't just disappear."
Gloria balanced her friend's behaviour. Emily's reluctance to be at least a bit happy with her pregnancy had to do with something else deeper, not just the case.
"Emily, wait a moment and let's get back to the main subject. It's normal to be nervous, shocked or even scared and of course you would prefer to have learned something like this under normal circumstances, but you are far too detached. Why am I getting the idea that this behaviour hasn't only to do with the situation?"
"You are wrong," Emily murmured.
"You are talking to me out of all people."
Emily shook her head annoyed.
"I just think that everything is just too quick."
"Quick? You've been bouncing around the man you love for five years. You are finally together and you are fine. What's too quick? Mate, if you want to make family, what's more to wait? We are not thirty anymore, you know. And I am sure Hotch will be more than happy once he finds out."
"Aaron informally proposed to me before I left. He... he told me that he wants to have kids with me..."
The real problem wasn't Aaron or the time or anything else. Emily knew that Ria's words were logical. But the real problem was with her.
"Then what's really going on with you?" Gloria insisted.
Emily looked up at her. Gloria Paterson was the only person on Earth that could understand. However, in spite of whatever she had done in her life, Emily was sure that the spy had never made that particular mistake. Instead she had warned her about it and she could have never imagined how much Emily had really messed up.
"I don't know...", she tried, "It's just all these days... It's possibly the life change or the hormones of the pregnancy, finally, but I've been thinking of..."
"Of?"
"Doyle."
Gloria raised her eyebrows surprised. She wasn't expecting that answer and honestly she was getting a feeling that was to come was equally unexpected.
"You being with Hotch and Jack brought you memories of Doyle? I can get the kid's part but the rest?"
"Do you remember when I once told you back then that no man had ever thought of me as a mother for his children? Doyle did."
"This guy was leaving other mothers childless and he was looking for a mother for his own child. Twistingly touching, but not uncommon. Even monsters can show affection for their own offspring," she commented dryly, "How is that...?"
"OK! Do you wanna know? You were right that I would screw up! I fell in love with him, Gloria!" Emily finally snapped with Gloria's ability to be so straight with what Doyle was while she had gotten so confused, "I loved him! I loved Ian…"
Gloria got left speechless. She had thought that Emily had gotten confused because 'that thing with Doyle had gone so well', she had shaken her values. But 'that' could have never crossed her mind. Or probably she hadn't wanted to think that far...
Emily, in the middle of all the angry and desperate emotions, thought for a moment that probably it was the very first time Gloria realised that, no, she didn't know everything.
"I once offered to pull him out of his crimes, simply jeopardizing everything," she admitted to convince the dumbfound woman in front of her, hanging her head.
"You didn't do it. Doyle ended up in a prison and now in the ground," Gloria said as a matter of fact quietly after a long pause.
"He refused. I don't know what I would have done if he had agreed."
"The end result is what matters."
Emily looked up at her again. She wasn't expecting such a calm and passive response from the woman that was once so vocal against the operation on Doyle.
"Not even one 'I told you so', Ria?"
"I am the very last person to judge anyone for anything."
"You did judge back then and you were right."
"I wasn't judging back then but it came out the wrong way for one more time. Anyway. Emily, you are a human being. What happened to you can actually be considered normal."
"Oh don't play that card, please! Aren't you 'human'? How did you do it?" Emily finally asked directly a question that she had to ask many years ago, "How could you be so clear about the monster part and not get confused with the man part? How didn't you develop any feelings?"
"I am not an example to follow."
"Can you tell me something clear this time? How? Why?"
The redhead sat beside her. She had to tell her some truths and that time, after a decade, she could give her the proper answer. Ten years ago, Gloria was too young, she was too much into the job, too much into the chase, too much into the action, too much into everything. Honestly, if her life hadn't changed with Richard, she wouldn't have been so much against that idea about Doyle. But still, she had to hit the ground too hard and too many times for her to actually realise and verbalise not only what the job took but what it took for the job.
"For the same reason, I could never talk clearly to the man that just walked out of the room. For the same reason, even if I had feelings for Richard way before anything happened, I was screwing around nobodies. For the same reason, when we did start, we didn't start with wine and dining but with a drunken Friday, a fight and a wall," she replied dryly again, "I was thirteen and I was 'befriending' high rank gang members just to stay safe in the streets and to say it simple they weren't that kind or soft. I was used to it. On top I am completely dysfunctional when it comes to any kind of relationships, even more with romantic ones. I was never looking for any feelings. I was never looking for the man part, either. I don't know how to deal. I only looked for, I don't know, rush, illusions, sex, whatever. You are a profiler. You can understand what I am talking about."
"But you fall for men and only for the right kind of them..."
"Which self-absorbed criminal would ever put any effort on me? My issues saved me from that, not any abilities. Emily, they train us on compartmentalisation, skills and a whole bunch of bullshit. Well, we are neither a pile of boxes, nor machines. And the irony is that these who train us don't even value skills, they value people as people to do certain jobs. So let's finally put it straight. The people that go undercover to the level that you did, not just the bedding part, are either high functional sociopaths or useful screw ups, and we are screwed up in more ways than one. You? You had aspirations. You were in your way to a top job. You were looking for the right guy. You wanted a family. You wanted and you could have it all. All these years, you thought that I was against you befriending Doyle because I considered you lacking in skills, that I was judging you. It was never that. You just weren't any of these two types. And at the end you did behave like a normal human being and that's to your credit."
"To my credit? Seriously?" Emily asked in disbelief.
"Doyle didn't kill just for pleasure. He had an ideology, a completely wrong one, but one he used to justify his actions. We are quick to label him a monster on paper, but he was a human at the end, capable of the worst and the best just like any of us. You had to get close to him, to withstand him. You didn't look for his weaknesses to manipulate him. You didn't seduce him out of habit. You looked for his good side and this only means that you, yourself, wanted to stay human in the situation. You weren't an emotionless executor or an executor with issues. Don't beat yourself up so much over it."
"Ria, I forgot the purpose of my job, I enjoyed..." Emily mumbled in embarrassment.
"You got to see Doyle's white side, just like you got to see your black side. You got confused. Your feelings got mixed up. Welcome to a world of grey, Emily," Gloria stopped her, "But if I can make it any easier, he would have never had agreed to what you offered him. We both know these guys. They don't change."
Emily let a breath balancing what she was told.
"Sometimes I think what Aaron would think, if he knew."
"Judging from the fact that he is the one that once told me that everything is grey and not black and white, he would understand. Forgive yourself. Move on."
Emily nodded and. Her friend's words did make a lot of sense and did help but still needed time to sink in.
"Thanks," she said.
"I didn't do anything. I just stated the facts. And I should have done it much earlier. But I guess in your late twenties you don't want to admit that you are a rising star phenomenon because you are wired the wrong way."
"It was me that didn't listen. And I wouldn't have no matter how you had done it."
"Let it go of the past, Em. Enjoy your man, Jack and that little baby in the way. You have a bright life, a right life ahead of you," Gloria smiled softly, "You want that, don't you?"
For the first time since she had announced the news Emily smiled slightly.
"And by the way, I am an available Godmother for this baby!"
Emily smiled fully with that not just for the baby, but also becaused her friend actually talked about something happy for after that mess ended.
"Well, given the Godfather, you will certainly be!" she raised an eyebrow.
Gloria for a moment didn't understand who she was referring to, but then she did and her eyes fell to the floor for one more time. But that time the smile stayed on her lips at the thought.
"Your expression wasn't much different from Rossi's, you know."
"Emily, you know David. Do you really think that I am good for him?" she tentatively asked.
"This question already means that you do love him, Ria. What more does he need?"
Gloria opened and closed her mouth in surprise. Emily was right. But actually hearing the word that she couldn't bring herself to voice had taken her aback.
"A person with less luggage dragging around maybe..." she murmured finally.
"Agent David Rossi can put up with everything and everyone. Trust me. And judging by the way you are looking at each other since the first time I've seen you two in the same room, well... you are going to be just fine."
Gloria exhaled and licked her lips that still had David's taste on them.
"Anyway. I think I should get going for Brooder," she stopped the conversation.
"I am still coming with you. She's expecting both of us. It's going to look suspicious otherwise."
"Emily, promise me you'll back down after this."
"I promise."
Gloria knew that there was no point in insisting for her to stop on the spot. In any case, it was just a meeting, what could possibly go so wrong?
Rossi stepped in the room they had Hathaway after he was released from the hospital. Holding that guy wasn't completely legal, but he wouldn't ask for a lawyer anyway. David had read the file that Clyde Easter, who was in the observation room with Morgan, gave him just minutes ago.
They had Garcia scrutinise Malone's life and finances. Everything seemed normal at first glance, but then she had managed to trace at least two off-shore accounts on his name. He had regularly been visiting tax havens with his supposedly ex-wife. It was safe to assume that there were more off-shore accounts on her name. They had made hefty purchases, most of them on her name, too. Apparently the divorce was a cover. Since they were legally divorced these financial actions wouldn't show on any superficial check. Also, he had been in a number of galas where Blackmore was. All of that was suspicious but couldn't be regarded evidence.
"More questions for me, Agent? I thought you don't believe a word I say," Hathaway commented drily.
"Do you ever get tired of being the pawn, James?" Rossi asked casually looking at the mirror glass window, "Is only the money enough to play someone else's game, to be no more than a tool?"
"Did you come to have a philosophical discussion about ethics with me?" the younger man dismissed him, "You should better have that discussion with your colleague. She can answer, I think."
"No, I can't, because she is not a pawn. She does what she does by choice. Funny thing you mention her, though. The only reason I am here is that she believes that you are not a pawn, but a human being with a brain and opinion. I don't agree but I am here for her sake," Dave turned to him.
"That Maria managed to assume that? FBI develops its agents' imagination."
"Her name isn't Maria. Your boss missed to inform you that the person he put you up to lure isn't some FBI agent, but a top international spy," he said more firmly.
Rossi noticed Hathaway's eyebrows raise in realisation.
"Yes, that's why she 'put up that good of a show'. And you don't even lure her. She took the bait willingly. You can stop pat yourself on the back. So what is going on? Did your boss want a higher set of skills than yours or what?"
"I didn't know what she is. What makes you think I would know the reason he wants her? Is she the woman that was pulled out of the operation back in 2001?" the younger man seemed genuinely confused for the first time.
"Did you ever work for Clear Skies, James?" Rossi asked instead thinking that they were going somewhere.
Hathaway kept his mouth shut.
"Look, I don't have all the time of the world," he started losing his patience, "We both know that people like you don't like people like us. You could have done what you did without getting into our radar. You didn't hung yourself by accident."
"You can't charge me with anything," Hathaway stated arrogantly.
"Listen to me! If you're waiting for whatever contact you have in any agency to save your ass, he won't make it. We are already on him and at the end he is going to sing. And then I will have far too many things to charge you for. So if for once you want to act on your own will and not on behalf of someone else's, that's your only chance!"
The shady spy still remained silent.
"I knew there was no point in this!" Rossi headed towards the door.
"I was near that parking lot to abduct that Maria, or whatever her name is. The bomb was to keep you occupied till I had her away," Hathaway finally spoke in a deeper and lower voice than the one he used till then, stopping Rossi in his tracks.
"All by yourself? In the FBI parking?" Rossi frowned wandering if any of that was true.
"They had ordered me not to follow her around before. They had told me she had just landed from England and that she is not in very good shape to fight back. She looked unarmed and occupied. I would have done it, if you hadn't appeared."
"But you could have tried again later," Rossi noticed sitting down again.
Gloria that night had gone home eventually, alone. She had stayed home for a couple of hours. She had driven back.
"I considered to check what I was told to do. I let you come to me and I said information that I was told, see what happened. But then she appeared telling me roughly the story they had told me. So eventually I followed my orders."
"But you did question them."
"I worked for Clear Skies, Agent. I was shadowing Henry Fidget on behalf of them. It was a mission contracted by the FBI. You know your agency can't do many international operations independently but CIA was busy with 9/11 and Afghanistan."
"What was the purpose?"
"All I knew was my order to monitor Fidget's affiliations. I had assumed the main purpose was to gather information on Paradise Demons, but Fidget had other contacts too. I fed that to my superiors. The mission was unplugged, the FBI broke the contract and in a few months the whole company was shut down over some funding scandal."
"But you stayed in the same place. You were around Fidget till he was caught, three years after Clear Skies was shut down."
Hathaway folded his arms. There came the part he didn't agree to but he did it nevertheless, Rossi thought.
"At first I didn't know the mission was unplugged. Only my contact with my handler stopped suddenly. Then one day Fidget turned around and told me that he knew everything, he knew what I was doing and he wasn't alone, he had an FBI contact and a businessman with him."
"I need names, James."
"Victor Malone and Charlie Blackmore. I had to work for them or I was dead. I couldn't even go to any authorities, Malone was FBI. I had no choice."
"Was there any CEO of Clear Skies that might have gotten suspicious?" Rossi continued asking ignoring this man's excuses, "Did you notice anything related to that?"
"No, and as far as I know everyone is still alive."
Rossi had already checked that and it was true. No accidents, no sudden deaths, not even deaths of illness, all the Clear Skies CEO's were pretty much alive and kicking. Dave doubted that what Brooder had asked Gloria's alias was even close to any real plans. Pulling Gloria out back then was a wise decision, a very wise one indeed.
"Some years after Fidget was arrested, they started Black Cross and hired me there," Hathaway finished.
"Blackmore and Malone aren't involved in Black Cross."
"Malone is. He is using his ex-wife. The whole company is a cover."
David shook his head. He knew from the start that they had to dig into that business.
"I can give you the second bank account they pay me. All the details are forged. It will look like they are paying a person that doesn't exist. It's a good start for a tax evasion investigation, don't you think?" the younger man guessed his thoughts.
Rossi scanned him carefully.
"Why are you so forthcoming, James?"
"I am not doing an honest job, Agent. But normally you do it for a while, get the money and you retire. These men squashed every chance I had to finish."
"If you wanted so much to go, why didn't they get rid of you?"
"I was good at what I did and they get off on controlling people. Of course, I didn't let them realise that I wanted out that much."
Rossi thought for a moment that there was something more there but he wouldn't push it at the moment.
"Thanks for your co-operation, James, even if I still don't get your words for granted," he stood up.
"Agent Rossi, if that woman is the one from back then, I'm honestly surprised that she is left to live all these years." Hathaway added.
"Why do they want her now?" David asked the same question again and his voice sounded softer than he intended.
"I don't know, I told you. But if I was you, I would pray for her."
Nice advice from that particular man, Rossi thought. Nevertheless, he had been doing that for more than 24 hours now... Then something crossed his mind. That man had seen him and Gloria at the parking lot.
"Did you give them anything that they could use to blackmail her?" he asked hoping his fear couldn't be heard.
Hathaway smiled to the side.
"No. I didn't want to make it easy for them."
Rossi raised an eyebrow and stepped into the observation room. For ethical reasons or not, that guy had some serious issues with his forced employers. He indeed looked for a way to betray them.
"Do you believe this guy?" Morgan asked.
"We'll see what is there to believe, my friend," Rossi replied.
He looked at Easter up and down and honestly he was surprised that the British man was so calm given what was written in the file and what he had just heard. Clyde was either far too good in hiding or Gloria was exaggerating about that matter. Where was Hotch, by the way?
Hotch looked around the heavily furnished living room waiting for the secretary to announce him. He had been in that house many-many years ago, probably close to twenty. Only the room hadn't changed. He was starting as an FBI agent back then, just finished with SWAT. He was married to Haley, trying to have a baby. Emily was in Yale. He had only seen her once or twice briefly. It's weird sometimes how some people's paths cross more than once and then all of a sudden they get joined.
He was walking towards the office the moment he saw the young girl coming back.
"Good morning, Ambassador Prentiss," Hotch greeted formally and he shook her hand.
"Agent Hotchner? I was surprised that you wanted to see me urgently. Is Emily alright?" the tall and thin woman asked, obviously worried.
"Yes, Agent Prentiss is fine."
"Please, have a seat. What is the matter then?" she carried on a little more calmly.
"My visit isn't regarding Agent Prentiss, but your husband. We are trying to locate him," he got quickly to the subject sitting on the antique chair in front of the big, wooden desk, "There is the possibility Mr Prentiss is in danger. He may, also, be able to assist us with an ongoing investigation," he carried on.
Elizabeth Prentiss looked at her desk. She seemed like she was expecting news like those, it wasn't the first time anyway. But she kept her expression neutral. Hotch, for one more time, could really tell from who Emily has inherited her abilities in poker face.
"As far as I understand it is not the first time his safety is threatened. I was disclosed the reasons and they told me you are aware," he finished.
"I knew that Edward's activities all these years would raise problems. Is my daughter really safe in London, Agent Hotchner?"
Hotch thought that he should have tried to get away with a simple 'yes'. Of course telling the full truth wouldn't help anyone, but he didn't want to lie at the same time.
"Agen..." he started but then he had enough with keeping the appearance to such extent, "Emily isn't in London. She is here, on a case."
He could tell that the Ambassador was getting anxious again and actually her emotions slipped to her face.
"Is it the same case you want Edward for?"
"Ambassador, Emily is safe and I can assure you I'm doing everything in my power to keep her that way."
The older woman scanned him for a moment, probably suspecting that behind his sudden change from 'Agent Prentiss' to 'Emily' and his tone there was something going on she didn't know about. She smiled, though, so slightly that if Hotch hadn't been trained to notice every detail of human behaviour, he would have missed it.
"Edward was always cautious, probably that was why he got estranged from Emily and me. Allowing secret services to use his businesses in Middle East and Africa as a cover can bring out a lot of enemies, if something goes wrong. But since he received threats, after what almost happened in New York and while nobody knows who is behind, he has become paranoid."
"If it's an emergency, how do you contact him?"
"I have a way but I cannot share it with you. I hope you can understand."
"I just need to talk to him and time is at the essence."
"I will try but it is up to him. I will keep you posted."
"I'd appreciate that," Hotch said standing up and exchanging another handshake with the Ambassador.
"Agent Hotchner," the woman spoke again thoughtfully, "Given what went on with Emily a couple of years ago, you can see how the apple didn't fall far from the tree."
Hotch smiled a bit and nodded. The truth was that Emily Prentiss' hadn't fallen far from both of her parents' tree.
His phone rand the moment he was getting into the SUV. There was another hit to another police station, one dead, two injured that time. As soon as he finished with that call, it rang again. David filled him in in what Hathaway had said. Everything stuck. They had spoken to Malone's ex-wife, too. Apparently the divorce wasn't only a cover. There were some issues going on. After a bit of pressure she had confirmed everything. Of course, she didn't want to go down for her ex-husband's crimes and let him get away.
"Arrest Malone," Hotch ordered firmly.
"Are you sure, Aaron?" Rossi's voice asked surprised, Hotch had told them to be discrete some hours ago.
"Yes, he have to put pressure on them. This has to end quickly. But put a hold on the investigation of Black Cross."
Rossi and Clyde went to Malone's office. They guy was liaised to Interpol but he was an FBI agent. His office was in another building not very far from theirs. Victor Malone looked exactly like a high rated agent is expected to look, he had that air of a man that had given many orders in his life. He was reaching 60, his hair had turned white. His figure was rounded but in the way the well-built men gain weight with age. His suit was sharp and of top quality, tailored to fit him perfectly. 'When during a case far too many suits appear then that's a really bad case', Rossi thought sarcastically.
Malone acted as expected. He tried to deny everything, said that he had nothing to do with his ex-wife's actions or money, but once they showed him some private financial contracts between him and the woman, he asked for a lawyer.
"In any way, you are under arrest. You'll get your phone call when we get you to our premises. I would advise you, though, to co-operate," Rossi said motioning him to stand up.
"This is absurd," Malone protested without moving, probably in a bit of a shock.
Easter walked towards him and with no warning and having given no sign till that moment that he had gotten enraged, he grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, pulling him up from the chair violently. Rossi moved quickly towards them.
"What is absurd is people dying and you getting money. You'll tell me, bloody bastard, how much Rich's life was worth to you," Clyde said dangerously low, "Eh? What price did you put on him? What price did you put on Ria? You'll tell me so I know how many bullets I have to put between your eyes. And that's going to be for free."
"Easter, let him go," Rossi instructed steadily.
Clyde wasn't even breathing deeply. He was threatening the man in a completely cold blood manner. David, even warned, was taken aback.
"I want a lawyer," Malone repeated but his voice was a bit shaky. Of course he may have been powerful, but he was a bureaucrat at the end, not used to man-handling.
"Let him go," David said to Clyde again, grabbing his arm and the other man pushed Malone roughly towards the door.
"You were good at eliminating your enemies, Malone. But your very own people put the rope around your neck. It will be tied soon enough," Easter finished in his thick British accent.
Emily stopped the car outside the same restaurant they met the other time. Everything was the same apart from a black Mercedes parked around the corner of the gate. But she noticed Gloria stiffening instantly beside her.
"Ria? What is it?"
"Blackmore is here."
"And you just know it like that?" she asked in disbelief.
"You live in the jungle for long, you become an animal."
"Be a good animal, true to your instincts." ~ D.H. Lawrence
Owow... That was a long chapter... And a long-long time with no update. I'm really sorry for that but my life is a bit of a mess. But I'll try to finish this in the next months.
I put almost everything in this chapter, love, friendship, case and so on.
I know, guys, the case can get confusing. There are summaries in previous chapters. I may rewrite this story in the future to get rid of the too much information. For the moment though, please bear with me. I think I figured it out and I started to tie up loose ends.
Spoiler: Emily isn't going to back down.
Many-many thanks for reading this story! And please, let me know what you think of everything!