"Sir, we've got a red flag in Beverly Hills," Boyd stuck his head into Derek's office.
Instantly, he was out of his chair and striding out into the squad room. "On what?"
"Rubies," Erica replied, sticking a pin into the map of the country stretched out on one wall. Other pins marked where other gems from the Wolf's job had turned up, but so far none of them had led to any leads. "A few jewelry dealers have gotten their hands on rubies of an unparalleled quality. None of them will say where they've gotten them, though."
"All right," Derek nodded. "Agent Hale," Cora's head snapped up from where she was bent over a case file. "Get packed. We're going to LA."
"So why me?" she asked later on the plane.
"You want to be a field agent. You need field experience for that," he replied, settling back into his seat with the latest Dan Brown novel.
"And if I cock it all up?" suddenly, she sounded very small. Derek looked down at her and saw the scared seventeen year old that had wandered back into his life after six years.
"Cora," he let himself smile, just a bit. "You're my little sister. You're going to cock up." Her face fell, and he ruffled her hair. "What matters is what you do after you cock up."
She smiled too, then nudged his arm. "It's weird hearing you say the word 'cock'."
"You think it's weird for you? I'm the one getting to hear it coming out of my little sister's mouth," he shook his head in disbelief.
"Speaking of," she tapped her chin in a way that could mean nothing good. "What do you think of Isaac?"
"No way in hell," Derek automatically replied.
She actually pouted. "Why?"
"No office romance," he said, the tone of his voice letting her no that the conversation was over.
She shrugged. "Well, I won't be a probie for much longer and I'll be in a different division after that. I'll just wait until then."
"Cora!" he spluttered, having just taken a sip of his water.
She smiled prettily up at him, all innocence and evil thoughts. "Yes Derek?"
"No," he shook his head. "Just no."
"The man we're looking for is a fence who goes by the name 'Alpha.' He deals almost exclusively in things other fences won't touch," Derek paced at the front of the room, fifteen other agents waiting for his orders. "That, naturally, makes him a prime option for the Wolf to fence those jewels. The rubies recovered by Agent Hale match the description of those in the choker taken from Duke Lyon's vault," he allowed himself to feel a small flash of pride for Cora- she really stepped up with the jewelry dealers, doing some of the best undercover work he had ever seen. "Two agents will contact him as thieves looking to sell. The moment we have confirmation, move in."
"Sir," an agent in the back of the room spoke up. "Who will be going undercover?"
"I'll be leading the reverse myself," Derek replied, clasping his hands behind him. "I've worked with many fences over the years. I know how they operate. My probationary agent, Agent Hale, will be accompanying me. She needs the field experience, and going by how she held herself with getting answers out of the jewel dealers, I think she's the best choice." She beamed at him from her place at the side of the room, and he gave her a small nod in reply. "The word to move in will be 'business.' Don't forget, you'll be arresting me and Agent Hale in addition to Alpha. That way, we keep our cover and can use it later on if needed." He took the proffered hidden mike and clipped the pin to his jacket. Cora nodded at him, and he waved at the agents as they left the room. "See you on the other side of this."
"So you really think we can get him to flip?" she asked as they made their way down a filthy back alley.
"I think it doesn't hurt to try," he replied, knocking on the door three times, then twice, then five times. It swung open, and they slipped inside, making their way through a surprisingly neat room to a dimmer hallway. Cora raised her hand at the door on the other end, then hesitated. Derek gave her a nod and she knocked.
"Enter," an eerily familiar voice said. Derek felt his pulse quicken as he pushed past Cora, ignoring her cry of protest. He knew that voice, and he'd be damned if he didn't find out who it was. "Ah," his uncle said, looking up from his desk as his stomach had a quick introduction to his toes. "Derek. What a surprise." Peter stood up, walking around the desk with arms open wide. Derek stiffened as he was enveloped in a hug. "And Cora too! What a pleasure to finally see both of you." Derek felt his teeth grit together as Peter hugged her too. Briefly, he wondered what the agents listening in must be thinking of the whole exchange before pushing it out of his head and putting on his best nephew smile.
"I didn't know you were Alpha," he said as Peter sat back at his desk.
"Of course you didn't," his uncle smiled, wide and wolfish. "I don't make it a habit of sharing my illegal activities with my FBI nephew."
Oh.
Well, shit.
"So you know then," Derek tried not to grit his teeth again, but it was awfully tempting.
"My dear boy, I've known since you first applied to the academy," Peter pulled a sucker out of his desk and slowly unwrapped it. "And of course, I've been eagerly following little Cora's progress," he waved the sucker at her in some sort of mock salute before sticking it in his mouth. "Congratulations on the test scores. I hear they were exceptionally high."
"All right, that's enough," Derek snapped, grabbing the front of Peter's shirt and hauling him up over the desk. "Who is the Wolf and where can we find him?"
Infuriatingly, his uncle merely shrugged. "I couldn't tell you. I don't make it a habit to know clients' personal information."
"Then give us the description of the person who brought the rubies in," Cora said, seemingly unfazed by the discovery that her uncle was a fence for high end thefts. "That way, you aren't giving out any personal information, and we could have always gotten it from one of the security cameras in the Duke's mansion."
"Ooh," Peter's eyes narrowed in appreciation. "I see why you wanted her on your team, Derek. She's better than you are." Snarling in annoyance, Derek threw him back against the chair, but he just laughed. "If you ever want a job, dear," he said, addressing Cora, "just let me know."
She made a face, pulling out her notepad. "A description, if you please?"
"Very well," He leaned back, propping his feet up on the desk. "There were two of them, actually. Girls. One light haired, one dark haired. Very pretty. Very smart, too. A fence could get used to working with people like them."
"Is this a joke?" Derek shook his head. He should have seen this coming. He knew Peter was batshit crazy, but now it was certain. "The Wolf is male."
Peter shrugged, the grin back on his face. "You didn't ask for his description. You asked for the ones who brought in the rubies. They did, not him."
"Derek," Cora said, snagging his arm just before he took a swing. "There were two people that robbed the Duke, remember? One of them was female."
"So?" he growled, fixed on that bastard's grin.
"So, we can go after them too. It's still our division," she jerked his arm, forcing him to look at her. "Or are you so fixated on this guy that you can't go after anyone else?"
He stared at her for a long moment, letting her words sink in. Was he obsessed with the Wolf? He'd been chasing him for two years. Two years, where every one of his actions was dictated by one of the thief's, and everything else had slowly faded away. Catching him had long since careened past normal assignment duty into a life goal. His mentor had fallen into a trap just like it. She was the Director's sister, so obsessed with catching a serial arsonist that had struck and killed people across multiple states that she became one herself in the end. That arrest hadn't been pretty.
"Okay," he finally said, settling into the chair across the desk from Peter. "Tell us about these girls."
"Whoa, Scott," Stiles scrambled to sit upright and whacked his shoulder. "Look." He pointed at the TV. "Those girls we met are on TV."
"Whaaat?" Scott swung his head around and froze. Detailed drawings of Allison and Lydia stared back at him, along with an annoyingly well-coiffed broadcaster describing exactly what they had done to land them on the news. "Shit," he swore, grabbing for his phone.
"Dude, what are you doing?" Stiles asked as he tapped in a number. Scott shushed him and waited for the other end to pick up.
"What do you want now?" the voice drawled, tinny through the earpiece.
"Isaac, you have to stop the investigation into those girls," he replied, trying not to bite the end of his words.
"In case you haven't notice, Scott, it's my job to catch thieves," his longtime friend replied, somehow managing to sound simultaneously sarcastic and caring. "You're lucky it's not your face up there. Using Derek's uncle as your fence? Are you insane?"
"He contacted us, all right?" Scott leaned forward, trying to catch what the reporter was saying. "You have to take the bolo off them."
"I can't. Not without good reason. You know that."
"Not even for me?"
"No," his tone was so serious, even Scott had to admit that he wasn't going to budge.
"Fine," Scott sighed. "Then can you do me a favor instead?"
"What?" Isaac sounded wary, and rightfully so. The last time Scott asked for a favor, it ended up derailing Derek's investigation for half a year.
"If you get a tip, let me know before passing it on?" he asked, putting just the right amount of puppy-dog-please in his voice. Too much, and Isaac would call him on it. Too little, and it wouldn't work.
There was a long pause. "Fine," Isaac finally said, letting out the word in a whoosh of breath. "But what do I get in return?"
"Eternal gratitude?"
"Give him a kiss!" Stiles called from where he eavesdropped on the couch.
"Shut up," Scott tossed his way before turning back to the phone. "I can give you a cut of our profit."
"I'm not taking bribes, Scott," Isaac said, words landing heavily in his ear. "Just promise me that you'll retire soon. All right?"
"Fine," Scott sighed again, both of them knowing that he would probably end up in prison before he retired. "I'll retire soon. Just let me know any tips you get, all right?"
"Yeah, sure," his friend suddenly sounded bored, a sure sign that another member of his team was in the room.
"Thank you. You won't be sorry," Scott promised, then hung up.
"So, why the sudden interest?" Stiles asked in his best mom-like tone.
Scott gave him a pointed look. "You know you sound nothing like my mom, right?"
"Yeah, yeah," Stiles waved the words away, perching on the back of the couch to stare at him expectantly. "You've never been interested in any other teams until now. Why this one?"
"I dunno," Scott replied, knowing exactly why. Her perfume still clung to him, light and flowery.
"Liar," Stiles grinned. "It's that girl, isn't it?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Scott shrugged, turning back to his book.
"It is her!" Stiles fell back laughing. "The great Wolf, brought down by a girl. Too funny."
"I haven't been 'brought down'," Scott shot back, annoyance creeping over him. "She just… intrigues me."
"Intrigues, intoxicates, turns on…" Stiles started to list.
Scott threw a pillow at him. "Shut up."
Stiles only grinned as he went back to his show. Scott opened his book again, trying to ignore the phantom brush of dark curls against his face. But she was still there, a wide grin hiding in the soft lines of her mouth as she dropped him. There weren't many that could do that. He could count the times he'd been forced onto his back on one hand, but this girl did it as easily as breathing. Literally swept off his feet. He had to chuckle at the thought. Still, the feel of her under him, the lithe muscles in her arms tensing as she tried to shake him off haunted his hands. Girls in this business were rare enough. Attractive ones were a treasure.
His phone buzzed, snapping him out of his daydream. A text from Isaac flashed across the screen, sending Scott to his feet. "Stiles," he snapped, his friend jerking around to listen. "Get your stuff. We're moving."
"What? Why?" Stiles asked, scrambling to his feet, but Scott wasn't listening. Lydia had just been spotted shopping in Malibu, Allison in tow. It was time to move.