Reckless
Chapter 6
Toni barely had time to change out of her undercover clothes and wipe the dark smudge of eyeliner from her eyes before she was boarding the BAU's private jet. She tried her best to act nonchalant. But in reality, she wished she could run around pressing every button like a teenager in a limo on the way to prom. The task force always flew commercial.
Toni's phone was buzzing in her pocket, notifying her of all the texts that were coming in from her team. They ranged in content from congratulations to be safe and even one that said he hoped the case went badly so she wouldn't leave her current position. That one made her smile, and she glanced up from her phone to see Spencer watching her with curious interest. The feel of his eyes on her made her stomach flip. Toni quickly looked down, clearing her throat as she tucked her phone away.
The only member of the team that Toni hadn't been formally introduced to was a slim blonde woman. She offered her full title and name first, SSA Jennifer Jareau. It was followed quickly with a soft smile and permission to call her JJ like everyone else. Only about twenty five percent of FBI special agents were female. Toni was used to being the only woman on her team. Having another woman around helped to put her at ease. She slid into the spot next to JJ, hoping that she wasn't taking someone else's preferred spot.
During the plane ride, they were updated on the case. This didn't take long, given that there wasn't much information yet to disclose. The team's technical analyst, who Toni found rather amusing despite the situation, sent over everything she could dig up on the previous murders. Looking at those images made Toni sick, especially when they got to the crime scene photos of Daniel Cullen's last victim. She turned away from the tablet in JJ's hands. Toni was there. She didn't need to see photos, especially of Luke's mangled face and naked bloody torso.
Toni was supposed to be the undercover agent on that case. Luke volunteered because he thought it was too dangerous for her. Everything that happened to him was supposed to happen to her. The guilt still hung heavy on her conscience, even though Toni knew that the only person to blame for what happened was Daniel Cullen himself.
Sleep didn't come easily to Toni no matter where she was. But she leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes, trying to clear her mind for the upcoming hunt. When they landed, Hotch sent her to the hospital with JJ. Toni wasn't sure if she was relieved or disappointed that she wasn't partnered with Spencer. She told herself that it was for the best. Given the nature of the case, her emotions were already all over the place. She didn't need the extra distraction of whatever was or wasn't going on between them.
When they got to the hospital, Toni let JJ take the lead. The victim was a young man named Brian Phillips. When JJ showed him a picture of Cullen on her tablet, Brian confirmed that Cullen was the one who attacked him. He showed them the markings on his midsection. As he began to recount his attack in more detail, Toni felt her phone vibrating against her hip.
Toni slipped her phone out of her pocket as discreetly as she could. She was planning to decline the call. But when she checked the screen, she realized she was going to have to take it. Her son's school was calling. It might be nothing. But if he was seriously injured or missing and she didn't answer the phone, Toni would never forgive herself.
"I'm sorry, I have to take this," Toni explained, casting a quick glance at JJ before she hurried from the exam room.
Toni lifted the phone to her ear as fast as she could, offering a nervous greeting to whoever was on the other end of the line. She was expecting her son's teacher. But instead, she found herself in the proverbial principal's office. Which was also where her son was currently being housed.
"What's going on?," Toni asked. "Is Romeo okay?"
The principal had an abnormally high pitched voice. Toni could never tell if it was from talking to children all those years or just something that came naturally. Either way, the woman was annoying.
"He's perfectly fine," the principal declared. "I wish I could say the same for the other children he was tormenting on the playground."
Toni groaned, burying her face in her free hand as she asked, "What did he do this time?" She wasn't even sure she wanted to know. Knowing her son, it was something creatively horrible. Unfortunately, Romeo just wasn't built for the public education system. They didn't know what to do with him. He was reading at a high school level and doing college math before he entered kindergarten. He spoke two languages, three if she was counting sign language as a separate language. The teacher was expecting him to sit at his desk and trace letters with a crayon. He was bored. Toni enrolled him in public school because she thought he needed to learn to socialize with his peers. Gifted or not, she wanted Romeo to make some friends that he could do normal kid things with. She wanted him to play sports and attend birthday parties. Sports were going well. He loved soccer and karate. But he'd yet to be invited to any parties.
"He brought a package of cat treats to school in his backpack," the principal chided. Toni wrinkled up her nose. If this high pitched heifer was interrupting her murder investigation for some cat treats, she was not going to be happy. But on the plus side, at least her son didn't stuff the neighbor's cat in his bag like the last time. "He stuck them in his pocket and took them out onto the playground," the woman said, continuing on more slowly than necessary with her story. Toni fought back the urge to tell her to get to the fucking point already. "While they were at recess, Romeo took the treats out and offered them to his classmates. As if feeding cat food to other children wasn't bad enough, once they were finished, your son convinced all of them that the treats were going to turn them into cats. He said when they laid down to sleep tonight, they'd wake up in the morning as cats. And that all cats used to be children that went to this school." Toni was helpless to stop the laugh that snorted out of her. But her son's principal was not impressed. "Miss Rameriz, this is no laughing matter. I have a dozen crying children outside my office."
"Put my son on the phone," Toni demanded. She was sure the woman wasn't finished with her tirade. But Toni's tone left no room for argument. She could hear a shuffle as the woman ushered her son over to her desk and handed him the phone.
"Hi mommy!," he chirped. Toni smiled, though she was careful to keep the amusement out of her tone. What in the actual fuck was he thinking, doing some shit like that, she thought. And where did he get a bag of cat treats? They didn't even have a goddamn cat.
"Hi mommy indeed," Toni scolded. "What in the world have you been up to? Why would you do something like that? Romeo! I send you to school to make friends. That is not how we treat our friends."
"I didn't mean to make everyone cry," Romeo admitted. And to his credit, he did sound like he was sincerely sorry about upsetting the other kids. Not that it would stop him from doing some other nonsense next week. "It's boring here."
"We talked about that," Toni reminded him. "We made a plan together. What are you supposed to do when you're bored at school?" If he was bored at school, Romeo was supposed to read. She spent two hundred freaking dollars at Barnes and Nobles before she left to work this case. Not that it did her any good.
"But I already finished my books," he lamented.
"Romeo, there's no way you read the entire Lord of the Rings in a week," Toni argued. It took her a month to finish that trilogy. And she was a grown ass adult.
"I did!," he declared, his voice going high and whiny in the way that meant he was telling the truth. Nothing upset him more than being accused of lying when he wasn't.
"Okay. Okay!," Toni agreed. "I believe you. But if you already read your books, you're just going to have to start over at the beginning and read them again." Toni paused, waiting to see if her son was going to object to her instructions. He didn't like reading the same thing twice, not unless it was something that really captured his attention. She had to keep her crime novels out of his reach.
"Okay mommy," he agreed. "When are you coming home?"
Toni sighed, guessing that her absence and not his boredom was the real cause of her son's misbehavior. She'd been working more than usual lately, with the manhunt in progress. Her son was perfectly safe and happy with Toni's live-in nanny, who was also her cousin. But he still missed his mom, just like she missed him when she was away.
"As soon as I can," Toni promised, feeling the hard pull on her heartstrings. "I'll call you at bedtime, okay mi amor?"
"Okay mommy," he repeated. "Te amo."
Toni repeated the Spanish words for I love you before her son handed the phone back to the principal. The woman seemed to have cooled down as she listened to Toni talk to her young son.
"I'm going to have him apologize to his friends," the principal explained. "...and then I'll take him over to the high school library for some new books." Toni breathed a sigh of relief and thanked the woman profusely. They exchanged a few more words, but it was all things Toni heard from the woman before. The principal believed Romeo ought to be attending a special school for the gifted. But that didn't come cheap. Two years later, Toni still owed a lot of money from her divorce. During their brief marriage, her ex was kind enough to rack up nearly fifty thousand dollars in her name. And with the money Toni still owed her worthless divorce lawyer, unfortunately private school was out of the question at the moment.
Toni slid her phone back into her pocket. She scrubbed her face with her hands and sighed. When she turned, intending to head back into the exam room, she found JJ standing there with a questioning look on her face.
"You've got kids?," she asked. Toni nodded, confirming that she did indeed have a child.
"I've got one. Romeo. He's five years old," Toni said. She let out another sigh of frustration. "That was his principal on the phone. I guess he decided it would spice up the day if he scared all the other kids by making them think they were going to turn into cats."
"What?," JJ asked. She was unable to stop the laugh that bubbled out of her. "Cats? Why on earth?" Toni had no answer. All she could do was shake her head. "They called you during a case for that? They couldn't call his father?" Her son's school knew to call Will first. Will worked too. But at least he worked in the area. JJ couldn't exactly drive over to the school on a whim. Not when she was halfway across the country working on an active investigation.
"His father isn't involved," Toni replied. Her tone was clipped, making it clear she wasn't interested in discussing her personal life any further. The last thing she needed was people on the BAU asking questions about her son. What Toni needed to do was get this case moving so she could go home and deal with her personal life. Toni gestured towards the exam room door. "Did he tell you anything else?"
"Not really. His pain medicine was kicking in. We'll have to come back later."
"Maybe he'll be ready to tell us the truth then," Toni suggested. JJ raised a brow at her, hoping for a further explanation. As far as she could tell, their victim didn't appear to be dishonest. His memory of the events was foggy. But that was normal after such a traumatic experience. JJ gestured for Toni to elaborate on her theory.
"Daniel Cullen is a sadist that gets his rocks off carving people up. He raped and tortured his victims for days." Toni paused. She took a deep breath, pushing the horrifying images of Cullen carving Luke Alvez's eye out from her mind before she continued. "The cuts on that guy's chest and stomach were scratchy and shallow. He was released right after they were made. He wasn't sexually assaulted. And he doesn't fit the victimology. All of Cullen's victims worked for social services. He believed they were behind some sort of government child trafficking conspiracy…"
"That's right, you worked the original case didn't you," JJ said. Rossi and Hotch consulted on the case. But the task force handled it. "You think this might be a copycat?"
"I'm not sure what I think yet," Toni admitted. Her mind was swirling with a thousand different possibilities. It might be her own paranoia, but this felt personal. Whoever cut that young man up, it wasn't The Crimson King. But the person that did it had to be familiar with that case. And that meant the unsub probably knew she had a personal vendetta against the man he was impersonating. She knew the letters on the man's chest said BAU, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she was the one being drawn into a trap.
