Reckless

Chapter 18

By the time Toni walked into the conference room, she'd chugged the rest of her coffee and fully prepared herself to concentrate on the case. She was an expert at compartmentalizing her personal life from her work. Having her personal life literally sitting at the table was making it a little harder than usual. But still, she only snuck a brief glance in Spencer's direction before she turned her focus to the video on the screen. Or rather, the sequence of videos.

A scantily clad woman ran from house to house, desperately begging the homeowners for help. Each one of them called the police, but none of them were bothered enough to actually help the woman. Toni didn't really blame them. She'd seen enough to know suspects often used the same ruse to gain access to people's homes. But in this case, it appeared that the woman was actually in danger. She'd been reported missing by her friends. And in the last video, there was footage of her being grabbed and dragged away by a man in a hooded jacket.

Toni's first assumption was that the man who grabbed the woman was her boyfriend. He probably hurt her. And he might be holding her somewhere. She might already be dead. But a case of domestic gone bad wasn't generally something the FBI would consider serious enough for them to become involved in. Local police could handle something like that.

Like cases often did, just when Toni thought she had it figured out, the evidence took a weird turn. While the police were out looking for the missing woman, they found two more bodies. One was only a month old. But the other they were estimating to be at least three years old. The older body had yet to be identified. But the newer one was the body of a known prostitute. The missing woman also looked to have been working the streets when she disappeared.

Toni listened as the team began to discuss what little evidence they had. Three years was a long time for a suspect to go dormant. Especially given that he took two women only a month apart. Penelope was going to run a search for anyone that was incarcerated during that time. But Toni had her own opinion about the unsub's supposed cooling off period. Her guess was that there wasn't one. He was killing women that no one would miss. He'd probably been at it for longer than three years.

"I think we're about to be rolling in dead hookers," she lamented. Toni rolled her eyes. Cases with victims whose illegal activities got them killed were her almost her least favorite to work, second only to vigilante killers. She hated arresting people for doing things that she wished she could do. Like killing pedophiles.

"Just because she's a working girl, doesn't mean she deserved this," JJ said, ticking her head towards the photo of the woman with the cherry tattoo on her breast.

"No one deserves it," Toni agreed. "But if you go to a cow farm, you're gonna smell cow shit." She gathered her files back into her folder as she explained her analogy. "These women knowingly put themselves in danger. She didn't choose this. But she chose to get into a car with a stranger and put herself at risk. I think there's other people out there that could use our help, that's all." The truth was, she'd rather be chasing down Peter Lewis than a missing prostitute.

"If your personal feelings about this case are going to be an issue," Hotch offered, "You're welcome to sit this one out."

"I don't sit out," Toni countered, rising from her seat with her folder in hand. It was clear from her tone that she didn't appreciate Hotch's implication any more than he appreciated her talking about cow shit at his conference table. She extended her arm, pointed at him with the corner of the file folder as her voice rose. "...and you better believe I'll still catch this pervert for you no matter who he's killing. I always get my mark!"

Hotch was a master at masking his emotions. But even he couldn't hide the tiny whisper of an amused smile that played at the corners of his lips. "In that case, let's go," he announced. "Wheels up in thirty."

Toni rode the elevator down with the rest of the team, taking care not to stand close to Spencer. She also made sure to exit the elevator before him, putting a little extra swish in her hips as she headed towards her car in her tight skirt. Toni could hear footsteps close behind her. But since she assumed it was Spencer, she intentionally ignored them until she reached her car. Turning, Toni was surprised to find that it was another member of the team that was following her.

"Hey." JJ offered her a smile with her greeting. "Do you want to ride over to the airport together?" Truth be told, Toni was hoping to drive over with Spencer. This was the only sliver of privacy they were likely to get for the foreseeable future. She quickly scanned the area, catching his eye. She guessed he had the same idea, because he was lingering near the backdoor of Hotch's SUV, casting a longing glance at her before he climbed inside.

"Sure," Toni agreed. "...but I'm driving." JJ smiled and nodded her agreement before she crossed the garage and retrieved a rolling suitcase from the hatch of her vehicle. Toni popped her trunk for JJ before she climbed behind the wheel of her car.

Toni always drove like she was late for her own wedding. And this was no exception. JJ didn't comment on her nascar quality lane changes. But Toni noticed that she tightened her seatbelt before she opened her mouth to say whatever it was that she planned to say when she made her friendly ride sharing offer.

"I'm sorry if I offended you before, in the conference room," JJ said.

Toni puffed a soft snort of air out her nose, following it with a smile. "I wasn't offended by anything you said. Trust me, If you offend me, you'll know," Toni joked.

"Note taken," JJ teased back. There was a quiet pause. One that Toni knew was going to be followed by what her new colleague really wanted to say. And she just prayed it wasn't about Spencer. Because the situation with Penelope was about all the office drama she could take for the day.

"What you said about the victim choosing this…," JJ said. "It seemed like that might have come from personal experience."

Toni sighed. Working with profilers all day was going to take some getting used to. No one on the task force ever wanted to talk to her about her feelings. But it wasn't as uncomfortable as she would have expected. Toni could tell JJ's question came from a place of concern.

Toni didn't enjoy talking about her childhood. But her past wasn't a secret either. It was all right there in her file if someone had the notion to dig deep enough. "My mom was a working girl," Toni admitted. "Not an on the corner type. She worked at a gentlemen's club." When Toni said the word gentleman, her voice was dripping with sarcasm. She doubted any real gentleman would step foot into a place like that. "But in the end, it's really all the same thing. She bounced from man to man, clinging to whichever one of them was stupid enough to hang around and pay her bills. Sometimes we had food in the house, sometimes we didn't."

"She eventually ran into the wrong guy?," JJ guessed. Toni nodded. It had been years since she saw her mother when the woman's body was found. Toni was in college at the time. Her oldest brother Miguel told her not to come home. He said her semester finals were more important. He quietly paid to have their mother's body cremated. There wasn't a funeral service. She was killed outside a local bar and left in the trunk of a stolen car. The police were more worried about finding the owner of the vehicle than they were about finding her mother's killer. Not that Toni blamed them. Like the FBI, they probably had more important things to worry about than one dead prostitute.

Twenty five minutes later, Toni was pulling her go bag out of the trunk of her car. There was still a short walk towards the tarmac where the BAU's private jet was parked. But the wind was already whipping her perfectly curled hair around her face. She pulled it out of her eyes, using the elastic around her wrist to secure it away from her face. Toni was slapping her trunk shut when she heard a familiar voice.

"Ramirez!"

She turned, giving Luke a wave and a look of confusion. She wasn't expecting to see him. And his sudden presence caught her off guard. He called her over the weekend, but she didn't call him back. Partly because she was on the phone with Spencer. And partly because she was avoiding the dinner invitation she agreed to. Now that she knew he'd been with Penelope all weekend, Toni was feeling even more guilty about not returning his call.

"I heard the BAU was down a few members," Luke explained, smiling as he approached. "So I volunteered to fill in." He reached forward, snagging Toni's packed duffle from her hands and slinging it over his shoulder like it weighed nothing at all. Luke slung an arm around her shoulders and started walking them both towards the plane. His dog was trotting alongside them. Toni cast a nervous glance at Spencer, cringing at the look of shock on his face as he climbed from Hotch''s car. "This is going to be great," Luke announced. "My first case back and I get to work it with you."

All Toni could do was shake her head and laugh before she agreed with him. "Just like old times."