Page 28 of The Hunted
One you keep repeating.
This latest mistake was after a late night with too much to drink and eat and being left alone.She regretted it the second she woke up in his bed, knowing he’d never let her forget the way he made her body feel.
Another notch on his bedpost.
She was the smartest person in here. She had all her degrees in psychology and human behavior to prove it, and yet she succumbed to the likes of him, repeatedly.
And he isn’t even the one you want.
“Hey, Benson,” Bates nodded toward the empty seat but she hesitated, wondering if Martin was going to stick around. Why was he even here? He had his interview already.
“I was just catching up with Martin about the cases.” She nodded at him. “Thank you for the information, you’re good to go.” Bates’ smile was tight.
Martin stood, keeping his eyes on her. He wore a smug smile that made Amra’s hands twitch, wishing she could smack it off his face. She felt like a bug under his slow appraisal. She fought to keep herself still and not squirm because she knew he remembered where all her imperfections were. How she felt when he kissed her in his favorite spots and how she tasted after he’d been inside of her.
Her body flushed hot at the memories. Her mind may have hated the idea of the two of them together, but it had been so long since she had the affections of someone that her body was all too eager to dip back into the way he had made her feel.
Martin lost a little of his smugness and glanced back at Bates. “For the record, before I leave, I want to reiterate what happened today and who we are after, it can’t be any of us here.” He turned fully to lean over the table and Amra had to bite back her sigh.
He always used his height as an advantage, whether for the benefit of the woman he wanted in bed or as an intimidation tactic, he made sure to always appear larger than he was. It was his way to make up for the things he lacked.
And yet you still slept with him.
The thought rankled her. She promptly ignored it. She kept her attention on the two people in the room and the case they had been discussing.
“That note was just to get under our skin and make us second guess ourselves and look like idiots,” Martin continued. “If we’re busy suspecting each other, how much easier would it be for the unsub to continue to get away with what they’re doing? We’ve been after this Poet Killer, dumb ass fucking name by the way, for a little over five years now?” He glanced back at her and she nodded her confirmation, surprised he paid attention to the details.
“And now all of a sudden,” he turned back to Bates, “they’re suggesting they’re one of us?” Martin scoffed. “I don’t buy it and neither do you. We’ve all been on the same team for years. I’m pretty sure something would have come up by now.”
But it did. Santino Alvarez, Amra mused. She’d been skeptical about him since their little makeshift team formed. She hadn’t said anything because no one else saw what she felt. No one else seemed to see that he wasn’t quite right. For some, it was easy to pretend to be like everyone else to fit in. We all wore some version of a mask, of armor as a means to protect ourselves from the cruelty of the outside world.
People like Santino and who they hunted were no different. They knew how to blend and mesh with everyone else. It made it easier to go in for the kill.
Martin knocked his knuckles against Bates’ desk before he turned and walked out. His gaze lingered on Amra’s body a second longer than she liked but he left without comment. Her mind mulled over how he always reacted around her. It made her wonder if he saw the way her body responded to his.
Why couldn’t you have been someone else?
She blanched at the thought and refocused on what he said and not the way her body tingled. It was an intelligent assessment on his part. If they were becoming suspicious of their fellow man or woman, it would be all too easy to miss facts or assign what they thought they knew to people they believed fit their narrative. It would make for a hostile work environment while the UNSUB continued to get away with murder.
And it would work too if they were with any other organization and hadn’t built years around each other. Plus, there weren’t enough facts on the case. The only thing they had to go on were the notes left behind that had changed over time. They had gone from creepy nursery rhymes to aggressive hatred, and now they were calling out the lack of justice for those who had done wrong.
“I hate this.” Bates grabbed her coffee cup, brought it to her lips and stopped. The liquid was likely cold by now. She always grabbed cups of black coffee and left them around the office, probably because she was always pulled away to something or another.
She leaned back in her chair. “I don’t want to believe it but between your theories, and looking over the notes again, it makes sense for it to be one of us.” She took a sip of her coffee and grimaced. “Martin’s point is still valid, which makes your theories harder to pin down. I do have a glaring question, though.”
“Which is?” Amra wondered where Bates’ mind was going.
“Why now? What is significant about now?” she tapped her fingers against her desk.
“Did the unsub happen to stumble upon information or see something we missed? And if so, how? There’s something that we’re all missing that will connect everything,” she continued. “Nova Springs is important but why? Anything I’ve researched comes up pretty empty.”
Huh, that’s interesting.
“How did your interviews go?” Bates’ questioned, easily shifting the conversation.
Amra shrugged, taking her time to try and fill in the empty spaces Bates talked about. She’d done her own research on Nova Springs and Santino Alvarez and hadn’t found a connection she could use to follow up on or present her case. She couldn’t do anything without proof and short of following the man around, she didn’t think she was going to find anything.
“I think they went well. I have a few outliers that are red flags.” She shook her head, knowing those red flags were more asshole traits and not serial killer traits. “But I need to go over some notes and whatnot before I present my findings. This is a serious matter, after all, and the last thing I want to do is shed my theories and be wrong. I’ll be back.”
