Games We Play

GAMES WE PLAY

By

Isabelle Arocho

Isabellearocho.com

Copyright © 201
2
ISABELLE AROCHO

All rights reserved
.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s mind and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organization, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

License Notes

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold
or edited in anyway
. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

I SBN-10: 1480189154

ISBN-13
:
978-1480189157

Novels by Isabelle Arocho

DECEPTIONS

BLOOD SINS

SINFULLY DEPARTED

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Prologue

Her heart raced

Sasha Madden’s back was flat against the paneling, her gun tight between her hands, and her breat
h shallow as she waited for the
right moment
that
would either end this long night or add to the blood shed.

The once unidentified subject, Ronald Kellermen, was holding a small group of women hostage ranging from two teenagers and three others much younger. It was a very sensitive matter and her boss wasn’t willing to take any risks.  Ronald had already killed over eight kids spanning over the last five years, and until recently there had been no evidence to link him to the murders.

She could see Ronald from where she was stationed but the man was smart hiding behind the girls and different pieces of furniture.

Her heart rate continued to quicken.

Sasha wasn’t sure why Pete put her in the front,
she wasn’t a supervisory agent—SSA—
or even an agent with the most experience on the team. She was however a hell of a shooter and with SWAT still fifteen minutes out she was their best option.  Sweat rolled down her temple, her bullet proof vest felt like twenty pound weights on either side of her back and che
s
t, yet her hands were steady waiting.

“Madden.” Her heart stopped its racing track at the sound of Nicholas McBain’s voice over the intercom. Her fell
ow
teammate was waiting for her to fail and call for
his
help.

Sticking it to Nick was just another reason why she had to find that perfect moment to subdue Ronald Kellermen. “Yes, sir?” she was careful not to be heard or seen
from the small
industrial air duct she was hidden in. The big burst of air flowing down into the room helped conceal her voice even farther.

“Do you have an opening?”

“Negative. Leave me alone, Nick.”

He chuckled. “Pete has something to tell you. Try not to turn forty waiting there.”

Her need to groan and curse Nick quickly faded at the sound of Pete Truman’s caring tone. Unlike her teammate her boss wasn’t waiting for her to fail, from the very beginning Pete supported her. In a lot of ways he was the only father figure she had known. “There was an accident on the highway and SWAT is still in route. How’s it going?”

“He’s frantic but not making any mistakes. The girls are scared but all ok.” She knew they couldn’t keep waiting. Every second put them all closer to unnecessary danger.

“We’re trying to make contact.”

“The phone is off the hook. He doesn’t want to talk to us.”  She watched Ronald pace back and forth behind the two teenagers. He was tense and wired for an error. “I’m going to talk to him.”

Nicholas jumped back on the line. “Sasha, no—”

“I can do this.” Something deep in her gut told her if something didn’t happen the man was going to snap and kill those young girls with that large rifle he was clutching to his side. The case files were very present in her mind’s eye and she knew he’d kill those girls and enjoy it like the others. She tried aga
in to find an angle to get a sh
ot off but little Megan Dyer was in the way and there was no way she could take the risk of shooting an eleven year old. “Ronald Kellermen.”

He stopp
ed pacing and grew very still while
his dark eyes searched for where her voice was coming from. “Who’s there?”

“My name is Sasha and I’m trying to get those girls home safe. What’s it going to take for that to happen?” Pete had always taught her to play the game and with a suspect like Ronald
,
stroking his ego and making him believe he was in control did just that.

“You don’t have anything I want.”

“I’m sure that’s not true. I spoke to your wife today, Maryanne.” Mrs. Kellermen filing for divorce had been the stressor to send Ronald from an organized killer into a frantic mass kidnapping bigger psychopath that finally led to a break in the long case. “She’s worried for you and doesn’t want to see you hurt.” Sadly that was the truth.

“If she cared so damn much she wouldn’t have left me.”

“I spoke to her for hours and there was no way she was faking the love she has for you. She’s outside with the cops waiting to see you.” Another truth. “All you have to do is hang up that phone and I can prove to you she’s here.”

It was easier for Ronald to hang up the phone and wait for a call than it would’ve been to try and convince him to let the girls go or let Sasha come in. “You better not be lying to me.” The man said with a chilling edge, his rifle clutched tighter to his side as he went and hung up the phone.

“Of course not. My team is getting her now.” Sasha lay flat on her belly and aimed her SP-57 pistol at a slanted angle to where Ronald stood waiting away from his human barricade. Nicholas, Pete, and the rest of their backup were listening in to her conversation with Ronald and like clockwork the landline started to ring.

As Ronald lowered his defenses to talk to the woman he always regarded with all the care in the world and wouldn’t want to worry, Sasha pulled the trigger. The girls screamed but they were untouched by the shot and blood spatter that flew from Ronald’s head.

Sasha got on her knees in the crouched space and shoved her foot down to open the duct. “It’s ok, I’m with the FBI.” She announced before jumping down to join the scared children. “He’s not going to hurt you anymore.” Her heart rate finally started to slow.

Chapter 1

Sasha sat alone in the locker room listening to the faint drop of water coming from the sink. It had a leak and three weeks later it was still waiting to be repaired. All the girls were back home safe and Ronald Kellermen was in the morgue. It was a good night and yet her hands wouldn’t stop shaking. Waiting to take out the bad guy her hands were steady, consoling those girls and the family members who hadn’t been as lucky she was steady as a rock. Now alone she couldn’t fake it. She was a shaking leaf.

Ronald Kellermen was the first person she had ever killed.

It was much different than training at the firing range or during all the exercises the bureau cooked up to sharpen their agents’ skills. There was a lot more blood in the real world.

She didn’t regret killing Ronald, oh no he deserved death ten times over. What she couldn’t shake was the weight of it hanging over her shoulders and how it stained her hands to the point they wouldn’t stop shaking.

“Hey.”

She looked up from her hands to find Nicholas standing a few feet across from her. Her back went ridge
d
and she lowered her hands to rest by her thighs out of sight. “Yeah?”

Nicholas was a tall man at 6’3 with a head full of dark black hair. His eyes were also dark with a navy type of blue hue she noted on several occasions when they stood close enough for her to see. Sitting as far as she was now his eyes looked almost brown. “Pete’s waiting for the debriefing. Are you all right?” Nick had been a profiler with the behavioral unit before joining Pete’s team and sometimes he noticed a little too much
,
seeing things differently from the rest of them. 

“I’m fine.” She stood from the bench and walked over to the leaky faucet to wash her hands. “I thought everyone went home for the night.”

“I like to be the last one to leave.”

“So you can get a jump start on the rest of us?”

“Something like that. You know it pains me to say this but you did good tonight.” Over the last year they had been in a personal competition with one another. Sasha couldn’t tell you how it started but from the moment she and Nicholas laid eyes on one another a feud began to always try to best each other. He was much more experienced on the field and in the office but that didn’t stop her from showing him up a few times. 

For that split second she smiled and forgot about Ronald’s blood dripping down the walls. “I’m surprised you didn’t choke
on those words but thanks.” Sasha
followed him out of the locker room and to the elevator up to Pete’s office.

Peter Truman was the unit chief of the violent crimes subdivision spun from the criminal investigation division or CID.  His subdivision of
five
agents lent a helping hand in-house with the bureau when they were short handed or if local police departments needing FBI assistance on the crimes CID specialized in; violent, financial, organized, public, corruption, and drug related. Just about everything, Pete likes to joke. But their main focus was and always would be violent crimes such a serial killers, complex murders, vicious attacks on numerous victims.

Pete himself was a special man or at least he was to those that knew him. Outsiders like to criticize. Pete was
a
forensic
psychologist
, joining the bureau after obtaining his degree, and even highly respected there were numerou
s whispers
behind his back for the unethical train of thought he tended to have, and yet nonetheless he was good at what he did
. He knew how
to read people and how to add that to the very big puzzle crime always had.

Sasha smiled at the sight of her boss. “If you keep staying this late Dana is going to send those search dogs you adopted to find you and drag you home.” She pull
ed out a chair and sat across f
r
o
m him at the large conference table.

“My wife is a very understanding woman.” Pete said with all the pride in the world.

“She has to be.” Nicholas grinned. “I saw your assistant dropping off more files. Do we have a new case? Noah and Wayne are still in Texas wrapping up that cartel bust and Gage is still assisting white collar.”

“It’s nothing we have to address tonight. I’m still getting the details in order from the liaison. Sasha, I need your official statement and recount of tonight’s events before we can close the file.” Pete explained gently as he pushed the play button on the recorder. 

Sasha put on her best game face and let her emotions fall to the wayside. She detailed the moment she crawled inside the air shaft, when she locked eyes on Kellermen and the painful minutes it took of waiting for that right moment that never came. She explained she knew time was running out for the young girls and made a choice to address Kellermen. Lastly came the moment she fired her gun. Pete was regarding her with a tender stare. Did he know about the blood she saw when her eyes closed for that millisecond it took to blink? “The shot was text book. There’s really nothing else to say.” She finished off her detailed account of her night.

Pete pressed down on the stop button and watched as the tape whirled to a stop. “This job holds a lot of responsibility and that can weigh heavily on the heart.”

She smiled weakly; of course her boss noted her horrendous coping skills. “I don’t regret killing Kellermen. I played the game just as you taught me and won against the opponent. There’s nothing to fret over.” Those were the correct words to say but deep down she didn’t believe them, not yet anyhow. It was an ugly truth but she was going to have to feel this and go through the motions. Taking a human life wasn’t as exciting and clean cut as action movies and thrilling fiction painted. If she felt nothing she’d be just as bad as the killers they locked up.