Games We Play (3 page)

“No, Maggie is going to go home to Maple Oaks with her husband…” she flipped to the back of the file. “Connor
,
and they’ll be the ones telling the story.” She dropped her hands to her lap and wiped her sweaty palms across her pants. “I’m going to catch up on my reading.” It would be easier to read the case files without him watching her every move. She left the conference room and made her way through the maze to her desk.

First she went over the victimology of the 7Xs killer. It was an odd name but as she read on about the mysterious unsub she saw why he had been labeled as such. His MO always coincided with the number. He always killed in cycles of seven and this year would be the seventh cycle and why it was profiled he was going back to where his first cycle began. It was all very ritualistic and there were long detailed notes and profiles on the unknown man they had been tracking for exactly twenty one years. The behavioral unit upstairs was working hand and hand with the Marshals.

Next Sasha read over what they had on Maggie Walker and her husband, they wouldn’t be anywhere near the unsub but it would be easier to assume their identity as close as possible. Maggie was twenty nine now, no children, sole survivor of the 1991 Maple Oak cycle. Her parents were both apart of the first seven victim cycle. Her new name was withheld for obvious reasons, the less in the public paper trail the safer the woman would be. For the unsub to evade capture this long it was safe to assume his contacts were endless. Pete always said it was better to suspect too much than too little and find yourself unprepared.

In the picture attached Maggie was smiling with light in her eyes. It was nice to know she
hadn’t
let what happen affect her life in the wrong ways. Sasha noted if she wore her hair down and applied lighter tones of make up it wouldn’t be hard at all to pass for Maggie. Personality was going to be the tricky part.

Two hours passed her by as she sat there going over every detail inside the file. After she read all there was on Maggie and her parents murder she moved on to the other victims. The victimology was scattered all over the place, this unsub chose both men and women of all races, backgrounds, cities.

Her brows were pinched together in concentration when Nick walked over to the front of her desk. “What is it?” he asked.

She didn’t look up. “Have you read the case files over yet on this guy?”

“No. I still had other work to catch up on.”

“He’s all over the place. Except for the cycle patterns there’s nothing to tie these victims together to figure out how exactly he picks them.”

“Those are all the reasons why they cooked up this idea. If we don’t catch him this go round there’s a good chance he’ll stay in the wind and go down as another Zodiac.”

Sasha really hated the sound of that. “What brought you over here?” she knew it wasn’t so he could ask what was on her mind. That was a little too selfless for Nick’s standards.

“I was
meeting with Pete and he told me
to give this to you.” He handed her a copy of the flight schedule set to leave tomorrow morning and address of the rental they were using for the duration of this case. “See ya later
,
wifey.” 

Sasha chuckled as she watched him go back up over to his desk three rows away from hers. A small flicker of fear lit up in her belly. If they were working together they couldn’t compete and try to one up each other on the field but it looked like Nick was still going to find a way to get under her skin.

Chapter 3

Sasha found herself rushing that following morning. It took longer than she had expected to dress as Maggie Walker. She copied the makeup style from the photos the Marshals had given her and after digging through her closet and finding nothing that went along with Maggie’s style it was time to take a trip to Wal-Mart.

After an hour of grabbing summer dresses and other colorful girly outfits that had no place in Sasha’s closet but belonged perfectly in Maggie’s she still had to take all the tags off and pack the stuff in her luggage set. She absently heard the long honk of a car horn three different times and not once had she assumed it was for her until the horn was replaced by a loud knock on her front door. “Crap.” She ran from the room over to the door, she swung it open and raced back to her r
oom. “I’m running late and forgo
t we were meeting.”

“I can tell.” Nicholas said rather annoyingly as h
e moved at a slower pace inside
her apartment. “You should’ve planned better. I had all my packing done last night.”

“I don’t need to hear how perfect you think you are right now. If I didn’t have to go buy all this stuff I’d be ready too.” She grabbed another dress and ripped the hanger off first then the tags. “You can help me instead of standing there. It’d look pretty bad if we miss the fucking flight.”

“Oh, this must be serious if you’re cursing.”

“What?”

He grabbed one of the shirts and started removing hangers. “You only curse when you’re seriously pissed off. Why did you go buy all of this?”

“For the obvious reasons. My style and Maggie’s are very different.”

“No one in town is going to know that.”

“Anyone who knew her as a kid and her friends would know her personality wouldn’t change that drastically. I want to look unsuspecting and approachable.”

“That’s gonna take a lot of work.”

She glared at him. “We’re not even on the plane yet and already my trigger finger is itchy.” the case wouldn’t be solved quickly, they were guaranteed to be pretend married for a week at least and she wasn’t sure they could make it that long.

With a smirk and nothing to reply he kept removing the hangers and passing her the clothes to put in the waiting bag. With his help she was down in less time and they were out the door and headed for the airport only fifteen minutes late.

“Pete called me last night.” Nick revealed as he drove.

“You’re his favorite, of course he called you.” Sasha was going over the case file one more time over her laptop. After they landed she’d no longer be able to take a risk and log into the FBI database.

“You didn’t sound jealous at all. He called to wish us luck and said your ringer was off.”

“Yeah, I was trying to make up my three hours of lost sleep. Luck for what? Us being stuck together for the foreseeable future with no other alley and trying to not kill each other before this crazy maniac can?”

“Yeah, he said it exactly like that.” Nicholas replied sarcastically, cutting her a dry look. “I think he’s amused we’re actuall
y wor
king together outside of a group effort.”

“Stranger things have happened. Pete’s been trying to make us get along for the last year and he’s probably hopeful this will change something. I wouldn’t hold my breath for hell freezing over.”

“Ouch
that
one
kind
a
of hurt. I do hear hell is getting a cold front soon.”

“Yeah right sure, like you want to be my friend. How much longer until we’re there?” it would be a disaster to miss the flight af
ter all the rushing they had do
n
e
to pile into the car.

“Five minutes at most.”

Sasha powered down her laptop and put it back in her carryon. Like Nick said they were pulling into the airport entrance five minutes later.

She let out a long sigh of relief once she was in the plane seated comfortably in her seat. She kept her pillow in her large carryon and pulled it out now. The next several hours in the air she vowed to get some sleep. She snuggled close to the window and closed her eyes while the plane was still boarding the first class up above. Her eyes flew open when Nick’s elbow hit her shoulder. It was an accident as he was trying to get comfortable in the seat.  “What the hell is going on with you?” there was a look of despair across his face.

“Nothing.” He grumbled, still moving side to side in his seat trying to find some magical known spot.

Sasha glanced at her partner and saw something she never seen along his face in all these years they had known each other; fear
. “Are you scared of flying?” she asked, it would have been amusing if he hadn’t looked so frightened.

“No, everything will be fine unless we crash and turn into a
ball of fire.” Nicholas said, holding
on tight to the armrest.

“You are scared.” She couldn’t believe what she was seeing; the big tough FBI agent that could do no wrong was
sitting
stiff in his seat terrified out of his mind.

“Yeah right, ha-ha very funny. Let’s talk about something else.”

She thought about reminding him she was trying to sleep and hadn’t been the first one the bug the other but seeing him so out of character was freaking her out. “Like what? We don’t really have anything in common.”

He turned his head to the left and looked at her. “You don’t know that but you’re probably right. There’s something I forgot to give you.” he dug in the side pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small black ring box. “We have to make it look real and Pete had me pick this up.”

Sasha caught it with one hand and looked at the box like it had thorns oozing something nasty. “I don’t understand why the marshals just didn’t add this in the package with the house keys.”

“It must’ve slipped their mind and Pete being crazy about details went over everything he could think of. You have to put the ring on, Sasha.”

She knew he was right and the fear of putting on a ring was stupid, none of this was real. It was supposed to be Maggie and Connor’s story but it wasn’t Connor who picked out this ring, it was Nicholas. She snapped open the box and inside sat one of the most beautiful rings she had ever seen. The pilot announced they were taking off and in a second Nick stopped caring about the ring and his hands went back to the armrests where he held on with a death grip. She snapped the ring box closed and put it in the front pocket of her bag. “We’re not going to crash and burn. Thousands of planes land safely every day.”

“If you’re trying to help its not working.”

Sasha opened her mouth to protest that yes she was helping when she realized she was trying too hard to make her partner feel better. Why? She reasoned she couldn’t argue and banter with the guy when he was pale white with fear. “Do you want to hold my hand? It might help.” She sighed at his look of suspicion. “I’m not always the cold bitch you want to paint me out as. I am nice.” His look of confusion added to the ball of thoughts she couldn’t sort on the subject. “Plus we’re supposed to be practicing this touching crap anyway for when we land.” She gripped his hand in her own.

“I guess so…” Nick’s navy eyes grew wide as they drifted to the open window. They were in the air now and climbing higher.

She lowered the shade and leaned her pillow against it. “Stop being such a baby. Let’s keep talking, why are you scared of flying?”

“I’m not scared.” His hand shaking said differently but his ego wouldn’t let him admit it.

“Ok why do you hate flying?”

“There’s nothing to tell.”

“You know it’s not right to keep secrets from your wife.”

“You’re not really my wife.”

“The ring says different.”

“We were pressed for time and that came out of my own funds. I want it back when we get this perp in custody.”

Sasha softly smiled as her plan worked and he was talking and allowing himself to forget about his fear. His hand wasn’t shaking as badly. “No problem, I don’t want your ugly ring anyway.  What do you make of our guy? Will he bite?”

“We hope so and the bait is pretty big for a ritualistic sadist like him to pass up. You don’t look happy at the prospect of going home.”

“It’s not home, I just grew up there. If this case didn’t land in my lap I probably never would’ve gone back.” Sasha blinked as she realized how quickly he flipped the conversation back onto her. His satisfied smile further confirmed what she already suspected. “Why’d you stop being a profiler? You’re good at it.”

“It’s not hard to read people once you have the basics learned. I like the variety Pete offers.” Nick shrugged as there was nothing else to his reasoning. “Did you clear this trip with whoever you had to?”

“What do you mean? Pete obviously knows about the whole thing.”

“I didn’t mean work, I meant personal.”

It took a moment for his meaning to click. “Oh. Yeah, all done. You?”

“I’m not dating anyone and I decided it was better not to telling my overbearing family.”

“How bad is it?”

“My parents haven’t realized any of us have grown up. I have five brothers and three sisters.”

“Holy shit.”

He grinned. “That’s
one way of putting it. I fa
ll somewhere in the middle of all my siblings and we get together every Sunday for dinner where my parents make sure to hound us to spill very detail of what they missed during the week. I’ll cave and tell them I left for work when I call to cancel dinner.”