𝓼𝓪𝓯𝓮 ➣ 𝓼. 𝓻𝓮𝓲𝓭

𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓻𝓽𝓮𝓮𝓷

Mara paced inside Hotch's office, tapping her arm in a one-two-one pattern.

Finally, Hotch got there. "I got here as soon as I could. What's wrong?"

Hotch shut the door and sat down with Mara, his eyebrows furrowed as to why she called him here.

"Did you read the case I was undercover one when you pulled me out?"

"No, they told me that pulling you out wouldn't particularly destroy their case but they'd get behind," Hotch said. "I don't have the clearance."

"They suspected a team of bank robbers but didn't have any evidence to arrest them, so they sent me in to gain their evidence and seal their fate."

Hotch nodded, listening as she continued. "It took me two months to even gain an ounce of their trust but once I did, I had them. Charlie Turner was the main target, the leader."

"Where are you getting with this?"

"Essentially, I had to get him to trust me," Mara said. "But a week before the bank robbery, you pulled me out. I told another one of the people, Sam, that she needed to get out or else Charlie was going to turn on her and her friend, Myles, and kill them."

Hotch nodded again, Mara's voice shaking. "Sam and Myles were my friends. When you pulled me out, Charlie had to turn on them. He had to find out who I really was."

"Mara.." Hotch ushered her.

"I got a call from Sam last night," Mara said, her eyes burning with tears. "She said I was right, he was trying to kill them, she was hiding with Myles. She needed my help. But..the phone call ended with her screaming and Charlie saying that Sam can't come to the phone right now."

"How'd they get your number?" Hotch asked.

Mara shrugged. "I don't know. It's my personal cell. But she still called me Stephanie. Hotch, I need to find them. Before he finds me."

"We're taking this case."

Mara sighed in relief but furrowed her eyebrows at Hotch's expression. "But?"

"You're going to have to tell us everything that happened undercover," he said. "And you're going to present the case."

"I can do that."

Garcia helped Mara make the case files and presenting the case so that when the entire team came in, they could get a head start. The entire team was called in, seated around the round table as Mara paced it anxiously. Hotch and Garcia were already sat at the table. 

Confusion flashed across everyone's face as they saw Mara standing at the front with the remote in her hand. "What's going on?"

"Take a seat." Hotch said as Reid sat down and flipped open the case file. 

Mara sighed and clicked the remote, putting the pictures on the screen. "This is Charlie Turner, he's thought to have been one of the most notorious bank robber in Italy, however, there's no evidence to incriminate him. Next, we have Sam Taylor and Myles Blake, two young, troubled kids that were taken under Turner's wing and turned into thieves and master manipulators."

"I'm confused," Morgan said. "What's the case? And why are we taking it if it's in Italy?"

"Sam and Myles went missing as of last night," Mara said to him. "I was undercover with them. Charlie's coming after them, and probably me next."

"Why do you think that?" JJ asked.

"When I was extracted to help with the Fox case, I was pulled directly from this case, leaving everyone in question as to what happened to me," Mara explained, compartmentalizing her feelings and shoving them away, keeping it professional. "I tried to convince Sam before I left that Charlie was dangerous and would eventually kill them two and take their cut of the money."

"We're helping criminals now?" Morgan scoffed.

"Sam and Myles fell into the wrong crowd, pulled under his wing-"

"How do we know they're missing?"

"Mara got a phone call from Sam last night, on her personal cell, addressed as Stephanie, her undercover alias," Hotch said. "Sam told her what Mara told her was right and that Charlie was going to kill them. The phone call ended with Charlie telling Mara he essentially killed the pair."

"Why is Charlie coming after you?" Morgan asked.

"She betrayed him and his team, he's angry, reasonable enough to come after her." Rossi shrugged.

"To travel all the way here from Italy to here? It's more than that," Reid said, lifting his eyes and looking up at her. He watched her bite down on her lip and shift her eyes to the floor. "Mara, what is it?"

"Everyone here knows that the main strategy to earns a mans trust."

"Seduction." Reid quickly said.

"Charlie grew up in a hard place, he showed all the signs of a classic psychopath," Mara shrugged. "But somehow, underneath that all, he was nice."

"You fell in love with him?"

"No, no," Mara quickly shook her head. "I mean, I liked him, yeah. I slept with him a few times, but it was all apart of my mission."

"What about him?" 

"Sam thought Charlie was fully in love with me," Mara chuckled. "She thought he found the Bonnie to his Clyde."

"You were close to Sam and Myles?"

Mara nodded. "Sam was somewhat like my best friend, especially since Mallory. Myles reminded me of Alex.."

"Have you had contact with any of them since you were extracted?"

"No, of course not."

"We know our UnSub, we know the trigger, and we know his target," Morgan said. "But we still can't find him."

"He was hidden for almost a year before Mara tried to get him to make a mistake and he still didn't," Hotch said. "He's not going to be easy to find."

"He knows me as Stephanie Jacobs."

"Can you go back into that alias?" Morgan asked.

Mara bit her lip. "I don't want to, but I will if I have to."