Games We Play

by Isabelle Arocho

  She grabbed the dessert menu off the table to help conceal any reaction lingering on her face. “I guess you’re right.”

  “I’m always right.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far Ni—honey. Have you decided on something?”

  “Cheesecake every time. You?”

  She searched for something containing the most chocolate. In the end she settled on a triple hot fudge sundae with chocolate ice cream. Like with dinner she ate every last bite and left nothing to go to the wayside. She wasn’t sure if she was still hungry or just unbelievably nervous to keep up the act with no more screw ups.

  As they left the booth Nick’s arm again went around her waist. “Let’s take a walk and burn off some of these calories.” Buyer’s remorse was setting in. With a shrug of her shoulders she agreed. Sasha stood back like the doting wife she was impersonating while Nick paid the bill and thanked their waitress with a smile that had the young girl blushing. “This was nice.” He said as they stepped outside.

  “It wasn’t bad. I think we got a lot of exposure.” The hostess was a busybody that would gossip about the familiar yet unknown couple she served and the townsfolk in and out of the grill had showed them some attention too. “There’s a nice pier up this way overlooking the beach.”

  He laced their fingers together as they walked and she this time she managed not to tense up. “This is a nice place. From all your grimaces back home I was expecting something pretty bad.”

  It didn’t surprise her he had noticed her sour reactions. He was trained to pick up on the smallest of clues. “Everywhere has its own charm. Where are you originally from?” they were careful not to be overheard.

  “I was born and raised in DC. How’d you settle on it?”

  “I always knew what I wanted to do for a living and went straight for it.” Again she was careful for any prying ears that might be listening as they walked past several different people on their way to the pier. The letters FBI was the last thing she wanted to be caught saying in front of the wrong people. Until this was all over the FBI ceased to exist.

  He let go of her hand and pulled her close to his side, wrapping his arm around her waist like he had in the restaurant. “That must be what Pete likes about you so much; your dedication.”

  Sasha had thought they were doing a good job at being careful with their words and not being overheard but apparently Nick didn’t agree and wanted them to stand closer. Whatever his reason he was really good at this, she thought, he didn’t seem tense at all having to play the husband to her wife. Silently she wished it could be that easy for her.

  Chapter 6

  He couldn’t believe what he was hearing that beautiful morning. The two old broads in the booth behind him were talking about how Maggie Walker was back in Maple Oaks. Hmm, he had thought she went and hid somewhere deep and far to escape his grasp. In his opinion it was pretty fucking stupid to come back here, did she fool herself into thinking it was safe?

  He lowered his newspaper and paid closer attention to the women blabbering on with disbelief over what apparently one of the woman’s nieces saw last night at the grill.

  “She was all grown up with a husband on her arm that Macy just thought was gorgeous. She sounds happy and this is such a lovely town but if you were her would you come back?” the older of the two women asked and it was a question plaguing his very mind.

  “I don’t know but it sure is good to know she turned out ok. I can’t believe there was a monster like that in our town.”

  He smirked, these old fools has no idea how close the monster was. It felt good to be back at the scene of his first thrill, there was nothing like your first time and everywhere he looked reminded him of that faithful day. His smirk shifted into a warm smile as he thought about how little Maggie May Walker could help him recapture that first time all over again.

  He paid for his breakfast and left the diner with a mission to find out more about the little girl he should’ve never let go. He had a lot of work to do in town but what was a little catching up between friends? With two down and five to go she’d fit in perfectly to his plans. Feeling happier than he had in awhile he left his car parked and went for a walk.

  With each step he let his memories replay over about that faithful night. The blood had been so warm. Thinking about it sent shiver of pleasure up and down his spine. Before arriving back in Maple Oaks he questioned if it was the best idea but now with Maggie back he was taking it as a sign. He was on the perfect track.

  ~*~

  Sasha was in for a pleasant or maybe not so pleasant surprise that following morning. It was all depending on how you looked at it, she mused, as her head cocked to the side and studied the image before her at a better angle. Finding Nicholas stretched out nearly naked on the couch was probably a fantasy to a lot of women, certainly every woman who had ever laid eyes on the man and yet Sasha wasn’t feeling so lucky. Nick wasn’t just a walking wet dream she was encountering in the flesh, he was her partner and more than that he was the thorny pain in the ass she had been working with over a year. He saw her like one of the guys and never treated her as a member of the opposite sex and she didn’t want him to start either. Their relationship-while annoying and frustrating a lot of the times- worked best for them. Adding attraction just made it messy.

  With a shake of her head she mentally told her feet to get moving but…her eyes were controlling the situation and they were glued to the hard lines of Nick’s chest. With every inhale of breath his abdomen defined into perfection guys were killing themselves at the gym that very moment to gain. Nick wasn’t a bulky man, he was lean and hard from the exercises at Quantico and the training to keep in shape that their demanding job called for.

  With another shake of her head she got her feet moving and made it to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee. As the coffee dripped into filling the pot she moved to the refrigerator to find something to partner the beverage. Inside the fridge she found bare essentials like eggs, milk, and bread, but not much else. “This isn’t gonna work.” She moved around the kitchen and found the cabinets fared no better. She left the kitchen and went back upstairs to her room to grab a notepad and pen.

  Nick was waking up when she made her way back downstairs. “I smell coffee. There isn’t much to go with it besides toast.”

  “I just saw that. I’m making a list of what I want to get, feel free to add to it.” She spoke on her way to the kitchen and didn’t stop at the risk of her eyes dropping far too low.

  “I’ll do that after I wash up.”

  Sasha sat at the kitchen counter and started to make her list. She liked quick food that didn’t entail a whole lost of fuss.

  It didn’t take long for Nick to join her in the kitchen and appear at her side where he read over her list. “TV dinners, hot-pockets, chips? You can’t be serious.”

  “What?” she quickly went on the defensive. “I’m not here to play Susie Homemaker and I like this stuff that’s fast to fill you up.”

  “It’s disgusting over processed food.”

  With a sigh she turned in her stool to look at him and wish she hadn’t. The bastard hasn’t put a shirt on. She found his eyes and tried to stay there except damn it his eyes weren’t any safer to look for her racing heart rate. “Are you some sort of health nut? I knew there was a reason I didn’t like you.” She left her seat and went right for the coffee pot.

  “You have something against people that try to eat right? You know what forget it. I feel a fight coming on and it’s too early to argue. You buy whatever you want and I’ll buy whatever I want.”

  “Fine, that’s fair. We can go shopping after you get ready.” She had already changed out of her PJ’s before coming down to start the coffee.

  “You got it.”

  At the supermarket they had to keep up their roles as the newlyweds. It would’ve been easier for them to each grab a cart and get their own things but seeing as how that was suspicious she instead followed as he went through the produ
ce area and grabbed things that made her cringe while never understanding the appeal of lettuce. It was watery with a weird taste.

  “Oh my gosh!”

  Sasha turned to face the overjoyed woman. Son of a bitch, before she could think of a way to handle this Stacy Fern was pulling her into a hug. She tried to think back to all the days at school, were Maggie and Stacy friends? Hell if she knew but she was damn sure Sasha Madden was never a friend of Stacy’s and to have the woman touching her now made her skin crawl. “Stacy, hi.” She plastered on her best smile.

  “It’s been forever. I heard Macy mentioning you earlier today but I thought she was just being an idiot. You’re really here.”

  “Yeah, it’s me.” Stacy’s brown eyes were wide with disbelief as she looked over the woman in front of her. She wouldn’t think to doubt she wasn’t looking at Maggie, twenty years had passed and people changed. The Maggie Stacy remembered was a child, so was Sasha for that matter. The last time she had seen Stacy was during high school graduation but even so she had been green around the edges and withdrawn. It wasn’t until she headed to Washington she shredded the little girl she had been. Adding to the misery of facing her tormentor Nick appeared at her side. “Stacy, this is my husband Connor. Honey, this is Stacy Fern, we used to go to grade school together.”

  Stacy’s eyes lit up for a new reason. If there was anything she liked more than gossip it was men and judging by the look in her eyes that hadn’t changed in the last eleven years. “Nice to meet you. Maggie, you sure snagged a good one.”

  Sasha took his hand and plastered on another fake smile. “I try. How have you been during all these years?”

  “Twenty years is sure a lot to cram into a quick conversation. I’m having a dinner party at my place tonight in celebration of my cousin making partner at her law firm, why don’t you and your husband join us?”

  When Sasha hesitated Nick jumped right in. “We’d love to.”

  Stacy giggled with excitement and rattled off her address before getting back to her supply shopping. As she told Nick before running off she was cooking a huge fest tonight.

  Sasha stood there feeling numb. “Why did you do that?”

  “A party with people Maggie used to know is perfect to draw out the unsub.” He whispered. “What’s wrong with you?”

  Sasha knew she very well couldn’t tell him that she despised Stacy Fern for all her years of bullying and tormenting. “Nothing.” She found slapping on that fake smile was getting easier and it was a perfect cover to her real thoughts, she slapped one on now. “Are you done here?”

  Nicholas bent and whispered in her ear, “You’re going to have to start being honest with me. We’re in this together and if this is going to blow up in our faces I’d like to know.” His hand moved down her waist and stilled on her hip. “We have company, look at me. What’s going on with you?”

  Sasha was tempted to run around town screaming she was serial killer bait and beg him to strike already. This role playing game was hell on her heart rate and nerve endings. “It’s nothing serious, its personal and has nothing to do with Maggie.”

  He was willing to accept hat without anymore fuss. “Are you ready to go buy your junk food?” he dropped his hand and stood back to grab their cart.

  With him not standing so close it felt like she was coming up from being under water for one minute too long than she could handle. Her breathing was shaky at best. “It’s better than this crap.” She gripped the handle of the cart and started pushing as he laughed behind her and followed.

  Chapter 7

  Nicholas stood back watching as Sasha emptied her shopping bags and put the food away. “With forty dollars I got sensible food of meat and veggies. You wasted a hundred and there’s nothing sensible or all that good for you in sight.”

  “You’re right about that, there’s nothing good for me in sight so I might as well have some comfort food to fall back on.” She wasn’t saying it but Nick was sure that run in with that woman at the supermarket was still bothering her. After she swore it had no bearing on their case he lost the right to ask anymore questions. Sure he wanted to know the history there but it wasn’t his place to hound her. They were only married in the public eye, here in the house she was Sasha and her business was her business.

  It was probably better if she was left alone. “I’m gonna go check in with Pete.” He didn’t wait for a reply as he made his way over to the living room and sat on the couch, his only sanctuary in this whole house. Nick pulled out his phone only to have it ring in his hand. “I was just about to call you.” Only one person had the number, Pete was their handler and liaison with the Marshals. Nick got up and joined Sasha again where he put the phone on speaker.

  “They just found victim #2.” Pete broke the news with a heavy heart. “She was reported missing two days ago and from what the local PD has figured out her time of death was as recent as last night. Cause of death was consistent with victim #1 and the past cycles. There’s no doubt now he’s fully engaged to use Maple Oaks as his killing ground this time around.”

  Sasha cursed. “Is there any ideas on how we can drag this guy out quicker? From what I read he’s very ritualistic on how he does this and following a ritual he might want to leave the one who got away last to really complete what he couldn’t back then in 1991.”

  Nick was impressed. Sasha wasn’t a profiler but she was catching on very quickly about how this unsub’s mind worked. “It hasn’t even been twenty four hours. We don’t have any ideas who the killer is.” He reminded both Sasha and Pete.

  Pete asked, “How’s the rest going in Maple Oaks?”

  Sasha fell silent, her time back home wasn’t something she wanted to converse about. Nick picked up the slack. “We went out for dinner last night and it was all over town that Maggie is back home. The headline wasn’t in today’s paper so I assume they’ll run it tomorrow. At the supermarket one of Maggie’s old school mates asked us to a party and that’s where we’ll be tonight.”

  “Hmm, I’m surprised to hear you’re both making such an effort without being forced. I thought you two in a closed space was asking for blood shed.”

  With a shake of her head Sasha spoke. “We’re here to catch this evil son of a bitch and nothing is more important than that, even Nick’s annoying habits which do get worse in close spaces.”

  “Now that’s what I expected.” Pete chuckled.

  Nick cut her a dirty look but she was too busy reaching inside the freezer for an ice cream sandwich to see him. “She’s no picnic either but I’m mature enough not to mention it. How’s it going back at the office, sir?”

  “Nothing out of the ordinary and I assure you both its much more fun where you’re at. I have a consult to get back to but check in with me after the party if it’s not already too late.”

  “Do you think under that warm caring personality is a sadist?” Sasha asked around a bite of her ice cream. “I think he’s having too much fun at our expense and now isn’t the first time.” She was talking about last month when Pete invited them to dinner with his family. It had been the same day a case went wrong and Nick was ready to wring his co-worker’s neck.

  “I don’t know. He has a lot of crazy ideas.” Nick walked over to the table with where his laptop was and sat. “He thinks if we spend enough time together something will change.”

  “Yeah, he’s mentioned that and so have you but change how?”

  Nick dragged his eyes up from the computer screen to her curious expression. Her green eyes held a small squint when she was really focused on something. He thought it was oddly cute in that hot nerd fantasy type of way most guys held during their teenager years. “I have no idea. I haven’t thought to ask him.” That was a lie; he knew exactly where their boss’ head was at. Strangely Pete had a very frustrating knack for getting too invested in his agents’ personal lives and wanting to play match maker.

  “Yeah, me either. I guess because in the long run it doesn’t really matter. W
e have a few hours to kill and I’m going to be wasting them in front of the TV.” She didn’t bother to wait for a reply and quickly left the kitchen.

  The couch was nice and fluffy and for the next four hours it’d be perfect to drift into its comfort and forget the real world. Back home she didn’t have moments like this to lounge without something interrupting her. It was no time to be vacationing while a madman was targeting innocent people but she couldn’t actively help in finding the 7Xs killer without blowing her cover. It was either watch some TV or take a nap.

  She settled on an action movie and enjoyed the gun fights and car chases but they didn’t stop her thoughts from drifting while the commercials played during the movie break. Back in Maple Oaks the last time she had been there played a lot in her thoughts last night and now was no different. It was during the high school graduation. She didn’t want to go but her sister forced the situation and in the end she put on the cap and gown and placated her older sister. Stacy Fern hadn’t wasted any time to get in some more taunts with her bratty group of girlfriends. Teenager girls could be very vile and emotionless more so than some of the killers Sasha had come across working with the FBI. It felt foolish to be thinking about all those times as a bullied kid more than ten years later and yet she couldn’t stop.

  “What are you watching?” Nicholas sat across from her on the couch and reached over for the remote control.

  “Nick, damn it. I was here first give it back and go away.” That was one of the few problems with this house, there was only one TV.

  He managed to grab her hand before her punch could land on his arm. “Don’t play dirty. You weren’t watching anything, I called your name three times and you were too spaced out to hear me.”