Undercover Lovers |Aaron Hotchner|

Chapter Seventeen: Miami

A/N: I had COVID, but I'm feeling much better now and I plan on writing more chapters soon to make up for the slow update.

"We have a case." Hotch said. Those four words always pulled me out of whatever I was doing and brought me back to Earth.

I opened the door to let him out and quietly called out for the team to go to the round table. Everyone stopped what they were doing and followed us. There was one less chair, so I remained standing behind everyone else. Hotch and Garcia stood on either side of the screen, which was suddenly flooded with gory pictures.

"Over the last five weeks, ten people have been killed outside of Hand in Hand, which is a club in Miami. The bodies have all been found early Saturday morning by workers leaving after their shift." Aaron said.

"It's always a man and woman who spent most of their time inside together." Garcia added. "They were all shot in the head once, so I'm hoping that at least means they didn't suffer too much."

"Besides their looks, what do they have in common?" Morgan asked. The women were all pretty brunettes, but the men didn't necessarily look alike. Most of them wore glasses and looked pretty nerdy, but I couldn't tell much from the few pictures.

"Nothing that the local PD found, but I'll do some digging."

"There'll be two more bodies in less than 24 hours, so we need to act quickly. Wheels up in 20." Aaron directed.

Everyone dispersed quickly to get their go bags and call their loved ones to let them know where they'd be going. Things were starting to feel normal again, even though we'd been back for just under a week. I got on the jet with Emily and we both took spots at the table.

"Does this mean Hotch heard from Strauss? Where the hell is she?" Morgan asked.

"You're in his office indefinitely, Valerie, what'd you hear?" JJ asked quietly as Rossi boarded. He didn't know I knew, but neither did the rest of them.

Aaron sat down next to me. "You can all leave Pierce alone and direct your questions toward me. Strauss is on vacation with her family. This case came across my desk, not hers."

"Where'd she go and why didn't she give any notice? Garcia was supposed to have a meeting with her on Wednesday, but no one's heard from her since Monday." Morgan said.

"It was a spur of the moment idea per the Director. She doesn't know when she'll be back, but all of her meetings are being rescheduled by her assistant."

"Where'd she go?" Emily asked. She seemed like she knew he was lying, but I knew she wouldn't call him out for it. She'd ask me later and I'd have to lie too. That was definitely information I wasn't supposed to know.

"The Bahamas. Will there be any more questions or can we focus on saving two lives tonight?"

Rossi gave him a slight nod that no one else noticed. I'd thank him for coming to my rescue later, but he was right— we needed to work on the case.

We all read the file a few times before anyone spoke. We were probably in the air for an hour when Garcia's face popped up on the screen.

"I'm looking through their lives as we speak. The women were all frequent clubbers and partiers and it shows. They spent more money on party clothes than I've spent in my life, and that says a lot." Garcia said. "The men bought things like sweater vests and books instead. I feel like I'm looking at Reid's bill right now. Their looks and spending habits are the only thing they have in common as far as I can tell."

"Is that all?" Hotch asked.

"I'll keep digging and hit you back when I know." She hung up.

"Where could we possibly find a skinny nerd and a hot brunette who likes to get drunk?" Morgan smirked at me.