Profile by Jackie D

Author:Jackie D. [D, Jackie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2022-12-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Cassidy wakes to a cold paw tapping her cheek. She opens one eye to see Briggs standing on her side and aggressively investigating her face. Her neck and back are kinked in a way she hasn’t experienced since college. It’s not surprising. Alex’s basement couch seems to be older than her. She gingerly pushes herself up and realizes the reason for her body aches. She quite literally fell asleep on Alex.

Alex looks peaceful and unperturbed by the movement. Alex is always beautiful, but she looks ten years younger without worry and stress etching her features. Cassidy carefully reaches out and moves a strand of hair away from her eyes. Alex’s lips curl into a smile, and the delicate unconscious action warms Cassidy’s chest.

Briggs enthusiastically jumps from Cassidy’s leg to Alex’s shoulder. In the process, he slips and slides behind Alex, meowing loudly.

“I’ll rehome you if you don’t let me sleep for five more minutes,” Alex says without opening her eyes. Briggs meows again. “Fine.” She sits up and notices Cassidy. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Cassidy says and moves back to give her room to move. “That’s not how I thought our first night sleeping together would go.”

Alex chuckles. “There are definitely better reasons to have only gotten,” she checks her phone, “three hours of sleep.”

Hunter and Leo come down the stairs with cups of coffee. “Oh good, you two are finally awake. I was coming down to wake you.”

Cassidy glares at them. “Why do you two look so rested?”

Hunter points up the stairs with his thumbs. “I slept in Alex’s bed, and Leo took the guest room.”

“You didn’t think to wake us up?”

Leo scoffs. “I wasn’t ending up on that fifty-year-old couch.”

“It’s IKEA.” Alex takes the cup of coffee Hunter offers her.

Leo rolls his eyes. “Same thing.”

Cassidy takes the other cup from Hunter. “Don’t you sleep in a van half the time?”

“With very expensive pillows.” Leo’s tone is incorrigible.

Hunter hands Cassidy her phone. “I went by your house, fed and walked Thor, grabbed you some clothes, and charged your phone.”

Leo grunts. “You after a five-star Yelp review or something?”

Hunter smacks him in the back. “She needs a clear head, and we’re friends. You know what those are, don’t you?”

Leo continues to tap away on the keyboard. “I had a pet rat for a while.” He stops typing and turns. “Well, I guess technically he wasn’t a pet. He just started living in my van, and I let him stay.”

The room is quiet until Cassidy finally breaks the silence. “Okay, on that note…I’m going to take a shower. I don’t need any rats following me around.”

Cassidy showers quickly and gets ready while turning over the best way to approach Carol O’Brien. She’s read her one and only interview with the BAU, which turned up very little. Carol is brilliant and driven by vanity and perception. She’ll use a solid approach of astonishment and curiosity to get as much information as possible.

Will it work? Maybe. Do they have a better option? No.

Alex stops her before she heads out the door.

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