Riley paused for a moment.
Then she said, “I guess what I’m thinking is … maybe we’realready a perfect couple. Maybe we’ve been a perfect couple all these years.God knows I feel a lot closer to you than I ever did to Ryan.”
“And I feel closer to you than I ever did to Maggie,” Bill said.
Riley took a deep breath and said, “So maybe … we shouldn’t gochanging things between us. Maybe we should leave things just the way they are.”
Bill smiled a bit sadly.
He said, “Riley, things have changed between us already. They’vechanged whether we want them to or not.”
Riley knew exactly what he meant.
That kiss.
It had changed everything between them.
Just then, the server appeared with their sandwiches.
And Riley’s cell phone rang
She thought about ignoring the call until she saw that it wasfrom her boss, team leader Brent Meredith.
When she took the call, Meredith got right to the point as usual.
“Are you ready to take on another case, Agent Paige?”
Riley smiled at the question. Saying “no” to Brent Meredith wasn’treally an option.
“I’m ready,” she said.
“Good. Then come to my office immediately.”
Meredith ended the call without another word.
Bill said, “I take it that was Meredith being his usual talkativeself.”
Riley laughed and said, “Yeah, he does ramble on sometimes.Anyway, I guess we’re needed—and right away, as usual. Sorry about lunch.”
“We can eat on the way,” Bill said. “Nothing unusual about that.”
Bill waved to the server to ask him to bag up their sandwichesand bring the check.
He said, “How many times do you think we’ve been called away fromlunch?”
Riley chuckled and said, “I guess some things never change.”
Bill paid the check, and they took their lunch with them as theyheaded out to his car.
CHAPTER THREE
As they walked into the BAU building, Bill kept thinking aboutRiley’s words when their attempt at a date had come to such an abrupt end.
“I guess some things never change.”
Bill too found it almost comical the way a phone call hadinterrupted their conversation … just as it had so many times before.
They had hastily packed up their meal and scrambled into the car… just as they had so many times before.
Now they were hurrying through a familiar hallway on their way toMeredith’s office. Today was all too typical of the unpredictability he andRiley had lived with for many years.
And yet, he knew that the kiss they’d shared a couple of weeksago had changed everything between them. He was aware that Riley knew that too.He really wished they’d had more time to talk things through. Sooner or later,they were going to have to come to terms with those changes.
Sooner would be better.
But now was obviously not the time. They had said almost nothingto each other during the drive here. They’d been busy eating the sandwichesthey’d taken out from the restaurant, but Bill also sensed that Riley’s mindwas already on the case that was coming up.
Mine should be too, he thought.
He wondered—was this the way things were always going to be?Would their work together always matter more than anything else that mighthappen between them?
As they walked into Meredith’s office, the daunting divisionchief with black, angular features looked up from his desk. His expression wasstern as he remarked, “I hadn’t expected to see you, Agent Jeffreys.”
Bill’s eyes widened with surprise. He saw that Riley was startledas well.
Bill stammered as he and Riley sat down in front of Meredith’sdesk, “Well—Agent Paige said that … you’d called about a new case and I justassumed …”
Meredith shrugged. “Yeah, I’ve got a new case for her. Ihadn’t asked for you. In fact, you won’t be needed for this one. Agent Paigewill be working with a different partner.”
Bill felt a surge of alarm.
What’s going on here? he wondered.
Had Meredith already figured out that something was going onbetween him and Riley, before they’d even clarified it themselves? He couldn’timagine how, but Meredith had an almost uncanny way of knowing what was goingon with agents under his authority.
Is he going to split us up? Bill wondered.
“I’m just trying to break in a new agent,” Meredith explained. “Arookie. I figured it would be a good experience for her to work with AgentPaige, at least this time around.”
A new agent? Bill thought
He was relieved that the arrangement didn’t sound permanent, buthe also felt a new anxiety kick in. Their work with their last two rookies hadturned out badly. He couldn’t bear to even think about Lucy Vargas, who had wontheir admiration but had died in a terrible shootout. The most recent newrecruit, Jenn Roston, had brought other problems along with her.
Bill couldn’t deny that Jenn had been a brilliant and promisingyoung agent, but she hadn’t even settled in completely when her complicatedpast had apparently caught up with her. Worse, Bill was well aware that Rileyknew some secrets about Jenn’s past that she hadn’t felt free to tellhim—secrets that had led to Jenn’s mysterious disappearance a couple of weeksago.
He’d been trying to convince himself that whatever secrets Rileyand Jenn had shared weren’t any of his business. But he couldn’t quite do it.He remembered how, just a little while ago, both he and Riley admitted theyfelt closer to each other than they ever had to each other’s spouses. There wasnothing unusual about that, really. It was the way things were supposed to bebetween partners.
But Jenn had bonded considerably more with Riley than she hadwith him, leaving him feeling excluded—and even somewhat bitter. For almost twodecades, Bill and Riley had kept few secrets, and had seldom if ever lied toeach other outright. Which was why Bill hadn’t liked Riley harboring secretsabout Jenn.
Was the same thing going to happen again with a new youngrecruit?
I hope not, he thought. Things were complicated enoughbetween him and Riley as it was.
Meredith glanced at his watch. “I called for her to join us. Sheshould be here any minute now. Her name is Ann Marie Esmer, and she’s as greenas they come. She just got out of the academy, and she’s never worked on an activecase.”
Riley tilted her head curiously.
“You mean she’s never worked
