He reclined on her bed. Smelled the light floral scent on her pillow. Paul uncapped her shampoo and just breathed it in for a long while. Fantasizing.
He would stop at the store on his way home, buy the same brand for Rachel. That would have to do for now. He’d just close his eyes and imagine…
Rachel was a poor warm-up for being with a woman like Jaclyn.
Before he left, he made certain every sign of his presence was erased. She was an excellent agent, with more than a dozen notes of recognition in her file.
It wouldn’t pay to be stupid about things.
He never had been stupid before. Rash, careless, impulsive—once or twice.
Paul had learned from past mistakes.
Paul had a plan to create. Part of success was taking time to always plan properly. It would just be a matter of time until he had her right where he wanted her.
But first...he had other things he had to take care of now.
17
Jac was greeted with the news that Max was taking the CCU2 position when she stepped into the PAVAD building a week after Emery’s school carnival, a day after she made it back from Vermont.
Miranda delighted in telling her. She always had been the one to go to for finding out internal gossip, although Miranda was never malicious about it. And it was just between her and Jac. “Apparently, our hot and handsome Dr. Jones will be bouncing from Team Five to Team Two in three days.”
“What about Malachi? Where is he going?” Jac asked, placing her bag on the desk that was pushed up next to Miranda’s with just a partition to separate them. They had desks in the CCU bullpen, but were routinely still assigned to working on the CEPD team when needed. They had their own desks there, too.
Miranda liked to joke that they were the vagabonds of PAVAD.
PAVAD had a habit of shuffling agents around when needed. Jac and Miranda more than most. They were adaptable.
Jac had been nervous of that at first, but now that she was more seasoned, she understood the reasoning behind it. And fully agreed with it. She and Miranda were the floaters—going between the Child Exploitation Prevention Division and the CCU.
At any one time, the director of the CCU could grab an agent or two from each team and create a fast, mobile, and effective extra team to send out where needed. Officially, there were five full six-member teams in the CCU. But PAVAD teams operated efficiently with as little as four agents working together at a time. The units were designed that way.
Two additional teams could form in an instant, teams that had agents who had worked together before time and time again. Sometimes, the expertise of the CEPD was needed as part of the CCU.
It was a rather clever setup that she had rarely seen in the FBI before. But it worked. Fortunately for Jac, she liked most of the people in the CCU and CPED and didn’t mind working with any of them.
“Mal’s moving into heading up the entire psychological analysis department. That new department they are talking about expanding. Once they get enough profilers to fill it. More of Director Ed shuffling the cards, I think.” Miranda shot Jac a significant look. One that said Miranda was going to meddle again. The woman had a problem—a real problem—when it came to trying to direct her friends’ lives. Probably from being the oldest of her siblings and cousins. Since they were all up in Wyoming, she had somehow transferred that habit to her closest friends. Top of that list was Jac. “I think you should take the exam with me. We can both go around head-shrinking people. Official profilers. It’ll be fun. And we won’t have to hop all around the country nearly as much—we’d have time to shoe shop and get actual manicures done. We could go to the border collie rescue. Get us some puppies. Have puppy playdates and use the same puppy day care. Find a gorgeous set of brothers outside of PAVAD to take us on walks and to the park.”
“Are you talking about men? Or puppies?”
“Either. Both, for that matter. Two gorgeous brothers with puppies? We use our puppies to meet hot, handsome, single veterinarians who don’t have to worry about catching bad guys?”
“You really need to get out more, Randi.”
Miranda had mentioned taking the profilers’ exam before, and Jac had given it serious consideration. But her educational background was in computer software design. Maybe someday, after she’d spent a few more years on the job. She could do profiling if she had to—and she had, with Max as a supervisor—but she wasn’t certain she could pass the rigorous exam involved. Not yet. “I’m not sure I’d pass.”
“I have no doubt that you would. You’re one of the best I know at understanding how people think. And predicting how they will behave. You have half the profilers in this building beat. We both know that. So do Malachi, Hellbrook, and Sebastian, for that matter. Your problem is a lack of confidence. And the fact that you think you’re invisible and that no one sees you. Or that you’ll never live up to expectations. Yours…or anyone else’s.”
Jac couldn’t refute that. Not really. Miranda knew her strengths and weaknesses just like Jac knew Miranda’s. Sometimes, Miranda got so convinced she was right about something that she missed what was staring her directly in the face.
That was going to cause Miranda trouble someday—Jac just knew it.
Jac didn’t feel quite as confident in her profiling skills as Miranda was in her own. Put a computer in Jac’s hand and she could do what needed to be done. Put a rifle in her hand—and the same thing.
Competitive shooting in college in Virginia had gained her notice by Ed Dennis himself.
She’d done what she had to do not even four months ago when her friend Shannon had been endangered by
