Once Buried

After all, she was still trying to get Jilly’s adoption settled. She’d rescued the poor girl from her own share of horrors. When Riley had found her, Jilly had been trying to sell her body out of sheer desperation.

So what did Riley think she was doing, bringing another teenager into the house?

She suddenly wished Blaine was still here to talk to.

Blaine always seemed to know what to say.

She had enjoyed the lull between cases for a while, but little by little, worries had started to creep in – worries especially about her family, and today about Bill.

It hardly felt like any kind of vacation.

Riley couldn’t help but wonder…

Is something wrong with me?

Was she somehow just incapable of enjoying a quiet life?

Anyway, she knew she could be sure of one thing.

This lull wouldn’t last. Somewhere, some monster was committing some heinous deed – and it would be up to her to stop him.

Chapter Four

Riley was awakened early the next morning by the sound of her phone buzzing.

She groaned aloud as she shook herself awake.

The lull is over, she thought.

She looked at her phone and saw that she was right. It was a text message from her team chief at the BAU, Brent Meredith. It was a call to meet with him, and it was written in his typical terse style…

BAU 8:00

She looked at the time and realized she’d have to hurry to make it to the hastily planned appointment. Quantico was only a half-hour drive from home, but she needed to get out of here fast.

It took Riley just minutes to brush her teeth, comb her hair, get dressed, and rush downstairs.

Gabriela was already making breakfast in the kitchen.

“Is coffee ready?” Riley asked her.

“Sí,” Gabriela said, and poured her a hot cup.

Riley sipped the coffee eagerly.

“You must leave without breakfast?” Gabriela asked her.

“I’m afraid so.”

Gabriela handed her a bagel.

“Then take this with you. You must have something in your stomach.”

Riley thanked Gabriela, gulped down some more of the coffee, and rushed out to her car.

During the short drive to Quantico, a peculiar feeling came over her.

She actually began to feel better than she had during the last few days, even slightly euphoric.

It was partly an adrenaline boost, of course, as her mind and body prepared to embark upon a new case.

But it was also something rather unsettling – a feeling that things were somehow getting back to normal.

Riley sighed at the realization.

She wondered – what did it mean that hunting monsters felt more normal to her than spending time with people she loved?

It can’t be… well, normal, she thought.

Worse, it reminded her of something that her father, a brutal and bitter retired Marine officer, had told her before he died.

“You’re a hunter. What folks call normal – it would kill you if you tried living it too long.”

Riley wanted with all her heart for it not to be true.

But at times like now, she couldn’t help but worry – were the roles of wife, mother, and friend impossible for her to fill?

Was it hopeless to even try?

Was “the hunt” the only thing she really had in life?

No, definitely not the only thing.

Surely not even the most important thing in her life.

Firmly, she put the unpleasant question out of her mind.

When she arrived at the BAU building, she parked and hurried inside and straight to Brent Meredith’s office.

She saw that Jenn was already there, looking a lot more bright-eyed and awake than Riley felt. Riley knew that Jenn, like Bill, had an apartment in the town of Quantico, so she’d been in less of a rush to get here. But Riley also attributed some of Jenn’s early-morning freshness to her youth.

Riley had been much the same as Jenn when she was younger – ready and eager to spring into action at a moment’s notice, at any time of day or night, and able to go without sleep for extended intervals when the job demanded it.

Were those days slipping behind her?

It wasn’t a pleasant thought, and it didn’t brighten Riley’s already uneasy mood.

Sitting at his desk, Brent Meredith cut a formidable figure as always, with his black, angular features, his broad frame, and his perpetual down-to-business attitude.