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"What? Oh." I looked at the side of the cup with a smirk. "Hot barista gave me her number. Clearly, my coffee brings all the girls to the yard."

She narrowed her eyes at me and scoffed.

"Don't give me that face."

"I'll give you whatever face I want."

"Sure about that?" I smirked and nodded toward the door. "Bet your boyfriend won't be too happy with some of the faces you've given me over the years."

Her expression fell with the low blow I tossed at her. "I'm not doing this with you right now."

"Sounds good to me." I shrugged and stood up from my leaning position. "Good luck with James. I hear she gives off sparks at her baseline," I said, tossing my cup in the trash beside the door. "Can't wait to see what she's like inside the powder keg of this situation."

"You're really an asshole sometimes, Caroline. Do you know that?" Nora flew after me, coming to stand beside me within an inch. Rage fueled her, her face burning red with it.

"Yup. Sure do." I stepped away from her and into the busy hall.

From the other end of it, the red mane of terrible broke through the more common crowns of the passersby. Perkins jogged his way over when he saw Nora, a chipper smile chiseled across his face. He approached her, his hand sliding around her middle immediately.

"Gordo just mentioned you're heading out to Grays Harbor," he said, rubbing her back when her reception of him wasn't particularly warm.

"Yes," she answered, glancing between the two of us. She shifted away from him and folded her arms over her middle. "I have to get ready to leave."

"I'll come with you. Might be a few days before we see each other again." He motioned down the hall toward her office, his gaze meeting mine for a moment. "Twice in one day, Donovan."

"All these years, Perkins, five floors apart, and I've seen you mostly at holiday parties or rare consultations." I propped my hands on my hips. "You trying to wiggle your way into the B.A.U.? If so, we don't revere recruits pardoned for treason."

Perkins let out an amused laugh, shaking his head at me when his hand fell to Nora's back. "I'm no Edward Snowden, if that's what you're insinuating, Donovan."

"Nah. Your right. His name made headlines. Yours didn't." I tossed a double-gun finger point at him and Nora. "Later."

He chuckled, shaking his head when he led Nora off down the hall. "Later."

I walked backward a few paces, watching how he appeared to direct Nora's movements. When they made it to the doorway of her office, she spun around to face him, her brow narrowed with the terse words that seemed to leave her that I couldn't hear. He stroked her arm, his fingers encircling her wrist for the briefest second until she jerked away and stormed off inside.