Jerrie Oneshot Book

Every Step You Take

Summary: FBI Agent Perrie Edwards has been assigned to watch a potential suspect in a series of art thefts. She knows her mark has been painting recreations of famous works, but it is her job to determine whether Jade Thirlwall knows what the work is for, or if she's an unwitting pawn.

"You had one job, Agent Edwards," Director Anderson said, his voice dangerously low. "One. Job. Do I need to remind you what that one job was?"

"No. Sir." Perrie knew she was supposed to cower under his burning gaze, to bend and break under the weight of his barely suppressed rage. He was trying to intimidate her, and it would be in her best interests to at least pretend it was working. Instead, she was struggling not to laugh in his face.

"Then why don't you remind me so I know we're on the same page."

Perrie bit the inside of her cheek to keep from rolling her eyes. It wasn't the first time she'd been called into the director's office for a dressing-down, and she was sure it wouldn't be the last. She was – and always had been – a thorn in the director's side. She was also the best he had, and they both knew it. "I was to locate and observe the mark."

"Why?"

"To ascertain what role, if any, she plays in the ring of art thieves that has been operating for the last several months," Perrie replied, keeping her tone even.

"She plays a role," Director Anderson insisted. "She is supplying the thieves with forgeries of the paintings being stolen, which are hung in the place of the originals in an attempt to avoid detection of the theft for as long as possible, giving them time to get it to the buyer before anyone is the wiser."

"But it's unclear whether she's aware that that's the intended purpose of the recreations she paints," Perrie argued. "We need to determine whether she's complicit, or just a pawn."

"But first, we need to observe her. To see where she goes, who she talks to, what they talk about. Not talk to her. Not interact her. Observe her. That was your job. Your one job. Which you have failed at. Spectacularly."

You don't know the half of it, Perrie thought. At least she hoped he didn't... but if he did, she was pretty sure this would be a very different conversation. One that involved resignation letters and handing over of credentials.

"In my defense, sir," she started, biting the inside of her cheek to keep herself from smirking, "she approached me."

24 Hours Earlier

Perrie hated coffee. She hated the smell, she hated the taste, and she especially hated the way it made her heart race when she drank too much... which was just about any amount. But the tea selection at this coffee shop was crap, and she needed to stay awake. One of the first things she'd learned about her mark was that she was basically nocturnal, and Perrie had never been good at sleeping during the day. It was becoming a problem.

She could have gone somewhere else, somewhere where she could get something that didn't taste like garbage, but her mark was there, and Perrie couldn't risk losing track of her. She tried to blend in with the crowd, which was starting to thin, while watching her mark out of the corner of her eye, lest she decided to leave before Perrie could get back to the shell of an apartment in the building across the street from the mark's that allowed Perrie to watch her comings and goings.

Perrie looked away for one minute while she doctored her coffee with a criminal amount of cream and sugar, and when she looked back, her mark was gone. She whirled around, thinking maybe she'd gone to use the bathroom, and sucked in a breath when she found herself face-to-face with the girl who she was supposed to see, who was never supposed to see her.