The team all made it back to the station at the same time and met in the conference room that the Miami PD were providing them. "What did you guys find out?" Hotch asks.
"One of the heads of the company knew both victims. Put one through college and worked closely with the other," Morgan answers.
"Amanda's a partner in the company," JJ chimes, and Amanda groans.
"I was 16 and it was a piece of notebook paper. I don't even think it had words when I signed it!"
"I'm sorry, what happened with you two?" Hotch wonders and Amanda grins.
"The owners of the company are Scotty Moore and Anthony Kyle." He looks at her in confusion and she sighs. "Kris and I used to hang out with them all time. They were being bullied by the first bully I-"
"I remember that happening thank you." She shrugs and continues.
"Well, Scotty was answering our questions and he told me that Tony had put Rachael through college because I gave them money to start up their company and I told him that I gave them money for new computers."
"You gave them $375 for new computers?!" Morgan shouts.
"Where did you get $375 when you were 16?" Hotch asks.
"I was extorting dad, remember?"
"Dad died when you were 15 but maybe you forgot because you didn't come to the funeral," he scolds and she rolls her eyes.
"After dad died, he had it set up so that he was still paying for my college, I just never told him that the FBI was also paying for my college so I had lots of money. I used to keep it in a zip lock bag under my mattress like a drug dealer. Kristen and I were going to go shopping and she only had $12 so I was going to pay for both of us but we stopped for ice cream with them first. They were talking about something, I thought it was new computers, and then Kris gave them her money so I gave them mine and she said we didn't need to go shopping."
"You weren't paying attention and you just signed something?"
"I was sixteen, they said it was to ensure they would pay us back. I was distracted!"
"By what?" She shoots a quick look at Spencer before shaking her head.
"I was texting someone so I wasn't exactly paying attention. Kristen was the one that was crushing on Scotty which was the only reason I was there in the first place. Now can we please get back to the case and stop talking about how they tricked Kristen and me into being silent partners in their stupid company?"
"Um, at the morgue, the bodies were odd," Emily begins, much to Amanda's gratitude.
"Odd how?" Spencer questions.
"Well the first victim, Rachael, her body showed major signs of overkill, but the first blow was the killing blow, a stab to the heart. The second victim, however, was stabbed 7 times before he was stabbed in the heart."
"Maybe he wanted the second victim to suffer," JJ suggests.
"Or maybe the extra stabs were necessary," Amanda claims. "Aaron, come here." He obeys and stands in front of her. "JJ," she motions and the blonde obeys. "Ok, JJ is Rachael. If I'm going to stab her and I don't want her to fight back, I would stab her in a place I know will kill her, her heart." She mimes the gesture. "The knife is concealed the whole time. Now if I go to stab Aaron, who is about the same height as Robert, I can't stab him in the heart or he'll see the knife. That wouldn't matter if the killer was a man unless he was skinny like Spencer. No offense, Spence."
"None taken," he mutters as Amanda continues.
"So the killer was obviously angry at Rachael, that's why she kept stabbing after she had already killed her. But she only stabbed Robert 7 times to subdue him because he was bigger than her. The question is, why did she kill Robert if she wasn't angry?" Everyone shrugs before the lead detective on the case enters the room.
"Scott Moore was just run off the road. He's in the ER now."
"Amanda, Reid. Go to the hospital, see what he can remember about the other driver. Prentiss and Morgan head to the scene, see if you can find anything." They nod and head to where they were directed. Reid and Amanda get to the hospital and they let them see Scott right away.
"I'm fine," he swears. "Just a little freaked out."
"You were run off the road. Did you see by who?" Amanda questions.
"It was dark. I just ran into a ditch and I barely have a scratch on me."
"Is there a reason someone would want to run you off the road?"
"Not me, no."
"Then who?" Reid asks.
"Look, a couple months back, Tony met this girl. She seemed nice at first but after about a month she went completely psycho, so he broke up with her. She was angry, used to leave him voicemails about how she was going to get him back and whatever. They stopped about two weeks ago."
"The same time the first murder occurred," Spencer says and Amanda nods.
"Scotty, you said that Tony paid Rachael's way through college because she was such a good secretary, right?"
"Yeah. She was a hard worker. She'd worked there since she was 15 and he didn't notice her aptitude for computers until she was 17."
"When did Rachael finish college and start for the company?"
"About two weeks ago," he mutters, coming to the same conclusion as them.
"Scotty, what was Tony's girlfriend's name?"
"Um, I don't know. I think it started with an M or something." Amanda and Reid share a look.
"I'm gonna call Aaron, stay with him. Try a cognitive to see if maybe he did catch a glimpse of her." Reid nods and Amanda heads outside. Aaron answers after the first ring.
"What have you got?"
"Apparently Anthony dated some psycho girl. Scotty can't remember her name but he said that she used to leave threatening voicemails that stopped two weeks ago, the same time that Rachael finished the college that Anthony paid for after she was his secretary for 2 years. That might have been the trigger."
"You're right, keep-" he's cut off by the sound of the phone hitting the pavement after the unsub knocks Amanda over the head, effectively knocking her out. She looks around before dragging her into her car that was waiting in the ambulance bay, not even noticing the phone where Aaron is still shouting for his sister.
_________
Amanda isn't sure how long she was unconscious but she was kicking herself for not paying better attention to her surroundings. She's a former CIA agent for God's sake. She bites her cheek to stop from groaning as she sits up from the cold cement that she was ditched on. Suddenly, she hears a different groaning. "Spencer," she calls.
"Sorry, Ames. Your boy toy isn't here. It's just me."
"Anthony? Great the only person who can remember your ex's name is stuck here with me. Wait, why did she take me?"
"I have no clue."
"I took her because you love her. Just like you loved that other whore when you should love me!"
"Laura," he tries but she cuts him off.
"No! I can see it. I see the way you look at her but it's okay. I just have to get rid of her and then we can be together."
"Look, Laura, is it? No offense to you or your intelligence but regardless of how Tony feels, I don't love him back and I never will."
"We'll just have to see about that, won't we?" She snarls before leaving the two alone.
"If I knew that it took murder to get you to come down here, maybe I would've done it myself," Anthony jokes, attempting to lighten the mood. She scoffs and rolls her eyes, hoping the team will find them soon.
Meanwhile, back at the station, the team is in a panic because the last time Amanda was kidnapped, things didn't exactly work out great. "JJ did you talk to Anthony's new secretary?"
"She said that he's missing too but I did get a name. Laura Stevens." Hotch looks to Morgan who pulls out his phone.
"Baby girl I need you to find everything you can on a Laura Stevens, she has Amanda."
"What? Please tell me this is a joke. The last time Amanda got kidnapped..."
"We know, so you need to hurry." She hangs up and gets to work as they try and figure out why she was taken.
"Well Anthony and Amanda are friends, right?" Emily says. "Amanda spent a week here with Kristen a few months ago."
"Except she wasn't really here," Reid admits.
"What do you mean?" Hotch asks and Reid sighs.
"After everything with Tobias, I was different and I know you guys noticed but I said some pretty...bad things to Amanda."
"Bad how?" Morgan prompts.
"Bad enough that she punched me. Then when I talked to my friend Ethan, he made me realize that you all noticed what was happening, you just didn't say anything and when I thought about it, I realized it was because you were trying to protect my job. Trying to protect me. So I went to rehab and put Amy down as my emergency contact. Turns out she knew the owner and he called her so she took the time off to make sure I was really clean. I'm better, I am, but she knew I didn't want to tell you guys so she lied to protect me."
"So how did Laura know about Amanda?" Emily wonders, purposefully taking the focus off Reid's confession.
"Well if she was keeping an eye on the company, she could've easily seen the way Scott reacted to Amanda. It's clear they were good friends," JJ suggests
"Maybe she wasn't keeping an eye on the company, but on Anthony," Reid replies. "When Morgan and I got into his office, he knew who we were because he still talks to Amanda. Amanda didn't know that she was a silent partner but that doesn't mean that Anthony didn't talk about it and when he was talking about how she helped them, he was really thankful. I think it's why he made her a part of the company, so she would still profit since she gave them their start."
"Pretty boy's right. If he told that story to his psycho girlfriend she could've easily misinterpreted his gratitude for love." As soon as he gets done talking, his phone rings. "What've you got, Garcia?"
"Well Laura doesn't have any assets but I dug further and found that her uncle owns some warehouses on Bayshore Drive in Miami and as of right now, they're empty. Everything was just shipped out a few weeks ago."
"Thanks, we'll call you when we get her, Garcia," Hotch tells her as Morgan hangs up. They all rush out to the SUV and head to the address Garcia sent to their phones. When they arrive, they can hear the yelling coming from one of the warehouses and surround it.
"You're in love with him, just admit it!"
"I'm not in love with him. We barely even talk anymore!" Amanda shouts, getting frustrated with Laura's incessant complaining about how Amanda is in love with her soul mate.
"Then why would you give him so much money to help him start up his company?" She accuses again.
"I didn't even know there was a company, you psycho bitch! I left for the FBI the next year and didn't talk to him for a couple years. I didn't even know the name of their company, just that they had one, and I had no clue it was built on the money we gave them."
"You're lying! Why would you give them the money?!" She screams, pointing a revolver at Amanda.
"Because I wasn't even listening to them. I was texting Spencer!"
"It's true," Anthony chimes. "She never paid attention to us when she talked to Spencer. He was all she talked about all the time. It drove Scotty crazy?"
"Why would Scotty care?" Amanda wonders and Anthony gives her a look as though to ask if now was really the time.
"Yeah, Tones, why would Scott care who she talked about?" Laura demands.
"Damn it, Laura, because he's in love with her. Not me, okay? I'm grateful to her, I am, but I knew then that she was never going to go for me so I never even let myself hope. Then I learned she wasn't even my type because I dated Kristen and it didn't work for a reason. Our personalities don't really match."
"Really," she asks him with joy in her eyes as he nods and the team chooses that time to enter.
"Laura Stevens, FBI," Hotch shouts and she panics, pointing the gun at Amanda. "Put the gun down!"
"No," she denies. "I'm not going down for this. Just let Tones and me leave. Nobody needs to get hurt."
"We can't let you do that, Laura," Emily explains gently.
"Then I guess people are going to get hurt," she sneers, but before she can shoot, someone else does, hitting her in the shoulder and making her drop the gun. Morgan rushes forward and arrests her as Spencer lowers his gun and rushes to Amanda.
"Are you okay?"
Amanda smiles. "I'm really happy your aim has gotten better because she was a little too close to me and had you missed, you likely would've hit me," she jokes and he scoffs and shakes his head as she laughs. "I'm fine, Spence, just a giant knot in my head from where she hit me at the hospital. That kind of hurts." He chuckles with her this time before helping her up. She tries to take a step but she stumbles. "Apparently I'm dizzy too."
He shakes his head before moving one of his arms under her knees and the other over her shoulder before hoisting her into his arms in the bridle position. "You probably have a concussion."
"God, don't say that. I hate concussions!" She complains, making the team laugh as Spencer carries her to the ambulance they had brought with them. He stays with her the whole time they check her out and determine she doesn't have a concussion, she just hadn't eaten that day, while Morgan and Hotch stand back and watch them.
"I didn't realize Pretty Boy had the upper body strength to carry someone," he mutters and Hotch nods.
"Sometimes people surprise you, especially when it comes to the people they love," he responds before heading back to the SUV. Morgan looks over in shock to find him gone before turning back and wondering if what Hotch said was true. As he sees Spencer tuck a piece of hair behind her ear as they laugh, he starts to wonder how he had missed it. His best friend didn't just have a thing for her, he was in love with Amanda Hotchner and Derek had no idea if she had any clue.