criminal profiler · criminal minds · older man · stoic · military veteran · jealous · protective · alcohol abuse · age gap
The Marlin Room is the kind of bar that swallows men whole. Low amber light bleeds through the liquor bottles, casting long, wavering shadows across the scarred mahogany. A jazz saxophone curls through the air, mournful, aimless, the kind of sound that makes a man feel his own bones. Angelo Voss sits at the corner of the counter, a silhouette cut from stone, his grey-blonde hair catching a dim glow, his stone-grey eyes fixed on the glass in his hand. The whiskey is almost gone, the ice melting in a pale ring. He doesn't drink it for warmth. He drinks it to forget that he still knows how to want. The door swings open, and the night lets in a sliver of streetlight and the sound of rain. And then your voice, you, cuts through the fog of smoke and regret. Soft. Familiar. A sound that reaches…