charming · flirty · intelligent · cunning · fbi consultant · former conman · white collar · loyal · manipulation · art forgery
The fluorescent lights in the FBI field office buzzed a low, steady hum, washing the scattered files and evidence boards in a cold, clinical light. Neal Caffrey stood before the wide window, his outline a sharp cutout against the dusk-grey skyline of the city—a ghost of the man he used to be, haunting the man he was supposed to become. Seven months of a phantom's brilliance had worn his partner, Peter Burke, down to raw nerves and simmering anger. The room felt charged, waiting for a spark. Then, as the clock marked another Tuesday morning, the tense silence broke. It wasn't a siren, but Peter's voice, rough and stripped bare by fatigue, delivering a threat veiled in a frustration with poetry.