They had played it through several times of course. Parker knew exactly where she had to be standing and Eliot knew exactly when to start hitting the breaks so that he would only bumb into the thief ever so slightly. Still Eliot was nervous. In jobs like this, things could always go wrong. He hated the fact that it was Parker who had to take the fall and not him. But there was no way around it. It was part of her role. She was the young investigative journalist who had to die because she knew too much.
He waited for Parker to deliver the frantic phonecall to Monica Hunter, then he kicked down the gas pedal hard. When he passed the last intersection, he gave Parker the signal.
"Go"
On cue, Parker began to walk towards the curb. It was exactly like they had rehearsed it. Eliot punched the breaks, but not so hard that they would squeak. It was important that it looked like a hit, not like an accident.
"Jump", he called.
The blonde thief reacted at once, but somehow she did not get away as clean as she had in the trial runs. Eliot cursed when he heard and felt Parkers legs connect forcefully with the front bumper. She flew to the side and crashed to the ground. Eliot saw her stir once, then she lay still.
"Parker! Are you alright?" he called out softly. Parker did not reply.
"Stay in role" Nate ordered calmly. Sophie cleared her throat.
"Excuse me! I am running this con! Eliot, stay in role" she repeated.
"I hit her, dammit" Eliot growled. "I really hit her. I have to make sure she is alright."
He brought the car to a stop and got out, running over to Parker's motionless form. When he leaned forward to grab the file from her purse, he secretly laid a hand on her cheek for a second.
"Parker" he whispered. "Can you hear me? Please! I need to know if you are hurt."
Parker half opened one of her eyes and winked at him. Eliot let out a sigh of relief.
"She's okay", he mumbled to reassure the other team members.
"Of course she is. She is Parker. Now get out of there" Sophie urged. "You are running out of time. Hardison, you are up!"
Eliot sprinted back to the car, jumped in and took off with squeaking tires. He hated jobs like this.