Trust Me

(Disclaimer: Not my characters.)

"He took—my wife."

"I know." The look on Peter's face was twisting Neal's stomach into knots. "Peter, we're going to find her. I promise we're going to get her back."

"How?"

"We'll . . . we'll figure it out. I promise." Neal watched in alarm as Peter groped for a kitchen chair to steady himself. "Peter—you need to sit down."

"I don't want to sit down." Peter tried to take a step toward him, and staggered. Neal caught his arm and guided him toward the living room, away from the crowd. "Someone get some water," he called over his shoulder, easing Peter down onto the couch.

"I don't need any water! Neal, where is the treasure?" As Neal took a breath—"I know you have it! It's the only way—"

"Moz has it. I told him to take it and go." The impact of his own words hit Neal like a baseball bat to the knees, so that he had to lower himself onto the couch next to Peter. If he had left with Mozzie. . . . Thank God I didn't.

Peter was staring fixedly at him. "Neal," he said, very quietly. "If you're lying to me now . . ."

"I'm not. I swear I'm not." Neal looked directly into the other man's eyes, praying that Peter could tell the difference between the honest gaze he had been using before, during all that business with the Degas, and a genuinely honest gaze. "I wouldn't do that to you. Or to Elizabeth."

At his wife's name, all the air seemed to go out of Peter. He crumpled forward, his ashen face dropping into his hands.

Into Neal's mind flashed that awful night when he'd found Peter lying on the floor, near death from the brandy that Jessica had poisoned. That time, Peter's helplessness had terrified him. This time . . . this time he was furious. His hands clenched into fists.

He was going to fix this. He'd fix it if he had to dismember Keller, slowly, with a blunt pocketknife. In fact, he hoped he'd have to.

"Peter," he said softly and deliberately, leaning forward. "We are going to get her back. Trust me."

After a long moment, Peter lifted his eyes just enough to look at him again. Far down in those eyes, Neal saw something he hadn't seen in a while: belief. And a tiny, dawning hope.

For the first time in a long time, both men knew that Neal Caffrey was telling the truth.