"I don't like this" Eliot Spencer said nearly 60 times once Parker and Alec Hardison joined him on the elevator. "We usually do business at the restaurant. It's only five blocks down the street from this place, why does the client want to meet here? Something is up-"
The elevator dinged at the top of the hotel, relieving Hardison and Parker from Eliot's complaint. The trio walked out of the elevator and searched the room.
"There he is" Parker pointed to a middle-aged man standing up at the site of them.
Parker and Hardison spent no time in crossing the distance to shake the hand of their new client. Eliot, on the other hand, chose to take his time and survey the crowd. It seemed calm, like any normal afternoon brunch in the buffet room, but something seemed a little off. His instincts thrummed, warning him to stay on guard.
"Thank you for coming" the man said in a hushed whisper.
Eliot nodded and then slowly sat down in the seat facing the room as his eyes continued to search. A waitress immediately came up and served him and his friends ice cold water.
"You seemed stressed over the phone" Hardison noted. "You probably already know what we do but you were very cryptic on wanting to meet over here. If you want us to work with you, you're going to have to trust us. We've had that sort of trouble in the past and don't wish to repeat it"
"I'm so sorry but this one is really urgent" the man still whispered as he nodded over his left shoulder. "You see that young woman sitting near the mirror pillar?"
The trio looked in unison at the young woman off to the distance. Almost instinctively, the woman laughed and looked over her shoulder showing her bluish- green eyes as she looked out at the sunlight. Her blonde hair went down just beyond her shoulders as she took a moment to regain her composure and turn back over to the young man sitting in front of her. She was clearly on a date.
"So it's that kind of job" Parker slowly nodded. "I'm sorry but we are not matchmakers"
Eliot watched carefully in the direction of the woman, normally, a beautiful woman like that would always catch his eye. But it wasn't her he was looking at; it was the man in front of her. The woman seemed to be having the time of her life talking to him but he seemed a little bit too stiff. He was listening to her but barely paying any attention to what she was saying, only the reflection of someone above her head.
Eliot straightened up as he suddenly realized why he, Parker, and Hardison were being brought here. This was no ordinary job, it was a hit. The young woman had something that this person valued. Something he would clearly kill for.
Hardison turned to talk to Eliot but then stopped as he noticed his friend's posture. He didn't have the background of a hitter but when someone like Eliot tenses up, it was not for a good reason. He slowly brought his hand over to Parker's knee and gave it a slight squeeze, making her stop talking. They both knew by then that this was a bad decision to come here.
The man nervously drank his water and fixed his tie as he scanned the room too. Parker followed his gaze and noticed a man that was dressed as a chief. The only problem was he was delivering hard blows to the meat on his cutter table. His eyes seemed transfixed on the woman that seemed to be of most interest.
The man had told Hardison and Parker that the woman's name was Charlotte Williams, an heiress to her mother's company once she retires. But this had nothing to do with Charlotte's mother; her father on the other hand had made quite a few enemies before he mysteriously died. It was rumored that no one knew the companies that were after the Williams fortune but him and Charlotte. Now that her mother was making plans on retirement, the man before them believed that it is the German and Irish that seemed to want to kill her off.
Parker and Hardison glanced over to Eliot to see where his tactics lie. He knew for a fact that the man sitting in front of Charlotte was not carrying a gun. Even though he knew from experience that shooting someone from under the table was most effective, he doubted this guy knew that. In fact, he believed that the man was just a bait to get her comfortable before the hit.
Sure enough, the man turned on a switch in his brain that made him almost too friendly to be human. He wiped his mouth and excused himself from the table, almost too happy to have left. Eliot gave only sides glance over to Hardison and Parker who both seemed to have gotten the message. He quickly got up and raced over to the other side of the room and stood in front of the young woman.
"Hi-"Eliot smiled.
"Hello"
"Don't take this the wrong way"
Charlotte gave Eliot a confused look, "Excuse me?"
Eliot quickly pulled the table onto its side and quickly brought Charlotte to the ground. She let out a scream but then heard a lot of gunshots ringing out in the building. Fright over took her as she realized that the gunshots were aiming at the table. The mysterious man who had thrown her to the ground was now using himself as a human shield between her, the table, and the string of bullets.
Charlotte let out another scream as she buried her face into the man's chest, almost surprised to hear his heart beating calmly. Everyone around her screamed as mirrors and dishes crashed as the sound of the guns firing was starting to hurt her ears. She wanted more than ever to run but her legs were too shaky. Charlotte felt so overwhelmed that she could possibly faint from the adrenaline rushing to her brain.
"Stay here!" Eliot yelled into the woman's ear.
"What!" Charlotte yelled out. "Where are you going?"
Eliot didn't answer, instead, he ran into the line of fire. He heard Charlotte yelling after him to come back but that would be the worst thing to do on his part. He charged head on until he tackled the nearest gunner into a small hallway. As the man tried to catch his breath Eliot started punching the man into his ribs, cracking them upon impact.
Charlotte watched both in horror and in awe as the man fought off one of the shooters. Where did these men come from? Who was the man that saved her? She blinked her thoughts back into control as she looked around the room; people had already left the floor.
She wondered to herself if she could possibly run over to the emergency exit and get out right now. Charlotte glanced back over to the mysterious man and noticed that he seemed to be having the upper hand in the hand to hand combat. She quickly brought herself up to her feet and ran over to the bright red sign, now her current favorite color and word. But before she could reach the door, her blind date turned the corner with a gun in his hand.
Charlotte let out a scream as he aimed it at her head. She backed up and then tripped over a fallen chair that made her fall onto a bunch of broken glass. When she looked up, she noticed the man had come up in front of her and was fighting her blind date off. The man flung the gunman to the wall, making him crash into it and render unconscious.
Eliot let out a few deep breaths as he checked a cut on the side of his arm. He looked down at his feet to see the woman tear stained and staring up at Eliot, not knowing how to process what just happened.
"Are you alright?"
"No" Charlotte let out in a whisper.
Eliot nodded and looked around, "We got to get out of here. More people will return"
Eliot lent out his hand to Charlotte to help her up. Charlotte didn't know what to say or do as of this point but she slowly reached out and took his hand.
"More people?" Charlotte repeated. "I don't know what you're talking about. Shouldn't we wait for the police?"
Eliot looked around the room, "Did they wait for the police? I'm afraid that the closest police on duty are the dirtiest. They are probably waiting for this kind of call"
"What are you talking about?"
Still not letting go of her hand, Eliot turned around and quickly went out into the emergency stairwell. He knew that both the client and his friends would be waiting in the restaurant.
"You were a hit" Eliot informed her. "Your dream man wanted you dead"
"What?" Charlotte nearly yelled out.
"Your parents company got into some sort of trouble" Eliot explained.
"Is my mother alright?"
"She's not the target"
"What are you-"Charlotte wanted to stop but Eliot kept on rushing down the stairs, forcing her to tag along. "I'm a target?"
"Your late father received a list" Eliot said. "People believe that you were there to witness it. That's why your mother is not a target. One of the workers had overheard an organized hit. They knew it was meant for you. He said that they have tried a couple of attempts on your life already. With your mother retiring they don't want you to come after the big groups once you are in power"
"But I don't know anything about a list" Charlotte confessed. "I have no idea what you are talking about"
"Try telling them that"
"But it's the truth"
"They don't care about truth" Eliot told her. "They care about a body. These people are assassins. Whoever hired them will bring back more. We need to get you to safety"
"Did you kill those men upstairs?"
"No"
"Why not!"
"Because that is not what I do"
"But you took on four men with guns" Charlotte responded.
Eliot opened the emergency door and peeked out into the alleyway. He didn't notice any sort of suspicious movement going on. He closed the door and quickly took off his jacket and draped it over Charlotte's shoulders and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Together they stepped outside and started walking over to the pub where his team mates were waiting.
"Keep your head low" Eliot whispered.
Charlotte obeyed but she just had to ask, "Where are we going?"
"To safety"
"Where is that exactly?" Charlotte then had another question pop into her mind. "Who are you? What's your name?"
Charlotte- Katie Cassidy
