Parker chafed at her restrictions. At the moment, she was the only member of Leverage who wasn't helping with the con. On Hardison's screen, Nate floated around the office building like he owned it. Sophie paced off in a remote hallway, waiting for Hardison's signal that the mark had arrived. Parker could see her wince with every step, but didn't know why. Maybe Sophie had gotten new shoes and they hurt her feet? Hardison, as usual, sat at his computer, but this time he was set up at an ornate, hand-carved wooden desk in the farmhouse with an Eliot hovering over his shoulder.

And Parker, much to her chagrin, was thoroughly attached to a chair placed about ten feet behind Hardison. Sure, she had a decent view of what was going on, but Sophie was using Parker's earbud to talk to Hardison, so Parker only heard half of the conversation. Worst of all, though, was the fact that she could barely move. Spencer had insisted on keeping at least one hostage to make sure Nate went through with his promise. No one had been happy about it, but Parker least of all, because really there were two hostages - both her and Hardison!

Spencer had said something about her disappearing and being wary about what Hardison could do with a computer without a reason to keep up his end of the deal, but it was the principle that frustrated Parker so much. She had never been a prisoner until now, and she had no intention of being a damsel in distress!

Suddenly, Hardison's voice took her mind off of her captivity. "Mark's on his way, Sophie. Get ready."

Spencer leaned in and pointed at the screen, speaking loudly into Hardison's ear. "If you come on too strong, he's gonna know something's up—"

Hardison jerked away and glared at the hitter. "They pick up; you don't have to yell."

Spencer just rolled his eyes and shifted backward.

Parker squirmed to get a better view of what was happening on Hardison's screen, but Spencer was now blocking most of it. After a minute or so of silence, Hardison leaned closer to the screen and said, "Nate's moving now, Sophie. Guide the mark down the hallway to your right and you'll run right into him."

Spencer shook his head and reached over Hardison's shoulder to point at the screen. "Stop, stop. Nobody goes down that hall. He'd believe it more if Ford were coming out of that office—"

"Excuse you - who put you in charge?"

Spencer turned to stare at Hardison deliberately. They just kept staring and staring and staring and finally Parker got fed up with it. "Guys! What's happening?!"

They both just kind of glanced at her. Hardison immediately got back to his work, but did take the time to answer her. "Sophie's this close to hooking the mark. And Nate's gonna be in that hallway because somebody crunched our earbuds so he doesn't have communication." He sent a meaningful glance toward Spencer, who ignored him.

After another minute, Spencer reached for the screen again and Hardison slapped his hand away. "Do you mind? Personal space. Alright, Sophie, take the $65 million. That's good enough."

Parker stiffened in her seat and renewed her efforts to get eyes on the screen. Failing that, she whined at Hardison again. "Did she do it? Did we get our money?"

"Yeah, babe, we got 'im. He's on the hook. Just have to wait for the wire transfer to go through and we are back in business!" Something must have happened that Parker didn't see, because suddenly Spencer gave a loud clap and Hardison whooped gleefully. "Oh yeah, age of the geek, baby! High five for morale!" And Parker almost didn't believe her eyes when the hitter seemed to forget himself and gave the hacker a solid high five.

Hardison leapt out of his seat and hugged Parker, bound as she was. "You're gonna let her go now, right? Now that Nate's plan worked?"

Almost immediately, Spencer settled back into the cool, detached persona. "Once I have everything Ford promised."

Parker felt Hardison's hand tighten around hers and noticed it was trembling. For all the confidence he had shown while running the con from his computer screen, Parker could finally feel the terror running through his body. If anything, Hardison's fear made her even more proud of him. It was one thing to be fearless, and another to get the job done with a literal angel of death breathing down your neck while you do it. Parker squeezed Hardison's hand tightly.

Hardison lifted his chin and his voice came out surprisingly steadily. "Why didn't I see you on the cameras?"

Spencer shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know how any of that stuff works. Something about looping the feed, but all I cared about was that it worked, not how."

Parker watched Hardison's lips flatten into a thin line. "I shoulda guessed." He released her hand and pulled a check book out of his pocket, scribbling on it haphazardly. Once it was done, he tore it out and handed it to Spencer. One last glance at Parker, and Spencer was gone.

The tension in the room was suddenly dissipated and Hardison was at her side in an instant, picking at her restraints with far more enthusiasm than care.

"Breathe, Hardison." She held her voice steady, knowing that it would help him calm down. "Work at them carefully and they'll obey you..."


Back in his apartment, Nate settled into a chair at the table with a full bottle of whiskey in his hand. After the ordeal from the last few days, he was all too happy to lose himself in drink. He wasn't the only one winding down, either.

In the living room, The Sound of Music played on the TV, even though nobody was awake to see it. Sophie had asked for it, and no one had the heart to deny her after what she had gone through. Parker had helped Nate treat the burns, but they still looked extremely painful. Now that she was safe and wrapped in the coziest blankets Nate owned, it hadn't taken Sophie more than ten minutes to fall asleep.

The poor thief had allowed Sophie to sleep in her lap. Unwilling to get up and wake Sophie, Parker had been trapped on the couch and unable to indulge her too-tired-to-sleep energy, so half an hour after Sophie, she melted into the cushions as well.

Hardison lasted a solid hour before succumbing to his exhaustion. Nate had no idea what the hacker had been doing, but it wasn't watching the movie. He had spent the entire night tapping at his computer until he finally passed out with his fingers still on the keyboard. A bowl of popcorn, Parker's contribution to the relax effort, had spilled by Hardison's feet. Nate just knew it would take a week to clean up all those kernels, but he wasn't really in the mood to be frustrated by the little things.

He had something much bigger to think about now.

They had survived their first brush with Moreau's enforcer, but only by the skin of their teeth. Nate was responsible for keeping his team safe, but if he were honest with himself, he would have to admit that his own recklessness had led him to endanger them far beyond what any of them could handle. He knew he had a tendency to go after the best possibilities and ignore the possibility of bad consequences, but with this whole Italian business, he was even more out of control than normal. Sophie tried to keep him on track, but there just wasn't enough punch to it. He knew she would stick by him, so her threats had no bite.

What he needed was someone less attached and more down-to-earth, someone who could be trusted to keep the team safe even when Nate went after ambitious and dangerous targets.

Thankfully, he had been given another chance to make it right. Their con against Farrell had worked in the end, but even the victory stung with a grim reminder of what could - and, honestly, should - have happened.

Farrell had disappeared, as Nate had expected. What he had not expected was for the police to find him that night back in his own bed, his body mutilated almost beyond recognition. The scariest thing, though, was that the medical examiner believed Farrell had been alive for the entirety of the morbid procedure.

While Nate had felt very guilty for turning Farrell over to be brutalized like that, he felt even more sick that it could have been Parker, or Hardison, or - heaven forbid! - Sophie lying there, abandoned and abused.

All because of him.

All because of Moreau.

All because of Eliot Spencer.

And Nate knew who they needed to take down next, because only one man was now standing between him and Moreau.

With one last glance toward his sleeping teammates, Nate lifted the bottle of whiskey to his lips and drank deeply. Visions or no visions, Nate was going to have to deal with Eliot Spencer.


Eliot sank heavily onto the hotel bed. His feet throbbed and he was exhausted. Moreau had ordered him to make an example of Farrell, and Eliot had done just that. It would definitely send a message to Moreau's other subordinates: be very careful with the boss' money or you may end up like this. More importantly, it would send a message to Nate Ford. It was Eliot's way of saying, "This is what I could have done to your team. If you get in my way again, this is what I will do to your team."

His eyes wandered over to the nightstand, which held an opened envelope and a check. Half of him was afraid it might bounce, or maybe the hacker would keep it from going through. The other half knew Ford was an honest man. Besides, he didn't really think Ford would be stupid enough to purposefully anger him by cheating him out of his money.

No, what occupied his mind right now was how that check changed everything. He lifted it gently, almost as if it were glass. For perhaps the twentieth time, he read the numbers, just trying to convince himself they were actually real.

$32,761,349.00.

$32,761,349.00.

He really didn't believe what his eyes were telling him. If this indeed went through and he actually received over $32 million, his entire life would be radically different. He wouldn't have to work another day in his life if he didn't want to. Of course, he did want to because he enjoyed his work, but it would mean he could choose pretty much any job he wanted, no matter what the pay was. Heck, he could do whatever he wanted, with no thought of money whatsoever.

It would allow him to seriously reevaluate what he wanted to be doing and why.

Yeah, life was going to change very soon. The conflict between Ford and Moreau was coming to a head, and Eliot could only imagine what kind of fallout there would be. But he had been through worse before, and he knew how to take care of himself.

As long as he played his cards right, he should be able to come out on top no matter what happened.


The End

A/N: Keep an eye out for the upcoming sequel, The Deserter!