Sleepless In Boston
Chapter Six
"We get Costello and you're on the next flight back to Texas Jimmy."
"How much have you told him?" The man looked over her shoulder. Eliot was sitting in the corner with Nate and Sophie, Faith in her seat next to him.
"Enough." She hissed.
"You know between your hacker friend and Spencer's connections this all could go south whether you like it to or not kid."
"Yee of little faith."
"You never played the game this close to the vest Hawks. It's getting too dangerous." Jimmy looked down at her. "You need to pull the plug."
"I haven't done what I came to do Jimmy."
"You've gone and had a kid with the guy Kenna, it's not like you can cut and run." Eliot was glaring his way and Jimmy was feeling very uncomfortable. "You need to come clean and see if he's still willing to keep you around."
"I told him enough to test the waters and he's still on my side."
"Will he still be that way when he finds out the things that you haven't told him?" Jimmy raised his eyebrows. "Think about it Kenna. You make his criminal career look like Martha Stewarts and he's pissed of Myanmar for God sake. Hell all five of your friends put together have a better chance of stayin' out of hell than you do."
"I have never lied to him about what I've done."
"But not telling him is going to make it worse when he finds what you've been up to from someone else." Kenna turned and looked at Eliot.
"I'm not leaving." She said as she turned back to him. "I have to stay." Jimmy looked at her. He knew she wouldn't come back after her loose ends had been tied with Spencer. She had always done things her way and now wasn't going to be any different.
"So you go on living this lie till a new one is better suited for you."
"This is the end of the road Jimmy. I clear this team and I'm staying if they will let me."
"Ford doesn't like a liar."
"I didn't lie. I came to fix them. Fix things with Eliot and make sure they can continue doing what they are doing without consequences."
"You can't save people who don't want to be saved Kenna. Don't go outsmarting your common sense girl."
"They wouldn't be doing what they are doing if they didn't want to be saved." Kenna turned to go. "I will tell him everything."
"Good luck with that." Jimmy turned and headed out of the bar. Kenna went over to the table. Eliot stood and let her slide in next to him.
"So, what did Jimmy have to say?"
"They lost him. Texarkana is his next stop."
"Maybe we should go out there and find his ass ourselves." Eliot ground out. Kenna reached over and ran her hand down his arm.
"I have a few things I need to discuss with the three of you." Kenna looked at Nate and Sophie.
"You look like you're about to lose your best friend."
"I might." Kenna swallowed hard. Then she took a deep breath. "When I left the seals I did a lot of real bad things. Worse than I have led you to believe."
"Kenna, we understand if you feel like if you tell us we won't understand but give us a try." Nate said. She felt Eliot's arm around her.
"A few years ago I went to work for a retrieval company. Sort of like a repo man for the rich. If they took a loan against property or other things."
"Other things?" Sophie questioned.
"People Sophie." Eliot looked at Kenna. "Their wives, husbands, and kids." Kenna looked at her daughter and stroked her cheek.
"I only had one job like that. I couldn't do it so I quit." She didn't look at them while she talked. "I got a call from a consortium that was looking for someone with my back ground willing to come back into the light."
"They thought you would do better fighting evil than creating it?" Nate asked.
"Yeah, pretty much. It wasn't so much of a job as it was a mission." She looked across the table. "Three years ago a small company appeared on the company's radar. Some of the free worlds most wanted criminals were doing good things for good people."
"Us?" Nate questioned.
"Yeah. They thought you were doing good things even though you weren't playing by the rules. I didn't know about it till last year when you went to prison. It came across my desk when you got out. That's when I found out Eliot was part of the team I asked to be part of the detail."
"Detail?"
"The detail that makes you sure nothing stands in your way of helping the people you help."
"I'm not sure where you're going with this Kenna." Sophie said.
"There are a few of us who make sure you don't get caught doing what you're doing." Eliot looked at her.
"Who else?"
"Bonanno and a few others that I've never met." Kenna looked at Eliot. He hadn't moved his arm from around her shoulders so that was a good thing.
"You were spying on us?" Eliot looked at her.
"No, I was sent to help you. When…when I got pregnant they cut me loose. They told me that I could stay and not be part of the company or I could be reassigned."
"They wanted you to leave?" Kenna looked at Eliot.
"They offered to take care of things for me." She said quietly. "They did give me a choice and more than anything I wanted to stay."
"That's why you've been so jumpy. This consortium wants you back?"
"No, they are really proud of the work you've done. But things are not going to be easy from here on out. The word is out about what you do. The case load may be backed up for weeks or even months."
"Why didn't you just tell me all this after you found out you were pregnant?"
"Because I wasn't sure you would believe that this is where I should be." Eliot stood up.
"I guess you don't really know me all that well then." He walked out of the bar. Kenna watched him go.
"You said that this consortium want us to continue what we're doing?" Nate asked. Kenna turned and looked at him.
"They want to fund any and all future jobs. I told them you didn't do it for the money but they think that what you do is for the good of mankind." Kenna looked the way Eliot had gone.
"Go find him and make things right." Sophie smiled. Handing the car seat over the older woman Kenna headed to find Eliot.
/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/
"You're not plotting to push me off the building are you?" Kenna found Eliot on the roof.
"I know less complicated ways to get rid of you if I wanted to." He didn't turn around.
"Now you know why I've been afraid to commit to this life." She stood behind him. "They had everything I had ever done…good and bad hanging over my head."
"Why didn't you just tell me Kenna?" Eliot spun around and glared at her. "Do you think anything you've done would change the way I felt about you?"
"No." She said softly. "I didn't know if they would let me stay."
"You said you quit after you found out you were pregnant. They can't make you do anything if you don't work for them Kenna." He didn't know what kind of people they were dealing with.
"They have every crime I have ever committed documented Eliot. I was afraid they would use it against me."
"If you would have told us we could have helped." He looked at her.
"Then maybe they would be after you instead of wanting to help you." She hugged her arms around herself. "Now we're both free." Kenna said. "Jimmy told me that I've proven to the consortium that I was an asset to your team so they wrote me off."
"Is that why you've been feeling like you don't deserve to be happy? They were holding your past sins over your head?" Eliot took a step forward and pulled her into his arms. "God baby, I wish you would have told me."
"It was in my contract, I couldn't." She clung to him. "I really felt if I didn't walk away that my whole life would be over anyway."
"Baby you have a decorated Navy seal, a captain of the Massachusetts State Police, and a US Marshal who believe in you and know that you're a changed women Kenna. That alone should tell you something." She started sobbing. Eliot pulled her closer and closed his eyes. It had been a long time since he had seen her cry. Not since they were kids. "Kenna it's over. You don't have to be strong for me baby. Just let it go." He whispered. "Just let it go." Eliot felt her clinging to him and he wished there was something more he could do to reassure her.
"They wanted me to leave you and Faith. They told me that I could never see you again." He didn't know who these bastards were but he was going to make them pay for what they had put Kenna though. She must have felt him tense because she pushed away and looked at him. Her eyes red and swollen. "Your right it is over. They won't bother us anymore. Please Eliot, don't do anything foolish."
"They threatened to keep you from your baby Kenna." She touched his cheek. "They threatened to take you away from me." Kenna smiled.
"I wouldn't let them. That's why I've been working hard on staying here." She leaned over and kissed his lips softly. "Now I can stay. Forever. You're stuck with me Eliot Spencer. Whether you like it or not." Pulling her close he hugged her tight.
"How could I not love being stuck with you Kenna Shane?" He whispered in her ear. "Now we're going to go downstairs and warm up and you can explain in detail about this consortium and you will not leave anything out."
"I promise." He put his arm around her shoulder and they headed down face Nate and Sophie.
0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0
The team sat around the big screen in Nate's apartment. Faith slept in the small cradle that sat next to Eliot's chair. Kenna stood and took the remote off the coffee table.
"The Regal Consortium was founded by Jakob Regal in nineteen sixty-eight." Kenna put a picture of Regal up on the screen. "He founded it to help draft dodgers get a fair trial. Then when the war was over he had a ton of money and nothing to invest it in so he looked for every lost cause he could find. From windmill farms to PETA protests. Regal died three years ago when the restaurant he was eating at served him something with pine nuts in it even after he asked for the salad he ordered to be free of them. That's when Leverage Inc. showed up on the consortiums radar." Kenna sat on the arm of Eliot's chair. "They directed a few clients your way to test your skills. When they found out you were good at what you do they tried to keep as much spotlight off you as possible. When you split up the first time they did everything they could to bring you back but as luck would have it you couldn't stay apart." Kenna felt Eliot's hand on the small of her back and she relaxed a little more.
"Why didn't they keep Sterling off of us?" Nate asked.
"Interpol was a little more difficult to control a few years ago. As of now you'll be lucky if you ever see James Sterling again."
"I can live with that loss." Eliot commented. Kenna smiled.
"The consortium backs things and people that are doing good things for their communities and the people in them. They recruited me after a really bad time in my life and when I was going through the open files on my desk one day I found yours. I think that was the point. They knew that I knew Eliot and wanted someone on the inside to make sure things were running smoothly."
"You were sent to spy on us?" Parker glared at her.
"I was sent to check on an investment and I stayed because I fell in love…with all of you." She smiled at the thief. "Not as much as I did Eliot but I fell none the less." She looked at the team in front of her. "When I got pregnant I quit but I knew they still had all the bad things I did locked in a file somewhere so I was scared they would hold it against me."
"I could steal it for you?"
"That's sweet Parker but I couldn't begin to even tell you where it is."
"It's been burned." Jimmy came through the door. Kenna looked up. "Any and all proof they had that you ever went dark side is gone." He handed her a file. "This is your release papers."
"You didn't have to do this Jimmy."
"Yeah, I did." He looked at Kenna and Eliot. "You earned your freedom a long time ago. Now we get Costello and you're free to go on with your new life." Jimmy looked at the baby lying in the cradle next to her father's chair. "It's all cleaned up." He said softly. Looking a Kenna once again he took a deep breath. "Don't mess it up again." He turned and left just as quickly as he came in. Kenna looked at the file in her hand. It was over. The part of her life that she had been scared to face was behind her now. Gone. Eliot took her hand and squeezed it.
"Welcome home Kenna." He said. Looking at him she smiled.
"Yeah, Kenna, welcome home." Nate said as he looked at his hitter and the love of his life. He had always trusted Eliot to make the right choices and bringing Kenna into the fold had seemed to one of the best ones the younger man had ever made.
"Does this mean we can finally start planning a wedding?" Sophie asked. Kenna smiled.
"Or a trip to Vegas." She looked at Eliot. He shook his head.
"I can wait. We're going to do this right." Sliding her down into his lap he hugged. "No Elvis chapel wedding for my girl." Eliot hugged Kenna close and closed his eyes. She was finally his and he wasn't going mess it up, ever. Even if it meant losing a little sleep at night.