Second Attack

John approached the warehouse where Elias kept his headquarters. From the outside it looked like any regular old warehouse in not-so-good repair. But John knew that on the inside it was quite luxurious and comfortable. Elias had excellent taste and he enjoyed his comforts.

John approached the warehouse cautiously. He was well known to most of Elias's organization as a sort of friend, but new people were getting recruited all the time. He didn't want to provoke anyone, Joss would never let him hear the end of it if there was a shootout, and he did want to stay on Elias's good side, at least for now.

Fortunately he recognized all the men loitering outside the warehouse and they recognized him. They nodded to him, the stiff nods of men who were not particularly happy to see you, but had no choice but to be polite. Reese nodded back and entered the warehouse.

He was met just inside the door by one of Elias's inner circle, a man with name of Van Gogh because he had lost an ear in a knife fight. He had been one of Elias's loyal lieutenants from the very first and had been one of the men who locked John in the freezer truck with baby Leila.

"What do you want?" Van Gogh growled.

"I would like to see my friend Elias, of course," John smirked back.

Van Gogh made a sour face; he didn't like being reminded that Elias considered Reese a friend to whom he owed a blood debt for saving his life from the Russian mob. To make matters worse, Elias also owed Joss a blood debt for saving his life from HR as well. This meant that both John and Joss were untouchable to the organization, and most of the organization was not happy about it.

"Wait here," Van Gogh spun on his heel and stalked off.

He returned a few minutes later. "Follow me," he said gruffly.

John followed the man past a row of wine barrels, their oaken smell filling his nose. Van Gogh opened a door and escorted John into a comfortable kitchen with high end appliances and a large table in the middle that could seat 12 people easily. Seated at one end was Carl Elias, crime boss and next to him was his right hand man, Anthony Marconi, street name Scarface.

Elias smiled broadly. "John! It's been too long! Can I get you a cup of coffee?"

Elias was quite pleased to see John; he always was. John got the feeling that aside from the fact that John had saved him from the Russians, Elias seemed to genuinely like him. He was also quite positive that Elias had a small crush on his mate.

By contrast, Marconi looked like he had seen a cockroach. Scarface had made no secret of the fact that he loathed John, having once told John the he didn't understand why Elias didn't just kill him.

Scarface was the real reason John didn't want his mate coming anywhere near Elias. John knew Elias's sense of honor would not allow him to let any harm come to Joss, but John didn't like the way Scarface ogled her whenever he got the chance. Joss ignored it; she was quite used to the unwelcome attention of various lowlifes since she became a cop. John usually let Joss handle such situations, but something about the way Scarface would openly stare at her bothered him more than usual. John knew he and Scarface would have a very violent collision someday and John was looking forward to putting Scarface down like a rabid dog.

John nodded his head. "Thanks. But I can't stay long."

Elias sighed a dramatic sigh as he poured John some coffee and handed it to him., "You never do, John. How is your lovely mate? I miss her."

John smiled as he always did when talking about Joss. "She's fine. She's recovered from the birth."

Elias's eyes lit up at the mention of the birth. "That reminds me, I have a gift for your darling cub."

Scarface left the room, returning quickly with a large box wrapped in pink wrapping paper with a large pink and silver bow. John had to work very hard to keep from laughing at the absurdity of a vicious crime lord buying his daughter a present and wrapping it up in frilly, girlie fashion.

"Thank you Elias, that was very generous of you," John managed to say without giving away his amusement.

Elias waved his hand in a gesture of dismissal, "A baby is a precious thing to be celebrated, my friend. Even more so when it is the child of such good people. I am happy to do it. Now, what can I do for you?"

John sipped his coffee. "I assume you have heard about the attempt on the life of the Reverend Edward McCarthy this morning?"

Elias nodded his head. "The only surprise was that it took so long for someone to take a shot at the hatemonger. But I assure you that we had nothing to do with it. Contract killings are forbidden under my agreement with Detective Carter."

After Joss had saved Elias from the corrupt police organization HR, they had forged an agreement that Elias would keep a low profile. John and Joss both knew Elias was slowly rebuilding his organization, but Elias was very careful to do it in such a way that no innocent civilians were injured or killed; his sense of honor demanded he keep his promise. John wasn't sure how much longer Elias could keep it up, but he would deal with that when the time came.

"I know you wouldn't violate your agreement with Joss, but not a lot happens in this city without you knowing something about it." John tilted his head to the side and waited.

A slow, sly smile spread across Elias's face. John had just acknowledged the power of his organization and he was quite pleased with the compliment that he had just been paid. "I do know a bit, the contract was originally offered to our organization but we turned it down in deference to our agreement with Jocelyn. I believe the contract was accepted by a British organization."

"Who put the contract out?" John sipped his coffee. It was delicious, of course.

Elias shook his head regretfully. "No way of knowing, John. Whoever put the contract out was quite careful to avoid identifying themselves. I was sent a letter via bike courier and that courier met with a very unfortunate accident a few hours later."

"There was nothing to indicate who put the contract out?"

Elias shrugged. "They were very careful, but that's not unusual in these circumstances."

John growled in frustration, this was a dead end. He stood up and put his coffee mug down. "Thanks for the intel."

"I'm sorry I couldn't be more help John; I will keep my ears to the ground and let you know if the contract comes up again." Elias smiled and held out his hand.

John shook his hand. "Thanks." He nodded towards Scarface with a bit of a smirk. "Bye, Tony."

Scarface gave John a hard look, his eyes brimming with contempt. "Give my regards to Jocelyn," Marconi said flatly.

On that note, John left to return to the safe house.


Joss wasn't too happy when the rest of the team left, leaving her to babysit their racist number. She could appreciate the irony though; after all, she was the one who insisted they work this particular case, so she might as well suck it up. Besides, John promised to return as soon as he was done talking with Elias and bring some lunch with him.

McCarthy was rooting around in the kitchen, so Joss decided to get started searching through the NYPD files looking for similar MOs. She settled down at the laptop Finch had left behind, logged in the NYPD system and was soon engrossed her search.

After a while she felt a pair of eyes on her. Joss looked up from the computer to see McCarthy staring at her. "Do you need something Mr. McCarthy?" she asked with icy politeness.

"Do you mind if I turn on the TV? I can turn it to BET if you would like." McCarthy gave her a smarmy smile.

Joss, however, had been a black woman cop for a very long time. She was quite used to such insults and she had learned long ago how to respond. "I prefer the Military Channel. They have a good documentary on the Tuskegee Airman on tonight that I think you should watch," she said sweetly; and she went back to her search.

A few minutes later, she felt McCarthy's eyes on her again; she looked up and caught him staring at her for the second time. "This is getting old," she snapped.

McCarthy jumped, realizing he had been caught again. "You don't look Wolf."

Joss raised an eyebrow at him. "Really, just what does a Wolf look like then?" she asked in a frosty tone of voice.

McCarthy shifted uncomfortably under Joss's cold stare. "Your...um... friend Detective Stills is a classic Wolf."

Joss crossed her arms and her eyes bore holes into McCarthy. "The proper term is mate, he is my mate. Yes, he is a classic Wolf descended from several of the Old Bloodlines, but Wolves are as diverse as non-Wolf humans."

McCarthy squirmed again, but remained defiant. "Were you born a Wolf or did you choose this…lifestyle?"

Joss's upper lip curled in a snarl, "Not that it is any of your business; the answer is neither. I was bleeding out from a gut wound and John turned me to save my life. But let me tell you one thing, Mr. McCarthy, I have not regretted it for one minute."

McCarthy stared at her, his mouth hanging open and eyes wide with shock, completely unable to comprehend Joss's lack of regret over being turned into a creature he considered unholy and unclean. Joss smiled a little smile of triumph.

"Yep, never once regretted it. I love being a Wolf. I love my mate, I love our child." McCarthy opened his mouth to say something and Joss held one finger up in the air. "Wait, stop," she said firmly, her eyes hard and cold. "If you say one bad thing about my baby, I will shoot you myself." McCarthy, realizing she was not kidding, slammed his mouth shut. "Good boy," Joss snapped.

"You see Mr. McCarthy, when I became Wolf, I gained a whole pack of friends I can count on. They are bankers, lawyers, mechanics, doctors. They are just normal people; not an evil one in the bunch. My mate spends his life protecting people, including you. So you tell me, just how is that evil?"

McCarthy never got the chance to answer her because Joss's Wolf ears picked up the sound of someone just outside the front door. Unholstering her gun, she looked up at the security camera monitor and saw two men, one who looked to be in his late 20's with red hair and one bald man, approximately 45-50 years of age, just outside the door. They were packing what looked like a small, but entirely adequate, amount of C4 on the door lock. Joss quickly tapped her earpiece.

"John, there's someone outside in the hallway. It looks like they're going to blow the door." She felt her heart rate double and her voice sounded breathless.

"Hang on, I'm only a couple of minutes away." John's voice had taken on the low menacing tone he used when he was in professional mode

"Hurry, John. I don't think we have a couple of minutes." Joss kicked over an armchair to use as cover.

Joss had just enough time to shout at McCarthy to hide when the door was blown into the living room. Joss, crouched safely behind the overturned chair, took out the redheaded assassin with two quick shots as he charged through the doorway. His older partner, realizing that they had somehow lost the advantage of surprise crouched in the hallway and fired back at Joss. Joss managed to keep him pinned down until her clip ran out of bullets. It was at that moment that she remembered with a sinking feeling that her spare clip was in the pocket of her jacket, which was lying on the bed in the spare bedroom.

Joss peeked over the chair at the hallway to the bedrooms. She was only a couple of feet away, she might just make it. She had to try, they had to hold out until John could get there.

She threw a quick glance in the direction of the blown door and when she couldn't see the remaining assassin she bolted for the hallway. The assassin, realizing that she was out of bullets, charged through the door and tackled her in the hall just short of the bedroom. She swiftly swung for his nose, but he expertly blocked her. This man was obviously well trained and experienced in hand to hand combat. She managed to slam a knee into his stomach and he temporarily let go of her. She tried to make another break for the bedroom.

The assassin lunged at her and managed to grab her arm, throwing her into the wall. Joss spun and used her momentum to place a swift kick to his ribs. The assailant grunted in pain but managed to grab her ponytail as she turned again to run for the bedroom. He smashed her head against the hallway with such force that she saw briefly saw stars, and left a large hole in the wall.

The assassin took advantage of Joss's momentary dizziness to wrap his large hand around her slender throat and pin her to wall with his gun pressed firmly against her cheek.

"You put up a good fight, so I'll give you a minute to beg for your life," he mocked her in a soft British accent, his eyes gleaming with anticipation. He was enjoying the feeling of holding a helpless woman's life in his hands, and Joss got the feeling this was not his first time. She knew that he would enjoy listening to her pleas and then shoot her anyway.

She wasn't going to give him that satisfaction. Her eyes bore into his, willing herself to show no fear. "Fuck you," she hissed at him.

She felt the gun press even deeper into her cheek, angling up so the bullet would pass through her brain. "So be it, dearie," the man said softly, his lip curling into a feral snarl.

Joss flinched when she heard the gunshot, and it took her a split second to realize she was unharmed. Confused, she looked up into the man's eyes and watched as they briefly grew wide with shock and blood oozed from the corner of his mouth. Slowly his grip on her loosened and he toppled over sideways.

Standing several feet behind the would-be murderer was John, his gun up and face set in a grim mask. Their eyes met, and the hard expression on John's face fell away to reveal the soft, gentle face of her mate. In one bound, John was across the room and enfolding Joss in his arms, holding her tightly while he buried his face in her hair.

"I'm alright, baby, I'm alright," Carter chanted to him softly as she rubbed his back trying to reassure him and, truthfully, herself.

It took a minute for the badly shaken Reese to bring his emotions under control and release his hold on his precious mate.

Reese was finally able to turn his attention to McCarthy who had crawled out from behind the couch where he had taken refuge during the shooting and was staring at the bodies of the assassins with a sick look on his face. Reese, keeping one arm firmly around Joss so she was forced to move with him, stepped over to stand next to McCarthy.

"First time you've seen a dead body?" John asked.

McCarthy nodded. "I've officiated at open casket funerals, but it was nothing like this. I never watched anyone die before." McCarthy turned to face Reese. "You seem to be used to this," he said in an accusing tone of voice. John understood the implication, which was that he was used to seeing bodies because of his Wolf's violent nature.

Reese merely smirked at the preacher. "Joss and I were both in the military before we were in law enforcement. We've seen bodies with heads ripped off and their intestines spilling out." McCarthy went white and had to turn away from the dead men.

McCarthy whispered, "Are they Wolf?"

Reese looked to Carter for an answer. She shook her head. "I didn't feel a thing from either one. But we will have to wait for the blood tests to come back to be sure."

McCarthy looked confused. "If they aren't Wolf, why would they want to kill me?"

Reese's smirk grew a bit bigger. "Maybe it's your sterling personality."

McCarthy glared at Reese but kept his mouth shut.

Carter finally freed herself from John's protective grip and began searching through the men's pockets, but found nothing. "They're professional guns. Whoever wants you dead is willing to pay some big bucks. I'll probably know by tomorrow who they are. I'm betting they're in IAFIS."*

They heard sirens off in the distance and Reese looked at Carter. "Can you handle things here? I need to get McCarthy to another safe house."

"Yeah, go," she said, checking her phone. "Fusco texted he's on his way, so I'll have him to back me up and these guys aren't going anywhere."

Reese gave her a quick kiss and dragged McCarthy none too gently out the door.

Fusco walked in a few minutes later, followed by a couple of uniforms. "Get the techs down here," he snapped irritably at one of the patrolmen. He walked over to Joss and stood looking down at the dead men. "Looks like Batman's handiwork. Were there any others?"

Joss shook her head. "Just them and, for the record, I took out the redhead before John got here."

"Good for you, Mrs. Batman," Fusco growled. "A shootout while you're supposed to be on maternity leave? Ya realize you're gonna be filling out paperwork for the next millennia, right?"

Joss sighed. "Tell me something I don't know, partner."

Fusco's phone rang. "Yeah?...Seriously, no kidding?...Alright, we'll be right down." He hung up and saw Joss's questioning look. "Uniform downstairs just found a guy locked in the trunk of car in the alley behind the building. He's claiming he got grabbed by two guys, one red head, one bald," Fusco gave a pointed look at the dead men laying at their feet.

"Kidnapping and attempted murder, all in one day. These boys been busy," Carter looked thoughtful. "Let's go see what he has to say."

Fusco and Carter walked down the stairs and out to the street where the officer was questioning the man he had freed from the trunk of the car. The man was sitting on the back steps of an ambulance sipping a bottle of water while the EMTs checked him out. The officer saw them coming and walked over to them.

"Watcha got?" Fusco asked, jerking his head in the direction of the shaken man.

The uniformed shrugged. "I'm not really sure what to think, Detective. He says his name is Carl Duran and he's a barista at a coffee shop over on West 95th. He served the guys who kidnapped him this morning and they talked for a few minutes before another customer showed up. After his shift was over, as he was leaving the shop, they grabbed him, stuffed him the trunk, and drove here. After the kidnappers got out of the car, he waited a while to be sure they were gone then started pounding and screaming. That's when I found him."

"Fusco, he's Wolf," Joss said as she felt Duran's distress.

The officer nodded, "Yup, he's wearing a 'Legalize Wolf Matings' shirt. He said the perps asked him about it and that he told them he was Wolf."

Fusco pursed his lips and pulled Carter over to the side, away from the uni. "So our assassins grab a Wolf to act as a patsy, drive over here, and attempt to take out McCarthy. I'm guessin' that after you and McCarthy were dead, they were gonna shoot the patsy to look like he died in the gun battle, and Wolves take the heat for McCarthy biting a bullet."

Joss nodded. "That would make sense; they kill two birds with one stone. They whip up anti-Wolf sentiment on the eve of the vote and kill McCarthy."

"Question is, how did they know how to find McCarthy?" Fusco asked.

Joss looked grim, "I'll bet John is asking our preacher man that same question."


*IAFIS - Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, maintained by the FBI. Various law enforcement agencies voluntarily submit fingerprints to the system. You can also be added to the system during a background check or by requesting a visa.