Author's note: all the usual disclaimers about not owning the Leverage characters/concept and not making any money from this apply.
I know: this little bit doesn't really count as a chapter...it just didn't work well as part of either the preceding or following one. A REAL second chapter for the day will be along momentarily.
Millicent Hernandez was getting into a taxi as Parker and Hardison approached the entrance. She didn't look like someone who had just spent a couple of hours sewing up bullet wounds. Her face, in the brief moment their paths intersected, was almost expressionless, just the slightest puckering around the eyes and mouth, as if she were engaged in a task she found mildly distasteful.
"Well, I guess the coast is clear," Hardison said, as the door to the hotel lobby closed behind them.
"Eliot doesn't know we know that," Parker pointed out.
"Good point," Hardison said, checking his phone. "He called or texted you?"
Parker pulled out her phone to check, just in case she had missed a message. She shook her head.
Done yet?" Hardison typed into a text message. Expecting a quick response, he kept his phone out as he and Parker walked towards the elevators. Ten seconds, then twenty and thirty, passed. Nothing.
Parker pressed the elevator call button.
"Maybe he left his phone in the bathroom with his clothes when he showered earlier?" she suggested.
Hardison shook his head.
"It was on the bedside table when we left."
The elevator doors opened and they got on. They rode the twenty-two floors up in silence, the buzzing of Hardison's phone conspicuously absent. They eyed each other warily as they alighted on their floor and faced the suite door.
"So, do we go in and risk his wrath for not waiting for the all clear?" Hardison asked.
Parker looked at the door. Eliot should have answered the text by now. She could see the same thought on Hardison's face when she glanced over at him. She looked down at the steakhouse bag she held, then back at Hardison.
"The fries might get soggy," she said, sliding the room key into the lock.
