A/N:I am sorry for the lack of updates - my muse has been on an extended vacation. Thank you to everyone who has messaged me asking about this fic.

The Dark Knight

Chapter Twenty One

My hand was shaking so badly that it took me a couple of tries to get the key into the back door lock. I was amazed that I'd managed to drive back across town without incident. What had I been thinking?

Thankfully, Toni took mercy on me and tapped in the alarm code – I was pretty sure that the chances of me hitting the tiny buttons in the right order were slim to none. She breezed past me into the kitchen, drew the blinds and then flipped the lights on, before going back outside to signal to Tank.

How did she managed to stay so calm and collected through all of this? I was quaking like a leaf and she didn't seem to have a care in the world. Maybe she was an adrenalin junkie. Okay, scratch that, I knew she was an adrenalin junkie. Still, maybe I was being a little naive, but shouldn't she be showing some sort of emotion?

Tank strode easily into the room from the carport, despite the heavy load he was carrying. Said heavy load was actually ATF agent Ms Sofia Hernandez, or Ric's government handler, if you prefer. Toni had other names for her, but they were pretty colorful, and I wasn't even sure that I understood exactly what some of them meant.

Tank deposited the unconscious woman in a kitchen chair, and then shackled her hands behind her back, the cuffs looped through the back of the seat to keep her in place. Her head was tipped forward and her long black hair obscured her face.

Toni walked over and poked her in the shin with the toe of her boot, but she didn't react. Her gaze flicked over Hernandez, and then she looked to Tank. "How long will she be out for?"

He shrugged. "Another hour at the most. Let's blindfold her before she wakes up. The last thing we need is for her to be able to identify us."

"Don't ya think it's a bit effing obvious, Pierre," Toni drawled.

Tank rummaged through the kitchen cabinets looking for something suitable for the blindfold. "What makes you say that?"

"As soon as we start asking questions about Ric, then Hernandez is going to tumble as to who we are."

He frowned. "Hold that thought, I'll be bask in a sec."

I watched him stride from the room. "I understand what you're saying, Toni, but what else can we do?"

She heaved herself up onto the breakfast bar and drummed her boots against the cabinet door. "There is bugger all we can do, and it frustrates me. We've been tailing this woman for a week, tapping her calls and digging up as much of her past as we could find, and yet we've got piss all to work with. Don't get me wrong, the calls we recorded on Tuesday and Friday to that unidentified man are enough to question her about this whole situation, but I'm worried about the lack of supporting evidence. Where are the files? What about scribbled notes in the bin? We're pinning this whole escapade on her talking about missing merchandise in Trenton, and contacts in Newark."

"Do you think she's got something to do with this mess?" I asked.

Toni shrugged and reached for a banana from the fruit bowl. She turned the piece of fruit over in her hands a couple of times, then pointed it at Hernandez and whispered "bang," before snapping it open and taking a bite.

"Well?" I pressed.

Her face scrunched up in disgust and she slid back to the floor and spat the mouthful of banana into the trash. "Damn it, and I used to like bananas!"

"Toni!" I hissed.

She disposed of the rest of the banana and poked through the cabinets. "You think we have any packet noodles?"

I threw my hands up in frustration and joined her in her food hunt. After leaving no stone unturned in the great Newark Noodle Hunt, we eventually gave up and I sighed in relief when she found something she would eat. My joy was short-lived though, when Toni set about my only jar of olives with a fork. I went to make coffee and was hit on the back of the head by a flying olive.

"Don't even think about it Plum! If you touch that coffee pot them I am not going to be held responsible for hurling all over you. Capiche?"

I turned to face her across the kitchen, and folded my arms. "You have food, and I'm not going to make coffee, so why don't you stop avoiding the issues at hand and start talking? Do you think Sofia is involved in the problems Ric has been having?"

"My gut says yes, but I'd like more than two spurious phone calls to back that up."

I snorted. "Your gut heaves at the smell of coffee, peanut butter and tomatoes. I'm not sure that it is one-hundred percent reliable right now."

"Bugger off, Plum," she shot back. "You know what I mean. Maybe we don't need to find out what she's been up to, maybe we just need to ask her who she's working with – the man in the calls. Trace him and then maybe we can get some answers that finally make some sense."

Tank chose that moment to re-enter the kitchen with one of his black t-shirts in his hand. He folded the heavy fabric over a few times, before securing it over Sofia's head – leaving her mouth uncovered. "Toni has a good point – Hernandez might not put two and two together if we work that angle."

"What angle are you unlikely co-conspirators going to work?" a voice from the direction of the backdoor said.

I turned around to see Ric leaning casually against the doorframe. The dark look in his eyes betrayed his relaxed appearance. I was torn between letting out a shriek of surprise and throwing myself at him. Toni's mouth was opening and closing, but no sounds were forthcoming. Still, despite her shock, she had a Glock in her hand, the jar of olives forgotten. Tank also had pulled a gun. His was leveled at Manoso. At least someone was on the ball.

Ric nodded at me, "babe."

I smiled back, happy that he was safe, but concerned that he was still in the country.

He walked up to Toni, slid the gun from her shaky grip and pulled her into a tight hug. "Don't you ever fucking vanish on me again, girl!"

She nodded against his chest and sobbed into his t-shirt.

Ric pulled back slightly and gave her a small shake. "What the fuck did you think you were doing, chica? Why did you disappear?"

Toni choked on a sob, buried herself in his arms again and began to cry even harder.

Ric seemed very confused. He looked over his shoulder at Tank. "What the fuck have you done to her, you bastard?"

Tank lowered his gun and shrugged. "Hormones," was his one word reply.

"Explain, Pierre," he demanded.

"Where's Lester?"

"He's safe. Now tell me what the hell is going on!"

Tank bristled, "not for me to tell."

Ric drew one of his guns from the small of his back, shifted Toni slightly and pointed the weapon at Tank. "You will tell me what the fuck is going on here!"

"Tank," I hissed, "just tell him."

"I'm pregnant," Toni wailed.

"Shit," Ric whispered. "Oh hell… sweetheart… But why did you leave us, fake your own death?"

"You wouldn't have left without me, pregnant or not. I wanted you to get out of Trenton for your own safety and my handler wanted me out of the line of fire and out of covert work because of the baby. I didn't know if I was ever going to see any of you again, so I thought that it was best to make a clean break and then go back to England. I never meant to hurt any of you, I swear."

Ric hugged her close again, "I wish you had been honest with us."

"Would you have left Trenton if I had told you the truth?"

"Only to follow you… Once I tell Lester about you, about the baby, then he'll glue himself to your side if he has to."

Toni shook her head. "You are supposed to be in Mexico, damn it. Why are you here anyway?"

Manoso turned to face me. "We got half way down the coast when I stupidly announced how much I missed Steph. Then Bobby had this crazy idea to pull up the cell that I gave you, and it was showing that it and you were supposedly at Black Hawk. I became suspicious and we decided to return to find out what the hell was going on. Seems like that was a smart move – we'd have missed so much wouldn't we?"

"I don't think you've missed that much," I replied. "We haven't been able to find anything out. We snatched your government handler in desperation after she made a couple of phone calls that sounded suspicious."

He nodded, "that may be true, but I wouldn't have found one of my best friends working with my enemy, would I?"

Toni shoved Ric away from her. "He's my bloody handler, you twit!"

Ric rolled his eyes, "and that makes it all so much better, right?"

"Stop it," she spat, "Pierre is not your sodding enemy."

"He was last time I checked, right Pierre," Ric sneered.

Tank held his hands up in surrender. "I'd listen to Toni, man."

Ric opened his mouth to reply, but stopped when he saw that Sofia was moving slightly, coming around from the drugs.

Toni shoved him out of the way, stepped up in front of Sofia and watched the woman try to get a grip on her surroundings. I had to hand it to her, she wasn't screaming in panic. I knew for a fact that I would have been.

Sofia turned her head slowly to the left and then to the right. We all remained silent as she tried to pick up any sounds that might help her work out her location.

Toni smiled wickedly as she racked the slide on her gun just inches from Hernandez's ear. The bound woman jumped. "Who's there?"

"You want to tell us about the phone calls?" Toni asked in a fake thick Texan accent.

"I don't know what you mean," Sofia replied.

"You wanna get out of here in one piece and wake up safe in your own bed in the morning then you'll tell us who you were talking to on Tuesday and Friday."

"I won't tell you anything."

"Shame," Toni said in a bored tone as she started rummaging through the kitchen drawers. She pulled out a roll of saran wrap and started winding it around Sofia's head. Sofia bucked and struggled, but the cuffs held her firmly to the chair.

"You want to give me the name?" Toni asked as she carried on wrapping. The plastic film had covered Sofia's nose and in another couple of passes, it would have covered her mouth as well. She refused to talk, so Toni finished off the job, tore off the tag end of the roll, and left her sitting there unable to breathe.

I could not watch this, so I turned away. Ric caught my movement and he reached out to pull me into his arms. I relaxed into his warm embrace and hid my face against his chest. If Toni was crazy and hormonal enough to kill Sofia then I did not want to watch.