Chapter 16

"Nate." Bonano said as he walked into the pub he had agreed to meet the man at. He could see he was not alone but whoever was with him was not a member of his team and he briefly wondered where Sophie and the others were, he was sure they would not be far away.

"Patrick, thanks for coming." Nate said shaking his hand. "Patrick this is James Sterling, Interpol." He introduced him to Sterling who had arrived a few minutes earlier to the meeting.

"You know you should not be anywhere near here." Patrick said as he sat opposite Nate after shaking Sterling's hand.

"I know but I have to end this Patrick. Now I know you know what happened to me, Sophie told me she called you in when they found me, Patrick I need your help."

Bonano looked at Nate and wondered what the man wanted from him. He was a fugitive and just by sitting here with him and not calling it in he was endangering his career, but then he would not have a career if it had not been for Nate. He had helped him when he was in need and he had taken care of the men who had tried to kill him and probably saving his live because he had no doubt if Nate and his team had not stepped in they would have come after him again and he would be dead. He looked at the man introduced as an Interpol agent and then nodded, obviously Nate had a plan, and he would hear him out.

"What do you need?" He asked. He would do what he could for the man short of breaking the law he thought.

"I need you to tell them what happened to me, not everything…but that you found me in that warehouse and what Barrington and his sons did to me. Now Hardison has already made sure that your police report was logged at the time…"

"He has?" Bonano asked surprised, he had kept it all off the books to a great extent, he had made sure that the team had cover at the hospital without giving any details and that they had some protection while at the hospital but all done under pretext.

"Yes and no Pat he did not embellish, he simply stated what happened leaving out the involvement of the team though, now of course they will question why you did not follow up on it but you can say…well you can say you investigated but could not come up with any leads, it's all in the files Hardison has created."

"Ok but what is the reason that I did not bring this to their attention when Barrington was killed, and your name was connected to it?" He was a good policeman and he doubted anybody would believe he fell down on his job.

"Well you did not have anything to do with that investigation did you?" Nate asked already knowing that Bonano did not have a connection to it. It was not in his jurisdiction and the state police were not involved due to the FBI's involvement and only the local police were directly involved. It would be a stretch but Bonano could feign ignorance and get away with it, it might hurt the man's ego but it could work.

"Ok I can do that and then…" Bonano said, he would appear to be a bad investigator but what the hell, he owed Nate.

"Well you are going to be contacted by Sterling here who will enquire about your forgotten investigation being that he kept tabs on me due to our prior relationship and what happened a year or what ago... I will then be arrested and that is where you will step in with Sterling and your forgotten police report after connecting the dots."

"Ok…" Patrick said trying to follow Nate's reasoning in all of this. "I take it there is a lot more?"

"Bertram Barrington has a long history of violence and was a suspect in a few murders and some…well let's just say unsavoury incidents in the UK, his father managed to sweep most of them under the carpet but you will find evidence of said crimes and his history of behaviour, even some video of the crimes themselves, along with some of the…the things he did with me."

"Hardison…"

"No he has not created any of it, it is authentic, we managed to…acquire the video from the Barrington residence, his brother was an avid videographer and then, well what happened with me was sent to Eliot so there is that. That though has been edited slightly…just you know, to take out any reference to Eliot or the team."

"I still don't see how this is going to help, you were pointed out as the killer of Barrington and his son's were already dead then, they had even been shipped back to the UK they have those records." Sterling said not quite understanding how all of this was going to work. "You can't pin this on Bertram."

"I am not planning to." Nate smiled at the man. "But Bertram had a friend, somebody who liked to participate in his crimes, and they were lovers." Nate said surprising both men.

"And who pray tell is this?" Sterling asked before Bonano could.

"A man called Elton Peterson. He grew up with Bertram, they were at Eton together."

"And where is this Elton?"

"I don't know, but he might be here in Boston looking for me." Nate told them.

"I am not going to implicate an innocent man Nate." Bonano said, that was not something he was willing to do.

"I am not asking you too. Hardison will send you the files on Elton, all the crimes he is also allegedly connected to in the UK, crimes he participated in with Bertram, now I just need the spotlight to be turned on him and not me to get me out of this. It is conceivable at least that the man came here looking for vengeance, then well an argument broke out between Lord Barrington who did not approve of Elton and his relationship with his son, or what his son was doing and maybe even blamed Elton for what Bertram had become, and there you have it."

"I take it this is all watertight?" Sterling said going over what Nate had laid out to them over the last hour.

"Yes, and all true, except…"

"For the fact that you did kill Barrington and there is no sign of any Elton on the scene." Sterling said softly and Nate could see the look on Bonano's face when Sterling said it.

"I am not going to lie to you. The man came after me, he was hiring a small army to take me out and the others and I had to stop him." Nate said and his words were met with silence. He was asking these two men to help him get away with killing a man and he knew it and so did they. "As for Elton, well he is real and he and Bertram were connected, I don't know that he is here but well…"

Silence settled over the group as Nate sipped on his whiskey and watched the two men. He had admitted to killing Barrington, but not said anything about his sons and both men wondered if Nate was responsible for that too. Sterling looked at his ex-friend and could see the man had not slept or at least not slept well for a long time and he had lost weight, in fact he was looking decidedly ill, Sterling knew Nate, knew the man he was and understood that the fact that he had killed somebody even if it was to protect himself or the others, well that would weigh on him. Finally Sterling nodded and told Nate he would help him and do his part. Bonano looked from the Interpol Agent to Nate and then also agreed to play his part. There was nothing illegal about what Nate was asking, except maybe to overlook the fact that he had killed Barrington, but Bonano was sure it was in self-defence, he had seen the aftermath of Barrington's actions and the damage inflicted by his son on Nate.

"Good. Hardison will send you the information you need."

"If this doesn't work Nate, if they don't buy the story you will be in custody and we won't be able to help you."

"Yeah I know Sterling." Nate said. He was aware of the risks, but they were worth the reward. If it did go wrong, well at least it would only be him in custody and not Sophie or any one of the others and they would deal with the fallout of that afterwards.

"Good. Well I am going to go." Sterling said rising and turning towards Bonano. "I think you should wait a short while before you go."

"Yes." Bonano said shaking Sterling's hand and then sitting down again.

"How are you?" Bonano asked turning to Nate after Sterling had left. He had seen the condition the man was in and he knew what he had gone through. The man looked haggard and like he was not sleeping and drinking a little too much.

"Fine Patrick." Nate said softly. "Thank you for this."

"I just hope it works Nate." Bonano said.

They sat in silence for another five minutes before Bonano took his leave, leaving Nate to sit alone in the booth. He also hoped it would work because the consequences of it not working for his team did not bear thinking about. He did not really care about what happened to him, if he had to go to jail so be it, he had after all killed three men. Five minutes later Sophie and the other three slid into the booth with him.

"Hardison…"

"Yeah done man everything is in place."

"Good…good." Nate said. "Ok well now I think I am going to go home."

"Nate…"

"Sophie it has to play out like this." Nate said, he knew she was not happy about this part of the plan, where he got arrested and they remained out of the picture. "I have to appear oblivious to everything, returning home after being in a rehab clinic…by the way Hardison…"

"Yeah man taken care of."

"Ok." Nate said then stood and pulled Sophie up with him. Then he wrapped his arms around her and gave her a kiss which she deepened pulling him in tight to her while the rest watched wondering what had changed between them that they were so open about their relationship for a lack of a better word, but not saying anything. "Now you guys stay out, stay away…we have to let this play out for it to work understand. Besides Interpol is involved and you all have outstanding warrants on you so…" Nate said as he pushed Sophie away.

"We understand." Eliot affirmed.

"Good." Nate said then giving Sophie a small pack on the lips again he walked out of the bar and hailed a cab to take him to his apartment.

They watched him go. Then they all took their seats again.

"It's going to work right?" Parker asked softly was Nate disappeared.

"It'll work girl. It'll work." Hardison said softly. It had to work he thought as he looked around at his teammates.

"It has to work." Sophie said almost to herself.

"Well let's get back to the warehouse. Then we wait." Eliot told them as he stood. Hardison had the apartment wired so they would be able to watch everything go down and they would be able to step in if things went wrong.

"Here we go." Sophie said standing and walking out followed by the rest of the team.