Chapter 11

An hour later Novich made an appearance. He arrived with three other large men who were obviously enforcers. They opened the cell Nate was in and roughly pulled him to his feet.

"I told you if you were lying to me, if you were playing me you would pay the price." Novich said as he planted his fist into Nate's solar plexus.

Nate grunted as the blow fell but did not cry out. He kept his eyes on Novich and then smiled at him.

"I told you the same." Nate said softly.

Novich laughed then before landing another blow and then another and another.

"Why are you here?" Novich asked grabbing Nate's hair and pulling his head back.

"I thought it would be fun." Nate said lightly smiling at the man.

Novich pulled out his gun placing it against Nate's forehead and cocking it. His eyes were blazing, this man had come into his house to cheat him in some way. He had been made to look the fool in front of his boss and he wanted to hurt this man before him. Nate did not flinch, and he did not say anything he merely drew himself up and kept his eyes locked on the man in front of him.

"You are a dead man." Novich hissed out.

"You are just a lacky Novich, if you had the authority to kill me I would be dead already but you don't, so why don't you just go away and come back when you have received your orders." Nate said knowing he was making the man as angry as all hell.

"Laugh now Ford, but you won't be laughing for long." Novich said landing a parting blow before having his men throw him back into his cell. "I will be back."

Nate watched him go and muttered that he had no doubt before laying back on the mattress with a slight grimace.

"We have to get him out of there." Sophie said softly. "Why was he provoking Novich, he is asking to be killed."

"I don't know Sophie, but Nate does nothing without a reason." Eliot replied looking at the woman. He had no idea what Nate's plan might be, but he was sure the man had one.

Before any of them could say anything more, they heard the young Morero speak.

"Nate are you OK?" Juan whispered as he sat in his cell.

"I'm fine Juan." Nate said in a strained voice.

"Why are you doing this, did my father force you too?"

"Yes." Nate said being honest with the boy. "But understand you are family, his family, you are his son, and he would do anything to get you back, he loves you, you must know that."

"He had no right." Juan said. "Besides, I was always a disappointment to him."

"Maybe so." Nate said. "But it doesn't matter because Juan when it comes down to it, you are his son, and I will tell you that a father will do anything for their children, for their family."

"Then why not come himself? Why take another away from their family and put them in danger, my father is selfish and arrogant and…and he is a monster."

"Yes well he is what he is." Nate said not wanting to comment on the man.

"What happened that you ended up here Juan, I mean you were here to do humanitarian work right?"

"Yes. I met a girl she was only about fourteen. I met her on the streets and she was…selling herself. We became friends and then she told me about how she was forced to do this. I wanted to get her out, to get her away from this life and give her a better one."

"And…" Nate encouraged the boy to continue.

"And I failed." Juan said and Nate could hear a deep sadness in the boys' voice. "I tried…I…but in the end they took her and me and I don't know where she is now or even if she is still alive."

"Taking on the Russian mob is always dangerous Juan, especially in their own back yard, and…well threating their business is downright suicide, especially if you are not well prepared and have a plan in place, and even then it is risky."

"But I am not dead. They have not harmed me."

"Yes I have been wondering about that, they obviously want you for something or they would have killed you outright. They know who your father is, he sent men to get you out but they failed and that has led to…well animosity between your father and them. That makes life in their world difficult. Have they asked you about your dad?"

"Yes."

"Well I think they are using you to get your father to do things for them, provide them with things and of course to prevent all out war."

"He told you that. Why would he do that anyway, he told me when I left that I was no son of his."

"No…no he didn't tell me." Nate said, he had surmised from his conversations with Don Antonio and the fact that the boy was still alive that that was the case. "As for what he told you, well he hoped you would take up the family business and when you didn't when you decided to go your own way, reject who he was and what he was, well he was disappointed but that does not mean he loved you any less."

"How would you know?"

"Because it was the same with my father." Nate said softly. Jimmy had been sorely disappointed when Nate had turned away from him spurning him and everything he stood for, but in the end, Jimmy had come back to try and save him and paid a heavy price for that.

"Oh Nate…" Sophie said as she listened to him and hearing the hint of regret in his voice when he spoke about his father.

Silence then settled over the two men before Juan broke it.

"Do you have a family?"

"Yes." Nate said closing his eyes and thinking about his wife and new son Michael who he had barely met, and the rest of his odd ball family.

"Do they know you are here doing this?"

"No…no they don't." Nate said softly and the boy could hear the sadness in Nate's voice as he spoke.

"A wife…children?"

"I have a wife and my son was born a few weeks ago, and I have…well three other members of my family that are very special to me."

"You love them."

"More than…well more than I could explain to you." Nate breathed. He did, he loved Sophie more than any woman he had ever loved, he loved his son whom he did not even know and as for the other three, well they were as much his family as Sophie and Michael were and he loved them all dearly.

"I am sorry." Juan said.

"Don't be, this is not your fault Juan." Nate assured the boy. "Now try and get some sleep, I think tomorrow is going to be a big day."

"Thank you." Juan said his voice full of emotion. He thought he would be here forever, or that any day the man Novich would come in and kill him. He thought his father had forgotten about him or left him to his fate and now for the first time he had some hope that he was going to get out. This Nate Ford instilled in him a sense of optimism and trust, he seemed to know what he was doing, and he obviously had a plan.

"So whatever he is planning it is going down tomorrow." Eliot said listening to the conversation between the two and feeling emotion well up in him. He looked at the others and saw that Nate's words had had the same effect on them.

"Agreed. But we don't know what that plan is and…and we can't do anything because if we do we might mess up the plan and then get Nate into more trouble, or worse make the plan fail." Parker summarised for them.

"Then what the hell are we doing here!" Hardison said in frustration. They were here and they were ready to get Nate out, but they could not do that, and they just had to sit around on their hands waiting to see what happened.

They all looked at him and then Sophie shook her head slightly.

"We are here because…because we need to be here!" She said, and she did, they did, not that she thought they could step in and save the day, but because she needed to know what was happening with Nate and if something…she swallowed hard as the thought of something going wrong and Nate not getting out alive from this adventure filled her head. "We need to be here." She finished not quite knowing how to explain it.

"Yes we do." Parker agreed. It was better than sitting back in Portland wondering what had happened to Nate, what was happening to Nate. Even if they could not interfere right now they might be able to do something later, something that made the difference between life and death for the man and she for one was glad they had come.

"Well I think we also need to get some sleep in." Eliot said softly. "If Nate's plan is going down tomorrow then it is going to be a big day and we need to be ready."

Sophie smiled at him and nodded. Tomorrow they would either get Nate back or…no she thought shaking her head, tomorrow Nate's plan whatever it was would kick into motion and hopefully it would work, and if it didn't they would be able to help him to get out of this mess he was in, and then they would get him back, then they would go home to their son and to their life and that was final.