Chapter 13

Eliot pulled up as they approached the turn in the road, the turn that it appeared Nate's car had not taken. They all climbed out of the van and approached the edge looking down at the wreck below. The coms had remained still, and Eliot's heart sank as he looked down. There was no way anybody survived that he thought. Sophie looked down and closed her eyes. Nate was gone, they had come here to save him, and they had done nothing, nothing except to watch and listen as he had gone to his death. They were so worried they would mess up his plan, get in his way and cause more harm than good, they had done nothing and that had led to this. Nate was dead and they had just let it happen. She felt as if the world were spinning around her as she tried to comprehend that her husband was lying at the bottom of the cliff dead and there was nothing she could do.

"Cars coming." Parker said softly as she turned to look down the lonely empty road behind them.

Eliot looked at her and then grabbed Sophie's arm dragging her away and back towards the van. They had to get out of sight, or they would also be dead. He pulled the woman and put her in the back of the van with Hardison climbing in beside her then he pulled off into the woods until he was sure they could not be seen from the road. Holding his finger to his lips he indicated that they should all remain silent.

Four large black SVU's pulled up and a number of men climbed out, one of them a very large man who struggled to get out of the vehicle.

"Bronovich." Eliot hissed as he saw him, you could not mistake the man.

They all moved to the edge of the cliff and peered over. Then Bronovich nodded to another one who moved to the last of the SUV's and pulled out a missile launcher and moved to the edge of the cliff and waited.

"This is for Novich you son of a bitch." The Bronovich said in Russian and then nodded again. The missile was fired and then they heard the large explosion as it hit the wreck below blowing it to pieces.

Sophie let out a sob as she heard the words and then the explosion, tears forming in her eyes as Parker wrapped her arms around her and held her tight.

The men stood there for a few more minutes then climbed back in their cars and headed towards the compound. Five minutes later the four members of the Leverage family moved out from the trees and towards the edge of the cliff again looking down at the now burnt out wreck below. Eliot had wanted to go down and retrieve Nate's body so that they could take him home and bury him but there was no point now he realised. The missile had destroyed everything and there would be nothing there to bring back. He looked over at Sophie and his heart broke, then he looked at Hardison and Parker, both he could see were devastated by the events of the last half hour. They had lost Nate he was gone, and he was never coming back. He moved over to Sophie and wrapped an arm around her.

"Let's go home." He said softly. Sophie looked at him with tearstained eyes. "Let's get back to your son Sophie, he needs you." She said nothing but allowed herself to be steered back towards the van.

Hardison followed them and then stopped turning to look at Parker who had not moved.

"Parker we have to go." He said softly as he moved to her side and put his arm around her.

"He's gone Alec…how can he be gone?" She asked looking at the Hacker.

"We have to go Parker." Hardison said again without answering her, he did not know what to say. He pulled her away from the edge and moved her to the van getting her inside with Sophie.

It took them three hours to get back to the hotel having to go an out of the way route to avoid the compound and then Hardison organised a charter flight to leave as soon as they had packed up and got to the airport, the sooner they got home the better he thought.

"We aren't going to take him down?" Parker had asked as she thought about the man responsible for Nate's death.

"We can't Parker." Eliot said softly. "Not now."

Parker looked at him and then nodded, he was right of course it just seemed wrong to her that the man who had killed their Nate would get away with it. Eliot watched her as she started to help Hardison pack, then his eyes moved to Sophie who had taken a seat on the sofa and not moved since they had arrived. No they could not deal with Bronovich now, but later, well that was another story and if he had to bring the Eliot Spenser of old out of retirement to avenge Nate's death then that is what he would do. It was not only Bronovich that had to pay but Morero too he thought. But both would have to wait, for now he wanted to get Sophie home and safe with her son, with Nate's son and then they would have to deal with the aftermath of this whole affair.