Chapter 28

Sophie and the others arrived at the safehouse Hardison had obtained for them and Eliot had gone ahead of them and made some stops picking up weaponry, he hated guns but sometimes they were necessary, and this might turn into one of those times. He parked his car behind the house and out of sight and Parker stored the van in the garage. Then he and Hardison and Parker set up a perimeter so that if anybody approached they would know.

"Moreau is not coming after us Eliot." Sophie said her voice dripping with resentment as they all sat down in the living room after Sophie had put Michael down for a nap and Hardison had set up all the security screens, they now had visual of every part of the house and the grounds it was situated on.

"Maybe not, but Nate could be wrong about that, Moreau wants all of us dead. So he might not come after us right away but make no mistake he will come for us."

"Yes maybe he will but he will definitely go after Nate and you let him walk out, you left him alone out there, you, the protector, left Nate to face him alone and you know who he is and what he is."

Eliot said nothing he could hear the anger and the accusation in her voice and to be honest he could not blame her. This was her husband and father to her child, but more than that he was the man that she had loved for the better part of seventeen years.

"Eliot's right though, Moreau will come for us." Hardison said looking at Sophie.

"Unless Nate stops him." Parker said, but she knew if the Mastermind failed then they would have to deal with Moreau.

"Yeah." Hardison said.

"What do you think he will do?" Maggie asked nobody in particular.

"Make Moreau come after him." Sophie almost whispered trying to fight the overwhelming fear the washed over her. She feared she would never see him again, that his son would grow up without a father and she found herself starting to drown in that fear.

"Sophie." Maggie said sitting down beside her. "He will find a way Nate always finds a way."

"What if he can't, not this time."

"He will because Nate will do anything to get back to you and Michael."

"Or die trying to protect us…Maggie what if I never see him again."

"You will."

"You don't know that."

"No I don't but I believe you will see him, I have faith."

"You don't know Moreau Maggie you don't know what he is capable of."

"No but I do know Nate." Maggie said. "So do you, he beat him once."

"Yes with our help."

"Yes with your help, and he will have your help again." Maggie said softly.

"What do you mean?" Sophie asked looking at the woman intently.

"Well I happened to have this old tracking device that Nate had when he worked for IYS, we got it when we worked on a job together, he wanted to keep track of me so that he knew where I was during the job in case there was trouble, anyway, I may have attached it to his jacket this morning." Maggie said. "Oh and I also had a wireless listening device as well."

"What are the frequencies." Hardison said and Maggie smiled at him handing him a slip of paper.

"I hope they work they are quite old, and neither has been used them in many years."

"Ok well the tracker is working Nate is in a nasty part of town man." Hardison said pulling up a map of LA and a small red dot showed Nate's location.

"What about the wire?"

"Yes it seems to be working but he is obviously alone and there is nothing to hear." Hardison said brining up the feed from the listening device.

Before anybody else could say something the computer sprang to life with Nate's voice.

"A che ora arrive?"

"Tomorrow morning, I will land at around 2am."

"Good I will meet you at the airport." Nate said.

"Very well, hanger four." She said then hung up.

"The Italian, he went to the Italian?" Hardison asked shaking his head.

"Who's the Italian?" Maggie asked.

"The woman who blackmailed us to take down Moreau the first time." Parker said, she did not like the woman, and she had not liked being blackmailed.

"She knew Moreau, she had access to things we did not, even Hardison." Eliot said thinking back to the time they had spent taking the man down the first time.

"Yes and the clout to expunge Nate's record." Sophie added so she was government of some sort.

"She had other resources too." Eliot added.

"Well at least he is not going to go after Moreau alone." Paul said listening to them all. He did not know much about Nate's life during the time with his team. He knew they were thieves, and he knew Nate had changed, but he had not known what type of jobs they had done. He had not wanted to know, all he knew was his friend was now happy and content with his life and he was not doing harm but good, maybe in an unorthodox way but still.

"And we will be ready to help when needed." Sophie said feeling a lot better now that they knew where Nate was and what he was doing at least to some degree.

"Yes we will." Maggie agreed smiling at the woman who was now her ex-husbands wife and one of her best friends.

"So now we just wait and monitor, and then?" Paul asked looking at Sophie.

"That's what we do, it is what we have to do, but when something happens we step in whether he wants us to or not." Sophie said looking at the Priest. She could see he was worried but they all were and this was Nate's plan for better or for worse.

"Yes well I am starving, it must be nearly lunch time." Sophie said looking towards Eliot who smiled at her and nodded.

"I'll put some lunch together."

"Good and I'm going to check on Michael." Sophie said as Eliot moved into the kitchen.

Paul watched as Maggie went to her room and Hardison and Parker moved to sit in front of his computer doing something or the other and then he joined Eliot in the kitchen.

"You are quite good at that." He said as he watched Eliot chop up the ingredients for his lunch.

"What you thought I was just the muscle Father?" Eliot smiled at him.

"Not at all, Nate told me about your abilities in the kitchen." Paul replied then stood silently watching the Hitter for a time before speaking again. "You seemed more disturbed about Moreau than the others Eliot, is there something you know that they don't?"

"No." Eliot said stopping what he was doing and turning to the Priest. "No Father, but Moreau was a big part of what I was before…before Nate stopped me from falling all the way down."

"I see." He said seeing the emotion on the Hitters face. "How dangerous is the man."

"More dangerous than I could explain and more ruthless." Eliot told him. "He likes to inflict pain, he likes to hurt people, he is an evil man Father."

"And Nate 'took him down' as you say."

"Yes, we ended him and put him in jail. Sadiski got him out somehow."

"Because of his hatred of Nate, as an ally."

"Yes, but Sadiski had no idea what he was dealing with. Sadiski was a serial killer yes, but he was nothing on what Moreau is, or was. Moreau enjoys killing, he enjoys watching people suffer, he enjoys power, he is a killer Paul, and he would kill his own mother without hesitation."

"Not a very nice man."

"No he isn't, and I worked for him, I did things that…that I never thought I would ever be clean from, and I never will, but Nate, being with Nate and this family it has given me a second chance and I will be damned if Moreau is going to take him away from me, from us, from his family."

"I am sure you won't and nor will they." Paul said softly. "I am awfully glad that Nate found you, or you found him, I do believe that it gave you all a second chance and you have all used it wisely. God surely does work in mysterious ways." He said smiling at the Hitter. "Now I will leave you to your cooking."

Eliot watched the Priest walk to the sofa and take a seat beside Maggie. He shook his head slightly at his words, he was right of course, they had all been given a second chance and he liked to think they had made good with it, then turned back to his cooking with a slight smile on his face before it turned dark again, he could lose it all now, lose Nate, lose this family. No he thought, no that was not going to happen, Nate would have a plan, he had a plan that much Eliot was certain of and he was not alone, the Italian whoever she was, was a woman of resources, Nate would win, they would win and then things could go back to normal.