Chapter 2

Nate walked through the door of his house to find four very worried individuals waiting for him. Their eyes widened when he was followed by David. Sophie stepped forward and kissed him lightly then turned to the unknown man.

"Sophie…David." Nate introduced her. "David my wife Sophie, and this is Hardison, Parker and Eliot."

"Pleased to meet you all." David said looking at each of them then turning to Nate.

"Guys let's all have a seat here ok." He said kissing Sophie again and walking to the kitchen to get himself a small whiskey as well as one for David. "David has a story to tell us." He said over his shoulder.

They all sat down, and David stood before them looking apprehensive. Nate walked back and smiled at him handing him the drink and then taking a seat beside his wife.

"David the floor is yours." Nate told his friend.

"Ok well Nate and I have been friends since we were six or seven. We were close and then we lost contact after…after Sam died." David said looking at his friend. "Anyway I met up with him again in Denmark and we caught up on old times. Then a few days ago I was contacted by a man, he said I had to deliver Nate to him, or he would kill my daughter. I don't know who this man is, all I know is he took my daughter out of school and he has her and he is going to kill her if I don't give him Nate.

"Well that is not going to happen." Eliot said looking from David to Nate.

David looked at the man and frowned slightly before continuing.

"So I caught the first plane out here to do exactly that. I remember Nate telling me about Jimmy's and that it was his local and that if I was ever here we should meet for drinks. Understand, this is my ten-year-old daughter we are talking about here." David said meaningfully.

"You don't know who this man is?" Sophie asked her stomach knotting at the story they had just been told because she knew if they could not fix this then Nate would probably hand himself over to whoever this was to save this David's daughter.

"I have never seen him before. Look I don't know anything I just want my daughter back unharmed." David said and they could hear the raw emotion in his voice.

"And we are going to get her back for you David." Nate said softly, even if it meant he let David hand him over to whoever this was he left unsaid.

"How did he contact you?" Hardison asked.

"He was in my house when I got home that was two days ago."

"So he never contacted you via phone, email or anything?" Hardison asked disappointed, if he had he might have had a place to start in trying to find this unknown blackmailer.

"Hardison bring up some of our old marks, those that may want revenge on Nate or us." Parker ordered. "David was it any one of these men?" Parker asked as Hardison complied with her order.

"That one." David said as Damien Moreau's image came on the screen. "He came to my house, he's the one who took Elysia."

"Oh my God." Sophie said as she looked at the picture of the man and then at Nate. Well he was not getting his hands on her husband.

"Hardison?" Nate said looking at the Hacker. Hardison shook his head, he kept tabs on their ex marks, and he was sure Damien Moreau was still in a jail cell in San Lorenzo.

Eliot looked at the picture and then dialled a number on his phone.

"General."

"Eliot to what do I owe this pleasure."

"Where is Moreau?" Eliot said dispensing with all niceties and getting to the point.

"Oh yes I was going to call you, Moreau died about two weeks ago of a heart attack."

"No he didn't." Eliot said softly.

"I don't understand?" The general said hearing the distress in Eliot's voice.

"He's here and he is coming after Nate, it must have been a set up to get him out. Best you check the men working for you. We need to know where he is." Eliot said

"Moreau is out." Eliot told them as he hung up. "Apparently he 'died' of a heart attack two weeks ago. The General will try to get some information for us on who helped and get some intel on where he is."

Nate said nothing, he just looked at the picture and remembered the hell they had gone through taking down Moreau just over three years ago when they were blackmailed into doing it.

"Nate what are you thinking?" Sophie asked looking at her husband.

"I'm thinking that this man knows us, knows me, knows our game." Nate said softly.

They all looked at him and nodded. Nate was right, this man knew them, knew them all very well. They had beaten him once, but could they beat him again? They did not know where he was or anything else and they were on a clock.

"Nate…"

"Don't worry David, we will get Elysia back even if you have to hand me over to him." Nate told his friend brining all his teams' eyes to him.

"No Nate." Sophie said softly, he could not possibly think they would allow that, that she would allow that to happen.

"David, Hardison needs your address." Nate said ignoring Sophie pleading voice. "Hardison can we pick up anything on camera's, traffic cams anything?"

"I'm on it." Hardison said indicating that David should come over to his station.

"Eliot did Moreau have any houses, safe houses, business anything here in Portland?" He asked turning to his Hitter.

"Not that I knew of Nate." Eliot told him his voice coming out as a growl. "I will get in touch with some people I know that worked for him and see if they have anything."

"Good." Nate said then walked over to the kitchen and refilled his drink. If they were going to stop this they had to find the man.

Six hours later Hardison still had no video footage of Moreau or anybody that they or Eliot recognised as working for him and none of Eliot's contacts had any knowledge of properties in the Portland area. Hardison had also run a search on properties but come up blank there too. He had also run footage of the boarding school that Elysia went to but again got no joy. The General had also contacted Eliot and told him he found the man who had helped orchestrate the escape, but he did not know where Moreau went after that.

"David when was the exchange supposed to happen?" Nate asked looking at his friend.

"Today at eleven." David said averting his eyes from Nate, he knew the man would do as he promised and hand himself over to save his daughter and over the last few hours he had learnt just who they were dealing with and could only imagine what the man wanted to do with Nate.

"Ok well then we need to start making other plans." Nate said meaningfully.

"No Nate." Parker said stepping forward. "You can't ask us to give you up to him."

"I'm not asking Parker." Nate said softly.

"Nate…"

"Sophie Elysia is ten years old and I will do whatever it takes to get her back to her father." He said turning to his wife. "Besides, you will all be tracking us and will move in before anything happens."

"No Nate, you know Moreau, he knows Hardison, he knows us like you said, he will be ready for us." Eliot said his voice hard. The man could not really expect him to allow him to hand himself over to a man like Moreau.

"Eliot is it now…Five am." He said looking at his watch. "We have exactly six hours to find Moreau, find Elysia and get her away from him. Without knowing where he is we can't do that, he is not going to contact David again except to give him location and you can be sure it is not going to be traceable, the only way to ensure that girl gets back to her father is by him making the trade." Nate said his tone indicating that he had made up his mind and this is the way they were going to play it.

"Ok." Eliot said nodding at the Mastermind. "Hardison we need to have tracking devises everywhere, in the car on the clothes and everything else."

"Eliot." Sophie said looking at the Hitter through slit eyes, he could not possibly allow Nate to go through with this.

"Nate is right Sophie this is the only chance the girl has." Eliot said but his tone betrayed his frustration at that fact. He also knew that with or without them helping Nate was going to do what he said, he would do whatever needed doing to get that girl back.

"What if he does not give the girl back?" Parker asked not liking this plan at all.

"It's a chance we have to take Parker." Nate told her.

"Hardison you better get to work getting everything wired up." Nate said then he took Sophie's hand and walked with her to their bedroom and closed the door behind them.

"Nate please don't do this." Sophie said as soon as they were behind closed doors her eyes conveying to him the fear she felt.

"Sophie I know you are scared and so am I, but I can't take a chance with that little girl's life." Nate said pulling her into a tight embrace. "It will be fine Sophie, Eliot and Hardison and Parker will be with us, they will make sure that we all get out of there safely."

"You can't guarantee that Nate." Sophie said pushing back from him and looking up into his blue eyes.

"No I can't darling, but you know it is the only thing to do, it is the right thing to do for Elysia."

"Damn Elysia and damn your friend." Sophie said tears now threatening to overflow.

"Sophie I love you and I will always love you and I would never do anything to hurt you my darling but…"

"But you have to be Nathan Ford and do the right thing even if it gets you killed." Sophie finished for him. "I don't want to lose you now Nate, just when we are…when we finally…" She stuttered and then pulled him to her hugging him tightly as her tears fell and emotion overwhelmed her.

"It's ok Sophie…" Nate said squeezing her tightly.

"Nate…" He heard David's voice and pushed Sophie away giving her a kiss and wiping her eyes.

"I love you Sophie never forget that, and I will always come back to you."

"You better." She smiled at him through her tears. Nate kissed her gently again then turned and walked out to the main room again.

"He just called and gave me the place for the swap." David informed him as he walked out the room.

"Ok Hardison where are we?" Nate asked looking at his Hacker.

"Car is wired up David too, I just need to get you done." Hardison said looking at the Mastermind and he could see the disapproval on the man's face.

"Ok well have at it." Nate said softly knowing this was hard for his entire team, but it had to be done this way, it was the only way left open to them.

By the time Nate and David were ready to leave for the meet they were both wired up with tracking and listening devices, each had an earpiece in, and the car was also wired for sound and visual. Of course none of that would matter depending on what Moreau did when they got to the meet. Nate had taken Eliot aside and told him that his focus was to be on the child and not him or David. The Hitter had agreed reluctantly, and Nate knew he would do what he was told to do no matter what happened.

"What if he does not have my daughter with him?" David asked as they got ready to leave.

"We have to play the cards as they fall David." Nate told his friend.

He was not quite sure what they would do if the girl were not brought with to the meet, but he would take odds that Moreau would bring her. Moreau knew them and he would know that Nate's focus would be the girl, if she were not his team would focus on him and that would be the end. No he would have the girl there as a distraction for his team.

"Well the meet is set in a remote area in the warehouse district." Hardison said brining up the map.

"Ok well you guys get going. David and I will leave in about ten minutes." Nate said, he wanted his team positioned when they got there.

"Nate." Sophie said turning towards her husband.

"I'll be careful Sophie." He smiled at her and pulling her in for a kiss. "Love you." He whispered as she hugged him.

"Come back to me Nate." She whispered back then let him go and walked out the door before she changed her mind. Eliot nodded at the Mastermind and then followed her out trailed by Parker and Hardison.

"Is this going to work Nate?" David asked watching them leave.

"I don't know David." Nate said honestly. "Depends on Moreau's game."