CHAPTER 1
I See You
Parker had managed to clean out the safe and was making her way to the elevator shaft while she listened to the rest of the team try to buy her time to escape.
Eliot was dealing with eight guards that had been rushing up the stairs. Hardison had locked down the elevators to force security onto the stairs and help control their movements through the building.
Quinn was on the loading dock securing Lucille's access to the back of the building and the teams exit.
Three security guards had been sent to the loading dock and Quinn smiled as the first one realized that Quinn wasn't someone who was lost. "Alright boys, who's first?"
Because of the confines of the stairs Eliot had been holding his own. They couldn't rush him with more than three guys at a time and as long as no one got behind him he figured he could keep going for a while.
"Eliot you better put a move on." Hardison's voice came over the earbuds.
"You think…" Eliot grunted as he elbowed a guy in the face. "I'm havin' a tea party here?"
"Sounds like a party." Quinn laughed as the threw one of his guys off of the loading dock to roll down the concrete ramp.
"I got things covered." Eliot snarled as he kicked one guy into another to open up some space so that he could hit another one that was climbing over the unconscious bodies on the stairs.
"They just sent the rest of security to the stairwell. You're lookin' at, at least ten more guys." Hardison hadn't heard a count on how many more were being dispatched but judging from the employment roster he had a good guess on the numbers.
"Got it." Eliot growled. "Quinn you keep the exit clear."
Parker's voice came over the earbuds. "No. Quinn help Eliot. I'll be out in twenty-five seconds."
"You got it." Quinn had dropped two of his three guys and waited a second to kick the third guy in the face as he came back to the loading dock. Something in the man's face crunched under Quinn's boot and he didn't wait to see the result before he hurried for the stairwell.
Off of a job Eliot was his Alpha and Quinn would follow Eliot's instructions but on a job they all knew that Parker was in charge, and he would obey her in the face of Eliot's arguments.
Eliot rolled his eyes but couldn't help his smile as he focused back on the fight. As he watched the veritable wave of security guards headed his way, he was glad that Parker had out voted him.
All of the guards were focused on Eliot, but two of them had started moving their unconscious compatriots further down the stairwell clearing a path for the others.
Eliot could see that the numbers were going to overwhelm him before long and he couldn't help the feeling of relief when he heard someone farther down the stairwell cry out in pain. Quinn had arrived and was making his presence know.
"You know..." Quinn's sentence cut off as he dodged a couple of punches headed his way. "if you let me shoot a couple of these guys it would make all of this go a lot easier."
"We aren't killin' people for doin' their jobs." Eliot growled as he snapped the elbow of the guy that was attacking him.
"I'm not talking about killing them. Just wound them a little." Quinn grunted as he disabled his newest opponent. "A little heavy bleeding would cause their buddies to have to help them." He punched the next guy in the diaphragm. "Slow all of them down and make it easier for us."
Hardison chuckled. "Parker made it back to Lucille." They could all hear the quick kiss he gave her cheek. "You ever notice how chatty Quinn gets when they've got a whole bunch of guys to take out?" Hardison's question was directed at Parker.
"That's 'cause he ain't workin' that hard and he's leavin' it all up to me." Eliot grunted his way through that statement as he worked his way through two more security guards.
"However you want to see it Spencer." Quinn smiled. "But it looks like my pile of guys is bigger than yours."
"That's because most of them were mine and they just fell down the stairs." Eliot shoved his last guy in illustration.
"Okay boys. We need to go." Parker cut in. "The cops are on the way."
Eliot hopped over a tangle of bodies and gave Quinn a playful shove. They'd both turned to head down the stairs when a gunshot roared in the stairwell.
Quinn staggered when Eliot shoved him but he still felt the tug on his suit jacket as the bullet passed through it. He spun to the side and saw the man that had the gun, laying under several other men, and with wolf speed he kicked him before he could pull the trigger again. "Damn. I liked this jacket." Quinn grumbled as he looked at the hole. He noticed some red speckles on the grey fabric and frowned.
"Yah, I liked this shirt too." Eliot ground out between clenched teeth.
Quinn looked down at him and could see where Eliot was gripping his side and blood spreading through the fabric of his shirt.
"Everyone okay?!" Parker and Hardison both shouted across the earbuds.
"Yah. We're fine." Eliot answered in a voice that sounded passably like his usual voice.
"Eliot's shot." Quinn answered at the same time.
"How bad?" Parker asked.
"Just a scratch." Eliot rolled his eyes at Quinn.
"Put a move on then." Parker sounded impatient. "Cops come. Thieves go."
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All things considered Eliot felt like the job had gone well. They got the files and the digital copies and once they got everything back to the pub Hardison would wrap it all up with a bow and Parker would present it to the client.
Quinn and Hardison were cheerfully bickering in the back of Lucille and Parker was sitting in the front passenger seat with a look on her face that said she was still deep in the job.
Eliot watched as an old pick-up truck pulled out to pass them. The truck wobbled in its lane and Eliot frowned. He couldn't tell if the driver was texting or distracted some other way. The truck sped along until the hood of the truck was barely ahead of Lucille.
"Come on man. Do it or don't." Eliot muttered.
The van wobbled again, and Eliot let his speed drop to get some space away from the truck. He saw the wooden homemade rails holding in a hodgepodge of miscellaneous junk. Pipes, lumber, rolls of wire fencing and bunches of other things were heaped to precarious levels in the back of the truck. The load shifted as the truck wobbled again.
"Dammit." Eliot growled.
The truck jerked suddenly as it crossed lanes in front of them. A stack of pipes and lumber slid loose bouncing unpredictably all over the road.
In the blink of an eye, even faster than his werewolf reflexes could compensate for debris crashed through the windshield of Lucille. Instinctively Eliot slammed on the brakes.
Time went horribly wrong, slowing down to a pace that whole thoughts could be completed between heartbeats. Eliot could feel the fear and confusion light up the pack bonds as Lucille slid sideways. An impact at the rear of Lucille pushed the van into a spin that was only stopped by the collision of Lucille into the side of another car.
Eliot could hear the groans of Quinn and Hardison. He shook his head trying to clear the ringing in his ears that was coming in waves. "Everyone okay?"
Something was wrong with the bonds and Eliot looked at Parker for clarification. When he turned to look at her he could see that several of the pipes from the truck had come through the windshield on Parker's side of the van.
Parker's head was dropped forward but her body couldn't slump away from the seat because she was pinned to it like a butterfly to a display board.
Eliot's seatbelt wouldn't unbuckle so he sliced through it with a slash of claws. He shoved a pipe and a board back through the shattered glass so that he could get closer to Parker. There was a pipe lancing through Parker's right thigh and a long piece of a board through her abdomen above her left hip. But it was the pipe sticking through her chest on the right side that had all of Eliot's attention.
Quinn and Hardison hadn't been belted in and had been tossed about wildly but being werewolves, all of their injuries were survivable. Quinn lurched between the two front seats and saw what Eliot had. He turned in time to grab Hardison who was panicking over his wounded mate.
Quinn wrestled Hardison to the back of the van. "You gotta stay back. Give Eliot space."
"Parker!" Hardison called without paying any attention to Quinn as he struggled.
Eliot checked Parker's pulse and her presence in the bonds, both were weak and seemed to cut in and out. "I'm going to change her. She won't last until the paramedics get here." Eliot wiped blood away from his eyes as he turned to look at Quinn and Hardison.
"What?!" Hardison was still struggling and didn't seem to be following what anyone was saying.
Eliot stepped back so that he could lay a hand on Quinn and Hardison. He pulled on the bonds and his own power as Alpha to lay an order over both men. The pull on the bonds was hard and the return for his effort was sluggish without Parker controlling things like she normally did.
"Hardison, you can Not shift shapes or reveal the wolf in anyway. You have to obey Quinn until I come back." Eliot felt his eyes go yellow.
"Quinn, keep anyone from following me and Parker. Keep the authorities focused elsewhere. And look after Hardison." Eliot gave Quinn a squeeze to his shoulder before he moved with werewolf speed back to Parker.
He pulled the pipes and the chunk of board out of Parker and scooped her up as he hopped out of the van. With a quick look he didn't see anyone watching him, so he hurried down the side of the embankment.
The ground was open down the steep embankment and continued to provide no cover all the way to the river and beyond. He knew that if he crossed the river, he would be very visible from the highway until he made it to the trees on the other side.
Feeling Parker's heartbeat stutter he knew he didn't have time to make it to the trees. He was terrified that he wouldn't have time to save Parker no matter what. He pushed that fear away and looked for any kind of cover that was closer. He saw a giant culvert off to his left. The culverts were installed under the highway in intervals to allow for animal crossings and water drainage.
He moved as fast as he dared, well above human speed, to get to the culvert while he could still feel Parker's heartbeat.
As soon as he laid Parker down on a sandy patch inside the culvert, he could see the blood beginning to pool around her. He pushed for a fast shift and was in his wolf form faster than he'd ever managed before.
Parker's eyes stared sightlessly past him and he was grateful that she was too far gone to know what was happening as he began savaging her. He let his teeth pierce or tear her flesh as the wolf's instinct directed.
When his wolf knew there was nothing more they could do Eliot shifted back to his human form. A cold breeze blew through the tunnel and Eliot felt his skin prickle.
Eliot immediately checked on Parker. She wasn't breathing. Her heart wasn't beating. Eliot started CPR pausing only to gash his own arm open between sets of chest compressions. Between the next set he let the blood from his gashed arm drain over Parker's wounds. He went back to chest compressions, but he couldn't feel Parker in the bonds.
He could feel the panic building in the bonds as Hardison and Quinn became aware that something more was wrong. He didn't know what, if anything, they had done to hide the fact that they'd left the accident site, but Eliot knew they were only seconds away from entering the culvert.
Eliot's ears rang with the sound of Hardison's scream. Hardison shoved Eliot away and picked up Parker's lifeless body clutching it to his chest. Quinn fell to his knees next to Eliot when he realized that Parker was dead.
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Parker noticed the distracted look on Eliot's face and could feel something strong and painful rumbling in the pack bonds. "Hey, Sparky." She poked at his arm. "What are you thinking about?"
Eliot shook himself and swallowed hard when he looked at Parker sitting, alive and well, in the passenger seat.
"Where'd you go?" Parker asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Nowhere." He swallowed hard again. "Just thinking." He focused back on the road and was relieved to see the truck full of junk several cars ahead of them and moving steadily.
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Eliot and Quinn were cleaning out and restocking Lucille while Hardison and Parker headed for the corner market for snacks that they wanted for the movie they'd all be watching later.
Eliot was loading a crate of supplies into the back when he felt a shock of surprise in the bonds. A second later he and Quinn both turned at the sound of a piercing scream.
They took off in the direction that they'd heard Parker scream. At the mouth of the alley they took a left on Northrup St. They couldn't sprint at full speed and Eliot was frustrated at having to keep things at a human possible pace, but there were just too many people out at this time of day for them to risk it.
There was a spike of emotion that quickly turned to rage coming from Hardison. The connection that the pack felt to Parker suddenly flickered and went out.
Quinn gasped, clutched his belly and turned a shocked look on Eliot but didn't slow down. Eliot clutched at his chest as though someone had just ripped his heart out. They slowed as the came to the 405 underpass. They could smell blood and Eliot could hear Hardison mumbling.
As they followed the fence around the edge of the parking lot the scent of blood got stronger. Near the large garbage dumpsters, that were lined up next to the concrete pylons that supported the bridge, Eliot could see the back of someone crouched low between two of the dumpsters.
"Hardison?" Eliot gave Quinn a hand signal to hang back. "Hardison, where's Parker?"
A snarl that wasn't human vibrated through the air.
"Hardison?" Eliot moved slowly. Finally Hardison turned a little and Eliot could see blood discoloring the bright sheen of Parker's flaxen hair.
Eliot crouched low but didn't try to touch. He could tell that Hardison's wolf was in charge and the beast wanted nothing to do with anyone but Parker, and Parker was gone.
"Uhm, Alpha, we got more problems." Quinn's voice had gone cold in a way that he usually only managed on a job where someone was about to die.
Eliot moved slowly as he rocked back on his heels and stood. Quinn had moved to the other side of the dumpster and gave a deliberate look downward.
Hardison's growl had faded into a mournful whine and Eliot backed slowly away. He circled around to the other side of the dumpster and spotted a blood splattered, black and white, men's tennis shoe. He knew it was shock that was making him focus on the smallest detail of the shoe, but he could seem to stop.
"Alpha?" Quinn's tone was quiet, submissive, a less dominant wolf addressing a superior that wasn't stable.
Eliot got a grip on his emotions and the bonds. He had to cut off the whine he felt building at the thought that Parker wasn't there to control things for them all. He stepped past the shoe and saw what Quinn had been looking at. A man's body was laying mangled and nearly headless against far side of the dumpster.
"Quinn, bring the van and everything we'll need to dispose of the body."
A growl rolled from the other side of the dumpster.
Eliot hurried back around to where Hardison was still curled over Parker's body. "Hardison, man, I wasn't talking about Parker. But we do need to do something. We can call the cops and report the mugging, or I can call in some favors." He didn't know when he'd started crying but he felt the warm tear tracks down his face as Hardison reached out to him.
Eliot pulled Hardison close and they cradled Parker between them as they mourned.
Slowly with hitching breaths Hardison started to talk. "He, he came outta nowhere. He grabbed her. She fought… fought hard. But she wasn't strong enough. Wasn't fast enough. And I couldn't… I couldn't do anything while that guy had a knife to her throat." Hardison sobbed into Eliot's shoulder.
"I know." Eliot held Hardison tight.
"If she'd been a wolf…" Hardison's words twisted into a wolf whine. And the words twisted a knife in Eliot's chest.
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"El." Quinn threw a cleaning rag hitting Eliot in the face. "Earth to Eliot."
Eliot grabbed the rag and threw a sharp look at Quinn. "What?!"
"You startled when that woman screamed and then you sorta blinked out." Quinn frowned.
Eliot checked his bonds and could feel the happy hum coming from Parker and Hardison. "I was just thinking."
"About?" Quinn arched an eyebrow as he went back to cleaning the windows.
"Timing." Eliot hopped up onto the loading dock to get the next crate of supplies.
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"Eliot seem distracted to you?" Hardison asked Parker as they started back to the pub with their bag full of snacks.
"Yah. It's obvious that something is on his mind." Parker leaned into Hardison's side. "Probably Gemma."
"Well it can't be the job 'cause we rocked it." Hardison smiled and kissed the top of Parker's head.
"True." She slipped a chocolate bar out of the bag and started munching on it. "What movie are we watching tonight?"
"You're gonna love it, or maybe hate it." Hardison chuckled. "Its based off of an actual heist from a few years ago."
"Anyone we know?"
"I don't think so." Hardison shrugged. "Did you know anyone from that safety deposit box job in Hatton Garden?"
"Maybe…" Parker smiled into the wrapper of her chocolate bar.
"Were you involved in the heist?" Hardison eyed Parker speculatively.
"Remember after the Damn Job when we all split up for a bit?"
"You said Archie invited you back to his home town to spend a little time together." Hardison arched an eyebrow. "You didn't head back to his place did you?"
"A bunch of his friends were planning this heist and they really wanted him to be in on it. But his daughter was being super weird and he asked if I could fill in." She shrugged.
"Wait…" Hardison stopped and looked at Parker. "You were Basil. Weren't you?"
"Technically Archie is Basil but…" She shrugged.
"So did you actually get away with millions in diamonds?"
"Oooh they are sooooo pretty." Parker's eyes practically glowed at the thought.
Hardison laughed so hard he nearly dropped their shopping bag. "Babe you are amazing!"