A/N: Enjoy!
Chapter 7: All In
"Please tell me this isn't going to be another mortgage fraud case," Lizzy begged, staring pleadingly at Peter.
"What's wrong with mortgage fraud cases?" Peter asked, turning to look at her.
"They're boring," she complained. "You stare at paperwork all day."
"You could stare at prison bars all day," he suggested.
"Are you still playing that card?" She demanded, scowling at him when he had the nerve to smirk at her. She hoped that he didn't actually mean it; she already thought of him as a friend and she liked to think that he thought the same.
"Makes me smile," he told her cheerily.
Walking into the office, they were greeted by a mad rush. Apparently, the bureau was missing an agent who was undercover. Hughes agreed to grant her full immunity for the things she did as Nicolas Halden if she helped them. The catch was that she had to learn how to play Pai Gow, a Chinese version of poker played with dominoes.
"I asked you to teach me the game," she said sternly, glaring at Mozzie who was staring intently at the movie playing on the TV screen. "Not force me to watch this terrible movie again."
"It's a good film!" Mozzie protested before shushing her and watching it again.
"How did they know about Nick Halden?" She wondered out loud. Glancing around the room for something to do that would distract her from the film.
"Let's be honest," Mozzie snorted. "Nick was not your best work. He's no Steve Tabernacle."
"Steve was a good man," she agreed with a smile.
"Steve is a good man," he corrected. "Besides, you should be more concerned with what the guy with the ring wants."
"I don't know," she shrugged, moving so that her legs were balanced on Mozzie's lap. He didn't react other than to shift his arms so that they weren't squashed. "I've stolen a lot of stuff in my lifetime."
"Maybe Poe's Tamerlane book?" He suggested thoughtfully, no doubt trying to go through her extensive list of stolen items.
"Nope," she shook her head negatively. "Sold that a while back. The Tamayo painting?"
"Not worth all this," he denied.
"Washington's love letters?" She grinned at him. He got a bit annoyed with her every time she mentioned the letters that she'd stolen.
"Seriously, I don't even know why you stole that in the first place," he grumbled, moving his hands so that he was holding her bare feet. "Martha...oh! Oh! This is my favourite part!"
"Okay," she tried to get his attention away from the film and back to her problem of having to play a game that she didn't know. "What are they doing right now?"
"They're drawing from the wood pile. With these tiles, they make two hands," he explained quickly, not looking away from the screen. "He just played the death tile."
"Death tile?" She repeated. She'd never paid much attention to the films when Mozzie played them while she was younger.
"Well, the movie takes a few liberties," he admitted, much to her relief.
"Then why are we watching it?" She groaned, letting her head fall and hit the arm rest of the couch so she was completely laid out across the couch and Mozzie's legs. "Wasn't forcing me to watch it when I was younger bad enough?"
"It's a cult classic!" He exclaimed, giving her foot a squeeze. "Okay, what do you have to do?"
"Fold above the bank," she said immediately. "If I get a better hand than the dealer and then throw it away, Lao knows I'm a prospect."
"Okay," Mozzie leant forward so that he could move the dominoes on the table. "Well, ideally you want something like this. These are some of the best tiles you can get. You trash a hand like this and you're in. It's like folding pocket aces."
"Alright then," she sat up and moved closer to the table. "Let's practise."
"All you have to do is lose," he told her, giving her an odd look. "You want to practise losing?"
"I have to win first," she reminded him. "Then lose."
The door opened before he could say anything. They stiffened automatically before relaxing again. The door had been locked since she currently had her hair hanging down and was wearing female clothing; if someone had come in it was because they had a key. The only person who had a key was June and if she'd given it to anyone else they would have knocked first.
"I thought you might want something to eat," June said cheerily, smiling fondly at their position on the couch and how they thanked her at the same time. "What are you watching?"
"Tiles of Fire," Mozzie answered, looking up to see June's expression.
"Part one?" She asked.
"Part two's up next," he chuckled lowly at Lizzy's groan of despair.
"Don't start without me," June commanded, leaving the room to go get some drinks and food for them.
"Please tell me we're not watching all five sequels," she pleaded hopelessly. He patted her legs in consolation but didn't reply, giving her the answer through his silence. She groaned again and took up her old position, grabbing a pillow to cover her face with.
Lao took up the bait and Nick was scheduled to meet him in an upcoming game. The FBI took up residence in a restaurant around the corner from where the game would happen with the help from Mr Twan. Lizzy couldn't resist teasing Peter about his animal themed socks, even when he admitted that they were a gift from Elizabeth.
She had to step in when he made Mr Twan's daughter cry. Peter really wasn't any good with children; she was beginning to see why he and Elizabeth didn't have any. She performed a quick magic trick that cheered the little girl up and stole Peter's wallet at the same time. She gave it back to him with a grin and then went to get suited up.
Her anklet was cut off and she was given a nice fake golden watch that included a tracker and a microphone so the feds knew what was going on during the night. She got in without any problems and folded when she could have won, just like planned. Unfortunately, her luck ran out when the police invaded the club and Lao thought they were with her.
The smart thing would have been to give herself up and tell them that she was with the FBI, but if she wanted to complete this case then it meant keeping her cover. After being chased by the cops for a while, Meilin; a woman who'd bought him a drink and worked for Lao, stepped in and lead her to a hotel.
She found out, after having another gun pointed at her, that Meilin was working for Interpol and knew that she was Neal Caffrey. Apparently the FBI was interfering with an Interpol investigation and she was the one that had called the cops on them. Interpol wanted to catch Lao's boss, Meilin ordered her to let Lao walk and claimed that she could get her the man that had Kate.
When she got back to the restaurant where Peter was, she was accused of being a bad influence since Peter hadn't known that the little girl spoke English. She hoped that he bought the lie about her watch breaking sometime during the case, but she doubted it because Peter had somehow always managed to see through her lies.
Peter thought that the best way to get information would be to pretend he was completely incompetent, and sure enough he walked back over with a recorder that just needed to be translated. Since the translator wasn't going to turn up until later, they convinced Mr Twan's daughter to translate it for them and soon enough they had their information.
Sadly, they found Agent Costa's body in the warehouse that they were checking out. Peter was angry that they had to let Lao's men walk out with the body, but she sensed he was even angrier about the fact that she had withheld information from him.
"I never lied to Peter," she told Elizabeth in a whisper. It was true, she didn't tell him everything, and she sometimes avoided answering his questions, but if he asked a question and she replied then she always answered truthfully, even if it meant she had to use words that had a double meaning.
"You did leave a few things out," Elizabeth pointed out.
"You don't understand," she protested. "I need to find Kate. She's in danger."
"Look, my husband really wants to trust you," Elizabeth admitted, giving her a look that was half stern and half compassionate. "But you keep giving him reasons not to. You're on your own on this one."
"No!" She cried quickly, nearly reaching out to pull her back onto the couch. "Please stay! Don't go!" Elizabeth ignored her and left the room, leaving Lizzy alone with Peter. "So, what now?"
"Now I wouldn't take you off this case if I could," Peter replied tiredly.
"I wasn't talking about the case," she said.
"What did Interpol promise you?" He questioned, basically ignoring her statement. "Did Meilin promise you Kate?"
"She said she could find her," she admitted, feeling a twinge of guilt.
"In exchange for what?" Peter demanded, knowing that Interpol wouldn't give her something for free.
"They want Lao to walk," she explained. "They're after his boss."
"Lao doesn't have a boss," he sighed and rubbed a hand over his eyes. "You know what this is really about? It's about jurisdiction. If they arrest him on Asian soil, they get additional funding from China's government."
"Additional funding?" She repeated numbly.
"Yeah, half a million dollars. That's the price of a dead FBI agent. You really think you can believe everything she tells you?" He asked ironically. "We either take down Lao now, or our partnership comes to an end."
"We're partners?" Her heart swelled with a faint joy at his words before she pushed it down. It shouldn't matter to her if Peter thought of them as partners; she needed to find Kate.
"You tell me," he gave her a last look before leaving her to think it over. She wished she could tell him. She felt like she was being pulled in too many directions; she needed to make sure Kate was okay, but she also needed to decide what to do with her life. Mozzie was urging her to ditch the name Neal and run, but there was a part of her that didn't want to leave.
Meilin was talking with June when Lizzy got home. Her words about dropping by again soon sounded more like a threat to her ears and Meilin didn't even try to deny the fact that she'd lied to her and was planning on letting Lao go for money. She brought up Kate again in an attempt to convince Lizzy to go through with their arrangement before leaving.
She couldn't let Lao walk without going back to jail herself and having it on her conscience, but she couldn't just let any information that Interpol could give her get away either. In the end, she got the flash drive off of Meilin that she claimed had the information she needed, and managed to make sure Lao wore her watch; which meant that the FBI had hours of transcript that would lock him up for good.
The flash drive was empty, but Meilin rung her up to tell her that the man who had Kate was FBI. She then hung up without answering how she knew that. Lizzy stared at her phone in silence for a few moments before swearing. How could she trust Peter when someone he was working with could have Kate? Mozzie would be upset on her behalf, but she knew that he wouldn't be surprised about the fact that the feds weren't all obeying the law.
Once she was changed into her most comfortable outfit, she poured herself a glass of wine and downed it in one. Everything seemed like it was spiralling out of control and there was nothing she could do. With a deep sigh, she reached for her phone and began dialling the one person she trusted to help her make sense of things: Mozzie.
A/N: I'm not sure when the next update will be. If everything goes to plan then Chapter 8 should be uploaded next Sunday as usual, but if not you may have to wait an extra week or so.