Chapter 4: Backup and Pain

"How can I not find where Vladamire is staying!?" Hardison felt about ready to toss his laptop out the window after searching Vlad's name or aliases.

"Nate needs to know about this."

"Parker, Nate has enough to worry about without blaming himself for Eliot's death too!" Sophie was pacing back and forth in the conference room while Nate was upstairs taking a shower.

"Eliot isn't dead is he?" Parker became frantic at the thought.

Hardison tried to be soothing, "I'm sure he's fine, Parker. Once we find where he went we'll get him back."

Parker had a thought and it sputtered out before she realized it. "What if Eliot looked up where Vlad was staying before he left?"

Hardison stared at her for a second before bolting out of the room. He ran to Eliot's computer happy to see that it was still on. He moved onto the web history and found what he was looking for. "Got it," Hardison called out, "Vlad is staying a few miles past where Maggie was taken."

"Alright, Hardison, you and Parker go as backup. I'll stay here and keep Nate occupied."

With that they rushed out of the room to their respective duties.

With a jolt Eliot whipped his head up. He wasn't outside the motel anymore but inside. He locked eyes with one of the henchmen and tensed up only to get a shot of pain through his wrists and chest. He looked down. He was being held down by a impressive amount of barbed wire. He was also shirtless and the hole in his side was not bleeding. They cauterized it? Eliot grunted as he tested his movement. That can't be a good sign.

Eliot was no stranger to torture and cauterizing a critical wound meant they had a lot planed.

"Welcome back Mr. Spencer." Vlad smirked with his greeting. Vlad sat in a chair pushed up against the only door, and the only exit because motels this rundown have the windows nailed down. He looked at Eliot with humorless but content eyes. Vlad had years to plan this but Eliot did not get it.

"What do you want?" Eliot knew it was a stupid question but he hoped to stall while he figured out how much skin he would lose if he pulled his hands free and reach for the knife on the tale two feet away.

"I already got the first thing I wanted. You. That turned out to be much easier than I thought thanks to the beautiful Maggie over there." Vlad's accent was thick and conceded.

"Eliot looked up to Maggie for the first time. She did not look like she was hurt. She was tied up with rope but it did not look like she feared for her life, but for his. Eliot tried to make his tone lighter and more mocking to sound less in pain than he actually felt. "Well you got me. Now what? Time to reveal your evil plan?" Egging him on, that can't go wrong.

Vlad just flicked his eyes to a henchman standing behind Eliot. Eliot saw Maggie's eyes go wild before hearing a butterfly knife flicking open and the cool metal pressing into the back of his neck and sliding down his spine. It did not reach the muscle but he could feel the skin pulling away from the new cut. Eliot closed his throat to avoid any sound escaping and scarring Maggie even more. He did, however, torque his body away from the knife making the wire cut deeper.

Vlad stood up. "This is not funny boy," he growled out. With that he sent a punch to the bridge of Eliot's not causing it to bleed freely. "You are going to beg me to kill you hours before I comply." The knife reappeared at Eliot's shoulder and Eliot could not bite back that scream.