White Collar: The Nightingale

Chapter Fourteen

Neal was not expecting to wake again and was not entirely thrilled that he had. It was the all too familiar pounding headache that was making him wish he could just retreat back into unconsciousness. As his mind cleared his heart rate suddenly jumped as his survival instinct screamed at him that he needed to do something other than just lay there.

Jerking fully awake Neal gasped violently as his flight or fight reaction demanded more oxygen. Snapping his eyes open he was greeted with a view of the inside of the van where this whole adventure had started. He glanced around, but it quickly became clear that Hsing wasn't there.

Hoping that Hsing was somewhat safe for the time being with her Master Neal started thinking about his own options. As much as he hated to admit it Caffrey knew that an escape would be a lot more feasible if he only had himself to worry about. Still laying on his back he tested the strength of the cloth strip that they'd bound his wrists with. Neal looked over at the two men in the front seats of the van to make sure they weren't paying attention to him. Being ignored he brought his wrists up and tried his luck with loosening the knot with his teeth.

After a few desperate minutes Neal came to the conclusion that he'd probably have better luck chewing through his wrist than the well tied cotton. Giving up on trying to loosen the knot he began working on tightening it in hopes of creating enough slack to slip his hand through. Neal twisted and tugged at the restraint until his wrists ached and his fingertips went numb from the effort.

Sighing to himself Neal glanced up at his captors again. This time the leader from before, who was in the passenger seat, looked into the rear view mirror. Neal briefly made eye contact with the dangerous man. Seeing that Neal was awake he twisted in his seat to get a better look. Feeling vulnerable laying on his back and with no reason to stay down anymore Neal sat up and turned to face the man who was looking at him with a predatory look in his eye. He reminded Neal of a wolf staring down a dog, trying to decide if the mutt was worth his time and energy to attack.

"Hello again." Neal greeted with a nervous smile. "How have you been? I've had a crazy few days. Hey, wait a minute...you know where I live, do you think you could give me a ride home? If not any street corner will work. Or even just let me out here."

"Enough." The wolf growled.

"We've never been formally introduced," Neal continued "my name's Neal Caffrey, I'm a..."

"What makes you think I care?"

"Statistically speaking the more you know about me the less likely you are to kill me."

"The odds are not in your favor today, Kid."

"Please, call me Neal. Anyway, as I was saying I'm a professional thief and before I got caught I cached away a good thirty million worth of various art, gol..."

"So what you're saying is you want us torture you into telling us where to find this 'fortune' before we kill you?" The wolf interrupted.

"Uh...no. That...that's not where I was going with that at all."

The wolf got up out of his seat while his partner continued to drive and headed toward the back of the van. Neal did nothing to hide his fear of the man and pressed himself against the back door of the van. He knew that even professional killers disliked murdering someone who appeared helpless and at this point anything to work in his favor was worth trying.

The wolf went over to a crate of bottled water and pulled one out. He tossed the bottle at Neal. Making no attempt to catch the bottle Neal just let it hit the floor next to him. Not even looking at the offering Neal continued to watch the wolf apprehensively.

"Drink it."

"Why?"

"Hydration is important." Wolf shrugged.

"You want to wash all the drugs out of my system before killing me." Neal guessed. "I did everything Liao wanted and he still wants to pin my murder on Peter. Of course modern forensics can be very difficult to fool these days."

"You can drink it willingly or I can force it down your throat. Your choice."

"Always good to have options." Neal sighed.

When Wolf made a menacing move towards him Neal brought his hands up in peaceful surrender. There was no point in risking being drowned at this moment in time. Caffrey picked up the bottle of water and held it between his knees so he could work the cap off. Wolf watched him as he drank the warm water. With his stomach already twisted from nerves Neal found it difficult to keep the water down and he came close to retching it back up several times. Once he had finally choked down the whole bottle Wolf tossed him another one.

"You know that if I keep this up you are going to have to pull over and let me out." Neal warned as he opened the second bottle.

"Don't you worry, we're almost where we're going."

"Great."

Three bottles of water later Neal was able to convince Wolf that he'd had all his stomach could physically hold. Twenty minutes later Neal began feeling the effects of the forced hydration. The road beneath the van changed from asphalt to gravel. From his place in the back of the van all Neal had really been able to see before were the highway street lights flashing by, now there was only darkness. By the sounds of the tires gravel road quickly gave way to an over grown dirt road. Neal's fist thoughts were that they had turned onto a service road in one of the literally hundreds of state parks that lined the country side outside New York city.

"Liao did promise me that a hiker would find me." Neal muttered to himself as the van came to a stop.

"No one is going to hear you hollering out here, so take my advice and don't bother because the only thing you'll accomplish is to piss me off."

"And clearly I have so many reasons to stay on your good side."

"It will make the difference between you dying quickly from a relatively clean shot to the chest or laying in the cold leaf litter with an abdominal wound painfully waiting to bleed out, which can last an hour or two."

Neal's blood ran cold at the sound of his options, neither one of which particularly appealed to him. His initial shock from waking up had worn off, but now his heart was racing again as the threat of an impending murder was drawing nearer. Deciding to take things one step at a time Neal concentrated on how he was going to get his hands free, he'd worry about the rest later.

Wolf and his large accomplice got out of the van. Neal moved away from the back door as he heard them approaching in that direction. The door opened and revealed an old growth forest lit by the bright full moon. Neal tried to pull away when the larger man reached for him, but the man easily grabbed a fist full of his shirt and hauled him out into the frosty autumn night.

Neal became painfully aware of the fact that he didn't have any shoes on as he stepped down on the cold ground. The man who had a hold of his shirt started to drag him away from the van and the service road. When Neal started to fight him the man simply tangled his hand into Neal's hair and used it as a purchase to force him along. A few hundred yards into the woods they came to a clearing and stopped. The man released Neal with a violent shove that nearly sent him to the ground. Panting for breath Neal turned to face his captors.

"Wait...no one is going to believe that I was out here meeting Peter barefoot." Neal pointed out.

"He's right." The large man agreed.

"Enough time will have passed to blame predators for any missing items before he's found." Wolf shrugged and then turned to Neal. "How's nature, she calling you yet?"

"Practically screaming." Neal answered honestly.

"A gallon of water will do that to ya." Wolf motioned towards a line of bushes. "Take care of it."

"Are you going to cut my hands free...or do you want to help me out with this?"

Neal held out his bound wrists and did his best to look pathetic. It worked. Wolf rolled his eyes and gave his partner the okay to free Neal's hands. The man brought out a razor sharp knife and cut through the cloth.

"Thank you." Neal said as he rubbed at his sore wrists.

"Just get it done so we can move on with this."

"Right."

Neal glanced around to find the best direction to run in. He had ever intention of going over to the bushes and then bolting into the dense forest. Wolf seemed to read his mind and reached into his coat to pull out his hand gun. Neal tensed at the sight of the deadly weapon. Wolf forced him over to the bushes and pressed the muzzle hard into his lower back.

"You know...I have a very shy bladder," Neal protested in hopes of getting some space "I can't even use a public urina..."

"Remember what I said about staying on my good side?" Wolf growled.

"I do." Neal sighed in defeat.

The combination of adrenaline and drinking several bottles of water made it so that urgency wasn't an issue. When Neal was done Wolf ordered him back into the middle of the clearing. Neal found himself trembling, but he wasn't sure if it was from the cold night air or just from fear. He realized he was out of time, and worse yet he was out of ideas.

Wolf gave his strongman a silent order. Neal cried out as the man used a similar move that Tachi had to bring him down to the ground. Hitting the cold ground hard with his back Neal was momentarily knocked breathless. Before he could recover Wolf straddled him and sat down heavily on his hips to pin him down. When the other man grabbed his already sore wrists and held them down over his head Neal fought bitterly to free himself. He froze when Wolf pressed his gun against his upper stomach as he tried to decide what angle would look most like an accident.

"Wait...please, don't..."

Wolf cocked the weapon letting Neal know that his plea had fallen on deaf ears. Holding his breath he weld his eyes shut and grit his teeth in fearful anticipation. Moment from a violent death Neal could hear his own heart pounding as it slammed against his ribs. Since an early age Caffrey had always believed that one day his life would end with the crack of gun fire. As he tried to prepare himself for the sound and the pain that would follow Wolf's cell phone rang.

"I should probably get that before I get blood all over my hands, eh?" Wolf chuckled as he sat back.

Close to passing out from the stress Neal didn't have a clever reply. Swallowing hard Neal released the breath he'd been holding and began panting for air once more. With Wolf distracted by his phone Neal began to struggle again, but he was simply no match for the larger men holding him down. Still sitting on his victim Wolf had answered his phone and listened to the caller before hanging up and looking down at Neal.

"It's your lucky night, Kid." Wolf smiled. "You just became more valuable alive than dead."

Numb to the news that he had just received a pardon from death Neal peacefully allowed the men to force him up onto his knees. The larger man used Neal's hair as a purchase once more to force him to look up. Wolf holstered his gun. Using his cell phone Wolf snapped a picture of Neal and then typed something into the touch screen. At the moment Neal couldn't figure out why they wanted the photo, mostly because he didn't care.

"On your feet," Wolf ordered "let's get you back to the City."

Caffrey tried to get to his feet himself, but he fell back to his knees. Wolf's man hauled him up. They were just about to head back to the van when a crunching noise caught everyone's attention. The other two men looked towards the noise, Neal's full attention was on Wolf's cell phone that was still in his hands.

"What the hell was that?" Wolf asked.

The source of the noise showed itself. A young buck with a full rack of antlers stepped to the edge of the clearing. The animal was in full rut and was investigating the intruders on his territory to see if anyone wanted to challenge him to the local does. The buck made an aggressive grunting noise at the group of men.

Neal used the distraction of the buck to make a desperate grab for Wolf's phone. Closing his hand around the phone he threw his elbow back hard and caught the man behind him in the face, breaking his nose. Wolf cried out in alarm as Neal thew himself forward and drove them both to the ground.

Keeping a death grip on the precious phone Neal leapt to his feet and bolted towards the buck. Startled into action the deer ran in the direction he was facing and charged the men. Neal could hear them yelping in surprise as he ran for his life deep into the moon lit forest. He knew that they wouldn't be distracted long.

Neal ignored the pain of the cold night air lancing into his hot lung as he continued to run. Fighting was not his strong point, but he had the cardiovascular health to run at this pace for miles. He slowed down just enough to allow him to look down at the phone and dial Peter for help. If he was lucky there would be a GPS in the phone that could give Peter a location.

Just as Caffrey pressed 'send' a shot rang out through the midnight forest. Neal cried out breathlessly as he was struck from behind just above the crest of his left hip. The shot had the force of being kicked by a horse and sent him crashing into the autumn leaf litter. In shock from the bullet tearing through his flesh Neal barely felt any pain. His mind went right back to the phone, which had fallen from his hand and into the leaves. Realizing he might not find it in time he prayed that the call had gone through and that Peter had answered.

"Peter!" Neal exclaimed desperately. "Peter!"

Neal didn't dare wait any longer. Another gun shot rang out and kicked up the leaves near him. With an explosion of pain he forced himself back to his feet and began running again, leaving the phone behind. Every breath was complicated by the sharp agony that stabbed up his side every time he struck the ground with his left foot. He could feel the hot slick blood pouring down his leg, but he needed his hands free for balance as he dodged the branches in his path.

The ground suddenly gave way to a shallow gully that had a creek at the bottom of it. Slipping down the steep slope Neal landed on his hands and knees on the bank of the icy water. He looked in either direction for the easiest path. Becoming nauseous from the blood loss he realized that he couldn't keep running much longer.

Rather than taking the easy path along the creek Neal splashed through the shallows to the other side. He clawed his way up the other side and searched for a place to hide. Ten yards from the creek gully was an old oak tree that had fallen several years ago in a storm. Neal used he last of his strength to scrambled up and over the trunk of the fallen giant. Collapsing into the piled up leaves on the far side he pressed his back against the trunk and held as still as his laboring breath would allow.

Seconds after he hunkered down in his hiding spot Neal could hear the two men arguing at the creek on if to turn left or right. Neal held his breath as he waited for their decision. It did not occur to the men that Neal would take the path of most resistance and climb up the far bank.

"We're never going to find him out here."

"It doesn't matter." Wolf growled. "I clipped him. Besides, if the blood loss doesn't kill him the cold will. He's miles from anyone out here."

"What are you going to tell Liao? Doesn't he want the kid back for ransom?"

"I'm not telling him shit. Come on, I hear L.A is nice and warm this time of year. We already got paid half for the job, along with the bonds we were going to plant we've made enough to make it worth it. Time to cut and run."

"Sounds good."

Neal kept silent as he listened to the men retreat. He waited a few more minutes before allowing himself to begin truly breathing again. As his adrenaline began to fail him Neal came close to passing out. Forcing himself to stay awake he inspected the throbbing injury in his side. His hot blood steamed slightly as it came in contact with the night air. He'd been shot through and through an inch above the waist line of his pants over his hip. It was mostly a flesh wound, a few more inches to the right it would have hit several organs and been fatal in minutes.

"A few inches to the left and it would have just been a close call." Neal moaned pitifully.

Pressing his right hand against his gory side to slow the blood loss Neal had to grind his teeth together to keep from screaming. He looked around the empty moon lit forest and realized that he was in worse shape now than he probably would be if he had just gone with the men back to the City to be ransomed. Leaning his head back against the fallen tree Neal closed his eyes.

"This situation...this is exactly why I hate guns."