Chapter 12
The first thing Alec saw as his eyes regained focus was Parker, sitting in the sofa, staring at him with the intense patience of someone who had an agenda.
It startled him.
But that wasn't the worst of his problems.
He realized that he couldn't move. His hands and feet were tightly bound and there was something wrapped around his chest keeping him pinned to the chair.
He couldn't keep the alarm from his face.
"Parker…" he called her name in questioning disbelief but as he looked into her eyes he knew he was not dealing with the same personality he'd gotten through to earlier. The eyes he looked into before were curious, searching, vulnerable. The eyes that assessed him now were cold.
"Why did you tie me up?" his mind was racing.
He had to buy time. He had to get answers but he didn't want her to have another episode if he pushed too hard. And more importantly he didn't want her breaking him like a fortune cookie. He had no idea what New Parker was capable of.
"I had to be sure you wouldn't try to escape." Even her voice was different. It was flat and dry-it lacked the edge and the quirky flair he'd always known.
He sighed.
This wasn't going to be easy. One thing he knew about New Parker was that she was suspicious. He would have to play his cards very well if he wanted to secure any hope of getting out of this.
"So, what do you want?" he settled himself in for a long drawn out game of cat and mouse.
"I want to know who I am." The answer was unflinchingly honest. Alec wasn't expecting it.
He stared at her with furrowed brows, "What do you mean?"
She looked at him intently but said nothing. He reasoned she was choosing her words carefully.
"Look, I can only help you if you give me somewhere to start." He snapped trying to rile something out of her but her expression didn't change in the least. She remained silent.
"Could you at least untie my feet?" he bit out angrily, "This thing is so tight, I can't feel my pinky toe."
"First tell me who you are…to me."
The question caught him off guard and everything in him went quiet and still.
Images of her, of them, of the rest of the group flashed into his mind but he was lost for the words to explain who they were to each other.
She read the expression on his face and assessed that she'd hit upon a well spring of information.
"I know that your name is Alec Hardison and the name that I was known as was Parker…"
He flinched at the distant coldness that she'd said their names as though there was no connection what so ever. This was a far cry from the Parker he'd made progress with earlier. It was almost as though she rebooted to just before she asked him about herself before. He wondered how deep the programming went, if she'd have to reset herself every time she made a discovery about her past.
"…what I'd like to know is how we worked together? I've read the file and the information about the collaboration of a team of five con men seems…unorthodox. Was there a reason we were forced to work together?"
He found himself thinking back to their first job together and how they came to be the team that they were for the better part of five years until that fateful night at Hastings.
"No. There wasn't a reason we were forced to stay together," he was actually smiling as the memories flooded his mind.
He thought about how Nate always pushed them to be better than they thought they were, and Sophie always kept them together and sane and was always the shoulder to lean on, how Eliot would sacrifice himself to keep them safe every time, without hesitation, and how Parker touched something different and instinctually protective in each of them that created a bond stronger than most biological families have.
"…it wasn't always easy but we stayed together because what we had together was much more powerful than anything we had when we were alone. We had a greater purpose. We were a team. I don't know if that means anything to you now but it meant a lot back then."
She said nothing but he could tell she was processing.
"Okay so I've given you a little information, seriously, I've lost circulation in my pinky toe. Please…" he nodded toward his feet.
She waited a moment before moving toward him but when she did she moved with the grace of an animal stalking its prey- slow and deliberate.
Her eyes never left his and he couldn't look away if he wanted to.
She stopped in front of him, "I should let you know now, if you try to escape or attempt to attack me in any way, I'll be forced to do things to you that will be- at the very least- excruciatingly painful. Do you understand?" Her voice never wavered.
He swallowed the anxious rush of saliva that filled his mouth and nodded his reply.
Her eyes held his as she stooped slowly in front of him and untied the knotted cloth at his ankles.
When the fabric loosened and fell away he shook his feet free and rolled his eyes at the feeling of blood rushing back to the smallest deprived digit. As he returned her gaze though, the intensity of her stare made that same blood run cold.
"Why did you kiss me before?" she asked, staring up at him from her precarious vantage point between his legs.
"What?" He wished she wouldn't ask him about that and sit there at the same time. His body was caught in a strange sensational vortex. Fight or flight. He wanted to remember the kiss, he wanted to talk to her about it, hell, he'd even want to do it again but not right then and there with New Parker and her monotone voice confusing the hell out of him. He didn't know if to be sexy or scared and the words 'excruciatingly painful things' kept scrolling across his mind.
"I had a memory of kissing you. Are you saying you don't remember?" She sat up, straightening her back. She leaned closer so she was wedged between his long legs.
For the love of all that was good and shiny!
He was trying desperately to maintain some semblance of control over his urges but between her eyes and her closeness and his sinfully inappropriate thoughts or his supremely questionable timing, he was waging a losing battle.
"Hardison," his ears perked and his eyes widened at her soft utterance of his name.
They were no longer playing cat and mouse. She'd already captured him. He knew it and she certainly did. He was putty in her hands from the time he 'rescued' her from Hastings. There was no need for him to even feign control at this point because he'd give her anything she wanted and answer any question she asked.
"I kissed you…but I shouldn't have."
She pulled back and raised an eyebrow.
"I wasn't kissing you. I was kissing Parker….my Parker."
His explanation didn't provide her with any further answers. She stared at him without talking but her confusion was clear.
He took a deep breath and hoped he was doing the right thing.
"The Parker you read about in those files disappeared over three years ago. That was the person I kissed."
"I don't understand…"
"The truth is I don't know who you are. So you aren't anything to me."
It killed him to lie to her but he couldn't risk it. He was too afraid of the consequences of giving her too much information. He desperately hoped the answer was to let her discover the truth and gather the pieces for herself, at her own pace.
Her expression remained the same for a moment and then she sat back on her heels.
"You're lying to me. Why?"
He knew she would focus on him if she thought he was hedging and he needed her to start seeking her answers on her own.
"I'm not lying to you," he answered her with an edge to his tone, "I do not know who you are. I knew someone who looked like you but that was a long time ago. I got carried away and I kissed you simply because you looked like her."
He thought for the briefest of moments that he saw hurt shadow her face but it disappeared before he could be sure and her face once again bore the mask of indifference.
He really hoped he was on the right track. Lying to her was hard and intentionally causing her pain was worse.
She had other thoughts.
Before Alec could fully comprehend what was happening New Parker straightened up and leaned into him until their lips were almost touching.
His heart was drumming so quickly his head felt light. He couldn't form solid sentences and even if he was free to, he would not have been able to move.
"I don't believe you," her voice was deep, husky. The warmth of her breath caressed his lips and he involuntarily parted them. He was done for.
"I think you have answers but for some reason you are not telling me… there are many ways that I can make you tell me what I want to know."
She ran her hand along the outside of his left thigh and Alec swore the skin seared under her touch. Her hand continued up along the side of his stomach over his scar and up to the solid muscle of his chest. His forehead misted with a thin coat of perspiration. He couldn't withstand very much more. She certainly knew what she was doing.
He couldn't look anywhere else but into her eyes- she was that close- but he had to hold out.
Think of the consequences, Alec. Think of the consequences.
He closed his eyes and repeated the mantra.
But he could still feel her feathery breathing against his lips and it was torture.
She upped the ante.
She leaned in further, pressing her chest against his. She softly grazed his lower lip with the both of hers.
He felt as though he'd liquefied like the Wicked Witch of the West. He was a boneless mass. That simple touch had held more heat than he'd ever encountered in his life and Alec knew that he would either have a heart attack or he'd get verbal incontinence if she kissed him again.
"Okay stop, please." He couldn't believe the words were coming out of his mouth. He was begging a woman, and not just any woman but Parker, not to kiss him.
He opened his eyes to find her straightened up and away from him. To his surprise her face looked slightly flushed as though the kiss had an effect on her as well.
"Will you tell me what I want to know?"
"I can't," he began and her lips twitched with the first sign of negative emotion he read from her.
He hurried to continue before she began her torturous seduction again. He rationalized that a small amount of truth may be required.
"I can't tell you. You need to find the answers yourself."
Her brows furrowed and he again noted the open display of emotion. He hoped it was not too much too soon again. His stomach flipped anxiously as he flashed back to her seizures.
"Where should I begin?" she directed the question more to herself than to him.
"When in doubt begin at the beginning," he repeated the phrase Nana always said to comfort him.
She looked away from him and to the computer.
She stood to approach the large glowing screen.
"Could you untie me now?"
She looked at him with a silent warning and he nodded his agreement.
She walked around the chair and undid the knots at his wrists and around the back of chair free.
He was careful not to move to quickly, his fear of 'the excruciating pain' was a testament to effectiveness of her tactics.
He rubbed the tender skin at his wrists and she turned back to the computer.
"Nothing on this file looks familiar…well except for Nathan Ford."
Alec perked instantly and spun around to look at her and the computer screen.
"Nathan Ford? How do you know about Nathan Ford?"
"Sonia," she replied evenly. And Alec felt an involuntary chill run down his spine.
"Sonia speaks with Nathan Ford regularly."
If he hadn't already been sitting, this news surely would have sent Alec falling into the nearest chair.