"Nate!" Eliot yelled then jumped out of the van at full speed as the explosion rang out in full force. The others followed quickly, all in shock.
"Nate," the hitter tried, kneeling down next to the man as Hardison held back the two women. He silently thanked Hardison for being sensitive enough for taking action without instruction. He made a mental note to thank the hacker later; this was not in his job description or any sort of training. "Can you hear me?" the hitter tried as he sat the man up and shook him lightly.
Nate didn't meet his gaze, instead staring out dazedly into the flames, both his body and mind in shock.
"Nate?" Eliot tried again then, to the hitter's surprise, the man jumped up and ran towards the flame. "Nate!" he yelled then ran after him, grabbing him lightly on the shoulders to stop him. He did not resist. "Parker how far away are the cops?" he asked, taking charge.
The thief, now no longer resisting against Hardison, made a few mental calculations. "Seven minutes 42 seconds," she finally declared.
"We need to leave," he declared, softly pulling Nate back towards the van.
"We're not even going to…" Sophie began, then trailed off as she pointed towards the burning warehouse. Eliot shook his head.
"No one could have survived that Soph," he said softly as Nate morbidly marched himself into Lucille, aided by Parker. "We need to leave." He was more adamant this time but Sophie still looked uncertain, or uncomfortable, for a moment. After a few moments of quiet deliberation and hope, still not looking away from the flames, she finally nodded and quickly followed Nate into the van.
Eliot was last into the vehicle, taking a moment to survey the scene, for anyone or anything out of place, mostly out of habit. Not surprisingly there was nothing so, with time a serious factor, he jumped straight into the back of the van and Hardison sped off.
Other then Eliot asking Nate about the extent of his injuries and his mumbled answers, there was little talk as they headed back to Boston. Nate said nothing, did nothing, he just stared with eyes glazed over while Sophie caressed his back with care and sympathy, Parker and Hardison sat silently next to each other as they, for the first real time, held each other's hands.
"Nate, I'm sorry," Sophie apologised, her hand tracing reassuring circles on his hunched over back.
"Dubenich," Nate said in a cracked whisper, dismissing Sophie's apology; her sympathy was the furthest thing from his mind at the moment.
"Dubenich?" Hardison confirmed from the front. "As in Dubenich Dubenich from our first job Dubenich?"
"I thought he was in prison?" Sophie added.
"He is," Nate nodded, his words barely audible through the dryness of his voice. "He's calling the shots from prison and trading Latimer with information about us and our jobs to do so," he explained after coughing to clear his throat.
"I don't get it," Parker exclaimed from the front. "Wasn't he just greedy? He wasn't dangerous."
"Prison changes you Parker," Nate replied, sitting and looking up for really the first time since they'd been travelling. "He blames us and he's had a lot of time to plan revenge."
"He's going after the people we care about," Sophie said, almost under her breath, then looked quickly up at Eliot, a notion of fear in her eyes.
Eliot almost swore his head off Nate. He almost punched him in the face as he pulled his phone out his pocket and dialled his niece in a swift motion. But he was too distracted, especially when the phone ran straight to voicemail.
He shook his head and placed his hand to his ear, activating his earbud. "Abby?" he questioned. "Abby? Abby?" The last one was almost a yell in frustration and fear. "Dammit Nate!" he cursed, tossing the first item he could get his hands on onto the ground, which just happened to be Hardison's bow-tie.
"If you'd have just told me what the hell was goin' on insteada just tryna fix every god damn problem on your own-"
"Hey!" Sophie interrupted, before things could get out of hand. "Can we argue later please?"
Eliot shut his mouth and was about to frustradely call on Hardison to work his computer magic before his phone rang.
Seeing who was calling he picked it up quickly, his worry only growing. "Bonnano."
"Tell me you know where Abby and Kyle are?" came his worried voice with no care for a greeting.
Eliot took a deep breath. "No," he admitted and he heard the detective swear under his breath.
"I came to pick Kyle up, neither of them were at the apartment and Kyle's phone is here on the sidewalk."
Now it was Eliot turn to swear. "Our ETA is two hours," he informed him, nodding at the hacker to step on the gas.
"Any idea who I'm looking for?" It was clear the detective was trying to remain calm.
"Anyone connected to Jack Latimer or Victor Dubenich," he informed him then continued to explain the details; vague enough that they wouldn't implement the team, but specific enough for the detective to actually be able to do his job. "Do your job, we'll do ours and I'll try keep you in the loop"
"Got it."
"We'll call when we get into the city," Eliot stated before he hung up the phone. "Hardison," he yelled out, wanting to get the man to work. But Hardison was already pulling over ready to let someone else drive.
As they switched drivers, Eliot pulled out his phone.
"Who are you calling?" Sophie asked, sliding the door shut behind Hardison as Parker sped off at an unprecedented speed.
"Reinforcements," he declared; he didn't feel comfortable with Nate on this one. He was compromised, going to make bad decisions and Eliot needed something, someone there to back him up. And the team wouldn't do; he needed someone who could back him up physically.
Especially now that a man had been blown to bits and Abigail had been kidnapped.
Yeah, he needed reinforcements.
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"Please don't hurt us," Abby sobbed as her and Kyle were pushed blindfolded into a room. The blindfolds were pulled off and Abby immediately shrunk into the nearest corner she could find, tears dripping down her face. Kyle's face was white with fear and all he could do was stammer.
The man who had led them in, not the same as the one from the bar, chuckled as he shut the door behind him, leaving the pair locked alone.
"Abby, we're, we're gonna, be okay," Kyle reassured though he was clearly still distraught. Even more so than she appeared to be, but the notion wasn't lost on her.
"Huh?" Abby questioned, straightening up and wiping the crocodile tears from her face. "Oh that? I'm fine," she informed him. "If they think I'm terrified and inebriated they're going to be slack and relax their security, make it easier for us."
"Oh," he replied as Abby looked about the room and peaked her head into a small adjoining area, which she discovered was a toilet. The main room was bare save for an aged tattered armchair and radiator.
The floor was concrete, as were the walls, which ruled out any sort of tunnelling or demolition (like that was feasible). The door was solid metal and the hinges were on the outside, which ruled out taking the door apart and there were no windows, just a flickering halogen light above their heads.
"We're gonna be okay," Kyle stated, mostly trying to reassure himself. Abby paused from pacing out the size of the room and walked over to Kyle. He began breathing more heavily and began to panic further. "What the hell are we going to do? What the hell do they want?" He began wandering nervously about the room. "What the sh-"
"Kyle!" she interrupted, trying to get him to calm down once. He did not.
"We have to do something!"
"Kyle."
"What do they want? Why-"
"Kyle!" she yelled once more. "Listen to me!" He finally paused and looked up at Abby.
She put both of her hands on his shoulders and softly sat him down in the chair. "Kyle," she began softly but strongly. "We are going to be okay. By now, your dad has the entirety of the Boston PD out looking for us. Plus, Eliot and the others'll be doing their thing and they will fix this. That's they're job. But, in the meantime," she stood up from kneeling in front of him and dusted of her legs, "we're going to do what we can to help. Okay?" Kyle nodded then paused.
"What'd you mean by 'their thing'?" he asked and Abby screwed up her face. She'd let that one slip. But then again, now was hardly the time to try and maintain her family's cover.
"They're con men Kyle," she admitted. "Robin Hood sorta con men, but before all that, Eliot was a retrieval expert so he's well informed with this type of crime." She went on to explain what the team did and Kyle, remaining silent, nodded along as she spoke
"Have you been kidnapped before?" He asked when she had finished explaining. "Because you seem kinda calm?" His voice broke in slight panic.
An exhale of laughter left Abby's nose. "No, but Eliot made sure I'd know what to do."
There was an uncomfortable silence after that, just the sound of fidgeting Kyle's heavy breathing as he stared into the concrete floor and Abby leant against the wall, with her eyes shut, thinking things through.
Why, of all the people in the world, did she have to be stuck here with him? Was it some kind of cruel trick the universe was playing? Trying to push them together and use the stress and tension of the situation to form that bond you see in all the movies where the two hostagees inevitably have a thing? No way in hell that was going to happen.
"You know," she declared with her arms crossed, breaking the coarse silence. "What you did wasn't okay."
Kyle looked up at her, with a surprised look on his face, then looked back down at the floor sheepishly.
"And I'm not exactly happy to be in here with you, because you hurt me a lot, but here we are," she shrugged.
"Look, I don't know why I do that Abby," he began and Abby was uncertain if he was trying to apologise or not. If he was, he wasn't doing a very good job. "I'm not good with girls."
Abby shook her head. "That's not it Kyle, you don't want to choose, that's the issue. And you should probably figure out why," she declared, then pushed herself up off the wall. "But, in the meantime, we should talk about our current predicament."
"Okay," he said softly.
"Now, when they let you go-" Abby began but Kyle interrupted, his eyes widening in surprise.
"When they let me go?"
"When they let you go," she tried once more, "there are a couple of things you have to do, information you have to relay-"
"Why are they letting me go? And who are they?" He raised his voice this time.
"Because I was the one they were after!" She matched the anger in his tone, then lowered her voice and spoke more calmly. "They didn't go to the bar for you, they came for me. They're gonna release you as a sign of good faith, okay?"
"And who are they?" he asked again.
"I don't know," she shook her head. "Works for a guy called Latimer, he's been bugging the team for the last few months or so."
"You don't know what they want?" He placed one hand in his back pocket and ran the other across his face as Abby shrugged.
"Could be money, could be information. I don't know." She shook her head.
Kyle stared blankly into the floor before he shifted his weight and looked up at Abigail. "So, tell me what I need to do?"
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Sorry about the tardiness guys, uni has been hectic these last few months. Almost finished though, so after that I'll be able to get back into regular updates.
xx A Lyrical Dreamer