She jammed her fists deeper into her pockets as she lowered her head. Two men, that's all she knew. Two men were following her. Her destination lay across the intersection, but she wasn't sure it was safe to enter in the first place, let alone with a tail.
The traffic broke, allowing her to make a dash across. Both men hastened to close the gap.
Decision time. She bypassed the front door, hurrying along the shuttered windows. There was nowhere to go now. The street was quiet, no witnesses. She was trapped in the open air.
"Give it over." The first man extended his open palm as his partner circled around behind her.
"Drop dead."
The second man grabbed her shoulders. The first reached for her pockets.
"No!" She twisted out of the second man's grip and used her outer shoulder to drive the first backwards.
"Your choice." The first grinned as he struck her. She jostled as they took turns hitting and shoving her between them.
Her foot caught on one of their toes. She fell between them, landing hard against a door in the wall. She turned to see them closing. Instinct made her grasp the handle and turn, her back still at the door.
"Nowhere to run." The first man grabbed her shoulders and shoved her through the door. Her feet stumbled on the threshold, dropping her to the concrete.
The sound of the courtyard door slamming open echoed into the club.
"What was that?" Parker asked, pausing her rigging ten feet in the air.
"Courtyard." Eliot muttered as he held his weight bag steady. He began to creep towards the door, Parker dropping down to join him.
"Where is it?" The first man patted every potential hiding spot he could think to search on her.
"You won't find it." she snorted.
He grasped her face and pulled up.
"Is it really worth your life?"
"It's worth his."
He slammed her head into the concrete.
"HEY!" Eliot roared as he entered the fray. He pulled the man back and slammed him into the wall.
His partner quickly tried to intervene, missing Parker enter. She shoved him, his shoulder slamming into the outer door frame.
"This doesn't concern you. Stay out of it if you know what's good for you." The first man hissed into Eliot's face.
"You're in my house, that makes it my concern."
The second guy glanced around before making his move. He shoved Parker towards Eliot, creating a second for his partner to join him in making a break for the street. Parker gritted her teeth and began to chase before Eliot called her back.
"Let them go. She's going to need an ambulance." He knelt down to take a look at the unconscious woman bleeding on the courtyard slab.
"Hospital lists our vic as stable, but in a coma. Jane Doe still hasn't been identified." Breanna explained as Harry joined the team at the briefing island.
"The cops are calling it a mugging gone bad." Harry added.
"That wasn't a mugging." Eliot muttered.
"Those guys wanted something." Parker twitched her lips.
"Did they get it?" Harry asked.
Parker shook her head.
"Point is, you don't have guys beat you near to death over nothing." Eliot refocused the conversation.
"So she needs help." Parker blurted.
"What kind of help though?" Harry posed.
"That's the question." Sophie sighed.
"I'm still trying to get a name on her. Unfortunately her back is to the camera until she's down, and then her face is too distorted by blood and swelling for facial rec to work. I'm trying to find her on other cameras in the area, but it's taking longer since I have to do it manually." Breanna groused.
"At this point, we have to leave it." Sophie shook her head.
"No." Parker stated loud and firm. "She wanted help. We need to help her."
"But we know nothing about her. She didn't have a phone or ID." Breanna rattled off on her fingers.
"No, all she had was this." Parker held up a slip of paper between her index and middle fingers.
"What the? When did you get that?" Eliot demanded.
Sophie plucked the paper from her and opened it.
"What does it say?" Breanna asked.
"H. Wilson, and this address."
"She was coming here." Parker stated.
"But how did she get this address? Maybe a client knows her?" Breanna suggested.
"Worth asking." Sophie agreed.
"So she's officially a client now?"
"It appears so."
"Any leads on the goons?" Eliot asked.
"Unfortunately, no." Breanna hit a button on the remote, bringing the footage on screen. "Facial rec is coming up blank. These guys are ghosts."
The footage rolled.
Eliot squinted at the screen a moment.
"Breanna, play that back."
She rewound and played it again.
"You recognize them?" Harry asked.
Eliot slowly glanced at the courtyard door, draped in crime scene tape. He stood and walked over, ducking under the tape.
"What is it?" Harry looked at the rest of the team, all waiting.
Parker watched intently as Eliot dug through the potted tree in the corner of the courtyard. After a long minute, he returned.
"Find something?" she asked.
Eliot held up the dirt covered USB drive, scarcely the size of his thumbnail.
"How did you know that was there?" Harry inquired as Eliot handed the drive to Breanna.
"She made a flick of her wrist when she fell." Eliot answered, retaking his seat.
"Okay." Harry dropped it, knowing Eliot's eye for movement far exceeded his own.
"So what is it?" Parker stared at the screen in anticipation.
"Looks like encrypted files." Breanna rolled her eyes up to the screen as the file list appeared. "It'll take some time to open them."
"Wait a minute. I know those file codes. These are from my old firm." Harry sat forward.
"And more questions." Sophie sighed. "Okay, Breanna, Harry, you focus on deciphering these files. Hopefully they'll tell us who our client and her attackers might be. I'm going to see if the hospital had any luck identifying her."
"And us?" Parker pressed.
"You and Eliot can follow up on Breanna's suggestion. See if a client knows who she is, but be discreet. We don't know who those men are or who they work for. You two may become targets, so for now, lay low."
"Understood." Eliot replied before Parker could argue.
"Let's get to work." Sophie made her way to the door.
Parker quickly disappeared up the stairs, unnoticed by Breanna and Harry as they huddled over her laptop.
Eliot waited a beat before he followed. He found her leaning on the wall overlooking the courtyard, staring at the blood stain in the concrete.
"You all right?" He kept two steps back.
"They would have killed her. If we hadn't been there. Wouldn't they?" Her eyes never left the stain.
Eliot took a deep breath and stood next to her. "Yeah, they would have."
"That is so cruel. How can they be so..."
"Cold." He said it as harsh as the word itself.
Parker suddenly realized what she had done. She looked at him.
"Eliot, I didn't mean..."
"It's okay, Parker. It's true. I deserve it. Twenty years ago I was. I live with that, and I own it. You won't hurt me saying it."
"We have to make this right."
"We will." He leaned on the wall and bumped his shoulder into hers. She smiled at his comforting homage to her.