The Two-Horse Job

Thanks for reading this story.

New Chapter, read, enjoy and review.

Her red locks in a high bun, with blue jeans and a dark green plaid shirt, Danielle made her way to her office. A real office. It wasn't a booth in a dinner or in a restaurant. No a real office. It was definitely an upgrade. Much like everything else in her life. Her new apartment, her new furniture, her new car. None of those were pretty luxurious or fancy, they were pretty and simple. But it was far better than the old Buick that she had, or the dingy one room apartment that she had lived in. It was an upgrade.

And now she had a real office, in a real building. It felt like she had a regular job again like regular folks. Danielle had worked regular jobs before meeting the team. Before she became a vigilante of some sort. She had loved working those but it wasn't satisfying. Not in the way her new job was. Helping people made her feel as though she was making a difference in this life. Plus she was giving her clients, old and new, the help she and her family never got.

Anyway, Danielle loved her new office. Her office represented everything she was. There were various pictures on her desk of people she had helped. She had also a bookshelf that was divided in two. On one side, she had set up her wigs, a mirror and some of her makeup. On the other side, there were various books which subjects went from human anatomy to law practice. She made her office a perfect reflection of her many talents.

"Alan Foss, hedge fund manager for Smith & Markin in New York." Hardison started his exposé on their new mark. "He made forty million in the last two years. And he picked up some pretty high cost, high profile hobbies. Started with high stakes poker and now owning racehorses."

Parker's hand shot up. "I think I have a fever. Can I be excused from this one?"

"Come here, let me feel your head." Sophie offered.

"No, don't, don't feel her—" Nate, who sat between, stopped Sophie. "What are you—what's the deal? What are—"

"I once saw a horse kill a clown." Parker said.

"Really?!" Danielle, who sat on her Parker's left, exclaimed. "That must have been horrible."

"It was."

And then Parker told them the story of what really happened. And Danielle understood that it was two guys in costumes that fought during a kid's birthday party. There was no real killing or real horses at that party.

"Oh." Danielle let out.

"I just really don't like horses." Parker said.

"Fair enough." Danielle turned back to Hardison.

"Moving on." Nate signaled for Hardison to continue.

"Six months ago, Foss poured a pile of cash into buying all the horses from Willie's stable. After the fire—"

"The massacre." Eliot interrupted him. "The massacre."

"Hmm, you are a bit hot on this one." Sophie commented.

"Oh, okay, hi, yes." Hardison was annoyed with all the interruptions. "Everybody, y'all want to take over the briefings? Okay, I go through a lot of trouble to make these things interesting, have a little something visual for the visual learners, and the auditory learners, and y'all, it's just interruption—"

"Hey, IYS." Parker interrupted him again. "Your old insurance company holds the policy on Foss's horses." She turned to Nate.

IYS. She had worked for this insurance company for about six months before she quit. She was still in training and under the supervision of none other than Nathan Ford, himself. She had not expected him to remember who she was. They were both different people then.

"Is that going to be a problem?" Sophie asked him.

"No." Nate replied. "If I can find a way to stick it to my old boss, it's even better."

"Our mission is to take Foss's last surviving horse and deliver it to Eliot's friend, Willie." Hardison continued. "Meet Baltimore. Three wins, two places, insured for $200,000. Thank you very much, that concludes this briefing, appreciate your attention." Hardison finished his exposé. "Now, how do we get the damn horse?"

"Well, what do we know about Foss's schedule?" Nate asked him.

"According to his online calendar, he's going to a big race at Kensington Racetrack this weekend." Hardison told him.

Nate hummed before turning to Sophie. "Miss Devereaux, how is your Southern Belle?"

The team had their cover story. Sophie would go in as Katherine Beth Lovery who went by Kitty. She posed as a bloodstock agent. Hardison went in as Sheik Khalid who had been in business before with Miss Kitty. Eliot posed as Nate's trainer, Brad Mackie with his assistant, Miss Chloe Atkinson. That was Danielle's cover. The latter had traded her red curls for a blonde pixie wig. And Nate, well Nate was Bob Gibson, owner of his stable. It was a simple job. Get back Willie's horse. As simple as that.

"Well, evening, Ladies." Nate entered the room. "Didn't have to wait for me."

"Because we work for him." Eliot answered Alan Foss's previous question. Danielle sat next to Eliot.

"I'd have caught up." Nate sat down. "Bob Gibson. Who are you?"

Alan extended his hand to shake hands. "Bob, this is Alan Foss—"Sophie said in her best southern accent. "The investor from New York." She sat down next to Danielle.

"Oh, yeah—the one whose stable burned down, right?" Nate replied. "You're the guy that had the stable burn down and all of them horses got—" Nate clicked his tongue. "Yeah, well, I know you're new around here and everything, so why don't I just give you a little tip—don't let your stable burn down, there, boss. Bossy." Nate laughed. "Why don't we play some cards?"

"Actually, why don't you just hold on one second, please?" Foss said. "Do you mind, if, uh—anybody mind—I got this out of a gift shop today—play with a fresh deck?"

Hardison had previously prepared a little device that would allow to see Foss's hand. But now that the guy wanted to play with his own deck of cards, it was putting a slight dent in their plan. And they could not refuse him, otherwise they would look suspicious.

"That's a rookie move but I don't mind." Nate agreed to it.

"I don't have a problem with that." Eliot shrugged.

"Why don't you just hand him the deck there, uh, Fossil?" Nate asked him.

"Yeah, sure."

"So, we can play some cards and you can lose some money."

And the game started. Although, the goal was not to win for neither of them. Except for Nate. Danielle had hoped she would have stayed in game a little longer than that. But she was the first one out of the game, soon followed by Sophie. In the end, there were only Nate and Alan left in the game.

"All right, uh, I'm 40 000 light. But I'm sure, uh, this'll just be worth—" Alan started to take off his watch.

"We play for cash or we play for horses." Nate stopped him. "Now you still got one of those left? Or did you lose that one, too?"

"Cute. All right." Alan pulled out a pen and wrote on his napkin. "I'm going to put in my last horse, Baltimore." He pushed the napkin in front of Sophie. "Witness it." Sophie signed it. "Thanks, darling." He threw the napkin with all the chips. "See, 'cause that's how we do it from where I'm from, hoss."

"You're bluffing." Nate smirked.

"I don't know. Is four nines good?" Alan taunted him.

"Damn." Nate groaned.

"C.U" Nate showed him his hand. He had four Jacks. "You're a cheating son of a bitch!"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Without Hardison's little trick they had to improvise. So, Nate, using sleight of hand techniques had traded cards under the table with Eliot. They needed a winning hand and that was what they had.

"Why don't you make sure Jersey boy gets me my horse, number one." Nate said to Sophie. "And you play, you can come back and play with us any time you want." He then said to Foss.

"Okay, you know what? This isn't binding, so good luck." Foss was now refusing to pay his debts.

"Oh, that's not binding, huh? No." Nate challenged him. "You had four nines, and I had four jacks. Four nines, four jacks. Four nines—Four Jacks, I believe, is better than four nines."

"That it is, sir." Danielle nodded, pushing her fake glasses back on her nose.

"I'll tell everybody from, from Vegas to Houston that Alan Foss welshes on his bets, is that what you want?" Nate asked. Foss angrily threw his cards in Nate's face. "I'll tell them. Pleasure doing business." Nate laughed as Alan Foss stomped out.

"I owe you one." Eliot turned to Nate. "Thank you." They shook hands.

"We're done"

The job had went pretty well. All that was left for them to do was to take Baltimore to his new owner. But that was before Sterling entered the game. She knew IYS was investigating the fire, she just didn't expect Sterling to be the investigator. He was as good as Nathan Ford. Sterling never cared about the people, though. She had known that from back when she briefly worked for IYS. She had never liked him. But she must admit, Sterling was quite dedicated. Which was not good for them.

"Is it true Sterling spent three days in the trunk of a car waiting to catch someone?" Parker asked Nate as they walked out of the turf club.

"No, no." Nate shook his head.

"It was five." Sophie said.

"What?" Parker exclaimed.

"Look, I'm not saying that he's better than you were, but—" Sophie kept on.

"Were?" Nate repeated. "I'm sorry."

"Well, we need to get Willie that horse back, and we get out of here very, very quickly." Sophie reminded them.

"Well, it's a little too late for that." Nate retorted. "I mean, Sterling thinks that I'm trying to get my job back, right? He doesn't care about the claim anymore, he's just going to mess with anything I do. If I try to keep Baltimore for myself, he's going to try to get Baltimore back for Foss. If I give Willie the horse, Willie becomes the target, and believe me, you don't want to be, you know, the target of Sterling."

"I thought—" Sophie started.

"That's great." Eliot cut her off. "So, wait, wait, you're saying Willie loses the horse and Foss stays in business? Nice."

"No, no, no, listen, I think I know a way we can tackle both, I think." Nate assured him. "Sophie, try to get Foss here, and you guys keep a tab on Sterling. Run interference." Nate gave out his orders. "Eliot, Dani, find us a stable."

Easier said than done, thought Dani. Where were they supposed to find a stable? And they also needed horses to put in those stables. Eliot called the one person who didn't want to have anything to do with him: Aimee. An old flame and also Willie's daughter. She accepted to help them, reluctantly.

"Aimee got us the horses. We need her help to pull this off." Eliot explained to Nate as they followed Aimee through the stables.

"So, are all these are mine?" Nate asked her.

"Well, no. Trainers work with a lot of different owners," Aimee explained. "So, only a few of them will be yours. But the stables belong to the trainers, not the owners. So, his office would be right down there."

"You can't even say my name, now?" Eliot asked her. Danielle and Nate shared a look.

"No, sire."

"Whatever."

"Uh, and the logos that—" Nate started.

"Well, like she said, my stable." Eliot reminded him. "These stables are all identical, the only way to tell them apart is by trainer logo."

"Hardison faked a couple of them up this morning." Danielle added.

"Anything else you need, so you can wrap this up and go back to being a somewhat disappointing memory?" Aimee said.

"I thought you said you were fine with this." Eliot told her.

"I thought you said you were coming back in three weeks." Aimee countered.

"Oh, boy, this is perfect." Nate walked off, followed closely by Dani.

Dani quickly changed into a dark purple shirt, with Eliot's training logo on it and dark breeches. She was sitting in the office with Eliot.

"What did you do that got Aimee so pissed?" Dani said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Eliot looked at her.

"Nothing." Dani shrugged. "Just that maybe the two of you need to have a good talk. You know talk about your unresolved issue."

"You, I don't remember your name," Nate barged into the office. "But I need your office."

"You asked me—" Eliot tried to protest as he and Dani stood up.

"Today, not tomorrow, today." Nate almost pushed them out of the office.

Eliot and Dani stood outside of the office. "What really happened between you and Aimee?"

"I'm not talking about it with you." Eliot crossed his arms over his chest.

"Why not?" Dani faced him. "It's not like you have anything better to do."

Eliot let out a long sigh. "Eight years ago, we broke up, she moved on, got married and I left. It's as simple as that."

"Without saying goodbye?" Dani raised her eyebrows.

"She got married."

"So?"

"What? Didn't you hear what I said?"

"Yeah, she got married." Dani came to stand next to him and leaned against the wall. "But do you have any idea how it feels like to be left behind? To have someone you love walk out of your life without so much as a goodbye?" She looked up at him. "It feels like hell. No wonder why she's so angry."

"Sounds like you know what you're talking about." Eliot said.

"I know the feeling."

The door to the office opened. "—cause, yeah, he's a real charmer." Foss said as Nate pulled Sophie behind him. "Have a good time."

"I'm sorry." Eliot chuckled. "I've just seen that look before. That's a Bob Gibson's special."

"What, are you serious?" Foss snapped. "How do you even put up with that?"

"Oh, well, he's been in a particular bad mood cause he's got this deal and he, uh—" Dani pushed her glasses back on her nose and turned to Eliot.

"Anyway, I'm sorry he didn't sell you your horse back." Eliot apologized.

"And what is this deal with Kitty?" Foss asked them.

"I can't help you with that, Mr. Foss." Eliot answered.

"See, this industry is changing." Foss started. "Yep. Wasted my time with that petty ante crap, cheap horses, low rent trainers. Okay, well, you know what I did, though?" Danielle glanced up at Eliot. "I called my hedge fund buddies up, and we're going to form investment portfolios only with horses and not stocks. Modernize the sport. So, guys like Bob Gibson won't know what hit them when New York money comes to town. So, you do me a favor, here's how I can help you." He pulled out a card. "You either join the revolution, or you get the hell out of my way. See ya."

Dani let out a long breath. "Crap."

"Great news." Eliot clapped his hands as they joined Nate, Sophie and Aimee. "Not only is Foss not out of the horse business, he's bringing in more money and more partners."

"Caught that, working on it." Nate told him.

"You're working on it?" Aimee repeated. "You said that you had a plan."

"He just said he's working on it." Eliot retorted.

"Right, but you convinced my dad that things were going to be okay, things have only gotten worse." Aimee walked away from them and Eliot followed her. "Now, I appreciate you trying to help, but if you don't know what you're doing, just walk away. At least, I know you're good at that."

"What's the new plan?" Dani asked Nate.

"What about that thing you did in Kazakhstan?" Sophie suggested.

"No, Sterling knows about that one." Nate shook his head.

They were trying to come up with a plan that would get them the horse and Sterling off of their backs. A plan that would stop Foss's project. But Sterling knew Nate and the tricks he had used before which was making forming a plan quite difficult.

"And you're sure this isn't about sticking it to your old rival?" Sophie asked him. "Because, you know, it's really not worth putting the rest of us at risk."

"No, listen," Nate stood up. "You know, Sterling is going to do everything in his power to take us down, all right? And he's going to take Willie with him. So, I'm just trying to come up with some plan that he doesn't see a mile away with a blindfold on."

"No, same thing as a zebra." Parker and Hardison walked in. "They bite and they never let go in the jungle."

"Hold it, whoa, wait, wait. What about Mr. Ed?" Hardison asked Parker.

"Yeah, a talking animal that nobody else can hear? That never ends badly." Parker replied.

"It didn't turn out badly." Hardison continued. "Wilbur loved Mr. Ed. He loved him like a second cousin twice removed."

"That's it." Nate exclaimed. "That's it. That's it."

"What?" Sophie frowned up confused. "A talking horse?"

"No, the lost heir." Nate said and Dani grinned.

"What's that?" Hardison asked.

"A famous European scam." Dani answered.

"You pose as a long lost descendant of the royal family, and when you pull it off, wow, the payoffs are really good." Sophie explained. "Loads of parties, money, and a fabulous Faberge Egg."

"What does that had to do with horses?" Parker asked her.

"Well, with horses, it's all about bloodlines." Nate said.

"The lost heir of the royal Equine family." Dani said. "This will be worth millions."

"We are going to sell this guy the greatest horse that never lived." Nate declared.

"We're using Baltimore as the lost heir." Nate said during their meeting at the racetrack.

"I hacked into the IFHA website," Hardison started. "That's the database with all the horses' bloodlines. Now, that all the information are linked on numbers to microchips in the horse's neck." He explained. "Now, we'll link Baltimore's microchip number to a fake horse with a great bloodline. Then we'll disguise the white stripe on his face with some paint—"

"No, that's not going to work." Eliot shook his head. "His lungs are still messed up from the fire."

"Well, he can still run." Nate said.

"He can run, but Foss is going to see how slow he is." Eliot retorted. "That paint thing, that's not going to hold up if he gets close enough to scan the chip."

"We need to find a horse that can run like a champion, I mean—" Nate mused out loud.

"What about that horse from the other day?" Hardison asked. "Uh, Kentucky Fried Chicken?"

"Kentucky Thunder." Danielle and Eliot corrected him.

"Well, that's what I said."

"Oh, we steal an actual championship racehorse in order to fake another championship racehorse." Nate smirked. "Ooh, I like it."

Sophie went in as an interviewer for Sport Illustrated, distracting Kentucky Thunder's trainer while Eliot sneaked in to steal the championship racehorse. Stealing the horse was only the first step into their new plan. Other players were needed to make it as though they were truly making a deal. So, Nate charged Hardison with finding the sellers. Two Chinese tourists that he went to get from the airport and brought to the racetrack.

"Any sign of Sterling?" She heard Nate asked over the comms.

"No, all clear." Hardison answered.

"Parker?"

"Nope." Parker answered.

"Danielle?"

"I'm ready." Danielle climbed on Kentucky Thunder. "Have I ever told you I was a jockey once?" She patted the horse on his neck. "Only for an hour, though."

"Danielle?" Nate called her over the comms. "Focus."

"Yeah, sorry." She leaned in to whisper to her horse. "Ready to go, buddy?"

"You ever heard of Beijing Jockey Club?" She heard Eliot asked Foss over the comms.

Danielle took Kentucky Thunder on the racetrack. As soon as she heard her cue, Danielle got Kentucky Thunder to bolt. He sped on track, her knees were bent as she hovered over the saddle. Kentucky Thunder was an excellent horse. Foss would believe the lie they were telling him. He would bite.

After their performance, Danielle trotted to Eliot and Foss. "Morning, Mr. Foss." She greeted him smiling.

"Chloe, right?" Foss asked her and she nodded. "You're a talented jockey."

"Thank you. But anyone could be a talented jockey with a horse like Fei Kuai." Danielle smiled patting the horse.

"Do you get internet on your phone, Mr. Foss?" Eliot asked him passing the canner over Kentucky Thunder's neck.

"Yes." Foss turned away from her.

"Pull up the IFHA website, I'll tell you why." Eliot continued. "Every thoroughbred worldwide has their bloodlines registered there." He showed Foss the numbers on the scanner. "Punch in that number right there, that'll give you the bloodlines of this horse."

"8-9-9-3-3-3." The robotic voice of scanner slowly enunciated.

"Native Dancer, War Admiral, Secretariat." Foss read out. "You got to be—This horse is a Kennedy."

"Yeah. You're going to start a franchise, Mr. Foss." Eliot nodded. "This is the horse you need."

The rest was easy. Fei Kuai was for Foss an opportunity to make even more money. He was a businessman. Buying Fei Kuai was a good investment for Foss. Too bad Fei Kuai never existed. After what he'd done, losing his money was the least he deserved.

"There's no way to fake the numbers on that chip." Hardison said the day after, as they walked up to the rendezvous point.

"You faked it before." Nate reminded him.

"No, no, no, I faked the information on the database." Hardison replied. "Okay, now when Foss scans that chip, if it's not the same number that showed up before—"

"Oh, we're screwed." Parker finished for him.

"Basically. Now either we cut the chip out of the horse and insert it into another one—" Hardison continued.

"Or we deliver Kentucky Thunder." Sophie said.

"Problem is, we can't just take horses in and out as we like." Dani reminded them.

"Kentucky Thunder's gone." Eliot and Aimee walked up to them.

"What?" The group stopped and turned to the couple.

"Racing?" Sophie asked.

"Worse." Aimee answered. "Stud farm."

"No, no, no, no, no, no." Hardison shook his head.

"All right, we're not going to get Foss to write a twelve million dollar check for an empty horse trailer." Nate sighed. "This doesn't work without Kentucky Thunder. So, we're gonna stall."

"No," Eliot disagreed.

"What do you mean 'no?'"

"Sterling's going to catch on. Foss is going to get cold feet, man." Eliot told him. "No, we have a chance. We got to get this horse."

Nate pulled Eliot to the side and Aimee came to stand next to Danielle. Eliot was right, they could not let Foss get away with it. Nine horses—nine horses that he massacred in that fire. And he pinned it on Willie. Foss couldn't get away with it.

"Can you hack it?" Parker asked Hardison. They were waiting outside the stables in which Kentucky Thunder was kept.

"Hack the lock?" Hardison looked at Parker as though she insulted him somehow. "Nice. You still really don't understand what I do, do you?"

"Parker, you're going to have to go through the air duct." Eliot told the thief. "Drop down, let us in."

Her eyes widened at his words. She leaned into his ear. "But the horses are in there."

"No, no, no. There's a back room, there won't be any horses in there." Aimee reassured her.

"We need you to do this. I need you to do this." Eliot turned to her. "Please."

She groaned as she got out of the car.

They watched as Parker disappeared into the stables. It seemed that no one had noticed them being there. Kentucky Thunder's trainer was nowhere to be seen.

"Looks like Parker's going to have to crawl through the air duct again." Parker's voice came on the comms. "God forbid anyone else would have to learn how to frickin' crawl on their stomach through a tiny space. It's not rocket science, people."

Danielle snorted. "Parker, you realize that we can still hear you." Eliot told her.

"Aimee, I found Kentucky Thunder." Parker whisper yelled. "He's a really, really big horse."

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Aimee apologized. "Uh, yeah, sometimes they keep him in there before he gets teased."

"I don't want to be in a stall with a horse that's about to be teased."

"We're running out of time, Parker." Eliot rushed her. A few seconds passed and nothing happened. "Parker, hurry up."

"Yeah."

They got out of the car and rushed to the doors of the stable. Parker, on the other side, pushed them open.

"See, you're not dead, good." Hardison said.

"Don't be silly." Parker replied. "Horses are much less murderous than I originally thought."

Hardison shared a look with Eliot whereas Danielle just groaned. Kentucky Thunder willingly followed them to the horse trailer. All there was left for them to do, was to get to Foss.

"Okay, Foss is in place. Where are you?" Nate asked them over the comms.

"We're close." Eliot answered. "Any minute now." Their truck came to a stop.

"Listen, the hauler's going to be here in five minutes." Nate's voice came on the comms. "If you're not here, Foss is going to open up an empty trailer and there will be no lost heir."

"I said we'll be there." Eliot yelled.

"Hardison show me what you're looking at." Nate asked the Hacker.

Hardison took his phone and got out of the window. He filmed exactly what they saw. They had stopped because of the traffic jam.

"I'll be damned." Hardison said as a police car arrived on the scene. "We're going to jail."

"My father lost his job, he lost his horses," Aimee started. "And now he's going to have to visit me in jail. Great."

"Well, on the bright side you have all of us to keep you company." Parker smiled.

"Hey, nobody's going to jail." Eliot snapped. "I promise you. We're going to make it."

Eliot climbed out of the truck. "Where is he going?" Danielle looked to the others.

"All right, all right. We're not going to make it." Nate said. "I'm pulling the plug. Eliot, bring the horse back to the stud farm, meet us at the rendezvous spot."

"Uh, Boss," Hardison replied as Eliot got Kentucky Thunder out of the trailer. "We might have a hard time with that."

"Why?" Hardison showed him Eliot speeding away on horseback. "Oh, great. Great job not getting emotionally attached or doing anything stupid."

"It's the front gate. The hauler's here." Sophie announced.

"Oh, perfect, right on time."

The rest was in their hands. Nate was still going on about how all this operation could still go wrong. Especially if Eliot did not arrive on time. He was right, this was getting too risky.

"Pony express is never late, Boss." Eliot's arrival put a stop to Nate's ranting.

"Did I tell you I was going to kill you?" Nate told him. "Okay we're back on."

Danielle and the others finally made it to the stables. They switched the names and numbers on the boxes. Foss's scanner still indicated that the horse he just bought was Fei Kuai. There was no doubt in his mind that he was doing a great investment. But really, he bought Baltimore back and subscribe a second insurance on the same horse. They got Foss to commit an insurance fraud.

Willie would be able to start new and with the money they got from Foss, he'd be able to buy his own stable. And of course his first horse was Baltimore.

"So, you gave her a proper goodbye this time?" Danielle asked Eliot, she laced her arm with his.

Eliot glared at her arm intertwined with his. "What is it to you?"

"I just think you both need closure. And it's important to have one." Danielle shrugged.

"Did you get closure with the one that got away?" Eliot asked her.

"No." She pulled her arm away from his. "I'm never gonna get it."