“You ready to go?” Luke leaned in the door of the bar and called in to her, not taking his eyes off his cousin.

“Um, sure,” she allowed, stepping in front of him and out toward Sebastian. In response, Sebastian turned his back on her and preceded her to the car. Hurt warred with her compassion. Not that she had been fair to him this entire time – she had mistrusted him against all evidence, had kissed him and then pushed him away. But she didn’t exactly understand what she had done to make him upset with her. Or at least, what he knew that she had done. Had Luke ratted her out? Did Bash know about the kiss?

With her eyes on Bash, the grip on her arm rattled her when it suddenly stopped her forward motion. She glared up at Luke in confusion.

“What are you doing?” she demanded.

“Who was that?” he countered, his expression wearing as much fury as her own.

“Are you taking lessons from your cousin now?” Piper challenged, and to his credit, Luke loosened his grip, though he did not release her.

“I leave you half-drunk after running for your life, and you take up with a stranger?”

“Take up with?” Piper gritted her teeth. “What’s the matter, Luke? Jealous? I know better.”

“Piper,” Luke’s entire countenance softened, and he took on a repentant mien. Even his hand on her arm grew tender. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m not trying to control you. Not that Bash deserves that either, but certainly more than I do. I know.”

Despite her anger, guilt clutched at Piper’s chest. She cared about Luke; she thought she understood their strange connection. But he did not and could not hold the same rights as Sebastian in regards to her. She thought she finally understood the difference in their commitment to her, and Bash won out by a large margin. “It’s not your business, but that was Mitch. He is the one who told me about the coffee shop that I couldn’t find. When he realized his mistake, he came to find me because I wasn’t answering the phone.”

Luke couldn’t so easily accept the narrative offered by Piper for Mitch’s inexplicable presence. Maybe he had really made a mistake that sent her into gang territory. With everything else that had happened to her – with the threat implied by Molly’s kidnapping – Luke considered it unlikely that the guy had coincidentally sent her into peril. Mitch Parkington. Though he picked up his phone to contact Isaac, he thought better of it. Instead, he scrolled through his contacts until he found hisliaison with the FBI, and Agent Talbot. Without explanation, he suggested that the field office look into Mitch Parkington. If there was nothing there, the FBI would find out, and Luke could let it go.

“You promised you would stay at your sister’s,” Sebastian leveled as they seated themselves in the car, and Piper actually sighed in relief. All she could see was the brooding side of his face. The half in darkness, she mused.

She could have thought of a million reasons why it was none of his business where she stayed and what she did, but her guilt upbraided her. If he had known what she was doing while he was cowering out of fear for his life, especially since he was there because of her? He had been through hell for her. And apparently, he had a history that made him significantly more susceptible than her relatively stable upbringing. His reaction explained a few things about why he had restrained her that first night, and she found herself thoroughly over it.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured apologetically, and she noted both the sigh that escaped him and the nervous glance Luke threw him. Bash leaned his head against the window and stared into the darkness, but he didn’t respond.

Piper’s phone buzzed, and she realized that she had likely missed a lot while she had been passed out and on the run. Turning down the brightness, she read off the notifications. Mitch, Sebastian, Luke…Molly. Pressing Molly’s messages, Piper cringed. Of course Molly was a basket case.

Please be okay, baby girl, Molly had just written. Her messages had devolved from teasing and sarcastic to pleading, and Piper’s heart wanted to break.

Sweet friend, I am alive, Piper reassured. And okay. Bash and Luke have me, and we’re about to head to my sister’s.

Do I get an explanation? Molly pressed.

Glancing at Bash in the front seat, Piper knew she couldn’t hold a conversation at the moment, not with him as audience. Not broody, fragile Sebastian Rivera. Completely the opposite of how she had imagined him, but somehow no less interesting and charming for it.

I promise I’ll call as soon as I get to Jennie’s, Piper assured her friend. But I can’t write it. Bash saved me. Again. And you saved me, from what I hear.

Now we’re even, Molly joked. I can wait since I know you’re safe.

As Piper turned off her screen, she noted that Luke had handed his own phone over to Bash.

“What does it say?” he inquired.

“Fangs?” accused Bash, incredulous. “You have a message from someone named Fangs?”

“Damn it,” Luke hissed. “Plug these in and give me the phone. You know what my job is.” He handed Bash a pair of earbuds. Once Bash had done so, he handed the phone back to his cousin.

A moment later, Luke had adopted an almost comically flirtatious expression, and he began a torrent of Spanish words that Piper couldn’t remotely make out. Though she shouldn’t have felt it at all, considering decisions about Luke, Piper had to suppress a rumbling of jealousy in her get. Finally, after several minutes, she made out the words “doctores” and “medicamento.” So, doctors, and something that either meant medicine, medically, or medical. His words hardly justified his teasing expression, and Piper found herself glaring at Luke. Not out of the earlier jealousy, though. No, she was furious that he could be so duplicitous, that he could turn on and off his affection with a flip of some switch. Of course, hadn’t she done so earlier when talking to Luke? Maybe she didn’t know herself at all.

When she glanced at Bash, his irritation far surpassed her own. Bash alternated between deep anxiety and fury, and Piper remembered that he no doubt understood his cousin’s words. “What is it?” she whispered, touching his arm.

“Just a minute.” He held up his hand, obviously listening.

Luke hung up the phone then, and Bash began some kind of tirade in Spanish, which Luke quickly answered with an apologetic air. After several minutes, Piper had finally had enough. “Tell me what is going on!” she demanded loudly.

As if he had forgotten her, Bash glanced, shocked into Piper’s face in the back seat. Conflicting emotions danced across his face with the passing shadows, but he seemed to rein himself in before he spoke. “I need you to call your sister,” he commanded.

“Why am I calling her?” Piper’s voice came out weak as anxiety washed over her.

“Just find out if the Prados are there, where Lily is.”

Licking her lips, Piper huffed a breath. She brought her phone’s screen to life and dialed in Jennie’s number. When the voice came over the other end, the tension in Piper’s chest released. Jennie sounded perfectly relaxed and normal. Piper heard Brian’s voice in the background, and she found herself almost in tears with relief. “Brian’s home?” she inquired, and Jennie confirmed the news. “Thank God,” Piper breathed. “Where are the Prados? Where’s Lily?”

“The Prados showed up and picked Lily up. Luke had texted that they might. Is everything okay?” Now Jennie sounded anxious.

“I’m sure they’re fine. Did they give you an address or a place where they are staying?”

“Just a bed and breakfast in Chappaqua,” Jennie informed. “They didn’t leave the name.”

“That’s great, Jennie. I’m really glad Brian is home and your life can get back to normal. You’ve been a saint.”

“You’re coming back here before you head back to school, right?” Jennie prompted.

School? Piper wondered, shaking her head. It seemed like months since she had been at school. Really, it had been just over a week. “I think so,” Piper allowed. “I’ll text you once I decide.”

“Okay, sis. Love you,” Jennie closed. “Be careful.”

“I will,” Piper agreed. “I love you, too.”

Once Piper hung up, she texted Molly, realizing a dilemma that the night had created.

Can I have my car towed to your house? Hopefully it’s not burned out by morning.

Of course, Molly replied. Let me do it. I have a service.

Piper became aware of Bash’s eyes as they stared impatiently her way. Thanks, Molls, Piper typed quickly. I’ll talk to you in the morning. She did not read whatever Molly replied. “What, Bash? What is wrong?” She registered Bash’s shock at her use of his nickname, but he did not address it. He apparently had something too somber to allow for casual talk.

“Where are the Prados?” he demanded.

“A bed and breakfast in Chappaqua. Why?”

“That was one of my contacts,” Luke offered.

Interesting way to talk to your contact, Piper twisted her lips skeptically.

“They still have a hit out on the Prados,” Luke continued, and all other thoughts fled Piper’s mind.

+++++++++++

In a way, it looked like Piper’s friend, Mitch Parkington, was responsible for the entire issue in Peru. When Isaac had checked out the situation, he found a couple of small-time drug dealers – one gang-related and the other not – who had conspired to disrupt the pharmaceutical production of a drug. If the had been the whole story, Isaac would have found no difficulty in dealing with the situation, shutting down and framing this kid so that there was no case for the feds to follow. Instead, though, there was a bigger fish. Why is there always a bigger fish? Isaac complained.

A stupid state senator, a small-town bureaucrat who decided to play God. For whatever reason, this man had put out a kill order on two scientists, and unfortunately, the FBI had gotten wind of the situation. Now Isaac faced two dilemmas that needed him to deliver.

One meant that he needed to shut down the senator’s operation – to preserve the seven-year Peruvian asset. Do accomplish this, Isaac could either interfere with the senator – a bureaucratic nightmare, or he could kill the scientists and pin their death on a state-side cause. For Isaac, the latter option offered fewer difficulties.

As far as the second dilemma, he had promised his veterano asset that he would deliver the cousins to him or deliver his revenge. Well, Isaac realized that the former option had passed him by – no way Luke Lopez would participate in recruiting his cousin now, and without Luke, Bash would prove impervious.

Unfortunately, the coffee shop in Armonk seemed to have proven the last straw. There was no credible explanation Isaac could offer Luke for his presence there. Already, Luke hadn’t trusted him. The fiasco in Armonk had solidified the mistrust, and Luke had failed to respond to the past several messages Isaac had sent.

Isaac, though, loved his job in the CIA. With very little effort, he had accessed the phone records for Luciano Lopez, and he had tracked every word the man had exchanged with his cousin and with Piper Hayes, as well as a few of his old neighborhood contacts. With such bountiful resources, Isaac believed he could manage both of his professional agendas – and maybe even a personal one. Once his veterano friend agreed to the plan, Isaac would spring into action. When his phone buzzed, he peered down at it and his adrenaline surged. His contact had given him the green light.

+++++++++++

Mitch turned back to his car for the fifth time, convinced that this time he was going to leave. On a normal night, walking up to a senator’s home would have felt normal. After everything that had just happened – after what this senator had done, and what Mitch had helped with – Mitch couldn’t get up the nerve. He had to have it out with Rick Connors, call off everything. Mitch had started the ball rolling, and Mitch wanted to stop it. But he didn’t have the guts to confront the guy directly, a fact that made Mitch hate himself. Obviously, Mitch was a coward, but he didn’t want to be. Still, as he made it to his car on his fifth trip back to it, he managed to grab the handle and pull at the door. He would find another way.

When the hands grabbed him from the darkness, Mitch almost screamed, coward fully on display, but as he strained his head to see behind him, he noticed the small woman whose amber skin reflected gold in the streetlamp. She seemed utterly unafraid of him; in fact, he felt himself gulping at the intense expression on her face. As if to confirm his early self-accusations of cowardice, he felt his legs buckle as the woman pulled out her FBI badge. Agent Allison Strickland, it read.

“Looks like you’re having some trouble making up your mind,” she leveled.

Since they didn’t know anything about him, he chose to keep his mouth shut.

“So, I get that you’re not particularly wanting to share,” she pressed, “but seeing as you are loitering outside the home of a state senator – we’ve been watching you for twenty minutes – I’m prepared to treat you as a threat and just search and arrest you here. Why don’t we skip the unpleasantries and just have a little talk?”

When he still didn’t answer, she patted him down and found his wallet.

“Well…Mitch,” she read. “What if I told you that we weren’t really all that interested in you but believe you might have some information that we would find helpful?” She glanced at the senator’s house, and Mitch finally breathed.

“I’ll need a lawyer,” he asserted.

“Of course,” Agent Strickland agreed. “Just make sure you mention some potential immunity or reductions – depending on just how bad you’ve been.”

Agent Strickland nodded at the person behind Mitch, and Mitch felt the hands release his arms. When he turned, he encountered a slightly overweight, middle-aged man. “I was planning on confronting the senator tonight about what we had done. I wanted to stop it. I’ve been trying.”

Compassion peeking over her stoicism, Allie Strickland sighed to herself. “Give your lawyer a call, Mr. Parkington,” she encouraged. “We can wait. I don’t want you compromising my case by talking to much before you have the representation you asked for. I would like to take you for processing – though I’m planning to release you on your own recognizance,” she assured him.

She knew he was an adult – maybe barely old enough to drink alcohol – but he looked like a kid, nervous and anxious, fidgeting and biting his nails. From what she had seen, he had indeed intended to confront the senator that night. For Mitch’s sake, Allie was glad that she had interfered. Who knew what trouble the kid would have gotten in had he knocked on the man’s door?

“What about my car?” Mitch worried as Agent Strickland’s partner pushed him down into the black sedan.

“Talbot, get his keys. Drive it down to the office. Is that acceptable?” she offered the young man.

Mitch just nodded. It wasn’t happening the way he had intended, but it could have been worse. Immunity or reduction, but the senator and the hit would be someone else’s problem once Mitch had told the FBI all he knew. He would lose his job. He might even go to jail, though hopefully his lawyer could get some kind of community service for most of it. Not all of it, he knew. Some things were beyond forgiving. What he had almost done to Piper - he didn’t even know her last name - Mitch deserved to suffer something for that.

+++++++++++

“Do the Prados have Lily?” Bash demanded, and Piper could see the fear in his eyes.

Tears burned at the corners of her own eyes as she nodded. “They picked her up an hour ago.”

Luke let loose a few Spanish phrases – some sounded like curses.

“In English, Luke,” Bash chided his cousin. “Don’t be rude.”

Glancing in the mirror at Piper, Luke spoke again, in English. “We need to go get them. Piper, we can drop you at your sister’s.”

“No way,” Piper insisted.

“Piper,” Luke chastised. “You have no training. You would be a distraction if we run into trouble.”

“Bash has almost no training – you admitted it to me, Bash! And I don’t intend to rush off into a battle. I’ll sit in the car and keep it running. I’ll man the getaway car. Don’t do this to me,” she begged the stony Bash, but it was Luke who huffed an agreement.

“You have to stay in the car,” Luke instructed as he pulled off at a gas station to refuel. He wanted to be prepared in case he had to drive with the Prados for an extended evasion. On the bright side, Luke would literally have the Prados in his custody, and that is what Isaac had requested. Luke hadn’t even had to finish seducing Piper – though he had begun to doubt that he even could, despite his success. To his surprise, he found it unbearable to manipulate someone he cared about in such an…intimate…way. It would prove impossible to pull himself back; he guessed he had a lot still to learn.

Once Luke had pulled up to the pump and exited the car, Bash slid out of his own door and moved to the back seat with Piper.

“I want you to go home,” he insisted. “At least to your sister’s.”

“Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but apparently that’s not your call.” Even though she had intended to be kinder to him after his near breakdown, he was doing it again. He was shutting her down and trying to control her.

“Piper,” he grabbed her hand with both of his, “please let Luke handle this.”

“And you?” she accused.

“I have training – you know that. I know it’s not much, but I do.”

“That’s not the only thing that counts,” she countered. She couldn’t reveal her knowledge of his tendency to freeze up, but he seemed to read enough in her petulance.

“I was panicking because I was terrified for you,” he insisted, his tone pleading.

Piper sighed, raising her eyes to the car ceiling before closing them. “I can’t, Sebastian. These are my friends.” She lowered her gaze to his. “I don’t have any intentions of playing the superhero, but like I said, these are my friends. And Lily! I can’t do nothing! I have to do something! I will stay in the car, and I will use the car as a weapon if necessary, okay?”

“You’ve told me before that you would stay at your sister’s, and you didn’t, and you almost died.”

Though she wanted to correct him, since clearly she hadn’t even been injured let alone close to death, she restrained herself. She had no desire to minimize what he had done for her. Still, she wasn’t going to stay behind. “I’ll stay in the car,” she touched his cheek. Bash closed his eyes, forcing himself to breathe.

“Please don’t do this to me again,” he pleaded. When she didn’t respond, he turned and stepped from the car, making a beeline for his cousin.

“What did you do to Piper?” Bash accosted Luke without warning. Luke spun to face the slightly taller Sebastian, who looked like he would punch something at the slightest provocation.

“What are you talking about?” Luke balked, treading back a few paces. His insides squirmed with guilt.

“Look…” Bash eased back a little, running his hand through his hair. “I know I don’t have any right to protect her, because she has made her opinion of me very clear, and I see the way she has looked at you since New Haven, but I know you. I can read your intentions toward her, and I can’t watch you do this. If I thought you cared about her-”

“I do care about her,” Luke insisted, and it was true. “What do you think I’m doing here?”

Before Bash could answer, Piper herself approached them from the car. “I’m going to grab a coffee. Are we ready to go after that?”

Bash didn’t answer, just paced away from the door so she could enter. He knew he was being ridiculous, but just because she had kept him at arms-length didn’t mean he would throw her to the dogs – even if the dog was Bash’s own cousin. When Luke reached to open the door for her, Bash upbraided himself. He was so sullen that he didn’t even know how to react around her at the moment.

As Luke tried to follow Piper inside, Bash grabbed his cousin’s arm. “You’re my cousin, Luciano, and I owe you everything, but I swear – if you hurt her…”

“I can’t hurt her, okay?” Luke hissed back. “I can’t get in to her mind because it’s already filled with you. You’re the only one who can get to her.”

Bash stumbled away from the door as Luke stepped inside, and he balked at the comfortable intimacy of Piper and Luke where they laughed at some shared joke. Luke even slid his arm around Piper’s waist, and she didn’t protest. Had Bash completely misread Luke regarding Piper? Despite what the older cousin said, he and Piper certainly looked cozy. If she actually cared about Luke, could Bash in good conscience challenge that? Only if Luke lied to her, if he misrepresented his intentions and took advantage of her. Bash could not discern the truth of the situation while they pursued an agenda to save the Prados. He would just have to bide his time until things settled down.

Whatever happened, he could not stay around and watch Piper rush into danger. Instead, he would have to trust that Luke at least would continue in his life-long habits – to protect Piper from any physical danger as he had protected Bash. If Bash tried to interfere now, he would no doubt make a mess of things.

Even for Piper - or maybe specifically for Piper - Bash would not let himself become the hovering, jealous guy who couldn’t respect the person he cared about. Piper had no sense of her own personal safety. Not that she was careless. Instead, she took no thought for herself if other people needed help. How was he supposed to let her throw herself into danger, unequipped and untrained to deal with lethal situations? She wouldn’t control herself, and he couldn’t control her without turning into something she needed protection from.

Possibly the most concerning aspect of his situation was that he did not think straight around Piper. Even if he could manage to keep himself together, and even if he could figure out how to protect her despite her indifference for her own personal safety, he did not think he could stay detached while she pushed him away. Overstepping her desire for distance from him would make him into something he didn’t want to be.

When Piper and Luke exited the little station, then, Bash grabbed his cousin by the arm and pulled him aside. “I want to talk to Piper for a minute.”

Skeptical, Luke peered up at his cousin.

“I’m not going to talk to her about what we talked about,” Bash assured his cousin. “I just need to talk to her for a minute, alone.”

Luke nodded. “Just make it quick. We need to get to the Prados before someone else does.” He turned and headed to the car as Bash called to Piper to “hold on a second.”

“What is it?” Piper spun back to Bash, a bit impatient. When she noticed the turmoil on his face, her chest tightened. She repeated the question in a softer tone, stepping closer so she could look up at him and catch his eyes. Stubbornly, he avoided her gaze.

“I’m not going with you…” He crossed his arms across his chest, staring up at the light above the gas pumps.

“What do you mean?” Piper found her anxiety spiking at the thought of heading into a dangerous situation without him. She hadn’t realized how much she had relied on him for strength.

“I can’t…I can’t do this,” he stammered.

Piper thought she understood; she thought it must be about whatever had caused him to crash, his history. “It’s okay,” she comforted. “With what you’ve lived through, I understand.”

Unfortunately, his expression didn’t appear comforted. Instead anger flashed across his face followed by hurt and betrayal, though Piper didn’t think they were directed at her for some reason. “That is not why I can’t go,” he corrected. “If I could protect you, I wouldn’t care about that. I just can’t take you on any more.”

“I never asked you to!”

“I don’t mean that the way you took it, Piper.” He scoffed at her, finally looking her in the eyes. “I mean you are too strong; I can’t persuade you to listen to me, to believe me. And that’s the only way for me to protect you. You’re an adult. You have your own choices, and it hurts me too much to stand by while you rush into dangerous situations. You owe me nothing, and it’s not fair of me to expect you to care what I want.”

Piper hid her face in her hands, tightness restricting her throat. Somehow, she hadn’t expected this. Had she expected him to stick around forever? Apparently, she had. “I’m sorry, Bash. I’m sorry. I know I say that to you a lot.” Her breath came quick and shallow as she stared at his shirt, rubbing her hands up and down to warm her arms. Tears burned the corners of her eyes. “I want to give you what you want, but with all this going on, I just can’t. Do you understand?” She sought his eyes as heated drops began to spill out of hers. “This thing with the Prados has to be over, or I can’t understand anything that’s been happening in my mind. Not with this pressure.”

Bash started to protest.

“- Not pressure from you!” she insisted. “You’ve been a gentleman after that first night in New Jersey. You backed off. You gave me space. But I can’t know anything while I’m scared this way. It’s scary enough even to think about you and what my heart tells me about you. And then when there’s all this other chaos. I can’t process anything but getting the Prados back, making Lily safe.”

By the time she finished her diatribe, she had turned her back on him and leaned her forehead against the cold stone wall of the building. She was shivering until she felt him step behind her, his arms wrapping her in warmth as they threaded around her.

“Don’t be sad, Piper,” he soothed. His breath flowed past her cheek as he spoke, and she found her lungs finally loosening their tension. “I’m not leaving you forever. I’ll be in Providence when you get back to school, and I’ll come see you if you decide that’s what you want. I just can’t do this anymore. Luke is a professional,” Bash gently turned her to face him, pulling her against his chest. “He can take care of you better than I can. He doesn’t even need me. He just brought me along because he’s trying to pull me into his job. But I can’t do that either. I’m not cut out for this. And I’m definitely not cut out for watching you do it.”

When he finished speaking, Piper had mostly stopped crying. She couldn’t think of anything to say, so she just stood there leaning against him. Finally, he pushed her away. “I’m calling a taxi. Luke can update me when you have the Prados, and I’ll wait for you to call me. Or maybe if you don’t want to, Molly will let me know.”

Piper’s tears wanted to well up again, but she found she didn’t have any left. After studying her face for a few seconds, Bash stepped away and into the store, and Piper found herself needing a full minute before she could make her legs move toward the car.