As promised, Elijah broke out a bottle of wine when they got to his house. They had already had dinner at the party and there would be no work the next day. Elijah wasn't worried about being a little drunk tonight or hung over the next morning.
Sleeves of his shirt wrapped up to his elbows, tie on the table beside the bottle of Spanish wine and the top buttons of his shirt open, he handed one of the glasses to Asher and picked up his own, clinking their sides together.
"Merry Christmas, o captain my captain," Asher replied as he tapped the glasses together. He'd taken off the ridiculous Christmas sweater, leaving him in a thin and comfortable cotton long-sleeved shirt he'd also rolled the sleeves up on - half in a joking mimicry of Elijah of course.
"Too bad Mike isn't here, I'm this close to turning him into a master lockpicker already," Asher said conversationally as he sipped his wine.
"Of course you are." Elijah shook his head because no he wasn't and his sigh misted the sides of his wine glass as he took a sip.
"Happily my offspring has more sense than to follow your lead," he said with a hint of amusement colouring his voice. "Come on, let's sit down."
He yoinked the bottle up by its neck and lead the way to the living room. It was a mild night outside, they could sit on the porch and watch stars climb over the river. Elijah had a pack of cigarettes outside. He indulged in the vice every now and then when he wanted to relax.
Asher did enjoy the view from Elijah's porch - it was positively pastoral sometimes. He followed the man's lead, his breath fogging in the cold of the outside.
"Nonsense, he adores me, and sense means going where the money is," Asher said, though he joked. Mike was a good kid, unlikely as any to turn to a life of crime.
Asher was still teaching him whatever skills for a life of crime that he could, though. It could be used to impress potential romantic partners later in life after all.
Elijah's ex-wife probably wouldn't have been glad to know that Mike was spending time with a con and learning skills like lock picking. Elijah had elected not to tell her about these things. Mike was a good child and maybe he would become a lock smith one day if it actually interested him.
He sat down on the swing that gave a perfect few on the river. The air was colder than the water apparently, thick wisps of mist rising from the lazy stream. He reached for the pack of cigarettes and shook out one to offer it to Asher. The wine bottle stood on the railing beside the ashtray.
"Ah, well, at least he has a good example on what not to do with his life," he said mildly.
"You're a gentleman and a scholar," Ash casually praised of Elijah, taking the offered cigarette. He had to go cold turkey when caught and the habit was mostly broken, but one or two here and there as he could beg or borrow them wouldn't hurt.
The cologne he liked, wine, cigarettes, amusing company - for a few moments he could stand there on the balcony looking over the landscape and pretend he was back to his old life again. The nostalgia for it was clear upon his face, a sort of wistful longing.
Elijah felt no regret over giving Asher more than a little bit of free reign during Christmas. They all needed a break at times and Asher had come through for the team countless times already. He had a lot riding on this. His freedom for one. Perhaps he would end up working for the bureau after he got his record clean.
"Hardly," he said with a small snort to the compliment and leaned over to offer Asher some light for his cigarette.
He wondered if they could get an apartment for Asher in the near future. He didn't need around the lock guarding, did he?
"You're in a good mood," he observed as he lit up his own cigarette, his hand cupping around the flame to protect it from any wind.
"Who doesn't love the holidays?" Ash replied, jovial tone carrying with the wind as he leaned against the railing. He bent over, cigarette at his lips to catch the offered flame and breathe in the blessed smoke for the first time in a long time. Inhale, hold, exhale.
"You seem particularly generous as well, I could say."
"Bitter people," Elijah replied and surprise, surprise, there was a little bit of bitterness in his tone of voice. He was, after all, alone for the holidays. Mike was with his mother throughout the whole season.
Well, he had Asher here, didn't he? It was definitely not the same thing as spending time with his kid.
It was obvious in the way Elijah's house had no Christmas decorations or Christmas foods on display. Nothing but the festive Christmas card of his son and his dog smiling on fridge door, attached to it with a magnet that Mike had made in school for father's day.
Yeah, sometimes Elijah was one of those bitter people.
He seemed to jolt out of his reverie as Asher pointed out that he was being generous and he snorted softly while throwing his arm on the back of the swing behind Asher's neck.
"It's a bribe," he said a little playfully. "So you'll behave over the holidays."
Asher scoffed, even as he took the (for him) open invitation to downright cuddle next to Elijah's side. It was cold out, he'd never turn down body heat, and by now it was clear that Elijah wasn't going to knife him when he wasn't looking.
"I always behave. I'm the picture of good behavior."
Asher was plenty of things, but predictable wasn't one of them. Elijah tried to remind himself of this daily and he still sometimes made the mistake of thinking he knew the other man well enough to know what he would do next.
Snuggling against his side was definitely not one of those things that he had expected. But the way their relationship went, Elijah didn't feel awkward to just let it happen, even going as far as letting his hand slide to Asher's shoulder, his thumb idly describing the subtle curve of it.
"Of course you do," he said, dry as Sahara. "How could I even forget. That's you, Asher, the Impeccable one."
The touch at his shoulder was pleasant. Truth be told, even if Asher was careful to keep himself from having any known exploitable weaknesses, the man wasn't used to being alone. He always had some form of companion - often paid, to make certain that it was very clear the business arrangement was just that - in his life before, and going without that casual touch was even more difficult to get used to than the nicotine withdrawals.
"You should be more festive. Watch a movie, at least. I'm sure Scrooged or the one with the muppets must be playing on some channel. Or that godawful cult classic one."
Elijah tapped the ashes from his cigarette straight to the porch. He'd wipe it clean another day. It was curious to see this kind of side to Asher. He wasn't pushing or playing some game, trying to gain some upper hand or find a piece of Elijah to exploit. He had just simply wanted some human contact.
Elijah wondered why it felt nice to think that he probably was the only one in the unit to know this about the con.
"I could probably unearth a Christmas music CD if you insist." Elijah hadn't just seen the point of doing any of that for himself. He wouldn't resist - much - if Asher would want to decorate or get a tree or something. It would make Elijah smile a couple of times as well.
One of Asher's former colleagues had just broke out of prison. Elijah knew he should have realised the warning signs, but he had lulled himself into a false sense of security regarding Asher. He had thought that this kind of things wouldn't touch the man anymore.
Obviously he had been wrong.
In hindsight he had still been too careless when he had rushed to find Asher, on his own, when the anklet had signed off. He had put himself in a very difficult situation. Of course he had found Asher, he knew the man well enough by now to know exactly where to look and it was the problem. He had gotten too close. He had imagined he would find some kind of ridiculous drinking binge or whatever minor heist going on when he found Asher. But what he walked in on was Asher with his friend.
It had gone downhill from there, being stripped off of his weapon and phone. He was well aware that he was alive simply because Asher didn't want to kill him. Robert Hanson, Ugly Rob as they called him in prison, had not been eager to haul an FBI agent with them to whatever little field trip they had in mind. Elijah now had a black eye as a proof of that fact. A black eye and several bruises elsewhere. Ugly Rob was a little bit uglier, too. Elijah had clipped him to the side of his jaw with a nasty right hook.
They were holed up in some kind of a safe house. Rob had once again stormed out after telling Asher how much of a stupid fuck he was for keeping Elijah alive. Apparently he was going to look for supplies for whatever they had in mind next.
"It's not too late to change your mind," Elijah said as the quiet settled between himself and Asher. He reached up to wipe a little bit of the blood from his broken lip to the edge of his suit sleeve.
Ugly Rob, ugly as he was, had always had a bit of a soft spot for the lovable idiot of Asher. Hard spot, Asher would mentally correct when anyone mentioned it. The hard spot was his dick. Not that dear Robert would ever admit it. It was still why Robert had decided to spring Asher rather than kill him for turning informant and was willing to believe whatever story Asher spun about being forced into it.
Getting him to keep Elijah alive was a different story. Dear Robert was also the jealous type. Him and Asher worked well together though - brawn and brains. They wouldn't get caught, at least for a few weeks, Asher figured. As long as Robert worked through his temper tantrum and didn't kill Elijah. The last thing they needed was a dead FBI agent on their hands.
Asher returned from the small kitchen in the safehouse, tossing Elijah a cold pack before kicking back on the sofa with his legs on the coffee table, beer in hand.
He couldn't let Elijah go either - Elijah knew him a little too well at this point. He figured their chance of getting caught would be lowered to hours if Elijah returned to the FBI.
"I'm quite comfortable with my current course," Asher said, taking a sip of the beer. "Sorry about Robert."
Elijah caught the pack and pressed it to his face while he watched Asher. He could overpower Asher now that he was alone. It wouldn't even be that hard. Elijah was bigger than him, he had a life long combat training behind him and Asher wasn't going to shoot him as long as he could avoid it. But for some reason Elijah didn't do that. He still believed that maybe he could actually talk Asher out of this nonsense.
"Think about it. You don't have that much left of your cake. And if you go through with this, you'll have several other offences added to your resume." He moved a bit closer, sitting down on the edge of the sofa table to look at Asher seriously.
There was a tinge of betrayal in that gaze but also something hard and determined.
"You didn't have much of a choice before. Now you do. If we go right now, we can still get out before Rob returns." It was risky of course. Very risky. But the other option was riskier. Eventually Rob would just shoot Elijah and then all bets would be off.
"Relax," Asher said, watching the way Elijah moved while keeping his own posture relaxed on the couch.
He really, really didn't want to shoot Elijah.
"Robert won't kill you, I won't let him. You're much more useful as a hostage and once he calms down it'll be a cakewalk convincing him of that. Provided you don't do anything stupid," Asher said with a pointed raised eyebrow. "So relax, enjoy the paid time off. There's more beer in the fridge."
Elijah quieted for a moment, trying to plot his way out of this situation. If he would push Asher too much, he might pull a gun on him and that would be a hard place to come back from. Then again, if he did push just enough, Asher would have to make a decision and hopefully it would be a good one.
"He's going to shoot me eventually," he said quietly. "You know that as well as I do. You can't keep dragging me along with whatever you have in mind. Eventually I will become a hindrance and then he won't ask you, because he thinks it'll be easier to get your forgiveness rather than your approval."
Elijah knew how these people behaved. It was his job to know.
"You’ve worked with dear Robert often, then? By all means tell me more. I’m certain you must have much more information about him than I do in that case,” Ash said, the sarcasm dripping from his voice with a single eyebrow raised.
He didn’t wait for the other man to respond, he knew damn well that he’d never worked with Robert. To put a finer point on it, he’d never worked with Asher when Asher was the one driving the getaway car, so to speak. Asher had only ever been the pitiful low level turncoat for the BAU. Even as he knew he shouldn’t give that up, god he was itching to prove himself just the same.
That was the awful part of his job, though. If you’re good at it, no one ever knows you’re doing most of it.
Still, it was best to act when Robert was gone. Ash felt fairly confidant that between the two of them, Elijah would trust Ash more than Robert. Call it a hunch. So he set the beer on the coffee table and pulled out a slim, older-model tablet from under the couch they were sitting on. Booting it up he was pleased to see the battery was still fill enough for what he needed, because he wasn’t certain he remembered where the charger was.
Time to get to work at one of his better, secret skills. Forgery. He missed it so.
“Tell me, Elijah, do you have any strong feelings about Milan or Tokyo? I simply can't choose between them. If you feel equally about them I'll just flip a coin or something,” Ash said with a dismissive hand wave as he brought up the files he had saved on this tablet, back accessed his cloud storage that hadn’t been found by the FBI when he was taken in.
Elijah sighed, his shoulders squaring up as he let his head hang between them for a moment. Then he got up suddenly, a flash of violent energy alight under his skin, irritation, frustration... fear.
Passport files. Milan. Tokyo. They would have to get rid of Elijah before the airport. There just wasn't a way to smuggle an FBI agent over the border like that. By the time they would get there Elijah would have been noticed to be missing and his picture would be all over the airport.
He left the cold pack on the table while he paced to the window, hands on his hips, back hunched a little.
Rob would kill him. The man knew just as well as Elijah that they couldn't escape without doing that. He was thinking about Mike. His little boy. He should have taken the desk job they offered him a while back.
He needed to make a decision here. Commit. If he couldn't talk Asher out of this foolish plan, he probably should just try to overpower Asher and take off before Rob had time to return.
Elijah was really being far too dramatic about this. Asher didn't want to drug the other man until they crossed a boarder but it was looking more and more like he'd have to. That'd be difficult. Elijah was not a small man, moving him without him walking would be a pain in the ass.
Which was heartbreaking, really. Under other circumstances, violent energy Elijah was a sight to behold which Asher found very appealing, but right then he couldn't even appreciate it. The things he did and sacrifices he made, he was such a martyr.
"Not happening," Asher replied, turning back to the tablet and his work as he went about forging documents for Elijah. He had a few pre-filled out ones that hadn't been caught yet, at least a couple could work. Only one of his own stash of identifications had ever been found, he'd been keeping up on that as much as he could. Rob, well...
Robert wouldn't be an issue for much longer. Not with the couple messages Asher sent out. Poor stupid dear Robert, if only you'd just fucked your feelings out you'd probably be living the good life.
"Sit down, Elijah, stop being so dramatic. You've had no trouble trusting me before now, why is that suddenly changed?"
Asher obviously didn't appreciate the seriousness of the situation at all. He was still playing, always playing, not seeing how there were so many ways this could be the worst thing that happened to either one of them. The Ugly could return any moment now and then everything would go south from there.
Elijah sighed again, resting his hands on the window frame and leaned against it. Sun was casting its last rays of light over the top of the buildings and drawing him a long shadow on the floor. Usually Elijah was calm and collected, smooth in his G-man suit. Right now he was agitated, full of regrets and wrinkles. His suit jacket somewhere on the floor, his sleeves wrapped up to his elbows and blood spattered across his front.
"Before you weren't riding with an escaped con who just threatened to kill me, Ash. It's not very complicated at all. It's you, not me."
And still, he somehow hadn't even started plotting out overpowering Asher. Why was that?
"No, before we were riding with your people who would just as soon break my jaw as follow due process," Asher shot back, anger boiling over as well before he could stop himself. That was what it had come down to, though, he figured. Elijah had no problem trusting Asher when surrounded by allies but when the tables were turned, suddenly the man was an island with no friends to be seen.
It stung, Ash was surprised to find out. He knew it shouldn't, lawmen were all the same at their core, but he'd liked to believe they had some kind of bond build up beyond that.
There wasn't much time to dwell on the sudden upsetting feelings, though. As the saying goes, speak of the devil and he shall appear. Asher's new phone buzzed with a message and he flipped it open, his expression growing dark. He'd spent too much time focusing on Elijah when he should have been focusing on the plan. Robert would be back soon.
"Look, I don't have the time to argue this with you. Get in the hall closet - take your beer or a book and a flashlight or something but stay quiet and don't come out until I come and get you."
Elijah frowned as he turned to look at Asher. There was obvious hurt and anger in his tone, emotions that Elijah wasn't used to hearing from the conman at all. Usually he was playful and easy going, teasing, never that serious.
Somehow Elijah had hit a nerve.
"Ash..." he started when the phone buzzed and they both went quiet while Asher read the message. Obviously it wasn't good news. Elijah wasn't sure what to make of that.
Instead of trying to figure it out, he strode back to the table and took a seat on it, facing Asher. "What are you planning? Tell me. We can still turn back and I'll explain to the bureau, you'll still get your freedom at the end of your contract."
Oh, sure, that got Elijah sitting down and being compliant, something that would have been helpful thirty minutes ago. Asher didn't even attempt to hide his frustration with the other man, standing and setting the tablet aside for the time being.
"Are you familiar with the phrase 'plausible deniability', Elijah?"
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
After Christmas party
Sleeves of his shirt wrapped up to his elbows, tie on the table beside the bottle of Spanish wine and the top buttons of his shirt open, he handed one of the glasses to Asher and picked up his own, clinking their sides together.
"Merry Christmas."
no subject
"Too bad Mike isn't here, I'm this close to turning him into a master lockpicker already," Asher said conversationally as he sipped his wine.
no subject
"Happily my offspring has more sense than to follow your lead," he said with a hint of amusement colouring his voice. "Come on, let's sit down."
He yoinked the bottle up by its neck and lead the way to the living room. It was a mild night outside, they could sit on the porch and watch stars climb over the river. Elijah had a pack of cigarettes outside. He indulged in the vice every now and then when he wanted to relax.
no subject
"Nonsense, he adores me, and sense means going where the money is," Asher said, though he joked. Mike was a good kid, unlikely as any to turn to a life of crime.
Asher was still teaching him whatever skills for a life of crime that he could, though. It could be used to impress potential romantic partners later in life after all.
no subject
He sat down on the swing that gave a perfect few on the river. The air was colder than the water apparently, thick wisps of mist rising from the lazy stream. He reached for the pack of cigarettes and shook out one to offer it to Asher. The wine bottle stood on the railing beside the ashtray.
"Ah, well, at least he has a good example on what not to do with his life," he said mildly.
no subject
The cologne he liked, wine, cigarettes, amusing company - for a few moments he could stand there on the balcony looking over the landscape and pretend he was back to his old life again. The nostalgia for it was clear upon his face, a sort of wistful longing.
no subject
"Hardly," he said with a small snort to the compliment and leaned over to offer Asher some light for his cigarette.
He wondered if they could get an apartment for Asher in the near future. He didn't need around the lock guarding, did he?
"You're in a good mood," he observed as he lit up his own cigarette, his hand cupping around the flame to protect it from any wind.
no subject
"You seem particularly generous as well, I could say."
no subject
Well, he had Asher here, didn't he? It was definitely not the same thing as spending time with his kid.
It was obvious in the way Elijah's house had no Christmas decorations or Christmas foods on display. Nothing but the festive Christmas card of his son and his dog smiling on fridge door, attached to it with a magnet that Mike had made in school for father's day.
Yeah, sometimes Elijah was one of those bitter people.
He seemed to jolt out of his reverie as Asher pointed out that he was being generous and he snorted softly while throwing his arm on the back of the swing behind Asher's neck.
"It's a bribe," he said a little playfully. "So you'll behave over the holidays."
no subject
"I always behave. I'm the picture of good behavior."
no subject
Snuggling against his side was definitely not one of those things that he had expected. But the way their relationship went, Elijah didn't feel awkward to just let it happen, even going as far as letting his hand slide to Asher's shoulder, his thumb idly describing the subtle curve of it.
"Of course you do," he said, dry as Sahara. "How could I even forget. That's you, Asher, the Impeccable one."
no subject
"You should be more festive. Watch a movie, at least. I'm sure Scrooged or the one with the muppets must be playing on some channel. Or that godawful cult classic one."
no subject
Elijah wondered why it felt nice to think that he probably was the only one in the unit to know this about the con.
"I could probably unearth a Christmas music CD if you insist." Elijah hadn't just seen the point of doing any of that for himself. He wouldn't resist - much - if Asher would want to decorate or get a tree or something. It would make Elijah smile a couple of times as well.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
Kidnapping
Obviously he had been wrong.
In hindsight he had still been too careless when he had rushed to find Asher, on his own, when the anklet had signed off. He had put himself in a very difficult situation. Of course he had found Asher, he knew the man well enough by now to know exactly where to look and it was the problem. He had gotten too close. He had imagined he would find some kind of ridiculous drinking binge or whatever minor heist going on when he found Asher. But what he walked in on was Asher with his friend.
It had gone downhill from there, being stripped off of his weapon and phone. He was well aware that he was alive simply because Asher didn't want to kill him. Robert Hanson, Ugly Rob as they called him in prison, had not been eager to haul an FBI agent with them to whatever little field trip they had in mind. Elijah now had a black eye as a proof of that fact. A black eye and several bruises elsewhere. Ugly Rob was a little bit uglier, too. Elijah had clipped him to the side of his jaw with a nasty right hook.
They were holed up in some kind of a safe house. Rob had once again stormed out after telling Asher how much of a stupid fuck he was for keeping Elijah alive. Apparently he was going to look for supplies for whatever they had in mind next.
"It's not too late to change your mind," Elijah said as the quiet settled between himself and Asher. He reached up to wipe a little bit of the blood from his broken lip to the edge of his suit sleeve.
no subject
Getting him to keep Elijah alive was a different story. Dear Robert was also the jealous type. Him and Asher worked well together though - brawn and brains. They wouldn't get caught, at least for a few weeks, Asher figured. As long as Robert worked through his temper tantrum and didn't kill Elijah. The last thing they needed was a dead FBI agent on their hands.
Asher returned from the small kitchen in the safehouse, tossing Elijah a cold pack before kicking back on the sofa with his legs on the coffee table, beer in hand.
He couldn't let Elijah go either - Elijah knew him a little too well at this point. He figured their chance of getting caught would be lowered to hours if Elijah returned to the FBI.
"I'm quite comfortable with my current course," Asher said, taking a sip of the beer. "Sorry about Robert."
no subject
"Think about it. You don't have that much left of your cake. And if you go through with this, you'll have several other offences added to your resume." He moved a bit closer, sitting down on the edge of the sofa table to look at Asher seriously.
There was a tinge of betrayal in that gaze but also something hard and determined.
"You didn't have much of a choice before. Now you do. If we go right now, we can still get out before Rob returns." It was risky of course. Very risky. But the other option was riskier. Eventually Rob would just shoot Elijah and then all bets would be off.
no subject
He really, really didn't want to shoot Elijah.
"Robert won't kill you, I won't let him. You're much more useful as a hostage and once he calms down it'll be a cakewalk convincing him of that. Provided you don't do anything stupid," Asher said with a pointed raised eyebrow. "So relax, enjoy the paid time off. There's more beer in the fridge."
no subject
"He's going to shoot me eventually," he said quietly. "You know that as well as I do. You can't keep dragging me along with whatever you have in mind. Eventually I will become a hindrance and then he won't ask you, because he thinks it'll be easier to get your forgiveness rather than your approval."
Elijah knew how these people behaved. It was his job to know.
no subject
He didn’t wait for the other man to respond, he knew damn well that he’d never worked with Robert. To put a finer point on it, he’d never worked with Asher when Asher was the one driving the getaway car, so to speak. Asher had only ever been the pitiful low level turncoat for the BAU. Even as he knew he shouldn’t give that up, god he was itching to prove himself just the same.
That was the awful part of his job, though. If you’re good at it, no one ever knows you’re doing most of it.
Still, it was best to act when Robert was gone. Ash felt fairly confidant that between the two of them, Elijah would trust Ash more than Robert. Call it a hunch. So he set the beer on the coffee table and pulled out a slim, older-model tablet from under the couch they were sitting on. Booting it up he was pleased to see the battery was still fill enough for what he needed, because he wasn’t certain he remembered where the charger was.
Time to get to work at one of his better, secret skills. Forgery. He missed it so.
“Tell me, Elijah, do you have any strong feelings about Milan or Tokyo? I simply can't choose between them. If you feel equally about them I'll just flip a coin or something,” Ash said with a dismissive hand wave as he brought up the files he had saved on this tablet, back accessed his cloud storage that hadn’t been found by the FBI when he was taken in.
Passport files. Several hundred.
no subject
Passport files. Milan. Tokyo. They would have to get rid of Elijah before the airport. There just wasn't a way to smuggle an FBI agent over the border like that. By the time they would get there Elijah would have been noticed to be missing and his picture would be all over the airport.
He left the cold pack on the table while he paced to the window, hands on his hips, back hunched a little.
Rob would kill him. The man knew just as well as Elijah that they couldn't escape without doing that. He was thinking about Mike. His little boy. He should have taken the desk job they offered him a while back.
He needed to make a decision here. Commit. If he couldn't talk Asher out of this foolish plan, he probably should just try to overpower Asher and take off before Rob had time to return.
"You could just let me go," he said softly.
no subject
Which was heartbreaking, really. Under other circumstances, violent energy Elijah was a sight to behold which Asher found very appealing, but right then he couldn't even appreciate it. The things he did and sacrifices he made, he was such a martyr.
"Not happening," Asher replied, turning back to the tablet and his work as he went about forging documents for Elijah. He had a few pre-filled out ones that hadn't been caught yet, at least a couple could work. Only one of his own stash of identifications had ever been found, he'd been keeping up on that as much as he could. Rob, well...
Robert wouldn't be an issue for much longer. Not with the couple messages Asher sent out. Poor stupid dear Robert, if only you'd just fucked your feelings out you'd probably be living the good life.
"Sit down, Elijah, stop being so dramatic. You've had no trouble trusting me before now, why is that suddenly changed?"
no subject
Elijah sighed again, resting his hands on the window frame and leaned against it. Sun was casting its last rays of light over the top of the buildings and drawing him a long shadow on the floor. Usually Elijah was calm and collected, smooth in his G-man suit. Right now he was agitated, full of regrets and wrinkles. His suit jacket somewhere on the floor, his sleeves wrapped up to his elbows and blood spattered across his front.
"Before you weren't riding with an escaped con who just threatened to kill me, Ash. It's not very complicated at all. It's you, not me."
And still, he somehow hadn't even started plotting out overpowering Asher. Why was that?
no subject
It stung, Ash was surprised to find out. He knew it shouldn't, lawmen were all the same at their core, but he'd liked to believe they had some kind of bond build up beyond that.
There wasn't much time to dwell on the sudden upsetting feelings, though. As the saying goes, speak of the devil and he shall appear. Asher's new phone buzzed with a message and he flipped it open, his expression growing dark. He'd spent too much time focusing on Elijah when he should have been focusing on the plan. Robert would be back soon.
"Look, I don't have the time to argue this with you. Get in the hall closet - take your beer or a book and a flashlight or something but stay quiet and don't come out until I come and get you."
no subject
Somehow Elijah had hit a nerve.
"Ash..." he started when the phone buzzed and they both went quiet while Asher read the message. Obviously it wasn't good news. Elijah wasn't sure what to make of that.
Instead of trying to figure it out, he strode back to the table and took a seat on it, facing Asher. "What are you planning? Tell me. We can still turn back and I'll explain to the bureau, you'll still get your freedom at the end of your contract."
no subject
"Are you familiar with the phrase 'plausible deniability', Elijah?"
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)