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As an exit strategy it had been a colossal failure. Nate had thrown Parker a pack that supposedly held their evidence as he and Sophie ran one way and Eliot and Parker ran the other with Hardison yelling questions over the coms.
Thinking Parker had what they wanted the bad guys tore after the pair. They led the hired muscle like hounds after the fox until they were herded into an alley that instead of a way out opened into a courtyard between three buildings. The only way out was up.
Eliot gave the agile blonde a leg up to the fire escape and admonished her to haul ass. He turned back to the mouth of the alley where the narrowed path would limit the number of attackers that came through.
Parker climbed to the roof, and from there worked around to the building facing the street. The door on the roof had been left open giving her the protection of the building to descend to the street. She was a disappointed that she didn’t have to jump off the roof, but knew Eliot would be really pissed if she got shot by some goon because she didn’t take the stairs.
Running down the steps she stripped off her gloves and watch cap, shaking out her hair so she looked like any other tenant. Looking out the windows, she didn’t see any bad guys, and hadn’t heard any gun shots, so she left the safety of the lobby to peek around the corner.
The lone survivor in the body littered alley, Eliot stood bruised and bloodied. Parker wondered briefly if the bad guys were dead or just unconscious, but all that was forgotten as the noon day sun broke from the clouds and shone like a spotlight into the shadowed walkway. Parker’s breath stopped as the sun drenched hitter came toward her looking like a mythic warrior from one of the paintings she frequently stole.
"He expressed no regret for what he had done which satisfied her; his style was not penitent, but haughty. It was all pride and insolence."
He never slowed as he rounded the corner snagging her wrist in an iron grip as they moved off in the opposite direction. With shining eyes and a secret smile, Parker followed with no complaints.