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fablesrose · 10 months ago

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Ch 13 - The Runway Job

Series Rewrite Masterlist

Pairing: Eliot Spencer x Ford!Reader

Description: With Tara being a new crew member, they take to the runway at Fashion Week to get back at local sweatshop owners.

Words: 4562

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Before the next job we, minus Tara and Nate, video called Sophie.

“He says he’s cool with it, but you know how he is,” Hardison said.

“And the way she introduced herself?” Parker said, “That was a smooth con.”

Eliot shook his head, “Yeah, but it didn’t exactly build trust.”

I nodded along, agreeing with what they were saying, but I didn’t have much to add. To be honest, I still wasn’t sure how I felt about Tara and her being here.

“Look,” Sophie said, “We didn’t get along when we first started… Eliot, how long did it take before you trusted me?”

I heard Eliot deliberately take in a breath.

“Eliot? You do trust me, don’t you?”

“That’s not the point, Sophie,” he deflected. “If Nate doesn’t like this chick, then it’s not gonna work.” I noticed that his southern accent slipped to be a bit thicker as he replied a bit flustered.

“Yeah, which is why you have to get him on board,” Sophie replied. “Look, you need a grifter. The last time one of you tried to grift,” she looked around and lowered her voice, “you wound up kidnapped by Russians.”

I cleared my throat and sent a pointed look towards Hardison. Eliot and Parker made their accusations more vocally. Hardison did not seem to appreciate it, but he deserved it.

“Listen to me,” Sophie redirected, “Tara Cole is the best. I wouldn’t have sent her if I didn’t trust her, and I know you’re gonna love her, so… Just give her a chance.”

Eliot turned to Hardison, “She is hot.”

“Very hot,” Hardison agreed.

I waved my head in mild agreement, because she was, but rolled my eyes at their necessity to point it out.

“Hot,” Parker said. We all gave her a look. That was not the expected response from her. She caught onto the tension quickly, “Cold? Why are we staring?”

Sophie moved on, “Yeah, I’m not saying to throw her at him, I’m just saying get him on board. He doesn’t always know what’s good for him, and if he does, he doesn’t do anything about it!” She was clearly getting frustrated, “He just lets it walk straight out the door, and…”

I nodded in agreement as she ranted. He did tend to do that.

“Like… all the way to Europe?” Eliot asked with a swing in his voice.

Sophie gave us a soft smile, “Just do it for me, alright? So I don’t have to worry about you.”

Nate and Tara walked in the door then, so Hardison and Eliot scampered away because we all knew damn well that we weren’t supposed to call Sophie. Parker and I stayed put for a moment longer.

“I just miss you,” Parker said.

“And she’ll never be you,” I added before Sophie logged off with a soft smile, before Nate could see.

We then all sat down in the living room, Parker tossing the remote to Hardison, and Nate predictably standing in the front of the room.

“Okay, run it.”

“Gloria and Russel Pan,” Hardison began. “Self made millionaires, they built their fortune off a company that produces cheap knock offs of the latest fashions.”

“The bargain bin has been pretty good to them, I’d say, with, you know, the nice car, giant house in the rich neighborhood, etcetera etcetera,” I added since I helped do a bit of research. “Gloria works in the factory making the designs. Russel is the business side of things, accounting, and works with the partners in China.”

“Okay, Gloria designs the clothes. Does she have any training?” Nate asked.

“She did a correspondence course with a fashion school,” Hardison answered. “And she subscribes to all the magazines: Vogue, InStyle, Fashion & Style…”

“She submitted to Project Runway,” I said.

“Last year?” Parker asked.

“Last three years,” Hardison corrected.

“Okay,” Nate said with finality, “That’s our way in. We’re gonna sell, Gloria Pan…” Nate pointed to Tara.

“Her dream,” she answered. “Yeah, no, I get it.” She stood up to stand at the front of the room next to Nate, “I mean, the word ‘con’ comes from confidence, right? So we gotta build her confidence, make her think she’s the greatest designer in the world.”

“There you go,” Nate commented.

“How?” Eliot asked gruffly.

“How?” Nate paused, and smiled. “We need a Caprina.” Then he walked away in his usual fashion.

“What does that mean?” Tara asked, watching as he walked away, “So he just says things and walks away?”

“Yeah…” Parker said.

“That’s something you’re gonna have to get used to, I’m afraid,” I mentioned.

Tara looked at me, somewhat confused, “How did you turn out normal?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but wasn’t sure how to, so shut it again. Was that a compliment? A back handed one?

“She’s a survivor,” Eliot answered for me, with a smile.

Parker and Hardison stood and left, in a somewhat Nate fashion. Eliot stretched out a bit, placing his arms on the back of the couch, one of them behind me. Tara still looked confused about the whole situation, but left without another word.

I turned to Eliot, “Thanks.”

He glanced at me, “No problem.” There was a beat of silence before he reached for the remote that Hardison had tossed on the couch. “Let’s see what games are on.”

“Ah, got a juice up on some manly stuff before all the fashion stuff for the job?” I laughed.

“Please, I thought you liked sports,” he scoffed, “besides, like you’re into all the fashion stuff anyway.”

“I mean, sometimes,” I tried to defend.

He deliberately looked me up and down, “Uh huh, your clothes are probably between five to ten years old.”

“Ah ha!” I exclaimed as if I had caught him, “This t-shirt? Vintage.”

He laughed, “Uh huh, yeah, really proving your point there, sweetheart.”

I gave a playful ‘whatever’ to which he nudged me.

“Shut up and watch, they’re about to score.”

Later, we had to set up a little photo studio in the corner. Parker took pictures of Tara in some clearly fashion-y clothes and I photoshopped her onto a Fashion & Style magazine cover. I sent it over to Hardison to do the final formatting where he printed it off and actually made the physical magazine. It was a nice little assembly line.

Parker then was able to strategically plant the magazine in the Pans’ house, setting up some cameras while she was there. We were able to watch as Gloria discovered Tara as Caprina to be the next big fashion designer through the magazine and the various voiceovers we added to celebrity news channels.

Eliot and Tara went to set the hook and invite Gloria to Fashion Week. It was deemed successful, leading us to prepare for sneaking in ourselves. Parker, understandably, did not want to play dress-up, so she went in as a production assistant, slipping our passes and names on the guest list. She was also there to swipe anything, if need be.

The rest of us dressed up to be fashion people, with Nate going particularly crazy with small round glasses, fingerless gloves, and a red fan. Hardison just went with a classic shirt and jacket that was deliberately untidy with some fur additions, and Tara with an all black ensemble. I used the occasion as an excuse to buy something a little nicer and a bit frilly. I normally couldn’t justify myself buying something like this, but I liked it and thought I would use it beyond just this job should the opportunity arise.

I walked into fashion week next to Eliot who wore his hair down, glasses and a white shirt with plenty of accessories. I could tell his eyes were lingering on the models which didn’t bother me as much as I would have thought. I mean, who could blame him? I wasn’t sure why I was thinking about this anyway, it’s not like I wanted any attention anyway.

We set ourselves up next to a runway where some models were practicing their walks, Tara occasionally speaking up to ‘correct’ something. Eliot brought Gloria over and everyone was introduced. Hardison and I were fashion magazine editors and Nate was Caprina’s sponsor. Gloria handed over her designs for Hardison and I to look over.

“Oh no no no,” Nate cried after reading a text.

“What what?” Tara asked.

“My young designer who was going to be at the newcomer showcase at the end of fashion week, arrested!”

“Drugs in the car?” Hardison asked simply.

“No, hooker in the hotel.”

“That is unfortunate,” I commented, looking over Hardison’s shoulder as he thumbed through Gloria’s portfolio.

“He was to be my great discovery,” Nate lamented. “I don’t know what to do. What that boy could do with a buckle…”

I noticed Gloria perk up beside us. What a coincidence that every one of her designs incorporated heinous amounts of buckles.

Nate continued to have a meltdown of what in the world he was going to do while the rest of us quietly encouraged him to have Gloria take the spot. He finally agreed to see some of her other designs, so off Nate, Tara, and Eliot went to the factory with Gloria. Hardison decided to go back to the apartment at this point, back to run all the technical stuff. I decided to stick around Fashion Week for a bit, learning, wandering, just in case something came up.

Everybody was running around rushing to make sure everything was perfect and in order for the upcoming shows. I quietly took note of what fashions I liked and disliked and which designer’s areas to avoid. I eventually found a quiet corner to people-watch, opening up the sketchbook I brought to finish the character. I absentmindedly doodled and sketched while also listening through comms to the others at Gloria’s office, trying to close the deal. That was until a PA walked up to me with a can of sparkling water.

“Here’s that drink you ordered,” he said, offering it to me.

I shook my head, “Oh no, I didn’t order anything.”

“Well, take it anyway,” he insisted.

“You better get that to whoever actually ordered it, I personally don’t want to witness another meltdown,” I replied, shuddering as I remembered what some of the designers were doing in their stress.

“What if I said that I lied and just wanted an excuse to talk to you?”

That stopped me. I looked at him curiously. He was wearing all black like the rest of the PAs, and relatively good looking. Nothing like the models walking around, but nothing to scoff at either.

I hesitantly took the can from him, “Okay…”

“Does he need to be scared off?” Eliot asked through comms.

“Sorry,” the PA said, “that probably came off a bit strange.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I replied to both of them. “I’m a little surprised you’re not rushing around like everyone else.”

“There’s a little break with my responsibilities for a minute. I could say the same to you though.”

“Different priorities, I’m in between editorial appointments,” I replied easily, just keeping with my cover, “Not enough time to go anywhere though.”

He nodded. There was a beat before he said, “I, uh, like your look. And it doesn’t seem like you’re as pompous as most of the people walking around here. ”

I quickly straightened my clothes a little, “Oh, thank you. It’s a bit simple,” I said, referring to some of the other looks I saw walking around.

“And better than a lot of stuff here. Unfortunately for them-” he paused, listening to his headset. “Sorry, I’ve got to go.”

I checked the time, “No worries, I should go too. Thanks for this,” I said, raising the drink.

He nodded and smiled before running away to do whatever was needed.

I smiled to myself, looking myself over. Maybe I did okay after all. Eliot took my spot at Fashion Week not long after. He came over after dropping the money off with Hardison. I was gathering my stuff to leave when he approached me.

“Hey, everything okay?” I asked him once he arrived.

“Yeah, it’s great,” he replied quickly. “That guy…” He trailed off as if fishing for info.

“He was fine,” I assured.

“Good. Good,” he slid his hands in his pockets. “I did want to say, earlier, that you look nice.”

I smiled, not hiding the blush that rose to my cheeks, I was sure, but it could be attributed to the warm atmosphere with the stage lights and everyone running around. “Thanks, you look pretty good yourself.”

He raised his eyebrows and looked down at his outfit, “Really? I’m not sure about, uh… any of this… fashion stuff.”

“Could have fooled me,” I nudged him as I walked past him to leave, “and try not to flirt with too many models, okay?”

I heard as he stuttered a bit behind me, but didn’t actually answer.

I got back to Nate’s apartment around the same time everyone else did. Apparently Tara and Nate had a fight over how much money to squeeze out of the Pans’, a tension I could almost feel in the room. Nate demanded the earbud back from her right before he took Parker to follow up on a phone call Gloria left for Nate that abruptly cut off. They went to the Pans’ house, and Eliot was told to leave Fashion Week and check out the factory. He was not happy.

“What did I say about the models, Eliot?” I said.

He sighed, “Just… whatever, I’m going.”

Hardison and I stayed at the apartment, checking where Gloria might have moved funds and her car GPS.

Tara went to leave since she wasn’t doing anything here.

“Hey,” I said before she walked out, “Sorry about Nate. He just likes to know all the factors and angles. He just doesn’t know you yet. Not that it’s an excuse.”

She just gave a nod at me before leaving. She had an unreadable expression which I didn’t think much about.

Hardison started tracking the Pans’ car right when Nate and Parker arrived at their house. The car was pulling away when we heard an explosion on comms. It was loud enough that we determined it was the house since the car was still driving.

Nate groaned, “Okay, what do we know?”

“Someone targeted the Pans,” Parker replied loudly. Their ears were probably ringing.

“Yeah, I’m with you on that.”

“And the silver sedan that pulled out right before the explosion, it belongs to the Pans. I recognize it.”

“So, either they got away, or the people who did this got away in the Pans’ car, and the Pans didn’t. Uh, Hardison-”

“Already on it,” Hardison responded. “The Pans’ car just got on the I-95 heading south.”

“Okay, I need to see who’s in the car. Can you get me a visual?”

“Do I look like I have a helicopter?”

“A simple yes or no,” Nate said.

“I might, might be able to get a photo of a traffic camera, but… I would have to time it just right based on the car’s rate of speed.”

“Listen to me, a car’s driving eighty miles an hour, how long does it take to get to a camera a mile away, seventh grade algebra, Hardison.”

Hardison rolled his eyes and looked at me.

“Yeah, I never got a break in math,” I replied. “But there’s multiple cameras right? You can get a couple chances?”

Hardison tilted his head side to side, somewhat agreeing with me.

“The husband said they had partners,” Nate said softer.

“Forty-five seconds,” Parker responded.

“What?” Nate asked.

“That’s the answer, forty-five seconds.”

“Oh…”

While Hardison worked on getting the timing right, Eliot piped in from the factory.

“Nate, I got bank statements here listing Sunbright Holdings as a joint account holder with the Pans’…” He trailed off.

“Can you show me that?” Tara’s voice came through the comms.

“Oh, that’s where she went,” I said, mostly to myself.

“What’s she doing there?” Nate asked.

“Wait, tell Nate that I know these corporate ID prefix is from Shanghai!” She shouted through the comms, making them squeal.

“They pick up,” Eliot said through gritted teeth, “you don’t have to yell!”

“Just tell him.”

I was working on my laptop that was linked with some of Hardison’s software where I pulled up the camera feed from the cameras we planted there. “Hey, I’ve got the camera feed before the explosion… There’s quite a few guys there, here, I’ll send it to you.”

“Who’s planting that bomb?” Nate asked. “Eliot, Tara, get out of there!”

I heard all four of them start to dash off before Eliot said, “Nate, I’ve got three guys here.”

I turned to Hardison to see if he knew what was going on and who we were dealing with, but he was focused on his own computer.

“Armed with cleavers,” Eliot continued. “That’s the signature of The Triad.”

“The Triads, yeah, we’re a minute away,” Nate responded.

“The Chinese Triads?” Parker asked.

“Yeah, they control the global counterfeit clothing market,” Nate explained. “Worth billions to them, even more than narcotics.”

“So we didn’t take money from the Pans, we took money from these guys, is what I’m hearing,” I said.

“And the last person holding their cash, was Eliot,” Nate said.

I listened to comms as Eliot tried to keep Tara safe, which she didn’t appreciate, but it sounded like they both took care of themselves. At least, I didn’t hear any painful noises from them.

“Nate, I just got a shot of the Pans’ car,” Hardison said as he pulled it up on the big screen. “Gloria’s traveling solo. I guess Russell didn’t make it out, the poor bastard got blown to bits.”

“Yeah, Russell Pan handles the finances,” Nate said. “Did you do a full background check on Russell Pan?” He then instructed Parker to stay behind, to be the getaway car.

“Of course we did,” Hardison assured. He listed all the documents and data we got on him to prove that he is Russell Pan.

“Yeah, but did we make sure that Russell Pan isn’t anybody else as well?”

I looked at Hardison, to distinguish between the two. He sighed an ‘ah, hell,’ before pulling up facial recognition. I guess it was to not just search for names, because that could narrow the search too much, and miss something.

When the facial recognition finished, I swore to myself.

“Guys, guys, I just got a hit on an Interpol database,” Hardison said. “Russell Pan’s face matches a Nicholas Chow, Chinese national, works for the Sun Yee On Triad, counterfeit clothing, blackmarket, he’s known for burying his enemies alive. This is a bad dude.”

I looked back at my computer, trying to think if there was anything else I could do to help when I watched the camera feed again. “Uh, one other thing,” I said as I watched, “I don’t think he’s dead.” Hardison looked over at my screen. “He was there when the bomb was planted, like, helping.”

“No kidding,” Nate said, presumably as or after he entered the factory where more members of the Triad were. He switched into his character’s accent when greeting everyone, and softly commented that they had guns. “The last time I saw you we were here for business meeting with your wife. Yah, this is all big misunderstanding?”

“That cow of a wife gave you something of mine,” Russell said. “Fifty thousand dollars U.S.”

“Yah, this was for a show,” Nate said, “This was business, eh.”

“Twenty years,” Russell said exasperatedly, “I carried her. I brought over the cheap labor from China, I supplied the Asian markets, all she had to do was copy the fashions. No, you sold the woman a ridiculous dream. So I had to get rid of her.”

“What a douchebag,” I said before I could stop myself. Hardison gave me a look. “You know, along with being a murderous criminal and all that.”

“Now, I’m responsible to my superiors for that money,” Russell continued, obviously not hearing my comment. “Where is it?”

“Guys, sit tight,” Hardison said, grabbing the bundle of money that Gloria gave us, “Tell Chow, or Pan–pot skillet– whatever his name is, that is money is on the way, it’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

“Well, uh, we don’t have the money,” Nate said instead. “The money is gone, yah, we spent it on the vendors for Gloria’s show, yah.”

“Did you not hear what I just said?” Hardison then emphasized, “I’m on my way, with the money.”

“Yah, and there’s no reason to do anything, or go anywhere because, puh, the money is gone,” he repeated.

“I think he heard you loud and clear,” I said to Hardison, not liking this situation any better than he did. “Nate, come on, what are you doing?”

Russell gave an order, in presumably Chinese, and Nate started to backtrack a little bit.

“Listen to me one second before, what if I was able to give you something worth much more than the fifty thousand dollars, what if I was able to give you the designs for next fall’s collections today? Yah, that’s right. Get your factories turning out knockoffs way before the competition. This would be worth millions to you in additional revenue, millions!”

I could tell Nate was thinking very hard to make this work, his accent wasn’t as thick as before, but luckily he was able to keep up the act as it seemed to catch Russell’s interest.

“And how are you going to do this?”

“We have access to the Fashion Week, uh, shows. I mean, I can get you Julian to steal a major designer’s designs,” Nate offered up Eliot to steal it.

“So, I let you go,” Russell seemed to laugh, “you run to the police, and I get nothing! No deal.”

I paced the floor as Nate tried to say something to save it when Tara offered herself as collateral, which Nate quickly refused. He tried to reason that he wouldn’t go to the police, we had no evidence, we couldn’t escape them anyway, etc etc.

Unfortunately, Russell agreed to keep Tara anyway in exchange for the designs. He gave Nate one hour.

“I’m telling you,” Tara said, “get him what he wants. It’s just fifty grand, huh? That’s what this is about, five oh, capish? Five oh.”

“Yah…” Nate said hesitantly, “Julien, let’s go, uh…”

Hardison and I waited until everyone got back, without Tara.

“We could have just given Russell the money,” Hardison said.

“If we had given him the money,” Nate replied, “we would have gone back to the client with nothing.”

“Cuz that’s what it’s about,” Eliot said, “a chance to run a con on the Triads on the fly. You put Tara’s life in danger to take down a bigger target.”

“Listen, it’s one thing for Florence and those other women to owe money to some local sweatshop. You want them in debt to the Triads the rest of their lives?” Nate asked.

“You wouldn’t have left Sophie there,” Parker pointed out.

“Listen, I know what I’m doing,” Nate insisted, “I got it under control, alright? We have less than an hour, we need some designer’s plans, we gotta get-”

“Hold on,” Hardison said as he typed on his computer. “Okay, there’s one show left today, Andre V has a hip hop couture line.”

“Great, perfect,” Nate pointed at Eliot, Parker, and I, “go get those plans.”

We didn’t have to be told twice as we dashed off, back to Fashion Week. Unfortunately for us, because of a ‘security breach’ earlier, we couldn’t get in without IDs. According to the chick at the security checkpoint, the only things getting through were models and clothes. Which led us to where we were now, arguing about clothes.

Parker couldn’t get over the impracticality of them as a thief, but finally offered up a black piece of clothing with red-ish orange trim.

“The A-line drape of the empire waist is nice, but the neckline is a little weak,” Eliot rattled off. “If you ask me,” he added once he caught Parker and I’s looks.

“I thought you weren’t into all this fashion stuff,” I said.

“Hey, I dated a lot of models. A lot of private fashion shows, if you know what I mean.”

“Yes, yes,” Parker said, continuing to flip through clothes.

Eliot continued to give sexual innuendos that Parker and I rebuffed until we both walked away to a different rack when we couldn’t take anymore. I finally found something that fit some of her criteria enough to get her changed and backstage.

“Why can’t you come too?” She asked as I rushed her through.

“Because I don’t have an ID and I think I would hinder you more than help, let me know if you need help and I can figure out a way in or make a distraction out here or something, now go!” I pushed her through to blend in with a couple other models heading where Parker needed to go.

She was able to get the flash drive into the computer, but before all the files were uploaded, she got swept up into actually being a model. I helped conceal Eliot in a clothes rack to retrieve the drive as Parker was walking the runway, but not without an incident on her part. Luckily that didn’t stop us from being successful.

We brought the drive to Nate and Hardison at the factory. Hardison took it and worked some magic, I was sure before handing it to Nate to give to Russell. Nate stepped out of the van and prepped himself before going in.

“Hey,” Eliot stopped him, “if this thing starts going off the rails, don’t wait. Call us in.”

Nate nodded, “Chow is primed, I can handle him.”

“I’m not talking about him.”

“She’s a pro, she knows what to do,” Nate insisted before heading into the factory.

I still had a nervous feeling in my gut despite his supposed confidence, but I seemed to always have that feeling at the tipping point of the con. I, of course, had nothing to worry about as Nate handed over the designs, Russell saw them, unknowingly sent Gloria’s design to all of his factories, courtesy of Hardison, and called the cops. The cops arrested Russell for being wanted by Interpol, also revealed courtesy of Hardison, and let Nate go once he showed them his Interpol badge.

“Okay, no earpiece,” Parker said to Tara, “How did you tell Nate you were gonna do the cop scam?”

Tara recalled when she told Nate that it was fifty grand, “five oh.”

“Five oh? Cops?” Eliot asked, “That was all it took?”

“Some people just know how to communicate,” Nate said.

“I finally learned how to speak his language,” Tara said. “Cryptic clues, slogans, and code.”

We all shared a small laugh and smile that everything came out okay by communicating of all things. It all turned out for the best, our client got the money to help her parents come over to the States, the factory came under new supervision which was much better for all of its workers, and I think we could now work as a team.

A/n: Reblogs and comments are welcome and encouraged! Thank you for reading!

Tags: @instantdinosaurtidalwave @kniselle @technikerin23 @kiwikitty13 @plasticbottleholder

#eliot spencer x reader #eliot spencer #leverage #rewrite #slow burn #multichapter #nate ford #sophie devereaux #alec hardison #parker #ford!reader

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