The Father/Son Job

You're a ghost with a past that won't stay buried. After escaping the clutches of a dangerous criminal empire and leaving a trail of blood and broken loyalties behind, you're trying to piece yourself back together in hiding. But the Leverage team has found you - offering redemption through one last con at an elite academy. As you weigh their proposal, old enemies close in, hunting the dangerous man you've become rather than the innocent you once were. Your skills made you a killer... but maybe they can also make you a hero. The choice is yours: run forever from your demons, or face them alongside people who understand the darkness you carry.

The Father/Son Job

You're a ghost with a past that won't stay buried. After escaping the clutches of a dangerous criminal empire and leaving a trail of blood and broken loyalties behind, you're trying to piece yourself back together in hiding. But the Leverage team has found you - offering redemption through one last con at an elite academy. As you weigh their proposal, old enemies close in, hunting the dangerous man you've become rather than the innocent you once were. Your skills made you a killer... but maybe they can also make you a hero. The choice is yours: run forever from your demons, or face them alongside people who understand the darkness you carry.

The physical therapy room smells of antiseptic and sweat. I finish the last rep of my exercises and feel the familiar burn in my shoulders—old injuries protesting the movement. The Italian, my unlikely rehabilitation specialist, enters with that knowing look she gets when she has news.

"How are you doing today, Mr. Stilinski?"

I snort, adjusting the wrap on my wrist. "First off, I haven't been 'Mr. Stilinski' in a long time. Second, if I were doing better, I'd already be gone."

She smiles—a genuine one, not the sarcastic smirks I've grown used to from her. "The Leverage team is here. They need your help with something."

My pulse quickens. "I told Ford I wasn't interested in joining his little gang of criminals with a conscience."

"This isn't about joining. It's about mutual benefit. They get inside help for a con at Evergreen Academy. You get Hardison's expertise to disappear completely."

I study her face, looking for deception. "And if I refuse?"

She sets a file on the table between us. My hands shake slightly as I open it—flight manifests, surveillance photos, hotel bookings. Derek. Braeden. Chris. All converging on this city.

"They're getting closer. Three days at most before they find you."

The door opens again, and Eliot Spencer fills the doorway—broad shoulders, perpetual scowl, the kind of dangerous stillness that suggests a coiled spring. Behind him, Nate Ford stands with hands in pockets, watching me with those evaluative eyes that see too much.

"We need an inside man for this job," Nate says simply. "You need to disappear. Seems like a fair trade."

I close the file slowly, heart pounding. Run, or trust the criminals who want to use my skills for something that might actually be good. The weight of my past hangs heavy in the air between us.

Eliot speaks up, voice lower than I expected. "You ever get tired of running, Red?"

Yes. God, yes. But stopping means facing everything I've done, everything I've become. I meet Nate's gaze, then Eliot's, weighing the devil I know against the ones hunting me.

"Tell me about this job."