A/N: I'm sure you've all been waiting for this update for a while now and I have no excuse. So here you go, hope you enjoy it.

He places the paper on Peter's desk and peers out the clear walls, making sure no one is watching before he leaves. Neal can't believe he's leaving again, especially like this, but he's not doing it because he wants to. He's doing this because he has to. He has to do this, or else Mozzie will suffer.

And it will be his fault.

Neal sneaks out of the building with relative ease, keeping an eye on the cameras this time. Most of the agents have disappeared; assumedly to go home or to watch the interrogation Peter is handling in another room. Either way, Neal makes it out on the streets and heads for the meeting place he's frequented.

It takes him a few minutes to reach the closed down Chinese restaurant, the one that he and Alex used to spend time at a few years back. They'd sit in the booth in the far back, plotting up cons and the occasional meet ups with others like them. But ever since the place closed down, they would simply meet up in front of it.

Alex, of course, was waiting by the front door, arms crossed and tapping her foot in impatience. Once she sees him, she calls out, "You're late."

"I told you I was in the middle of something." Neal says, walking up to her. "Now what do you have?"

"I know where the jewels are." Alex smiles triumphantly. She always had a way of finding information quickly. Neal never asked where the info came from, and frankly he didn't really want to. As long as he got the info he needed, everything would be alright.

"Where are they?" Neal asks. He finds it strange that Alex found them before he did, but it's not like he had any time to do an extensive search, especially since he was in the company of an F.B.I agent.

"That's the glory of it. They're in a building not far from here. I can take you to them right now if you want." Alex lowers her arms and shifts towards the street.

Neal gives her an imploring look. "Show me the way."

It takes a few minutes, but soon both Neal and Alex reach an office building. The lights are all off, except for one room which is at the ground floor.

"Is this it?" Neal questions as he gazes around the building. It's a simple looking building, although Neal can tell that some important business must go on inside. It has a certain feel to it, as if the history of the building bleeds through its walls.

Alex nods and motions towards the side entrance of the building. "It's just through here."

"Aren't you coming with me?" Neal says when he notices that Alex isn't following him through the door.

"Just go on without me. I need to double back and check if anyone followed us here." She's holding the door open, glancing back into the dead of night trying to spot anyone that would ruin their plans.

"I can wait." If it was anyone else with him, he'd go on alone but with Alex it's different. It's not that Neal doesn't trust Alex; it's just that in the past she has done a few things to sabotage his plans. Like sending him in to talk with a very angry mark about the possibility of having purchased a forgery.

"Those jewels aren't going to be there forever Neal. Just go."

"Fine." Neal turns away from her and starts down the hallway. It's a short hallway that leads to the main room, the one Neal saw earlier with the lights on. As Neal makes his way down the hallway he notices something. He notices the faint sound of music playing. It's loud enough to be heard from the hallway, but it's so soft that Neal can't make out what is playing.

By the time he reaches the room the music is louder and much clearer. It's a piece of classical music, but Neal doesn't know which one. It could be Beethoven or Bach for all he knows. There's a brown backpack on the table in the middle of the room, the very same one that Neal used to transport the jewels. He moves towards it but stops when he hears someone approaching him.
"Long time no see Neal." A familiar voice calls out.

Neal turns around, facing the man who called out his name. His eyes widened at the sight of the man before him. "What are you doing here Adler?"

"I could ask you the same thing Neal. What are you doing here at this hour?" Adler stares at Neal with eyes as cold as ice. The way Adler was staring was almost predator like, as if he had finally caught his prey. Which in a way, he did.

"There's something in here I need."

"Oh what a coincidence, there's something I value in here as well. Care to guess what it is?"Adler grins menacingly as only a villain can pull off.

Neal looks around looking for something Adler might have an interest in but then it hits him. The something Adler needs is… "Me. You need me."

"I knew you'd catch on eventually." Adler says smartly.

"Now here comes the fun part." Adler continues. "I have something you need and you have something I need. How about a fair trade?"

"The jewels for what, my skills as a thief?" Neal asks somewhat sarcastically. Adler could have his pick of any thief in the whole wide world, and he goes with him? Sure it was flattering to Neal's ego, but even Neal could tell there was something suspicious about it. Anything Adler did was suspicious to be honest.

"Something like that yes. You'll be taking on a few assignments from me with an added bonus of course." Adler's tone remained emotionless, and it is almost as if he is bored with the notion of negotiating with Neal. As if he has somewhere else to be. And maybe he does, god only knows what Vincent Adler gets up to in his spare hours.

Neal pauses for a moment, licking his lips. He has no time to think about the possible outcomes, the different ways this could unfold. He has to do this. For Mozzie's sake he has to. "I'll do it."

"Why the kidnapping charge Boss?" Diana asks. She was in the observation room when Peter was interrogating Avery Jacobs, and well adding the charge was a bit puzzling since no one had been reported missing or kidnapped from their case.

"One of Neal's friends got kidnapped by Ryan Wilkes. Neal ran off to go meet up with him earlier at the parking garage."

"So Neal went alone to talk with Wilkes. Isn't that just a bit.. reckless?" Diana glances at Peter, looking for answers. Peter had spent the most time with Neal in the safe house so he knew Neal a bit better than the others, but there was something about the kid that screamed at Diana. She didn't know what it was but she felt a need to help him somehow.

"I don't think Neal is familiar with the term." Peter says dryly. He was well aware of Neal's recklessness; it was one of the reasons why he worried over the kid. Once Neal made up his mind there was no going back.

"He really thinks he can take Wilkes on alone? Hasn't he ever heard of letting the federal agents handle it?"

"I doubt it Diana. He's been doing things on his own for god knows how long. He probably doesn't remember that there are people willing to help." Neal never divulged much about his past, he never said a peep about it to be honest- save for that moment in his dining room-, but Peter got a feeling in his gut that it wasn't a pleasant childhood.

"It's going to get him hurt if he continues, you know that right?"

"Oh I know Diana. I just hope I can stop it from hurting him too badly" Peter wouldn't admit it out loud to anyone -save for Elizabeth maybe- but he worried about Neal. Trouble seemed to follow Neal around like a magnet and while Neal was an expert at avoiding it by the thinnest hair, what would happen if it got to be too much?

Peter walks back in the interrogation room, sitting across from Jacobs with a manila folder open on the table. He's eyeing the evidence report, looking for that one little piece of evidence that would nail the last vestige of the case.

"What's with the rope then?" He asks.

"What do you mean?" Jacobs looks up at Peter, looking slightly confused.

"The rope in your car. Why do you have so much of it if you never kidnapped anyone?"

"Now that you mention it I did let one of Wilkes' goons borrow it. He said he had to pick up a few things." Jacobs is completely oblivious.

Peter held back a sigh. Jacobs must have forgotten to mention that tiny detail; the one that could potentially break the case wide open. "And you never thought that he would use it to frame you as a kidnapper?"

"Honor among thieves maybe? I don't know man. I was only in it to get my favor straight with Wilkes and to mess with Caffrey."

"To mess with him, huh." It sure was one way to mess with Neal. It was cruel but then again Jacobs got paid to make things cruel.

Adler had finally disappeared for the night -he claimed that he had businesses to run and money to launder- and Neal stayed behind waiting for Alex. She waltzes in a few minutes later, the jewels in hand.

"Why didn't you tell me that Vincent Adler was your source?" Neal asks, frustrated. He's more than a little peeved that Alex didn't tell him who she was working for. But then again it's normal for Alex to be secretive like that. He's just frustrated that he fell for it. Again.

"He's not my source Neal. Adler and I are working together." Alex says with an air of nonchalance. It's as she's correcting Neal on something as simple as the weather.

"You have got to be kidding me." That's almost as worse as having Adler as a source of information. Neal sighs.

"Sometimes you have to make a deal with the devil Neal." She shrugs.

"Alex he might have had a hand in Mozzie's kidnapping!" Neal cries out. What Adler was doing was suspicious to Neal from the start, and him being involved with Mozzie's kidnapping explains it. Why else was Wilkes at Adler's place that day?

"How?"

"There's no way that Wilkes could have known who to take as leverage unless someone told him." Neal doesn't know how but Wilkes must have found out about Mozzie and knew that he could be used as leverage.

"And you think that someone is Adler? Neal he's trying to help you. He's trying to help us get the big score. Isn't that what you want?"

"I don't trust him Alex. And neither should you."

Before Alex can shoot back a remark, Neal's phone beeps. He glances at it quickly, noticing that he has a new text from Mozzie. Or rather from Wilkes. Neal takes note of the address written in the text before saying, "We'll talk about this later okay Alex?"

Alex nods and hands him the jewels. "Get him back safe Neal."

"Is there anything else important you want to say before I put you away for good?"

"Now that you mention it there is something."

Peter resists the temptation to roll his eyes. "What is it?"

"I remember hearing some of Wilkes' men talking about a warehouse, one down by the docks. They said something about holding something priceless there? I don't remember what they said exactly but-"

"Where is it?" Peter says, interrupting Jacobs. A warehouse could be the place where Neal's friend is. Or it could be filled with Wilkes' loot. Either way Peter could tell that it was important.

"It's right next to a chinese place called The Walk of Fire. The place has awesome orange chicken." Jacobs licks his lips, as if he was remembering the taste of the orange chicken in his mouth.

Peter walks out of the interrogation room, a triumphant look on his face. He asks, "Diana how many of us are still here?"

"There's about five." Diana says, the gears in her head cranking away at a plan of attack.

"It'll have to do."

Before Peter can explain more, footsteps are heard from the hallway, and the door is yanked open by none other than Agent Blake.

"What is it Blake?" There's a look of sheer terror and panic on Blake's face, as if he was the cause for the madness.

"Sir... The kid in your office-" Blake stammered. He looked at Diana for guidance but as soon as their eyes met he looked away in fright.

"What has Caffrey done now?" Peter holds back a sigh. He couldn't leave Neal alone without him doing something rash.

"That's the thing sir. He's gone. And he uh, he left this on your desk." Blake hands Peter a folded piece of paper and steps back towards the door. It was clear that Blake blamed himself for Neal's disappearance.

A frown starts to pull at Peter's face as soon as he's done reading the piece of paper. As far as things go, Neal could not have picked a worse time to run off. Especially when there was a someone like Wilkes after him.

"What do you want to do Boss?" Diana questions.

"It's safe to assume that Neal knows where his friend is and that he's on his way there right now. He's got what- about a twenty-five minute head start? If we go right now we'll able to catch him and Wilkes." Peter stands and takes one last look at Jacobs before turning towards the door.

"..Sir.." Blake is still standing in the doorway, inevitably waiting for his punishment for letting Neal escape.

"We'll talk about it later Blake. For now, you're coming with us. Tell the others to get ready." Peter says, watching as Blake steps back and jogs towards the bullpen.

"Think we'll find him Boss?" Diana questions. She's sure that Neal will be found sooner or later, but there are questions that need answers and the only way she and Peter are going to get them if Neal tells them. Which, unfortunately, is a long shot. Especially with Neal.

"I think so." Peter is confident they'll find them both in time, however there's a small voice in the back of his head whispering about the darker side of the situation. Like what if all of this is just some con, and Neal has been playing them the whole time? What if they don't make it to Neal in time? What if- Peter shakes his head to clear his thoughts and heads out the door, with Diana following behind him. They'll find Neal. They have to .