Wanted (White Collar)

Chapter Fifteen - Arrest

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Peter hands Daphne the listening device, a watch. She slips it onto her wrist, looking to Peter. They stood in the Municipal Van, which was parked a little over a block away, completely out of sight.

"Don't worry," Peter says. "We'll be able to hear you if anything goes south." He says this, glancing to Neal, who was stood next to them.

"All you have to do," Peter explains, "is go in there, give him the money, and when he takes it, that's when we come in to arrest him. We got agents disguised in the area and a small swat team ready near here."

"Got it. I trust you, I know it'll work out this time."

Peter nods. "Good luck."

"Good luck," Neal echoes, sitting down in a chair.

Daphne hops out of the back of the van, the broad daylight stunning her for a moment. She grips the duffle bag and starts walking in the direction of the meeting spot. She easily slips past the civilians going about their day with no suspiciousness following her.

She sees the corner of the building she was supposed to go down. She reaches that point and turns the corner, and like a mirror image Keller does the same from the opposite end.

But he wasn't alone. Just from where she was standing she could see that the man he was with was covered in bandages.

Good job, Alden.

"Why hello," Keller calls, making his way to her. He stops when they're about ten feet apart in the middle of the alley.

"Good to see you," Keller says. "Oh, sorry for your loss by the way. That dog got my guy here pretty scratched up. But you already knew what would happen if you broke the rules, and you did anyway. You're lucky that dog was the only thing that died."

"Wow, Keller," Daphne starts, trying to keep the rage flaming in her chest under control. "Looks like you can't handle a simple exchange like this without a shadow, here, to protect you." She looks over the guy. "Not much muscle, don't you think? Not to mention you-"

"You're playing with fire here, Daphne. Just hand the money over and we'll be on our way."

Daphne scoffs. She tosses the duffle bag to the ground. "Here, take it. It was more trouble than it's worth."

--

"That's the signal guys," Peter says into the device reaching the other agents. "Move in, arrest both Keller and the guy he's with. Hurry."

--

Keller's man kneels down to the duffle bag, looking through it. "Seems legit," he confirms. The man stands up, closing the bag. He kicks it to Keller, who stood there.

"Great," Keller says. "Now that I have what I wanted, Kill her. We don't need her anymore."

--

"Oh no-" Neal yells, standing up. He goes to the exit of the van when Peter says, "Neal, stop! We've got swat on their way right now, they should be there in less than two minutes-"

"Daphne doesn't have two minutes, Peter!" He jumps out of the van and starts running.

--

Keller's guy brings his gun upward, pointing it directly at Daphne. He cocks the gun.

Daphne, whose heart was pounding wildly, slowly steps backward. "Keller you don't want to do this-" She subtly takes a lighter out from her pocket, and flicks it open. She breaths in.

"Why? Because I'll 'go to jail for more time?' Well I know damn well you're alone this time because you now know what I'm capable of."

"No... because-" she throws the lighter directly at the duffle bag, just behind Keller's guy.

The duffle bag is immediately engulfed in raging flames, lighting up that end of the shaded alleyway. You could hear Keller grunt as Daphne dives toward the guy about to kill her. She knees him directly in the crotch, grabbing his gun as he hunches over, yelling in pain.

She aims the gun at Keller who was standing back up after being knocked over due to the sudden fire. He gets on his feet and begins to run, but Daphne was one step ahead of him this time. She shot him in the foot, again. Keller screams, falling to the ground once more.

The swat team comes barrelling from around the corner. Daphne dodges the growing flames as there was dry grass near the duffle bag. She gets into the clear, coughing a bit. There's a sound of a fire truck in the far distance.

She walks up to Keller, who was now being cuffed. She stares in fury as the team lifts him from the ground. He was in very clear, immense pain. "Too bad you aren't skilled enough to get yourself out of these situations, Keller." She echoes his words. He scoffs, but immediately winces as the team carefully walks him away, reading him his rights.

Daphne sighs, catching her breath. The smell of smoke fills the air and the sound of the fire truck was almost on top of them now. She walks further away from the scene and the flames, seeing Neal who was jogging into sight.

He runs immediately to her, bringing her into a firm hug.

"It's okay, Neal, I'm fine," she reassures, smiling over his shoulder.

"Forgive me for worrying." He pulls back, not moving his hands away from her. They stared at each other for a small moment, and this time Daphne leaned in, in which Neal instantly closes the gap between their lips. Reality seemed to slip away for a moment as they kissed, easily forgetting that there were people around and washing them over with a feeling they couldn't quite describe. 

Peter, who had just arrived to the scene, sees this.

Neal pulls back from the kiss. His eyes were slightly widened. He manages to choke out, "I'm happy you're okay."

The sound of the fire hose nearby is present now. They both let go from each other and turn to see the flames diminishing.

Neal swallows, catching his words. "How did that thing catch fire so fast? It was just paper," Neal asks.

Daphne shrugs. "I may or may not have coated parts of the inside with lighter fluid."

"What? Why?"

"I knew Keller was going to try to kill me. I wanted to have that way out, just in case."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Well, because I didn't want to worry you," she pauses. "Or I just had it under control, whatever makes you feel better."

Neal chuckles. "Either way I'm glad, and surprised, you did."

She raises and eyebrow, and jokingly says, "you have no faith in me."

Just then, Peter walks up to them, figuring they'd had their moment.

"You did amazing work catching Keller, Daphne, really."

"Thank you, Peter."

"Does this mean you'll be joining our team?"

______________________________________

Bonjour, I hope you all are having a good day, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Let me know in the comments below what you thought :)

Shoutout to DahyanaLeon for all the support, thank you lots :) 

Love you all, hope your week goes well, and I'll see you soon with the next chapter. Salut.