Disclaimer – still don't own Hawaii Five -0 - just toying with their lives for a while. And my lawyer and psychiatrist both agree that I still don't own Steve. Dammit.
Steve held Jennifer's left hand in his right over the center console in the truck as they drove toward Steve's house. Despite everything else going on, everything else going wrong, Jennifer had agreed to marry him…again and that felt right.
"Steve, we've got a tail," Jennifer said, breaking him from his reverie.
He glanced into the rear-view mirror. "Which one?"
"Silver late-model Honda three cars back on my right," she answered.
"Looks like a female driver, could we get that lucky?" Steve scoffed.
"Order of the universe, something's gotta go our way eventually, right?" Jennifer replied with a grin.
He nodded. "From your lips to God's ear." He turned left onto the main thoroughfare leading to the house. Jennifer continued watching the vehicle trailing them via the side-view mirror. "What's the plan?" he asked.
"In and out? If it is Lori, she's going to be more focused on making sure she can see you than me."
"Sounds good," Steve agreed, making the turn into his driveway. The car that had been tailing them had disappeared down a side road less than a block from Steve's drive. He grabbed Jennifer's hand as she rounded the side of his truck. He knocked on the front door before using his key to alert his mom and Joe they were coming in.
He shut the door behind him after Jennifer crossed through. "Aren't you supposed to call first?" Joe asked curiously, stepping from the kitchen with a large coffee mug in his hand. Jennifer went immediately to the entry table and extracted the gun they'd placed in the drawer.
"Turned 'em off, locked 'em up," Steve explained, sliding into the chair behind his father's desk and flipping on the monitor for the security cameras he and Jennifer had installed. "We've been compromised."
"Of course we have," Joe answered with a scoff. "I'm starting to think we're cursed."
Steve turned back to Joe and laughed. "You're just now starting to think that?"
Joe shrugged. "Old brain's not working as fast as it used to." He pointed at Jennifer over his coffee cup. "Is there a reason my daughter's getting lethal over there?" he asked as she stuffed a clip into the back of her jeans.
"We were tailed," she explained with a wave of her hand as she crossed the living room to the office. She stepped behind the desk with Steve as Nancy came downstairs with a book in her hand. "What's going on?" she asked.
"There," Steve exclaimed, watching as a female figure hopped over the wall separating the McGarrett residence from the neighbor's.
"Let her get up to the house," Jennifer said, watching the monitor. "Let her peek in, I'll make a show of going to the bathroom and sneak out the window and intercept her."
"Be careful," he ordered.
"Always am," she answered with a grin before smacking a kiss onto his lips. She pulled her shirt down over the back of her jeans to fully conceal the weapon hidden in the waistband and headed into the kitchen.
"Go on like you guys would if Jenn and I weren't here," Steve said quickly, wanting everyone to get into "positions" before the tail had a chance to get into place.
"You want a drink, babe?" Jennifer called from the kitchen.
"I wouldn't say no to a glass of water," he yelled back.
"We're getting them an intercom system as a wedding gift," Joe said with a dismayed shake of his head. He flopped onto the couch and turned the television on to a sports channel.
"Joe says we're getting an intercom for our wedding," Steve hollered.
"We don't need an intercom!" she scoffed, emerging from the kitchen with a glass of water in her hand. She sat it down on the desk in front of him: then leaned down. "She's at the back of the house to right of the lanai," he whispered, pressing a soft kiss just behind Jennifer's ear.
She smiled in response and stepped out of his embrace. Steve watched her head in the direction of the bathroom and shut the door.
"Any more calls about your sister, Steve?" Nancy asked, trying to disguise the desperation in her voice.
"Uh, not yet," he answered casually, flipping off the monitor and striding over to where she sat with Joe on the couch. He sat down heavily in his recliner. "Hopefully we're going to have something to use as leverage in a minute."
Joe took Nancy's hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze. The trio waited only a few minutes longer before Steve heard Jennifer kick the sliding glass door at the back of the house. He stood from his chair and crossed over to the door, not the least bit surprised to find Jennifer holding on to Lori's arm with a death grip and a gun trained on her back.
"Get in here," Steve thundered, grabbing her away from Jennifer. He dragged Lori to the recliner and pushed her down into it. "Where is my sister, Lori?"
Lori shook her head forcefully. "I don't know, Steve, I swear."
"Don't lie to me!" he roared, shoving his finger in her face. "Don't you fucking lie to me! I trusted you."
Nancy sprang from her spot on the couch to calm her son, but Jennifer intercepted her with an outstretched arm. "Go upstairs, Mom," she whispered quietly.
"I know," Lori cried weakly, tears springing to her eyes. "I'm sorry."
"I don't care that you're sorry. I care where Wo Fat has my sister!" he bellowed.
"I don't know!" Lori yelled back. The tears that had formed in her eyes streamed down her cheeks. "I haven't seen her since she got off the plane."
Steve angrily pushed the back of the recliner before stomping away, causing Lori's small form to crash into the frame.
"Let's start with an easy question," Jennifer deadpanned. "Why are you working for Wo Fat?"
"I'm not!" Lori wailed.
Jennifer crouched beside the recliner. "Here's the thing, Weston. Steve – he doesn't hit girls. Me? I hit girls. And the way you were eyeing my man in the cover apartment? Not to mention that you handed my future sister-in-law over to the murderer who wants my whole family dead? I'd say you're long overdue for an ass beating."
Lori swiped at her tears with the backs of her fingers. "I did what I had to do to protect my family."
Jennifer nodded. "You mean your mother, I'm assuming. The Vice President of the United States?"
Lori's blue eyes went wide. "How…how did you know that?" she stammered.
"Why are you so shocked?" Jennifer sneered. "Wo Fat obviously figured it out. It's not exactly a stretch to think we'd have the capabilities and the resources to discover the same information. So, what does he have against the Vice President?" she asked when a mischievous glint in her eyes. "It's got to be more career-ending than a long-lost daughter given up for adoption thirty years ago."
Steve watched the wheels spinning behind Lori's eyes as the compromised agent weighed her options. He watched as she shut her eyes tightly, squeezing endless tears onto her cheeks before she opened her eyes again, this time looking beaten and resigned. "My," she started slowly, her voice trembling, "The Yakuza 'owned' my biological great grandfather when he was the Ambassador to the Philippines."
Steve bent at the waist, resting his hands on his knees as spots began appearing before his eyes. "Your grandfather was Benjamin Tiner?"
"Yes," she answered weakly.
TBC…