Glad you guys liked the intro.
Thanks to those who found a moment to review, and also for each fav and follow.
Nineteen hours earlier
"Hey, you okay?"
Steve lifted his head and found himself being stared at by his best friend. "Yeah, why wouldn´t I be?"
Danny shrugged. "You´re quiet today."
His gaze trailed off into the distance, to Jamba and Charlie waiting in a queue in front of an ice cream truck. "Just thinking," he said.
"About tonight?"
"Yeah. I don´t know why Lynn wants to meet me all of a sudden, you know? We haven´t talked for years."
"I don´t know," Danny said. "I suppose you´ll find out."
"Yeah, I guess."
Cheerful giggles of the boys reached Steve´s ears. It was like music to his ears to hear Jamba laugh. After everything the poor kid had been through at such a young age, he deserved to be finally happy. It didn´t take much to make the kid happy, though. A simple walk on the beach with Danny and Charlie, and a cone of ice cream, and his son was over the moon.
His son. He still couldn´t get used to the thought of being a father. It turned out that being a single dad included much more work than he had imagined, but thanks to Danny´s support he never once felt like he couldn´t do this.
"Steve, look!" Jamba rushed toward him with a cone in his hand. The boy lifted it up in a gesture, his wide eyes lit up with excitement. "It´s huge!"
Steve smiled at him. "It is, and wait till you taste it. I´ve been told it´s the best ice cream on the island."
"You want some?" He offered.
"No, thanks. It´s all yours, kid." Steve ran a hand through Jamba´s dark hair, his mind whirling.
"Okay." Jamba turned around and ran back to Charlie with a smile stretched over his face.
Steve watched them for a moment before speaking again. "You think he´ll be okay if I go out tonight?"
"Come on, just look at them," Danny said. "They´re like best buddies. And Grace is coming over today for the weekend. I´m sure Jamba won´t even notice you´re not at home. Besides, I´ll be there."
"I know, but…" Steve paused, thinking.
Tonight would be the first time he´d leave Jamba. And considering the boy´s trust issues, he wondered if it was a good idea. It had taken a month to make him even talk to Danny and his kids without hiding behind Steve. They had since earned his trust obviously, and he was eager to stay around with them, but strangers still tended to scare him, sometimes to the point of tears. No wonder, after what people had done to him and his family.
"He´ll be fine. And I´ll call you if he´ll feel uncomfortable, okay?"
"Okay," Steve said after a moment. He trusted Danny with his own life and knew Jamba couldn´t be in better hands. Besides, he wouldn´t be gone for long. If Jamba needed him, he could come pick him up anytime.
He smiled at his friend and kept walking, ignoring the unexplainable feeling of uneasiness in his gut.
Paul Roederer stared out of the windshield, munching sunflower seeds and watching the people pass by his parked car.
It was coming up to two in the afternoon. A thick bank of cloud had rolled over the island, and the sun had disappeared behind it a few minutes ago.
He was thankful for the clouds. He had been in Hawaii for a few months now, making preparations, so his skin, usually pale, was tanned from the strong sun he wasn´t used to. He didn´t necessarily like the Hawaiian heat, but he had a plan to execute. The plan he had been carefully crafting since he´d lost the life he´d worked so hard to build.
As he watched the people having fun on the beach in the distance, his mind took him back to his home in Bern. Back to the good times when he´d been the CEO of the number one chocolate company on the market. Times when he had a beautiful wife and a loving son by his side. But those times were gone now.
The man he´d been watching since his arrival had ruined all that. Steven McGarrett was responsible for the turn his life had taken.
Everything used to be great and things were supposed to get even better after signing a merger with Simon Dietrich. Together, they would have no competition in the whole of Europe, maybe even the world. But McGarrett´s poking around had exposed the child slavery at cocoa plantations that Dietrich and his guy, a head of police in West Africa, Khalfani Iwu, were directly supporting. Both fools got caught and Dietrich took Roederer down with him, even though he wasn´t directly involved. Did he know about it? Yes. But if turning his back to that little inconvenience meant more success, power, and comfort for himself and his family, he was willing to ignore it. It wasn´t his problem, after all.
Unfortunately, his wife and son, as well as the rest of his family and friends didn´t see it that way. So not only he´d lost millions due to people not wanting to support his business by the time his lawyer cleared his name, but he´d lost his family that wanted nothing to do with him anymore.
Fortunately for him, though, he still had enough money and powerful connections to help him execute his revenge.
McGarrett had ruined everything and the cop´s actions took away his family´s company, his good name, his family, and friends. And he´d sworn to return the favor.
But the preparations that had to be made robbed him of sleep. He knew it wouldn´t be easy to bring a man with McGarrett´s reputation to his knees.
He was reaching for the pack of sunflower seeds when he saw him. He wasn´t alone. His blonde friend was walking by his side and both of the men were buried in a conversation, while two boys around the same age were running around them, both with a cone of ice cream in their hands.
Roederer knew who they were by now. He´d been McGarrett´s shadow for long enough to learn everything he could about him and the people in his life. There was no doubt the short man by McGarrett´s side was Detective Williams, and the blonde kid was his son. The other boy, whose dark skin was marred by several long scars on his limbs, was one of the orphans saved from Dietrich´s cocoa plantations in Africa. The boy now shared McGarrett´s surname, so Roederer figured out the ex-SEAL had officially adopted him.
He watched the boy make his way back to McGarrett. The cop ruffled the boy´s hair and smiled.
The carefree smile on McGarrett´s face made his blood boil in his veins. But if everything went as planned, that smile would be soon wiped off.
Very soon, in fact.
Roederer put a car into gear and drove off, searching for the spot he´d carefully chosen.
He found the bar easily.
It was called the Alley Cat and it was in downtown Honolulu. The bar was a cheap dive that catered to tourists. It lacked any semblance of glamour, the decor resembling a hut rather than the sleek futurism of the glass and chrome establishments that were popping up elsewhere. Those places were not suitable for what he had in mind. He needed somewhere quieter, somewhere he could exert influence over the staff. The Alley Cat was perfect.
He went up to the bar. The owner was the only member of staff here today, as Roederer had expected. The man was not much older than thirty-five. He had a sleeve of tattoos all the way down his right arm and long, black hair. Roederer sat on the stool and smiled at him until he came over to serve him.
"Hello, Ben," Roederer said.
"How do you know my name?"
"Doesn´t matter."
"Who are you?"
"You can call me Paul."
Ben looked flustered. "What do you want?"
"A drink would be a good start."
"Sure, I-"
"A beer, please. Whichever you recommend."
Ben took a bottle from the fridge, popped the top, and put it on the bar without saying a word.
"Thank you," Roederer said. He raised the bottle in salute and then drank a little. He could say from the way Ben was looking at him, he made the barman feel uncomfortable. "Can I speak to you frankly, Ben?"
"What do you want to talk about?"
"Your financial situation."
"I'm sorry," Ben said. "I don't know who you are or what you want. You've got your beer. I have work to do."
"Can I tell you what I know?" He loosened the top button on his shirt and went on before the barman could react. "You've been open here for six months. You took a large loan from the bank to get started, but now that money is nearly all gone. How am I doing?"
Ben didn't respond. He looked confused.
Roederer went on. "The rent was late last month and your landlord threatened to throw you out unless you paid. Your bank manager isn't flexible, and you knew there was no point in asking for any more money. So you had to be creative. One of your regulars has an under-the-counter loan business and, when no other options presented themselves, you approached him. This lender - Masao, I think his name is - was happy to front you the cash. He encouraged you to let it ride for a month or two, but then, when you had the money and were ready to pay it off, the interest had doubled the amount that you owed."
"This is none of your business."
"I'm afraid it is my business," Roederer said. "Mr. Masao sold me your debt."
"I don't understand. I…"
"It's simple, Ben. It means that you don't owe him anything any longer. You owe me instead. I suppose you could say that I own this bar. So you can see what I mean when I say that your financial dealings are very much my business."
"Why would you do that?"
"Because I have a use for you."
"You're wasting your time. I couldn't afford to pay him. I can't afford to pay you."
"There are different ways to meet your debts. Money is one way. You have another option. There's something that you can do for me."
Ben watched as Roederer reached into his pocket and took out a small clear plastic bag. It contained a dirty white powder. He left it on the bar.
"Drugs? I don't do drugs."
"Relax," Roederer said. "It's not drugs."
"So what is it?"
Roederer ignored the question. "Two people are going to come into the bar this evening. A man and a woman." He reached into his pocket again and took out a piece of folded paper. He unfolded it and laid it on the bar next to the bag. "Look, please."
Ben looked down at the paper. It was a printed photograph of McGarrett.
"His name is Steve," Roederer said. "And Steve is going to be meeting this woman."
He took out a second piece of paper. It was a photograph of a woman. She was good-looking, with long blonde hair and soulful eyes. "Her name is Lynn."
"So?"
"I want you to put half of that powder into his drink and half into hers."
Ben pushed the pieces of paper back across the bar. "Are you mad? No!"
"Then pay me my money."
"Drug them?"
"It's not dangerous."
"So do it yourself."
Roederer pushed the photographs back across the bar. "It's up to you, Ben. You owe me sixty thousand dollars. I know I look different to Masao, but just because I wear a suit and tie shouldn't blind you to the fact that I am more dangerous to you than he would ever have been." Roederer reached back his left hand and pulled back his jacket. He was wearing a shoulder holster with a pistol beneath his arm. "You have a choice. Put that powder into their drinks and have your debt written off. Or pay me back. But if you want to do that, I'm going to need all the money - plus another thirty thousand for my inconvenience - tonight. So it's up to you."
Ben swallowed down on a dry throat. He pointed down to the bag of powder on the bar. "So what is that?"
"A tranquilizer. It'll just loosen them up a little."
"It won´t hurt them?"
"No."
"And I put it in their drinks?"
"That's right. It'll dissolve. You wait until it's invisible and then you give it to them. And that will be that. You won't owe me or Masao anything."
"All right," he said.
Roederer stood. He straightened his jacket so that the pistol was hidden once again. "Very good."
"The money?"
"You do that for me, and everything goes away. You'll be a free man."
Roederer took out a note to cover his beer and laid it on the bar. He took a final swig, nodded his farewell, and made his exit.
*to be continued*
I know there was quite a lot of bad guy POV in this one, but I need a little bit of it to shed some light on what is going on and why. I hope you don't mind.
Let me know what you think :)