Hello again. I'm glad you guys liked the previous chapter and the story so far - I wasn't sure you would. Thanks for your support, as always. It's incredibly motivating.

Steve didn´t have to wait long. The conversation in the other room stopped and the door opened. He heard the sound of several pairs of feet as they came through into the room.

He opened his eyes and looked. There were three men in the room with him now. The guard who had helped to drag him across the compound was nearest to him. At the edge of the room was the big man who had beaten him.

The third man was walking toward him. Steve´s vision was blurred. He couldn't focus.

"Jesus, Savage," the man said to the big man. "You didn't go all out on him, did you?"

"You told me to—"

"I know what I said," the man said. "I said rough him up. I didn't say half kill him."

"I'm sorry, Mr.—"

"Never mind. Wake him up."

The big man strode across the room. Steve felt strong hands beneath his arms. He was hauled upright and dragged over to a sink. The tap squeaked as it was turned and Steve´s head was jammed down into the bowl. Water splashed onto his skin and across his scalp. It brought him around and, as he blinked his eyes, he saw that the water ran red with the blood from his wounds.

The man spoke again. "Sit him down."

Steve was dragged back across the room to a wooden chair. He was dropped onto it, powerful hands locked onto his shoulders to stop him from sliding off it.

"Are you with us, Steve? You don´t mind if I call you Steve, do you?"

Steve looked up, but his eyes wouldn't focus.

His head throbbed with the start of what he knew would be a brutal migraine, but after a few slow blinks, his vision cleared enough for him to look at the room more carefully. It was small. The walls were concrete, and there was a table with two more chairs in there.

A second chair was drawn up opposite his and the man who had been speaking lowered himself onto it.

"Come on, Steve. I was expecting a warmer welcome. I´ve been looking forward to finally meeting you."

Steve glanced up. The man was sitting, but he could tell that he would have been taller than six feet when he stood. He had an average build that was showing the spread of a lazy middle age. He wore a white shirt, dark pants, and a tie that was completing the business look. His dark hair was neatly trimmed and his skin looked freshly tanned.

Steve recognized him.

Paul Roederer.

"You?" he said.

"I´m glad you remember me."

Steve did. Even though they had never met in person, it was hard to erase this man´s face and name off his mind. Roederer´s intention to join forces with the men responsible for enslaving children at the cocoa plantations, including Jamba, was forever ingrained in Steve´s mind. He was a fool if he had believed Roederer was any better than them. That maybe he hadn´t known the truth about the whole thing. The sole fact he was standing in front of Steve right now suggested otherwise. Maybe he was one of them the whole time, even. How could they miss it?

"I'm sorry about Savage," Roederer said, indicating the big man behind him. "He's heard a lot about you, and then you put on a little show in the canteen this morning. Your reputation precedes you—not that it'll help you in here.

Steve glared at him in disbelief.

"You did all this?"

"Did all what, Steve?"

"This. Setting me up."

"That's one way to describe it."

"Why go to all this trouble? You found me… if you wanted to—"

"If I wanted to have you shot?" He laughed again. "God, no, Steve. That would be much too easy. It wouldn't do, letting you off the hook as easily as that."

Steve reached up and pressed his fingers to his temple. He felt dizzy.

"You know, Steve, you cost me a lot of money. My company, friends, family, even. My own son doesn´t want to talk to me anymore."

"Is that surprising?" Steve said. "You knew all along, didn´t you. About what Simon Dietrich and Khalfani Iwu were doing. About the kids."

"I did, yes. But I didn´t participate, as you may think."

"That doesn´t make you better than them," Steve stood his ground.

Roederer smiled. "I´m not sure you understand business, Steve. It was a necessary evil. I didn´t deserve to get dragged down with those fools."

Steve balled his hands into fists, rage threatening to bubble over. His mind went back to the terrible picture of young boys living captive in filth, forced to work hard without being taken care of. He remembered the tears rolling down Jamba´s cheeks when he had picked him up in one of those plantations, frightened and hurt, and carried him away to safety. People he had known, good people, had died trying to save the kids like these. Even Danny and Steve himself just barely made it out alive. But none of this meant anything to the man in front of him.

"A necessary evil?" Steve snapped, unable to keep the anger at bay. He began to stand, longing for Roederer´s blood, but the big guy quickly pushed him back down with ease.

A guard stepped forward, one hand on his baton, ready to step in if necessary.

Steve glared at the guard. "Why?" he asked. "Why would you help such a man?"

The guard didn´t answer.

"You see, Steve," Roederer began. "You and your friends robbed me of my life. But I still have money and influence. And you can buy anything if you have enough of either. Even loyalty. Men like Savage. The guards. All the same. Of course, I can buy the opposite for you. A cramped cell. Dreadful food. Men who will compete to make your life as miserable as possible and, when the time comes–and it won´t come for months yet, Steve–men who will clamber over each other to kill you in the most painfully creative way.

"This is just to make me suffer?"

"Of course. I´ve been thinking about that ever since you took everything that mattered from me. I want you to suffer and I want you to know why are you suffering. Killing you was never going to be enough. I want you to slowly lose everything I did. The job you worked so hard for. Your house. Your friends. Your son."

"Don´t you dare to talk about him," Steve warned.

"What?" Roederer laughed. "You think he´d want to visit you in here? You dragged him to Hawaii across the world and then left him alone, Steve. He´ll hate you. Just like your friends will. Why would they stick to a murderer?"

Steve refused to believe it. His friends would know he hadn´t done that, wouldn´t they? Danny would know. But Roederer´s words about Jamba created doubt in his head. He was right about that part, after all. He pushed that thought away.

"What about Lynn?" he asked instead. "How does she fit into all this?"

"Surely that´s obvious now, Steve. I needed to lure you out, and then a reason to convict you."

"Convict me? I haven´t had my trial yet."

"Innocent until proven guilty? You´re not that naive, Steve. You know that´s not how it always works in the real world. Your sentence is the only thing left to be determined. That´s another thing I can purchase. I´m going to arrange for it to be life. Well," he corrected with a chuckle, "life, for as long as I like. You´ll die when I say so."

Roederer gestured and Steve was hoisted out of the chair.

"You´re going to get another beating tonight, Steve. It´ll be the same tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that. Every day, Steve, over and over and over until you can´t tell where you end and the pain begins. I want you to think about me and what you did. Every time they leave you in a heap on the floor, I want you to see my face. Because I´m going to be outside, rebuilding my life. And yours is over. The only way you´ll leave this place is in a box."

Roederer nodded and Savage held him upright. He had no strength in his legs, but the man was strong enough to hold him up.

Roederer took a pair of knuckledusters from the table. He slid his fingers inside, closed his fist, and struck Steve in the side of his face. The metal cut into his cheek and clashed against the bone. His mouth filled with blood. "I wanted to do this for months," he said.

Steve barely heard the words through the ringing in his ears, though. His vision blurred, and Roederer became a mere silhouette.

"Oh, and I almost forgot," Roederer said with a grin. "If I were you I would think twice before opening my mouth and telling anyone about what we have just talked about here. In fact, I'd like to ask you to do quite the opposite. To help me out a bit. "

"Help you out?" Steve slurred, spilling a mouthful of blood as she did so.

"Yes," Roederer said. "I want you to plead guilty, Steve."

"And why would I do that?"

Roederer let out an annoyed sigh. "You really want to do this the hard way, don't you?" He turned to the guard. "Show him."

"Which one?" the guard asked while fumbling for his phone.

"Both."

The guard strode closer and turned the phone toward Steve so he could have a look.

Steve could sense where this was going. Hoping he was wrong, he looked up at the screen. The picture was taken from a distance and it took his brain a few moments to actually understand what he was looking at.

When it did, a sudden chill ran down his spine.

There was a man on the picture, sitting on a bench in an empty holding cell, and even though a part of his face was obscured by his hands, there was no doubt it was Danny. Steve's heartbeat sped up and anger surged through his veins.

"Son of a bitch!" he snapped, stabbing his eyes into the man in front of him. "What did you do?"

Roederer shook his head. "Oh, this?" he pointed his finger at the phone and grinned. "I have nothing to do with this. I didn't even count on him getting arrested, to be honest. But I'm not complaining about that at all. Because as you probably figured out already, what happens to him next is my decision. Which will be based on your cooperation, of course."

Through the haze of fog in his head, Steve could barely think about what this meant. There was no doubt Roederer's connections were powerful enough to see through his threat. And he couldn't allow Danny to go to jail, no matter what.

Before he had a chance to say anything, the guard took away the phone and tapped his fingers on the screen a few more times before turning it back to Steve. This time the screen wasn't still. A video, maybe?

He didn't recognize the place. It was a cozy room, and from this angle, Steve could see the sofa in the corner and a big TV right in front of it. There were people moving in there, but Steve had to squint his eyes several times to get a clear picture.

His heart skipped a beat when he recognized the people in there. Shaking his head in denial, he kept staring at the feed. Grace was the first one he noticed. She was sitting on the side of a couch, staring ahead of her with a frown. Then Steve's sight fell on two boys. Charlie, watching the TV, and Jamba, curled up on the couch right next to Grace, who had her hand wrapped up around the boy's shoulders. But he could make out two more people, HPD officers, lurking around. After a few short moments, Steve realized none of them seemed to be aware of the camera.

Scrambling the energy fueled by a sudden flood of rage, Steve lurched forward, but he didn't have enough strength to escape Savage's clutches. He locked his gaze with Roederer.

"It's live. In case you wonder," Roederer said.

"You come anywhere near them and I swear—"

"You'll do what?" Roederer smirked. "You can't do anything from here, Steve. Plus, there's a little bit too late for that anyway."

"What are you talking about?"

Roederer didn't answer. He dialed a number on his cell phone instead, gesturing toward the screen for Steve to keep watching.

There was no sound, but he could clearly see one of the officers took his phone out of the pocket, glanced at the screen, and answered an incoming call.

"Bring them in," Roederer said and ended the call.

Steve shook his aching head when the officer moved to the kids and started to talk to them. "No," he said, wishing this was all just a bad dream.

"He's telling them it's safe for them to return home," Roederer said. "He'll gladly drive them."

It was impossible for Steve to tear his gaze away from the screen. Especially from Jamba, who shook his head and curled up closer to Grace when the officer offered him a hand. Steve's heart was breaking at the sight, but he didn't have time to think about the fear and uncertainty his son was no doubt feeling right now.

"Stop it," he said without thinking.

Roederer didn't react and the kids began to stand up.

Steve forced himself to look up to Roederer's face. "I said stop!"

"It doesn't have to be this way," Roederer said. "I want just you. There's no need of taking anyone else down with you, is it, Steve? I can arrange for your partner to be released and those kids to stay safe right where they are. It's all up to you."

Sucking in a deep, panicked breath when the kids disappeared from his sight, Steve nodded. "All right," he blurted out. "Fine. Just stop this!"

Roederer didn't hide his satisfaction. He redialed the number, and Steve watched the man on the screen answer the call again.

"False alarm, man. Just stay where you are," Roederer said to the phone.

Dizzy with relief, Steve closed his eyes for a moment, breathing through his blood-clogged nostrils.

"I guess you get the point," Roederer said. "Your friends, family, anyone you have ever cared about… You so much as hint my involvement, or anything else about this, and their blood will be on your hands," Roederer threatened. "You plead guilty and none of my people will lay a finger on them."

"How can I know you're not lying?" Steve asked, well aware that the kids were still in danger, still in one room with the person who they couldn't trust to. And there was no guarantee Danny would be released either if he agreed.

Roederer shrugged. "You can't," he said. "I guess you'll just have to take my word."

Steve scoffed. The bastard's word was all he had, though.

His head was in a spin. He knew his fate had been sealed. He'd give up his life for his ohana without a moment's hesitation. So if the price for their freedom and safety was his own, so be it.

"You stole my life from me, Steve," Roederer said after a moment of Steve's thoughtful silence. "Now I´m going to take yours."

*to be continued*

I know, I know... poor Steve. I promise I'll be nice to him for once in another story. Or at least I'll try.

Please share your opinion. I appreciate every single one of them.