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Welcome back to another chapter! The story just keeps winding down and it makes me so sad. Luckily, there will be more to come! If you haven't voted yet on whether I should make a sequel or just add on a part two to this story, please do so by way of review or private message. I'd love to get all of the opinions that I possibly can before I decide, because I'm totally straddling the fence myself.

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Happy Reading!

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Chapter Twenty-Eight: Unshakeable Suspicions

Steve

Allie had come back from her lunch with Nicolas Medici in high spirits. She'd told me that he was just in town for business for a few days, and he'd wanted to have lunch with her because he was an old friend of her family's. It seemed like there was something that she wasn't telling me, but she didn't seem to be too bothered by it, so I didn't press her for answers. If there was something major going on, she would have told me.

I did put a call in to Interpol, though, and they connected me with Elliot Jonas, the lead on Nicolas Medici's case.

I told him that I knew Medici was on the island, but didn't mention him coming to find Allie. I just asked if we needed to keep an eye on him.

"You're welcome to, but I doubt you'll discover anything," Jonas told me with a sigh. "We've been watching this guy for nearly two decades now, and we've never been able to nail him for anything."

That wasn't encouraging. "Should I be expecting some bodies on my island?" I'd done some research on the Sicilian Mafia, but it hadn't yielded all that much. I was sure that, like any crime family, they would kill if it was necessary.

"I wouldn't worry about that," Jonas said. "From what I know of Nicolas Medici, he operates with a lot of honor. Of all of the things that he's wanted for, murder isn't on the list. Not that he's never done it, we just haven't ever suspected him of it."

Kind of reassuring… but also not. "Well, if anything develops, we'll be sure to let you know."

"I appreciate that, Commander. Enjoy the rest of your day."

"Thank you," I said and ended the call.

So, Medici had honor… but even those with honor could kill, if they felt like it was the right thing to do. Until he was off the island, it was probably best to keep my guard up.

As I sat back in my chair and wondered if there was another avenue that I could pursue to get information, I thought about what Allie had said about Medici. According to her, he'd been a friend of her mother's and she'd known him since her early childhood.

Which meant…

I still had Kol's number from when I'd snuck it from Allie's phone to ask him about marrying her, and I had dialed it within a few seconds. Surely, if Allie knew someone from her childhood, Kol would know the same person just as well. They were twins, after all.

Unfortunately, Kol didn't answer his phone.

"Hey," his voice said when the call rolled to voicemail. "Undoubtedly, I'm doing something awesome and am unable to come to the phone right now. Just leave your name and a short message, and I'll get back to you if I deem it worthy for a call back. Later!"

It beeped.

"Kol," I said. "This is Steve. I, uh… I have a concern about Allie. I think something is going on and I just can't put my finger on it. If you could give me a call back whenever you have a few minutes, maybe you can help clear some of this up. Thanks."

I hung up and put my phone back into my pocket with a sigh. Allie had told me that the lunch was just to catch up with an old friend. I believed her… for the most part. Maybe I was just more curious about why a guy like Nicolas Medici was so far from home.

When I'd asked Allie, she'd just shrugged and said that everyone needed a vacation and he'd never been to Hawaii before. That was sort of understandable, but… why come now? Something inside just told me that something was off. I couldn't shake the feeling. And my gut feelings rarely led me astray.

"Hey." Allie came into my office and smiled as she sat down in the chair across from me. "What are you working on?"

"Eh. Nothing, really," I said and closed my laptop. "What's up?"

"I've been doing some thinking."

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh. And?"

"Chin had a point yesterday when he said that this is Hawaii. There are places that can probably throw a wedding together in a few hours."

I wasn't quite sure where she was going with it. "If you don't want to plan a huge wedding, then don't. I'm okay with a small ceremony with only close friends and family. I just need to know a couple of weeks in advance so that I can tell my sister and my aunt. And my former CO." She hadn't met Joe yet, but I knew that they would get along great.

"What about a… soon wedding?" she asked me. "Like… within the next month."

The thought actually made me very happy. "I already know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. The sooner that starts, the better. Just let me know what you need me to do."

She grinned and stood. "I'm going to start doing some research, then. We have a lot of stuff to figure out."

"I give you full authority," I told her. "Wedding planning and I probably wouldn't get along very well."

She laughed, rolled her eyes, and asked me if she could go home early.

"Do that," I agreed. "You were tossing and turning all night."

"Sorry," she said, cringing. "Back hurts. I may go see a chiropractor."

"I'll probably be late tonight," I reminded her. "I promised to do a refresher self defense class for HPD."

"Got it." With another quick smile, she was gone.

Allie

I walked out of the last store of the day and stowed my purchases in the passenger seat before I headed home. Once there, I unloaded everything and began to put the groceries away. There were plenty of leftovers for dinner, so I didn't need to get anything ready.

After letting Gideon out to run around for a bit, I went into the living room and pulled my laptop onto my lap, already exhausted. Planning a wedding on such short notice was going to be rough, but it was nothing I couldn't handle. I'd worked for the CIA, for God's sake. I could handle anything.

The first thing that I did was pull up a wedding checklist online. It had a list of all of the things that I needed to do, so I began to go over it to see what I could go ahead and check off. I didn't have a location booked yet, but I thought that I would probably do it somewhere close to the beach. It would make for beautiful pictures.

Deciding that was a good place to start, I began to look up all of the places that I could do a beach wedding. There were so many, but the good news was that some of them seemed to specialize in short notice weddings. And, if we got married on a Friday evening, it would be way cheaper than a Saturday or Sunday wedding. Some of the locations even included the officiant in the cost. And even better, a few would set up and clean up for you.

I did a lot of research and wrote down a lot of information, and then I began to grow a little overwhelmed by all of the things that I needed to get done. So, I decided to set wedding planning aside for a while and work on something else. Something that I had decided very recently (as in, the day before). It had been a very hard decision, but I knew that it was the right one.

I had written so many of these letters before but, as I typed my name and other information at the top, I realized that it had never been so hard.

Governor Denning:

Please accept this letter as formal notification that I am leaving my position with the Five-O task force on October 13.

Thank you for the opportunities you have provided to me during my time with the task force. I am more than grateful to have had the opportunity of working with the team here.

If I can be of any assistance during this transition, please let me know.

Sincerely,

Allie Rhodes

I made sure that there was plenty of space for me to sign my name, and then I proofread it. Once I was satisfied, I printed it out and got started on my last official report for the governor. At this point, he knew that Steve and I were engaged, but he had still asked me for the occasional report, just to have another point of view.

I wondered who he was going to ask once I was no longer a member of the task force.

Once I was done, I printed the report and then went to get both papers from the printer. I signed my letter of resignation, put them both into an envelope, and addressed it. I would run it by the post office the next morning.

"It feels like a new beginning," I told Gideon when I let him back into the house.

He ignored me and began to gulp down the water I'd freshened up for him.

"Yeah, you don't care," I sighed. "Do you think you could be the ring bearer at my wedding, though? Steve has the cutest niece and she could probably do the flower girl thing, but you'd be a good ring bearer. Do you think you can handle it?"

He continued to ignore me.

"Fine. Just think about it." I sighed and went back to the living room, determined to make a dent in that checklist.

Once I had made a dent – mostly because I checked off a lot of things that I wouldn't be doing at my wedding – I put the laptop away, deciding that I'd done enough wedding planning for the day. And, there wasn't much more that I could do about it until I had decided on a date and a location. Hopefully, that would happen very soon.

My last task of the day was to wrap the present for Steve. I started with the letter, which I had decided I would write by hand. It was more personal that way, my father had always said. It took me nearly an hour and, once I was done, I got out the box, arranged everything inside just the way that I wanted it, and then taped it closed. Then, I took out the silver wrapping paper that I had picked up along with my groceries.

I'd never been the best at wrapping presents, but when I was done, I thought that it at least looked presentable. A gift bag probably would have been better, but I needed him to see everything in a certain order. Someday, I promised myself, I would spend a whole day learning how to properly wrap a present.

I wrote his name across the top of the box in black Sharpie, and then I stashed the box in my wall safe. There would be no chance that he would be able to try to peek. He wouldn't even know that there was a present for him.

"All done," I told Gideon, proud of myself for all that I had accomplished.

And so early, I thought as I looked at the clock on the wall.

Deciding that I had time to run by the post office, I picked up the envelope for the governor and asked Gideon, "Do you want to go for a quick ride with me?"

He loved car rides, so of course, he was eager to join me.

"I thought so," I laughed, and followed him to the car.

Steve

I had missed a call from Kol while I'd been teaching at the HPD, and I called him back as I walked out to my truck, hoping that he would answer.

He did. "Hey, future brother-in-law. What's going on? You said you were concerned about Allie or something? Is she getting cold feet?"

"I don't think so," I told him and climbed into my truck. "Actually, she said she wants to get married within the next month. We're together all of the time, anyway, so I guess it makes sense to just go ahead and make it legal."

"Nice!" he said. "So, what's the problem, then?"

I started the truck and began to pull out of the lot, unsure of how to bring it up. "Do you know Nicolas Medici?"

There was silence for a few moments and then he spoke cautiously. "Yeah. He's Italian. Very wealthy. Ties to the Sicilian Mafia. Why?"

"How well do you know him?"

He blew out a long breath. "He was good friends with my parents. We all visited Italy a few times and stayed with him. As far as his business goes, I don't know a whole lot. He comes from family money, obviously, and I know that he has his hand in a lot of different cookie jars."

"What about his Sicilian Mafia connection?" I asked. "What do you know about that?"

"He's an unofficial member. At least, he was unofficial the last time that I checked, which was quite a while ago. Call it a friends with benefits kind of thing. All of the benefits of a relationship without the actual relationship. He does stuff for them, they do stuff for him… but like I said, I don't think he's official. Why are you asking me all of this?"

"Because he showed up yesterday and had lunch with Allie."

"Seriously?" Kol sounded surprised, but not worried, which made me feel a little bit better. Surely, if there was anything to be worried about, Kol would have been panicking. "That's weird."

"Why?" I'd had the same feeling, but I didn't have a reason for my feeling. Maybe Kol would have one.

"He just rarely leaves his home in Italy," Kol said. "He has an empire to run, you know? When he leaves Italy, it's usually because he needs something."

"What could he need from Allie?"

"I have no idea," he said honestly. "Did Allie say anything about it?"

"Just that he was an old friend of your father's here on vacation and they'd just had lunch to catch up."

"He always did have a soft spot for my twin," he said. "It's entirely possible. I've just never known Nicolas Medici to take vacations. Who knows, though, maybe he really needed one."

"I just have a bad feeling," I confessed. "And after all of my training and everything that I've been through… I just can't shake it."

"What does Allie say?"

"She says that there's nothing to worry about and I think she really believes that. But maybe she's blinded by her friendship with this guy. And I just… feel like there's something else there."

"I'll come to Hawaii," he said after a few moments. "It's about time for another visit, anyway. Can you come and pick me up at the airport tomorrow?"

"I can," I agreed, "and it would make me feel better to have you here, but what do I tell Allie?"

"Just tell her that you called to talk to me about the wedding and I said that I wanted to come in and help. Trust me, weddings take a lot of planning and she'll be grateful for the help. And while I'm there, I can keep an eye on Nicolas and maybe get Allie to give me a little more detail about their lunch."

That sounded perfect. She always opened up to her twin, and she'd be especially likely to do so about Nicolas, since they both knew him. "Okay. Perfect. Do you know which flight you'll take?"

"I'm looking right now," he said. "And… ah. Perfect. I'll fly in tomorrow night at eight."

"That sounds great. I'll tell Allie when I go over there tonight."

"Cool. And thanks for calling me. Your concern is touching. I knew that I made a good decision when I told you that you could marry my sister."

I rolled my eyes. As if I would have just not asked her to marry me if he'd said no. I had really just called him because I had wanted his opinion on rings, but he had turned it into a me asking for her hand kind of thing, and I had just rolled with it. Especially since he'd said yes. "Yeah, I'm eternally grateful. I'll be waiting at the airport at eight."

"Awesome. I'll call you when I'm coming towards the doors. See you guys tomorrow."

"Bye, Kol." I hung up the phone and let out a breath.

It made me feel better that there would be another person on hand to look after Allie. Something about the way that she'd been acting the last couple of days had just made me feel uneasy. Something was up, even if Allie didn't really know it yet herself. And I was not going to let anything happen to her.

Not ever.

I pulled up to my house and ran inside really quickly to pack a fresh bag, wondering when I would be able to just move all my stuff. Or maybe she would be moving in to my house… Either way, we'd be living together soon.

The thought made me so very happy.

Allie

"Hey," I greeted Steve when he stepped into the shower with me. "How did the class go?"

He kissed me. "It was okay. I swear, the police academy's standards go down every single year."

I laughed and kissed him again before moving so that he could step under the spray. "Not everyone can be a Navy SEAL."

"You don't have to be a Navy SEAL, but some common sense would be nice."

"Yeah, that's not so common anymore." I moved to step out. "I'll let you shower. I need to start drying my hair."

Forty minutes later we were in bed together, breathing heavily. I wiped my hand across my sweaty brow and laughed. "Why do I ever take a shower when I know you're coming home?"

"Beats me," he shrugged. "Speaking of homes… which house are we going to live in?"

That was actually a good question. I hadn't thought about it much. "Um… I don't know. Do you have a vote? I mean, I know that your house has been in your family for generations…"

"I'm not a super sentimental guy," he said. "I mean, maybe I used to be when it came to that house, but your house is much newer and has a few more amenities. It might be better to live here. But do you own the house, or does the governor?"

"It's in my name," I said, and was glad that I'd made that a requirement. "So, if you want to live here, I'm in."

"You have nicer furniture, too," he pointed out. "I'll have to just sell all of mine when I put the house up for sale."

"We can build a nice little savings account," I laughed. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. My father's car will need to go in the shop out back, though. That's nonnegotiable."

I laughed. "It's not like I'm using that shop, anyway. I just store what few tools that I have out there."

"I'm hiring movers," he declared after thinking for a minute. "I don't have the time or the patience to move all of that stuff."

"Whatever you want."

He kissed me and then said, "Oh, yeah. Kol is coming tomorrow."

That surprised me. "Really? He didn't say anything to me."

He shrugged. "I called him and told him that the wedding would be happening sooner than expected, so he wanted to be here to help with whatever you needed. He's a good brother."

"He's not bad," I agreed and smiled. "I can't believe that this is all happening so fast."

"We could wait on the wedding," he teased me. "A few months… maybe a couple of years."

"No way." I moved to straddle his hips, leaning forward to push his arms down to his sides. "You're not getting out of this one, Steve McGarrett."

"I don't want out."

"Good." I leaned in to kiss him and we spent another wonderful night together.