…..

Thanks for returning for another chapter of this story and thank you so much to all of you that have reviewed, favorited, followed, or sent me a private message. You've stuck with me through all of these chapters, and I'm glad that you seem to be enjoying reading the story as much as I've enjoyed writing it.

I'm so sorry about my hiatus; there was a death in the family and I didn't much feel like writing while dealing with that. Please bear with me and have patience for a bit longer. Hopefully I'll be back to a regular schedule soon.

I'm thinking about writing another Hawaii Five-O fiction after I finish with this one, so I wanted to ask you all if that's something you'd be interested in? As I've stated before, I'm still pretty new to this world (and not the biggest fan of the new season), so I didn't know if you all thought this story was good enough to want to read another story by me. Let me know!

Happy Reading!

…..

Chapter Eight: Deception

Steve

"Anything?" I asked Roger as he joined the rest of us at the breakfast table.

"Nothing." He gave me a sympathetic smile and asked Max to hand him the syrup. "We're still taking shifts watching."

"For all the good it's doing us," I muttered.

Everyone wisely didn't try to touch that.

Edward entered the room with a deep sigh. "Is that pancakes I smell?"

"How do you smell pancakes?" Kol gave his uncle a bewildered look. "They don't smell like anything until you put stuff on them."

"Maybe he smelled the homemade maple syrup, genius." Max rolled his eyes at his younger brother as if he was almost intolerable.

Kol didn't seem fazed by it in the least. Rather, he smiled and shrugged. "Perhaps. And thank you so much for the compliment. It's not every day that my genius is recognized." Before Max could rebut, he looked to me. "Steve, did you know that Max works a lot with machines?"

I wasn't entirely sure where he was going with this, but I knew that he had to be going somewhere. "I think Allie mentioned it once."

"Well, it's because he's not as charming as the rest of us. Doesn't relate well to people, poor fellow."

Max opened his mouth to shout back, face red, but their father snapped, "That's enough." His tone left no room for argument, and both Max and Kol stared down at their plates like chastised children.

"Yes, let's speak of something happy." Edward had finished fixing himself a plate of pancakes and was taking a seat next to Roger. "Did anyone catch the opera on TV last night?"

"I did," Roger said. "It was lovely."

They began to speak of the singers and their performances, and I tuned them out. I hadn't been watching much television of late and, even if I had, it wouldn't have been opera. Allie had once mentioned that she enjoyed the occasional opera, though, and I knew that she would have been able to hold her own in such a conversation while I sat at her side, beyond lost.

Once I'd finished my breakfast, I washed my plate and then went upstairs to my room. There wasn't much to do, unfortunately. Everyone was scared that going out into Paris would alert Medici to our presence there, for surely he had people watching security cameras. So, we were holed up like foxes until we could come up with a plan.

As of now, we were working on finding Trent, while also keeping an eye on the museum. An old friend of Edward was tailing Medici as best he could without drawing attention to himself, but Medici was giving nothing away. Likely, he knew that we would be watching him. He mostly just stayed at his residence in Paris and traveled to the occasional restaurant.

I laid down on my bed and stared up at the ceiling, wishing (as I always did) that Allie was there with me. It had been a month since she'd been taken, and it was getting harder and harder every day. I didn't know how much longer I could be patient, but I also knew that I had to; Allie would never forgive me for getting her brother killed.

My phone began to ring and I almost considered letting it roll to voicemail, but the surprise at seeing Catherine's name there changed my mind. "Hey, Catherine. What's going on?"

"I'm sorry if this is a bad time," she began, "but I've been doing some digging. I know that you didn't ask me to, but I thought that maybe I could be helpful."

"Digging on what?" I sat up, suddenly alert.

"On the music box that Danny told me about. He said something about it being Russian, and I have some contacts in Russia from my Navy Intel days, so I reached out. Nothing, really, just made a few calls and sent some e-mails. And, well… I found something that you're not going to like."

My heart stopped. I managed to choke out, "What is it? Don't leave anything out."

"Not in my nature," she assured me. "The box was created by a famed Russian artist and given to the tsar at the time, who intended to give it to one of his daughters for her birthday. Unfortunately, he was killed before he had the chance. The family fell from power and the box was recovered by a very powerful family, who were persuaded to donate it to the government."

My brows furrowed. "Why would the government be interested in a music box?"

"I'm getting there. I see that your patience hasn't improved."

I scowled. "Continue."

"So, the box was given to the military many years after it had been made. They intended to strip the gold to fund weapons, but then a general realized that there was a secret compartment in the box that they could use to hide valuable information."

"Yeah, that's why Medici wants it," I told her. "It holds bank codes or something that an ancestor of his hid in the box."

"The box only went missing forty years ago, Steve. The only ancestor that could have hidden anything in there was his father. Before that, the Russians had it. It went missing from the museum where they were keeping it and they've been searching for it ever since."

Something just wasn't adding up, but I was having trouble putting my finger on it… "Wait… What did the Russians hide in the box?"

Catherine was silent for a moment too long.

"Cat?" I demanded. "What did they hide in the box? Why does Medici want it badly enough to be willing to kill for it?"

She sighed. "The rumor is that nuclear launch codes are inside."

My heart stopped again. "Russian nukes. Medici wants access to Russian nukes. But… why?"

"To sell?" she suggested. "To use? I don't know. But my contact is certain that's what was inside the box when it was taken. If I had to put money on it, I would say that Medici never hid money inside. He was keeping the codes to sell."

"And then Allie's mother stole the box and he was unable to sell them."

"Now, I'm guessing someone wants them and is offering Medici a lot of money to get them. Enough that he was willing to kidnap Allie to get the box back."

I squeezed my eyes shut against the panic that was filling my chest. "If all of this is true… and I'm inclined to believe that it is, then that means that we can't let him get his hands on that box. We don't know who the buyer is and we don't know who the target would be."

"I know." Catherine sounded sad, and that made it so much worse. "And Steve… Danny said that this guy had some kind of moral code that wouldn't let him harm Allie or the baby, but…." She didn't want to say it.

I felt a stinging behind my eyes, an indication that I was going to cry. The realization was like a gunshot to the chest. "But how much money would it take to adjust that moral code?"

"Exactly," she said. "Look, I want to help. What can I do?"

But I didn't even know. We were already doing everything that we could… "We're trying to find Trent right now. If we can find and obtain him, then we can extract Allie. Can you do more research on Medici and try to find any and all properties associated with him. It won't be one that he owns outright, but…"

"Got it," she assured me. "I'll start right away. I'll use all of the contacts that I have. We'll get Allie back."

I nodded but was too choked up to speak.

"I'm e-mailing you all of this information so that you can share it with everyone else that's helping you. There's a lot, so I'll have to break it up. Wait about twenty minutes before you check."

"Yeah, will do. And Cat?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you." I heard my voice crack and didn't even care. "Thank you for finding this."

"No problem."

We hung up and I began to pace the room. I needed to tell the others about what Catherine had found, but I wasn't ready yet. First of all, I needed her e-mails with all of the information. Secondly, I needed to get myself under control so that I could present it with clarity and answer questions.

I'd been on countless dangerous missions – missions that were so tough that I knew there was a very real possibility that I could die. But fearing for Allie's safety was a million times worse. And fearing for my child… it broke me into pieces.

I fell onto the bed and pressed my face into a pillow as I began to cry. I'd been holding it back for so long in order to be strong, but I knew that I needed some kind of emotional release. A little over twenty minutes later, I was cried out and I hurried to check my e-mail.

Catherine's messages were waiting for me, and I quickly downloaded all of the attachments and began to go through them. She'd already given me most of the information over the phone, but I picked up a few more tidbits with my reading.

When I was through going through the documents – and certain that I was done crying – I gathered my laptop and headed down the stairs, calling for Kol as I did.

"Gather everyone in the living room," I told him, and the look on my face was enough to stop him from asking questions.

Once in the living room, I hooked up my laptop to the TV screen like Roger had shown me and then watched as everyone filed in one by one. Some sat, some stood, and Kol was the last one to enter. He gave me a nod as he took up a position along the back wall, "That's everyone."

"I have a friend that I worked with in Naval Intelligence," I began. "Catherine Rollins. My friend Danny, from back home, told her about Allie and what we were looking for."

Max looked outraged. "That could have put Allie at risk!"

I held up a hand to silence him. "I'd trust her with my life. And without her, we never would have discovered this." With a few keystrokes, I brought up the first document. "The music box was created by a Russian artist as a gift for a tsar's daughter. But after the tsars were exterminated, the Russian government got their hands on it."

"We've already looked into the backstory," Max interrupted. I kind of wanted to punch him in the face. "Why are you showing us this?"

"Can you keep your mouth shut and let me finish?" I was definitely through trying to convince him to like me; his eyes narrowed and his face reddened. Off to the side, Kol was fighting – and losing – to keep from grinning.

"Moving on," I said after a moment of silence. "The box only went missing forty years ago."

"I thought that Medici's grandfather had the box and hid the codes inside?" Allie's father asked me. "He's dead for at least fifty years."

"Medici lied about what was in the box." No one seemed too surprised by that. "What the box actually contains is much, much worse than a few bank codes. Turns out, a Russian general decided to hide the nuclear codes in the box and then display the box in a museum."

Edward seemed thoughtful. "No one would suspect that the codes would be there."

"The hiding place was perfect," I agreed. "Until the box was stolen from the museum." I flipped through some of the files on the laptop so that they could see the evidence. "The box was eventually purchased by a Medici – the rumor mill isn't sure which one – and they must have discovered the codes there."

"Russian nukes…" Roger sounded breathless. "It's like an awful conspiracy theory."

"Something like that," Max said, dark eyes locked on me. "So, Medici has the codes to a Russian nuke?"

"We don't think so," I replied. "He loves money, so we think that he wanted to sell the codes. But then someone found out and stole the box from him."

Alex's shock was nearly palpable. "Christine…"

I nodded. "Your wife. She took the box, hid it, and then ran so that Medici wouldn't come after you or your family – only her. Of course, that didn't work in the long run, but… she tried."

Kol looked just as surprised by this news. "So, our mom didn't leave us because she didn't want to be a mother anymore. She left because… she didn't want us to be in danger."

Max was speechless, for the first time since I'd met him.

I pressed on. "The codes must still be inside. Why else would Medici be willing to kidnap someone? Why go to all of this trouble just for a little more money when he already has everything short of the world?"

"It does make sense," Edward sighed. "But it also complicates things. Before, we were willing to do anything to help Allie get the box to Medici and free Trent. Now…"

"Now, we can't let Medici get his hands on those codes." Kol's expression was one of immense sadness. "But if he doesn't get that box…"

"No." Alex's voice was firm as he stood. "Allie is not going to be harmed. Nor is Trent. We'll come up with something."

Max spoke up. "I'll get started working on a replica of the box. We may need it." He looked to me and I saw no resentment there – quite the improvement. "I need as many pictures of the box as you have."

I nodded. "I'll e-mail them to you."

"Good." He stood and moved for the front door. "I'll need materials."

Edward stood and began to follow him. "I'll come with you. You'll need my help."

And then they were gone.

"What do the rest of us do now?" Roger asked uncertainly, looking around at everyone.

Alex answered. "The same stuff we were doing before. Trying to find Trent and keeping an eye on the museum." He then looked to me. "We need to get a message to Allie so that she can help us keep the box from Medici."

Of course, I knew that, but… "That's going to be difficult without being able to get close to her and with Medici's people keeping an eye out for us."

"We'll all be thinking about it," Kol said. "Surely one of us can come up with something."

"Yes," Alex agreed. "And we'll keep an eye out for opportunities. I'll take over surveillance."

Roger, not knowing what else to do, followed Allie's father out of the room. One by one, all of the others also filed out, off to their own respective tasks.

"I can't believe this," Kol said once he and I were the only ones left in the room. He threw himself down onto the couch and pressed the back of his hand against his eyes. "It was complicated before and now it's just borderline impossible."

I refused to accept that. "It's not impossible." I sat down on the wingback chair. "Hard, yes, but we have a good team here."

A small smile curled Kol's lips as he looked over at me, eyes weary. "You didn't even grow up in this lifestyle. How do you know how good the team is?"

"For starters, none of you have been caught. And from all that I've heard here, that's not due to a scant amount of crime."

He smiled sheepishly. "You're not planning to turn anyone in when all of this is over, are you?"

"I could never turn in anyone that helped me recover my wife and child."

"She's not your wife yet," he pointed out. "But soon enough. I get your point. Okay." He sat up and sighed. "I'm going to call my contacts back and see if any of them have found anything about where Medici might be keeping Trent."

"I asked Catherine to reach out to her contacts as well."

He nodded as he stood. "Good. She was a big help in figuring out all of this. Just imagine if we let him get his hands on some nuclear launch codes… Wouldn't they have just changed the codes when they realized that they'd been stolen?"

"Ideally," I said. "But apparently, in the Russian system, that's why the codes are impossibly long and have to be hidden so well. In order to change the codes, you need to enter the old codes. Which they can't do, because they don't have the old codes."

"And they can't just disable the nukes so that no one can use them against them?"

"Apparently not," I sighed. "They can't get close enough to them without the codes."

"Those damn codes."

"I think they're hoping that someone just stole the box for its beauty and will never realize what they have."

"That would be ideal." Kol gave me a small smile and then began to leave the room. "I'll be in my room making some calls if you have another breakthrough."

The living room was quiet with everyone gone, and I gave myself the task of organizing all of the hard copies of the information Catherine had sent. Once it was organized, I began to read through it again, determined to know it so well that I wouldn't need the documents anymore.

I needed to come up with a plan to get that information to Allie.

As quickly as possible.

Allie

The pasta had been marvelous. Almost as good as you could find in Italy, but not quite. Still, I'd requested chicken alfredo because I seemed to be craving it all of the time. One of the more positive effects of pregnancy.

"A nice bottle of white would be really lovely right about now," I sighed as I cleaned up the dining table. "But, apparently, one cannot drink while pregnant." One of the more negative sides to pregnancy.

Once everything was cleaned up, I decided that it was time to go to bed. I had done enough heist planning for the day, and I was very, very tired. Pregnancy tired was even worse than out-all-day-on-a-mission tired.

In the bathroom, I took a long shower and tried to keep my thoughts away from all of the memories of my showers with Steve. I'd found that I was a lot more productive when I didn't think about him, even though I missed him terribly and wanted to just picture him all day long.

What I missed most was his involvement in the pregnancy. He hadn't been there for the morning sickness, or any of my ultrasounds so far, or the cravings. I just hated it.

Once out of the shower and dressed in my comfy pajamas, I put my hair up in a towel to dry and got started on my nighttime skincare regimen. Pregnancy hormones were not doing any favors for my skin, so I had dedicated myself to a very strict regimen with all of the best products (thanks to Medici's deep pockets).

After my hair was dry and I was ready for bed, I stared at myself in the full-length mirror in the bedroom. I didn't look any different, thanks in large part to the morning sickness that had made me lose weight rather than gain. In fact, I didn't look even a little pregnant. Probably a good thing, from the standpoint of pulling a heist.

I was about to turn away when I felt it… a flutter.

"Was that…?" I wondered aloud, but I didn't even finish the sentence before I felt it again.

The baby had moved.

And I had felt it for the first time.

Unbidden tears sprang to my eyes and fell before I had a chance to compose myself. It was such a joyous occasion…

And my joyous tears turned to angry sobs as I realized that Steve had missed yet another pregnancy milestone.