…..

Welcome back to another chapter! Someone said that they felt like it was getting slow, and I have to agree, but that was the plan all along. It's about to speed up, I promise. I just thought that it was really important to show the frustration of Steve and Allie's separation. Being pregnant is hard enough, but being pregnant without your significant other present is doubly so. But like I said, things are about to pick up quite a bit.

So, I just wanted to say that I LOVED episode 6 of season 9 (I've watched it about ten times so far), but then I felt like the next episode was just kind of bleh. I feel like Junior and Tani aren't as dynamic as I'd like them to be, and I also feel like things are getting so predictable. At this point, I'm definitely going to stick with it just because I'm so invested, but I really hope that the writers go back to the way it was in the beginning – exciting and full of mystery. And Steve needs a good love interest. Also, what happened to Amber? Danny also needs a love interest. Okay, I'm done now.

Thank you so much to everyone that has read, favorited, followed, reviewed, and private messaged me. I love hearing from you all. Your loyalty and kindness are appreciated more than you know.

Happy Reading!

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Chapter Twelve: Are You Lonesome Tonight?

Steve

I walked into the kitchen and saw Roger sitting at the table, typing furiously on his laptop. He looked like he'd been up all night, and I was willing to put money down that the half-empty mug of coffee to his right had been refilled more than a couple of times. As of right now, there was always at least one tech person keeping an eye on the museum in case something happened.

It made me glad that I'd never been a techie.

"Good morning," I greeted him.

He jumped as if there'd been a gunshot, arms slinging out to the side and sending his coffee mug crashing to the ground. The dark brown liquid seeped out of the broken mug like a puddle of blood, running smoothly over the pristine white tile.

"Sorry," I apologized sheepishly when Roger shot me a glare.

Kol entered just then, assessed the scene, and laughed. "It's not your fault, Steve. These techies are delicate, see. You have to approach them with caution. Next time, try tiptoeing in whilst humming a soothing melody."

Roger swore at Kol as he stood and began to clean up the mess. "I've been up all night."

"I figured," I told him. "And I appreciate everything that you're doing."

He grumbled something that sounded like, 'at least someone does'.

"Oh, you know that I appreciate you," Kol said and moved for the coffeemaker on the kitchen counter. "Any progress?"

As Roger mopped up the spilled coffee, he filled us in. "In one of her messages, Allie said that Medici had taken her to see Trent and then there'd been a bit of a car ride, but not too far. So, he has to be close. We've been combing through traffic cam footage of the day that Allie said they arrived, trying to trace the cars back to where they might be holding Trent. But, we're also keeping an eye on them now to see if they go back there."

"Sounds like a solid plan." Kol handed me the mug of coffee that he'd just made and started in on another cup for himself. "If we can find Trent, then we can extract him and Allie at the same time and get out of here." He looked at me. "You could coordinate an extraction, right?"

I nodded. "No problem. But wouldn't we be worried about retaliation?"

"Not if we can pin a crime on him." Edward walked into the room then and gave Kol a knowing look.

Kol's eyes lit with understanding. "Brilliant. Frame him for any kind of crime and get him locked up for a while."

"A while isn't forever," I pointed out. "And that could just make his grudge against us even worse."

"I don't plan to let him get out." Before Kol could take a drink of his coffee, Edward took it from him and continued speaking. "We'll have to get into Interpol's database, look for a big crime, and fill in some of the blanks for them."

"They'll have his fingerprints when they catch him for a smaller crime, and that will point them towards the bigger crime in the database."

Edward looked to Roger. "Start looking into Interpol's database for unsolved crimes that could work. Keep me posted."

Roger shut the lid of his laptop and scooped it off of the table. "As soon as I sleep a while. I'll let Carter know, though."

"Appreciate it," Edward said and looked at me. "You look like you got some good sleep."

"I did," I nodded. "I've felt refreshed ever since I've talked to Allie."

"Me too, I must confess."

Kol smiled. "She said she'd call today, right? So that we can get some more information?"

"Yes, but we won't have long. She couldn't even text very much at once because she didn't want Medici to get suspicious. She's going to call us today from the bathroom and pretend to be taking a shower."

"Well, a short conversation will be better than nothing." Kol took a sip of his coffee and grimaced. "Who made this?"

"You did," I reminded him.

"Someone should fire me." He turned away and hunted for some creamer.

Edward moved closer to me. "I know that you'll want to have a private conversation with her and I don't begrudge you that, but please allow us to have at least a few minutes to talk with her."

"Of course."

Kol found his creamer and dumped a pile into his mug. "There. That should do it."

I shook my head and started to leave. "I'll let you all know when Allie calls."

"We'll be waiting!" Kol called after me.

So will I.

Allie

It was so hard to act normal when I knew that I'd be talking to my family and to Steve at the end of the day. I'd been going through my regular routine, but I was shaking with excitement on the inside. Medici hadn't seemed to notice, as he'd only visited once around noon to deliver my lunch and check in, and he hadn't stayed for very long.

Finally – finally – it was late evening, about the time that I normally took my showers. I had wanted to take a shower the night before so that I could talk to Steve, but we had ultimately decided against it. I normally only showered every other day, and I didn't want to give Medici any reason at all to be suspicious.

Waiting had nearly killed me.

I gathered up my new change of clothes and then headed into the bathroom where there was no security camera footage. As soon as I'd closed and locked the door behind me, I went into hyperdrive. I pulled out my phone and dialed as I began to undress.

Steve answered on the second ring. "Allie."

I felt a rush of excitement at the sound of his voice, almost as if we were teenagers having a secret phone conversation in the middle of the night. "Steve. Hi."

"How are you? How have you been feeling?"

I tested the water and then stepped into the shower, putting Steve on speakerphone as I did. "Fine. How is everyone doing? Any closer to finding Trent? Did the information that I provided help at all?"

"It definitely narrowed down our search radius, since Medici owns properties all over Europe and likely has even more that aren't in his name. So, you narrowed it down quite a lot."

I spoke the words that I knew he didn't want to say. "But not enough. The circle is still too big."

His hesitation was all the answer that I needed. "Not necessarily. All of the techs are working on it. But Medici obviously isn't stupid enough to keep Trent on one of the properties that actually has his name on it, so they've been looking into aliases, accomplices… something will turn up."

"I hope so." And I sincerely did. I wanted all of this to be over already. "I wish that I could help narrow it down further, but they drove down all different kinds of roads so that they were throwing me off."

"You were stressed," Steve excused.

But that didn't make me feel any better. "I'm trained better than that, Steve. I worked for the CIA, for God's sake. At the time, all that I was thinking about was seeing Trent and making sure that he was okay. And then I guess it all still felt so surreal…"

"Hey, hey, hey," he said soothingly. "Don't worry about that right now, okay? The important thing right now is that you and the baby are safe. Everything is going to be fine. We're all working round the clock on this, okay?"

I nodded, certain that he was telling the truth. "Okay. How are you getting along with everybody?"

"Not to brag, but I think that your father really likes me."

I couldn't help but smile at that. "Of course he does. He has no reason not to."

"I don't know, I kind of thought that he would be mad at me for not asking his permission before I asked you to marry me. That's the classic thing to do, right?"

"And old fashioned." I laughed. "He's actually not too insistent on that kind of thing. What about my uncle?"

"Edward? Yeah, he's great. And I get along really well with Kol, which you already knew."

"And everyone else?" I could think of at least three people that would make it difficult for him and I wondered how he was handling it. They were my family and I was used to them, but he wasn't. Yet.

"It's been a little tense here at times," he admitted. "But your father and Edward are working really hard to make sure that everyone keeps their cool."

"Yeah, I'll bet. Especially since you're holed up in Edward's house. He thinks it's his personal mission to make sure that all of his guests get along."

"Well, he's done a good job so far. No one has taken a swing at someone else yet."

I didn't want to voice it, but I felt like it was only a matter of time. Several years before (when I'd been only sixteen years old), my cousin Alicia had brought home a man that she wanted to marry. The man had been a low-level pickpocket, with no talent beyond that. Her brother had said that he didn't approve of the relationship and called his sister a few… not so kind things. Alicia's boyfriend had gotten mad and then the fists flew.

My family was full of talented, intelligent people that were, for the most part, full of class and dignity. But sometimes… tempers could rise to dangerous levels. I was glad that Steve hadn't run into that problem thus far, but I knew that if he married me, he would see it eventually.

"Well, that's good," I said. "Do you think that there's anything else that I can do to speed things along on your end?"

Steve sighed. "Just keep stalling on the museum heist."

I had a sudden feeling like a stone had settled into the bottom of my stomach. "I'm trying, Steve, but I can't do it forever. Medici is already getting incredibly impatient and I don't know how much longer he'll accept that I don't have any good plans to offer him."

"He won't hurt you," Steve reminded me.

I turned off the water and shivered against the sudden rush of colder air against my skin. "No, he won't hurt me or the baby. But I don't think he's above hurting Trent, and I don't want that to happen. Sooner or later, I'm going to have to pull off this heist."

"And can you do it?" he asked me quietly. "The heist?"

I stepped out of the shower and into the even colder air, watching as goosebumps popped up along my arms. Steve had just asked the question that I'd been asking myself since this whole thing had started, and I hated that I didn't have a good answer for him.

I set my phone on the counter before wrapping my hair in a towel. I was wrapping another towel around my body when Steve spoke, sounding a bit worried. "Allie? Are you there?"

I picked the phone up again and pressed it to my ear, turning the speakerphone off as I did. "I'm here. I was just drying off. When I come out of the bathroom, I have to look like I've kept up my nightly routine as usual, so I'll have to multitask."

"Are you avoiding my question?"

He'd hit the nail on the head, unfortunately. But I should have expected that. He knew me so well. I sighed. "I'm going to put you on speakerphone so that I can work on my nighttime skincare routine. This pregnancy has made my skin break out like I'm a teenager again." I'd never really broken out all that much as a teenager and the breakouts weren't terrible now, but I needed something to say.

Unfortunately, he didn't bite. "Allie. Do you think that, if it comes down to it, you can safely pull off the heist?"

I put the cell on speaker and placed it on the counter as I thought about an answer. "No one can know the future. But I used to be… very good at that kind of thing."

"I know," he said. "You left me that letter and I've talked to your brothers and your father and your uncle. They all say that you were one of the most talented con artists that they'd ever had the pleasure of working with. But the keyword in all of that is 'were'. I'm not concerned with how good you were; I'm concerned with how good you are. Right now."

As the lotion that I'd been applying as he talked dried on my skin, I slipped into my silky-smooth pajamas. "Honestly, Steve, it's a coin toss. It's not like I've been practicing pick pocketing or cracking safes or anything like that. But… I did work for the CIA as an operative, and that involved using a lot of the skills that I developed as a con. Then I went to work for several other agencies, including the BAU and the bomb squad. Maybe I won't still be perfect at every single skill that I used to use every single day, but I have other skills now, too. Skills that I never could have dreamed of having before."

He paused for a few moments and then asked, "Are you saying that you think you'd be okay if you had to pull off the heist?"

"I hope to God that I would be," I replied.

"You're the most talented person that I've ever met," he told me. "If anyone can pull it off, it's you. And we'll be here to help in any way that we can without jeopardizing Trent."

I smiled at my reflection in the mirror, distorted as it was by the traces of steam. "I know. And I don't think that I could be doing this if it wasn't for the fact that you guys are out there trying to find Trent and help me."

"You could," he argued. "You're one of the strongest people that I know."

"I take that as a compliment, seeing as how you've worked with SEALs and Army Rangers and Five-O."

"It was definitely a compliment."

I wanted to keep talking to him all night – to let him chase away the worst of the nightmare that I was living in – but I knew that my family probably wanted to speak to me as well, and we weren't going to have much time before the men that Medici had watching the cameras got suspicious because I was taking longer than usual.

With a sigh, I said, "If my family wants to talk to me, you might want to make it now. I'm towel drying my hair right now and then I'll almost be done with my nighttime routine. I don't want to risk any suspicion."

"Of course," he agreed, but I could hear the regret in his voice, echoing my own. "I'll head downstairs and put you on speakerphone. I sent Kol a text as soon as you called so that he would gather everyone of importance in the living room."

"Everyone of importance?" I teased him as I began to spread moisturizer on my skin. Pregnancy had made it drier than I ever remembered it being.

"The house is ridiculously full. Most other people are double or triple roomed, but I was lucky enough to get my own room. We've got tech people, grunt work people, forgers… all kinds of people. You have a lot of people that care about you, you know." He was walking down the stairs, I could tell from the thud coming from his end.

Tears stung my eyes. "I know. I'd do the same for them, if the roles were reversed."

"No, you wouldn't." There was a warning in his voice. "You would be at home resting until the baby comes, just like you should be doing now."

I rolled my eyes, even though he couldn't see me. "It's not like I had a ton of choice in the matter, you know. Not with Trent at the mercy of Medici, whom I've heard isn't all that merciful when he's after something that he so badly desires."

"Yes, I know. But after all of this is over, I'm chaining you to the bed."

Even though I knew that he didn't mean it that way, I couldn't help but have a little fun with it. In as sexy a voice as I could muster after such a lack of practice, I said, "That could be fun. I'm in."

I knew that he was grinning. "Not like that. But after the baby is here, I'll be happy to oblige."

I adopted a slightly whining tone. "After the baby is here, we'll both be too exhausted to see straight, let alone have sex. For at least a few months. Don't tell me that you're going to be one of those men that won't have sex with his pregnant wife because it weirds him out."

"It's not that it weirds me out," he defended. "It's just… I mean, it's… We'll talk about it later. I just made it to the living room."

I fought a laugh. "Sounds good."

Seconds later, a smattering of voices called out different greetings. Kol's voice was the loudest, a shout that I was certain reverberated throughout the entire house.

Tears sprung to my eyes once again and I blinked them back as I cleared my throat. "Hey, everyone. Can you hear me okay?" I imagined them all gathered around Steve, violating each other's personal space just for the chance to hear my voice.

"Loud and clear," my father answered. "Max has you hooked up to this… thing. It amplifies your voice for us all."

"Bluetooth, Dad," Max said with a certain superiority in his voice. "It's just connected to a Bluetooth speaker."

"No need to be a jerk, Max," I admonished him. Our father had never been the most technologically advanced. He – and Uncle Edward, for that matter – preferred to do things the old-fashioned way.

"That's what I keep telling him," Kol said, feigning exasperation. Or perhaps he really was exasperated. "Anyway, how is everything, twin? When are you coming over for dinner?"

"Very soon, I hope," I said. "Steve has updated me on all of your progress. I wish that there was more that I could do to help."

"You just focus on stalling Medici for as long as you possibly can." That had been Uncle Edward.

My father rushed to add, "I don't want you putting yourself in too much danger, though, darling. If Medici seems to be on the verge of snapping, just give him something. We can adjust our plans as needed as long as you let us know what to do."

"I don't really have much of a plan yet," I admitted sheepishly.

Uncle Edward said, "I'm not surprised. The Kingsley Museum is one of the most difficult targets that I can think of. Your mother did it, but only when it was under reconstruction and vulnerable. And I think that's why she chose that time. So that no one else could ever break in and get that box. Steve has told you the truth of the box, yes?"

"You mean that it holds nuclear codes that could help Medici destroy the world? Yeah, we texted about that last night."

"Then you understand why we cannot let him get his hands on it," Edward said.

I glanced at my reflection in the mirror, at the determined glint in my eyes. "Don't worry, Uncle Edward. We won't."