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Welcome back to another chapter! And I hope that you're excited that I'm posting twice in one week! I'm sort of doing it to make up for the fact that I've missed so many weeks in the past. I'd like to say that this will become the norm until the story is finished, but every time that I promise something it seems that the universe conspires to prevent it from happening. So, all that I'll say for now is that I would like for that to be the case.

Anyway, a very big thank you to all of you that have read, reviewed, favorited, followed, or private messaged. I appreciate you all so very much and please don't be afraid to private message me! Someone sent me a private message to talk about the story and said that they would have done it sooner, but they were afraid that they were bothering me. Not at all! I love talking to you all about the show and this story and really anything else.

Happy Reading!

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Chapter Thirteen: A Cunning Trap

Steve

"What time is it there anyway, boss?" Kono asked me.

I glanced at the digital clock beside the bed. "Six-fifteen. I'm eleven hours ahead of you guys."

"It's so weird to think that we're sitting here eating dinner when you haven't even started breakfast yet."

"I have, actually," I corrected Chin. "I got up early this morning and used the treadmill, did some weightlifting… then I had some coffee and a bagel."

"And a shower, I hope," Danny cut in.

"And a shower," I agreed. "So, tell me what everyone has been up to. The only one I've talked to is Danny."

"Not by our choice," Kono reminded me.

"I know, I know. Things have been… crazy. Adjusting to the time change, learning the lay of the land, trying to be as helpful as I can be here…"

Chin spoke. "And trying to adjust to the fact that your fiancée and the mother of your child was taken by an Italian gangster."

"There's that," I agreed.

There was a moment of silence as we all absorbed that once again, and then Kono spoke. "Well, I've still been dating Adam. I think Chin is more used to the idea now."

"He helped us out on a case a few days ago," Chin said. "And, while I don't necessarily like the fact that my cousin who is more like a sister is dating a Yakuza member…"

Kono cut him off. "Former Yakuza. You know that Adam is trying to make the business legitimate now."

"Is he?" I asked in surprise. "That's great!" It seemed almost like a fairytale – a member of one of the most dangerous mobs in the world giving it all up so that he could marry a cop. I was happy for Kono.

"It is," she agreed with a smile in her voice. "His brother's not too happy about it, but Adam says that doesn't bother him. We're really happy. I can't wait for you to get to know him better. Maybe we can all get together at your house once Allie is back, boss. Play some cards, right, Danny?"

"Ha, ha," Danny responded sarcastically while the rest of us laughed, remembering how he had been bested by her at their first card game together. "So funny. I guess it's my turn to give an update now, huh? Um, I'm running Five-O even better than you have, so there's that. And, uh… Grace misses you. She told me to send love. From her, not from me."

"Of course." I smiled as I thought about Danny's daughter, whom I now considered to be my niece. She was a sweet little girl, so how she'd ever been raised by Danny without quashing that was a mystery to me. "How's she doing?"

"She's good, she's good," Danny answered. "I think she's starting to notice boys, so that's terrifying. But, uh… everything else is good. Rachel and I are doing our best to get along for her sake, but Step Stan makes it difficult, you know? He's always buying her those presents and signing her up for tennis…"

"Rich people play tennis, Danny," I pointed out.

"Yes, but I'm not rich, you see. So, it's a problem. Doesn't matter, though; I'm handling it. How's Paris?"

"Getting old," I confided. "I can't wait to come home and see you guys. I miss you." I quickly cleared the lump in my throat.

"We miss you too, boss," Kono said and then her tone brightened. "Oh, but I have a plan, if it's okay with you."

"A plan?"

"A plan," she reiterated. "I want to throw a baby shower for you and Allie. I didn't know if maybe someone had already offered to do one, though."

"Not so far. I only found out she was pregnant after she'd been taken, so it's not like we had a lot of time to tell anyone. And no one in her family has said anything about a shower so far. I think we're all too focused on getting her back to think about things like that. We're taking it one day at a time."

"Well, you take it one day at a time over there and we will plan a baby shower."

"We?" Chin asked.

"Excuse me?" Danny said at the same time.

Kono shushed them. "I know that you'll both want some time to adjust after you get back, so we'll plan for about a week after you get back. When is the due date again?"

"May sixteenth." That seemed so far away… It wasn't even Christmas yet.

"Great. Plenty of time. Do you guys know the gender yet?"

"Not yet."

"I'm hoping it's a girl," Danny said, and I could hear the teasing undertone in his voice. "I can't wait to watch him handle her first date."

"I'll just learn from you, buddy," I teased right back. "Grace will be going on her first date any day now, right?"

Chin's laughter told me that Danny's expression was priceless.

"Anyway," Kono cut in. "Can we do it at your house?"

"That's fine with me, but I think that our plan is to move into Allie's house whenever we get back," I told her. "It's newer and has better amenities. But I don't mind if you throw the shower there. I'm sure that Allie won't mind, either. How's Gideon?"

"Sad," Chin answered after a couple of seconds of silence. "He eats, but rarely finishes what's in his bowl. He misses her."

"He's not the only one." I sighed. "Everyone will be happier once we get her back."

"Well, everyone except for Medici," Danny said. "But screw him. Do you guys have a plan to deal with him once you have Allie and her brother back?"

"Allie's uncle has a plan to pin some crimes on him. Normally, I wouldn't really like to go along with that, but I know that he's committed plenty of crimes that he hasn't been arrested for, so… I don't mind too much this time."

"I wouldn't, either," Chin said. "He deserves it."

"He deserved more than that," Kono agreed, and then said, "So, for the baby shower… anyone that you don't want me to invite?"

"I think we'll be good with just about anyone," I told her.

"What about themes?"

I rolled my eyes. "Kono, you have free reign. Do whatever you think is best."

"I'm not sure that's wise," Chin said, and then there was a sound that made me think that he'd been smacked.

Kono spoke. "I'm on it, boss. It'll be the best baby shower ever. As soon as you know, just send me a text to tell me where Allie is registered. Oh, and the gender."

"Yeah, that's important, too," Danny agreed. "For the… colors and such."

"You're hopeless," Kono sighed. "I don't really need you for the planning part. I need you for the grunt work."

Chin and Danny both protested as I laughed.

Just as I was about to break up their arguing, Kol burst into my room without knocking, which was totally unlike him. But as I opened my mouth to teasingly admonish him, I noticed the wild look in his eyes and the way that his chest was rising and falling rapidly. He was… excited.

Before I could ask what was going on, he said, "We have a lead on Trent. Come downstairs."

"I have to go," I said into the phone and hung up before they could ask what was going on. As I followed Kol at a near sprint down the stairs, I slipped the phone into my pocket and hoped that I would be able to call them back later with some good news. Hopefully, the news that we'd found and rescued both Allie and Trent and that we would be home as soon as we could catch a flight.

We skidded into the living room together and I took in the bustle of activity. Three of the techs were sitting on the long couch, typing furiously on their laptops. Allie's father and uncle were nearby, having a rapid conversation. Her other two brothers were standing against the wall, trying to stay out of the way as other people came and went. It looked like a crazy command post.

"What's going on?" I demanded as I walked over to Allie's father. "Did you find Trent?"

"We think so," he answered me and motioned for Roger to fill me in.

Roger looked up from his laptop, his dark eyes locking with mine. "We were tracing Medici's car. He left the hotel today, ran a few errands… and then went to a warehouse in a shady part of town. Here, watch." With a few strokes of his keyboard, he sent a video to the television.

I turned slightly to watch, and noted a dark black car heading down a mostly deserted street. As it neared a dingy white warehouse, the view changed to a different camera. Moments later, the car stopped and two men wearing dark jeans and dark shirts got out of the front seat. One of them opened a back door, and Medici got out, straightening the jacket of his suit as he looked around to see if anyone was watching them.

When I saw the man that was holding my wife and child captive, my hands balled themselves into tight fists. I knew that if anyone ever left me alone in a room with him… only one of us was walking out. And I was willing to bet that Medici didn't know how to fight; he had goons to do that for him.

The guards that he had with him also looked around, making sure that they hadn't been followed.

"They're certainly acting like they have something to hide," Kol said as he stepped up beside me to watch.

I nodded in agreement. "And whatever it is, it's inside that warehouse."

All three of the men on the screen made their way to the warehouse, looking around the whole time to make sure that what they were doing remained private. At the entrance, they stopped and Medici entered a code into the lock on the door.

"Why have such a fancy lock on an old warehouse?" I asked.

"Because he's hiding something very important in there," Max said with a roll of his eyes.

"Thank you for that revelation, Max," Kol said without taking his eyes off of the screen. "Keep watching."

The men disappeared inside, the door closing behind them.

I looked over to Roger. "How long do they stay in there?"

"Thirty minutes," Roger said as he began to fast forward the video. "But that's not all. After about fifteen minutes, one of the guards goes back to the car and fetches a few things. There."

I turned my attention back to the television and watched as one of Medici's men walked back outside and made his way to the car. He opened the trunk and pulled out a couple of bags before closing it again.

"Can you zoom in?" I asked Roger.

He did so, and I noted that the few things that I could see in the bag were: a bottle of water, a bag of chips, and a sack of bagels. "Food," I noted. "That has to be where he's holding Trent. They're bringing food to him."

"A lot of food, based on the size of those bags," Kol said, expression hard. "Do you think that they're not tying him up? That he's free?"

"That would mean that he's in a cage." Kol's rage was echoed on his father's face and in his tone. "We have to get him out of there."

"Send us the address," Edward said to Roger and then addressed the others in the room. "Grab your guns and get out to the cars. We're going to get Trent." As the others rushed out of the room to get ready, he looked to me. "Be thinking of a plan."

I nodded and then sprinted up to my room to grab my gun and pull on some more appropriate clothes. I didn't have a bulletproof vest with me, but that didn't matter. If I was careful enough, I wouldn't need one. There would surely be more of us than there were of them. And Kol, at least, was trained.

"How well does everyone know how to use a gun?" I whispered to Kol as we headed down the stairs together.

"Their aim is good," he told me, "but they're not trained in how to sweep a room or anything like that. We should definitely go in first."

"Ride with me," I told him. "We'll sit in the back and make a plan together."

He nodded and opened the door, sprinting towards the garage. There was a little bit of talk about who was riding with who and who would be driving, and then we were off, the address that Roger had sent us put into the GPS.

Kol and I sat with our heads close together, making a plan for how to enter the building. The keypad was obviously an issue, but it didn't look like there was a lot of other security. Anyway, Roger was working on hacking it for us – he said that there was only the keypad and cameras to worry about, and they were all linked together.

"He doesn't have a reason to worry," I told Kol when he asked if that seemed too easy. "He doesn't think that any of us are here. He's been keeping a watch for us."

"True," Kol agreed, but he still looked troubled.

"It's going to be fine," I told him. "We clear on the plan?"

He nodded.

We arrived fifteen minutes later, but it seemed like it had taken an hour. Unloading didn't take long at all, and soon we were all standing there in a big group and everyone was waiting for my orders. I wasted no time in splitting everyone up into two groups, with Kol and myself as the leaders.

"You go to the back," I told Kol. "We'll wait up here and then we'll kick in the doors as soon as Roger gives the all clear." I addressed everyone else. "Only go in once your leader gives the all clear."

Once everyone was clear, Kol took his group around to the back of the warehouse. After a minute, Kol spoke to me through the walkie talkie we'd brought. "Steve, we're in position."

"Excellent." I called Roger on my cell, and he picked up on the third ring. "Roger, we're ready. Do you have it?"

"Just one more… second," he said, and I could hear typing coming from his end. "It's actually a pretty advanced system."

"So, not as easy as Kol was thinking," I said, and that made me feel a little bit better. "Just tell me when we're clear."

But he didn't need to, because a few seconds later, the light on the keypad flashed green.

"You're good," Roger said, and then hung up.

I slipped the phone back into my pocket and grabbed the walkie talkie. "Kol, we're good to go. On my count. Door should be unlocked."

"Ready," he called back.

I took a deep breath and then began to count. "One. Two. Three." I opened the door and then pushed inside, gun at the ready. I didn't see anything at first, so I waved for my group to follow me. Then, I walked further inside.

Kol and I met in the middle of the warehouse, filled only with empty boxes and the bags of groceries in the middle, completely untouched.

"What the hell?" I asked as I spun around.

"There." Kol was pointing to a table against the far wall, and we both ran over there together.

As we got close, my stomach tied itself into a knot and I thought that I might vomit.

On the small card table, there was a single camera with a blinking green light to indicate that it was working. And beside the camera was a handwritten note.

Kol read it aloud for the others as they approached. "I knew that you were here, and now you've confirmed it for me. Allie has a job to do and, once it is done, I will return her and her brother to you at once. Until then, stay out of the way. If you do not, I will have no choice but to relieve Trent of a few of his fingers. Thank you for your cooperation, Nicolas Medici."

The anger washed over me in a flood, and I saw red as I dropped my gun and flipped the table, sending the camera flying into the wall. It broke upon impact, as did the card table. But I knew that the damage had already been done. The camera was likely on an entirely separate server and it would have been transmitting the entire time.

Medici knew that we were in France.

And there was no telling what he would do now.

"He won't hurt Allie," Kol said from somewhere behind me, but it was muffled due to the ringing in my ears from anger.

"But he might hurt Trent, and that would hurt Allie," Max said.

"Why do you have to be so negative all the time?" Kol demanded, and I was certain that he was giving his brother a death glare.

More people joined the conversation and I just stood there, staring at the overturned table. My heart was racing, and I was genuinely terrified for Allie. And for her brother. And angry at myself for not thinking that it was a trap.

A hand came down on my shoulder and I turned to see Kol, his eyes shining just like Allie's did. His smile was sad. "It'll be okay, Steve. This is a minor setback, but we'll figure it out, okay?"

"I don't want him to hurt her," I choked out.

"I don't think that he will." Allie's dad looked as though he'd lost all color in his face, but he sounded certain. "His note was a… final warning, of sorts. He wants us to stay out of it."

"Well, I'm not going to do that," I said firmly.

"None of us are," Edward said, "but we'll have to regroup. No doubt, he'll move Allie and renew all of her possessions. Which means…"

"No more contact," I realized. "Because she'll get a new phone and won't be able to transfer the SIM card."

"We can get Catherine to come back," Kol said desperately. "We'll just make another SIM card and…"

His father was shaking his head. "No, I'm afraid that won't be possible. Medici will be on his guard. I don't think that he would harm Allie or the baby if she got caught, but he would certainly harm Trent. And I know that Allie doesn't want that."

"She doesn't," I agreed. "That's why we're here in the first place. Because she was willing to risk everything to keep her brother safe. If we're going to do this – if we're going to help her – then we need to make sure that we don't get Trent hurt in the process."

"There's nothing more to do here." Edward began to head for the door. "We might as well go back home and come up with a plan."

One by one, we all began to follow him.

The ride back to the house passed in complete silence and seemed to take a year. Once we arrived, we walked into the house to find a small crowd gathered, eager to hear the news or see Allie.

We'd all forgotten to let them know that it had all been a trap.

Not wanting to be the one to crush their hopes and dreams, I pushed past all of them and headed for the stairs.

I knew that I would not be very pleasant company.