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Hey, everyone! Welcome back to another chapter! I got a hilarious private message from someone that talked about how frustrating the last chapter was because it gave them hope and then threw it back in their face. Hence, the name for this chapter. Lol. Sorry if you're mad at me because of the last chapter. Try not to hate me forever.

Thanks so much to everyone that has read, reviewed, favorited, followed, or private messaged. Every show of support means so much to me, and I hope that you'll keep it up and give me the motivation to keep going.

I realized that I haven't done a disclaimer in a while, so… I really only use the Five-O characters, not so much the storyline. All of the OCs are of my own creation. Okay? Okay. Great. Let's go ahead and get started.

Happy Reading!

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Chapter Fourteen: Abandon All Hope

Allie

"Won't work," I growled in frustration and crumpled up the piece of paper. My toss went wide, missing the wastepaper basket by a long shot. That didn't exactly help my mood, which had been at rock bottom most of the day.

I'd been trying to come up with a realistic plan in case I really did end up needing to break in and steal the box. Unfortunately, the Kingsley's security measures were top notch. And updated every single year, just for good measure. Their brand of security cameras had never been hacked, they had motion sensors all over the place, and I'd never even touched a vault like the one that housed their archives. And that only covered the major obstacles. They also had incredibly well-trained security guards, fingerprint scanners that helped to curb access to restricted areas, and staff key cards that were updated every two weeks. They weren't messing around.

I was starting to believe that I couldn't do it even with a handpicked team, and I wouldn't exactly have a handpicked team because Medici wouldn't let me use my people. I'd briefly considered insisting to Medici that the only way to pull off the job would be to have at least three of my people, but I'd dismissed the idea quickly. No way was he going to allow that, even with Trent in captivity. So, no matter how much I needed my family with me on this heist, I wasn't going to get them.

My gaze went to the notebook in front of me and I sighed. Already, I'd written and then crumpled five plans. How many more would I have to do before I came up with one that had a good chance of working? Ten? Fifteen? Twenty?

I'd been messaging my Uncle Edward to see if he had any ideas, but he didn't have much of a clue beyond what I'd already come up with. He had said that the Kingsley Museum was one of the most difficult targets that he could come up with, which wasn't exactly encouraging. And without the access to my people and their talents, I was starting to feel like it was an impossible job. Hell, it probably was an impossible job. And I was just lucky enough to be stuck with it.

There was a beep near the front door and I looked up in confusion. Medici's men would have let me know that they were on the way and Medici hired cleaners that always came when I was out, so it wasn't any hotel staff. Room service, maybe? Sometimes Medici would order my lunch from there and have them bring it up.

But it was Medici himself that came storming through the door, followed closely by a stone-faced guard that closed the door behind them and then stood there to wait. He likely didn't want to be too close to his boss, whose face was red with anger. A vein was throbbing next to his temple, and I knew that whatever was wrong, it couldn't be good. It put me on instant high alert.

I stood as he approached, just because sitting felt far too vulnerable. But I didn't dare speak first; there was no sense in giving away any information unless it was asked for.

I didn't have to wait long. "I had an errand to run today," he told me with forced calm.

Without blinking, I waited for him to say more. Don't say a word unless he asks you a question. You don't want to inadvertently give anything away. There's no proof that he knows anything at all.

"The errand," he went on to explain, "was in a little warehouse not too terribly far from here. Not in a good part of the city. Some call it the slums. Mostly abandoned warehouses that the homeless sleep in, but some people buy them to store their things."

He paused, waiting for me to respond, but I said nothing. I was, however, curious as to where this was going.

"Do you know what happened?"

Again, I said nothing, only raising my eyebrows in a silent question. What could have possibly happened in a warehouse in the slums that would have made him so angry?

"I set up a single camera, not connected to the same network as my security cameras on the building itself. Do you know why I did that?"

And the realization hit me like a punch in the stomach. He'd set a trap for my family and Steve. And if his anger was anything to go by, it had worked. He knew that they were in the city. Still, I kept my face a careful mask and said nothing.

"I did it," he continued, "because I wanted to know if anyone was keeping an eye on you and, by extension, me. And surprise, surprise, your family and your fiancé came to try to rescue Trent, whom I wanted them to believe was inside. I assume that their next course of action would have been to come and rescue you."

Well, he knew everything, so there was no sense in staying too silent. "I would think so."

"This is unacceptable. How did they know that you were here?"

I left a message in lipstick for them under the mat in my bathroom because I'm not a total idiot. And they're not total idiots, either, so they likely would have found me anyway. "I don't know."

He stepped so close that I could smell the wine that he'd likely had with his lunch. "You're lying." In his eyes, I saw a coldness that made me shiver.

There was no way that he could tell that I was lying from my masked expression. I had long since perfected my mask. "No, I'm not."

After staring at me for a few more moments, he took one step back. "Perhaps not, but the fact remains that they know that you're here. They likely know what you've been up to."

"Then I suppose that you want to call the whole thing off?" It was wishful thinking. No way was he going to give up. "You haven't put too much money into this whole thing." Not by his standards, anyway. This fancy hotel suite was worth pennies to someone like him. "Not much harm in walking away."

"Over my dead body," he growled and began to pace the small area between the living and kitchen areas, the soles of his Italian leather shoes tapping dramatically. "They know where you're staying, I presume, so we'll need to move you immediately. I'll get my men on it. The heist will have to continue as planned, but you're now on a deadline. One week should be plenty of time, I think."

"One week?" I hadn't meant to shout, but it couldn't be helped. "That's not nearly enough time. Don't you have any idea about the plethora of security measures that they have in place? The Kingsley might as well be Fort Knox!"

"Perhaps you should have thought about that before you tipped your family off." Medici ceased his pacing and glared at me, his eyes so dark that I couldn't tell the pupils from the irises. "Give me your phone."

My heart stopped.

I needed to stall. "What? Why?"

He stepped closer to me. "Because I think you've been communicating with them. How else could they have found you so fast?"

He wouldn't be able to find the secret messages, Max had made sure of that, but I still didn't want to hand over my phone. It was my only means of communicating with them. With Steve. "Haven't you had your men monitoring my phone? Why would I ever want to risk Trent's safety to communicate with them?"

"Why, indeed?" He held out his hand. "Hand it over. Now." His tone left no room for argument.

With a heavy heart, I took the cell phone out of my pocket and handed it to him.

I'd thought that he would look through it and try to find any emails or messages. Instead, he threw it on the ground and smashed it with his shoe. It was all that I could do to hold back the tears of anger, frustration, and incredible sadness. I'd felt alone ever since I'd been taken and now that I could finally communicate with Steve again, Medici was taking it all away.

But I had to keep my expression neutral, as if nothing was wrong. Because if he knew that I'd been communicating with them, he would hurt Trent; I had no doubt about that.

Once the phone was completely broken, Medici looked at me with a cold smile. "There. Much better."

I gestured to it. "So, how am I supposed to do research now?"

"I'll get you another phone. A completely different model. You'll have it by the day's end." So, even if I managed to dig the SIM card out of the wreckage and it happened to not be broken, it wouldn't work in my new phone. My communication with my family and Steve was officially over.

"Well, since you smashed my phone with my notes in it, the least that you could do is extend my deadline."

"No." He headed for the door. "But I will allow your week to begin tomorrow."

"How generous," I grumbled.

He turned to face me as his hired muscle opened the door for him. "I'd suggest that you begin packing. We'll be leaving within the hour. I'll send some men up to collect your belongings."

"Fine." I tried my best to act as though that didn't bother me.

He turned around with one foot outside the door, the coldness back in his eyes. "And, Allie?"

With barely suppressed rage bubbling beneath the surface, I spoke through my teeth. "Yes?"

"Clearly, my threat to Trent isn't quite enough, so how about this? If you communicate with your family or anyone without my permission ever again, Trent won't be the only one to get hurt."

With my heart beating harder, I asked, "What do you mean?"

"So far, I've stuck to my code. I don't hurt women or children. But that might change if you continue to defy me."

No! You can't hurt my baby! But what came out was, "Hurting an innocent child would make you nothing but a monster."

"But what kind of mother would it make you?" he questioned. "To defy me at the risk of your child's life?"

I said nothing, acting as though his threat hadn't made the impact that he had wanted it to.

But once he was gone, I barely made it into the bathroom before I had a full-scale panic attack.

What the hell am I supposed to do now?!

Steve

"Anything?" Kol asked me, but I was sure that he could read the answer all over my face.

"Nothing." I stared down at the phone in my hands, at the messages that I'd typed to Allie. She hadn't responded in the two hours since I'd first attempted, which meant that Medici had already taken her phone. His next step was likely to move her so that we wouldn't know where she was. And I wouldn't have been surprised if he refused to let her go to the museum again.

It felt like my whole world had come crashing down.

We'd found her, we'd discovered a way to communicate with her, and things had been going fine. We'd been working on a plan to get her and Trent out of there and throw Medici into jail. And somehow, Medici had been a few steps ahead of us.

Edward had demanded to know if anyone had dared to leave the house without taking the necessary precautions, but a thorough review of the security system had revealed that no one had. Medici had likely only had a suspicion and had decided to act on it. And he'd been correct.

I cursed and sank down onto the bed, fighting back tears. I'd never been an emotional guy, but this whole thing with Allie was really messing me up. I was sick of being away from her. I hated Medici for taking her away from me. I hated myself for not being able to be there during her pregnancy. I hated her mother for getting everyone into this mess in the first place.

Then again… she'd only been trying to keep nuclear codes away from someone who was likely to sell them to the highest bidder…

Still. I was allowed to be angry.

"We'll figure something else out," Kol said, but I could see that he didn't truly believe it. Medici would be even more on guard now, and getting access to her before had been plenty tricky.

"We won't be able to use Catherine again. Medici will likely be asking his people to comb through any footage of Allie to try to see if she somehow made contact with us."

He nodded. "I know. It'll take longer than either of us will like, but we can figure something else out."

"I hope so," I sighed, suddenly exhausted from the days' events. "Do you mind leaving me alone for a bit? I… I'm just exhausted and not very good company right now."

Without any hesitation, Kol stood up and headed for the door. Once he'd reached it, he turned and forced a smile. "We'll get her back, Steve. I know we will. And you two are going to get married and have a beautiful baby, and everything is going to turn out fine."

He believed that, I could tell. The trouble was that neither of us knew when that would be able to happen. "I know. I'm trying to think of the positives. All of the good things that are going to happen once Allie and I go back to Hawaii. Kono is planning a baby shower."

Kol cursed. "I was going to do that."

I raised an eyebrow, slightly amused. "You were going to plan a baby shower? Aren't those normally events for women?"

"Not exclusively," he snapped back, borderline defensive. "They're for anyone that wants to partake in the joy of an incoming new life."

I fought a laugh. "You've obviously given this a lot of thought. But Kono has already started her planning. I guess the two of you could tag team it. I can give you her number, if you want." The idea of Kol and Kono trying to plan a party together brought my mood up a couple of notches.

He sighed a bit too dramatically and said, "No, no. You've already told her that she can do it and I won't take that away from her. I'll just suffer in silence."

Not bothering to fight my smile this time, I said, "You're not exactly being silent about it."

"Then I'll take my misery elsewhere." He opened the door and then gave me one last glance. "Good night."

I didn't have time to respond before he was already gone. With him, he took all levity. Immense sadness was staring me in the face and I had nothing to do with it.

Nothing except to lean on the man that had gotten me through some of the worst times in my life.

He answered on the third ring, his voice as gruff and confident as I remembered. That voice had lifted me up when I was at my lowest and reamed me after some of my stupider stunts. "Been a long time. I was wondering when you were going to call."

My spirit lifted a bit at hearing his voice. "Most people say hello when they answer the phone, Joe."

"I'm not most people." No, he was not. "How have you been, son?"

"It's been a rough couple of months, Joe." I cleared my throat, afraid that he could hear the tears in my voice. "That's why I called."

He sighed, but it wasn't a longsuffering sigh. "Why can't you ever just be calling to say hello and ask how my retirement is going?"

"Retirement?" I asked him incredulously. "Joe, you were on a mission a month and a half ago when I called you."

"Well, I'm retired now. Been hanging out on a ranch in Montana."

"A ranch?" I hadn't thought that he could surprise me anymore. "What in the world is there for you to do on a ranch?"

"There's plenty to do on a ranch, Steve." His voice held an air of wisdom, much as it had back in my SEAL training days. "Ride horses, go hunting, have a little bit of peace and quiet without someone shooting at your head… I'm rather enjoying my time out here."

"To each his own," I muttered.

"Now, are you going to tell me about why you called, or do you want to play twenty questions?"

"I'm surprised that you even know what twenty questions is."

"Okay," he growled. "Get on with it before I hang up on you."

"I've told you about Allie," I reminded him, just in case his memory was going.

But Joe White was as sharp as he'd been back in his days as a SEAL. "I remember. Governor Denning put her on the team and you weren't too happy about it. But she turned out to be quite the asset and, apparently, quite the charmer. Last I recall, you were smitten with her."

"I wouldn't call it smitten," I grumbled, even though that's exactly what it was.

"I would," he said with a smile in his voice. "So, what about her? She didn't break up with you, did she?"

"No, she didn't break up with me. It's… it's a bit of a long story. Do you have time?"

"If I don't, I'll make it." His words almost made me tear up. "Tell me what's going on."

With a bit of pride in my voice, I said, "I'll tell you the biggest piece of news first. I… I'm going to be a dad."

There was silence on the other end and I almost worried that I'd lost him, but then I heard the emotion in his voice when he said, "Steve, that's so wonderful. Your father would be so proud of you. When's the baby due?"

"In the middle of May. We don't know yet if it's a boy or a girl."

"It won't matter," he assured me, as if he'd ever had children before. "You'll love it no matter what, though I do pity any daughters that you may have. They'll never stand a chance on the dating front."

"No," I agreed. "They won't."

"Well, that's just wonderful. Are you two planning to get married before or after the baby is born? I know that when you called me as I was heading out for my last op that you had proposed and she said yes. Wedding still on?"

"Still on, but on hold right now. There's… there's a lot going on right now."

"Well, don't keep me in suspense," he said when I paused for too long to suit him. "Tell me what's going on."

So, I took a deep breath and told him about my living nightmare.

Allie

When I woke up, it was still dark in the room. The digital display on the alarm clock told me that it was just past three in the morning – far too early to be up. I was still groggy, and at first, I just assumed that I had woken up because I was in a new place. Medici had wasted no time in moving me, and I now resided in a new fancy hotel suite fifteen minutes away from the other one.

I rolled over with the intention of going back to sleep.

But then I felt it… the cold wetness on my legs.

Suddenly wide awake, I bolted into the bathroom and flipped the light on, squinting against the assault on my pupils. Once I'd reached the toilet, I pulled down the pajama pants and almost threw up.

Staining the gray fabric of my underwear was a large, still damp stain of blood.