Hawaii Five-0

Caught In The Crossfire

Chapter 4

Forced up against the wall of the van at gun point, Rachel grabbed Grace and held her tightly, wrapping her arms around her daughter trying her best to protect her. But then the masked man let his gun hang by his side and grabbed a hold of the back of the collar of Grace's t-shirt and attempted to pull her out of her mother's tight protective grasp; but Rachel was determined not to let masked man take her daughter out of her arms, so she and Grace put up a fight against the man's now forcible pull as he gripped onto her daughter's waist. Holding on for dear life, Grace held onto her mother as she screamed in fear of what the man might do to her if she were to let go of her mother. Fed up with the resistance he was met with after he tried to grab Grace, the masked man then grabbed a hold of his gun and pointed at the woman and child.

"Let go of the child now!" the masked man ordered her.

"Please…just don't hurt her…please" Rachel pleaded.

"Give me your daughter and neither of you will get hurt" the masked man responded.

"Okay, okay" Rachel reluctantly agreed. "Grace, I know you're scared but remember what I said?" she asked her daughter before Grace reluctantly loosened her grip around Rachel as the man pulled her from her mother.

Rachel watched as the man pulled a yellow zip tie from his back pocket.

"Wrists and ankles together" the man ordered Grace.

"What are you doing to my daughter?" Rachel asked.

"Just making sure she doesn't try to make a run for it" the masked man responded as he zip tied Grace's wrists together.

"You're next"

After he had zip tied Grace's ankles together, he made his way over to Rachel and did the same with her wrists and ankles. Though the zip ties were tight, the man at least allowed blood flow to their hands and ankles.

Meanwhile back at the Edwards' house, Chin and Kono pulled up to find Steve talking to Duke by one of the many squad cars that had arrived at the scene. As the cousins approached Steve, he and Duke finished their conversation with Steve placing his hand on Duke's arm, offering his condolences about the two fallen HPD officers who died while trying to protect Grace and Rachel. Steve turned his head to see his two team mates walking up to him.

"Hey guys" Steve greeted them.

"Hey" said Kono.

"Are you alright?" she asked after she and Chin glanced over to the two fallen officers.

"I heard everything" Steve stated. "It all went down while I was talking to Rachel"

"What the hell is going on?" Chin asked.

"Yeah, I mean I get why Nathan would take April and Danny, but why Grace and Rachel?" Kono asked, confused to why Nathan would go after Rachel and Grace.

"I don't know" Steve replied before coming to a realisation.

"But I think there may be more to this than just Nathan wanting revenge on April" he added.

"What are you talking about?" Kono asked.

"Wait…" said Chin.

"Are you saying this might have something to with why April came to see Danny this morning?" he asked.

"Yeah" Steve replied.

"In fact I'm certain it has a lot to with why April came to see Danny this morning" he said as he walked over to his car.

"What are you going?" Kono asked.

"To show you why April visited Danny this morning" Steve replied while reaching through the open window of his car to pick up a piece of paper.

"What's that?" Chin asked.

"A letter" Steve replied as he unfolded the piece of paper Danny had given him earlier.

"A letter?" Kono asked. "From who?"

"Matthew Williams" Steve replied handing Kono the letter.

"Matthew Williams?" Chin asked, just to clarify that he had heard right.

"As in Danny and April's brother?"

"Yeah" Steve replied as Chin and Kono read the letter.

"You're sure this is Matthew's handwriting?" Chin asked.

"Yeah" Steve replied. "April and Danny confirmed it"

"Matt's been on the run for over eighteen months now" Chin stated.

"How does he even know all this stuff about April, let alone know she's in Hawaii?" he asked.

"Someone told him" Steve replied. "And I'm betting that someone is Pedro Fuentes"

"Who's Pedro Fuentes?" Kono asked.

"Pedro is the accountant for the drug cartel Matt ripped off" Steve replied.

"Well, if Pedro knows that April moved to Hawaii, he's definitely been watching his family" said Kono.

"Yeah and by doing that, he's been able to use his family against him" Steve added.

"So where does Nathan being broken out of prison come into this?" Chin asked.

"Well, in the letter Matt apologises for everything that has happened to April" Steve replied.

"Which means Pedro told him about what Nathan did to April and the fact that he blames her for him being in prison" he added.

"Pedro probably also told Matt how much of a threat that makes Nathan is to April's life" said Chin.

"So the cartel broke Nathan out of prison this morning?" Kono asked.

"Yeah and they're using him to help them get their money back" Steve replied.

"And they're going to be ruthless; so if they don't get their money back, Danny, April, Rachel, Grace and Matt are all as good as dead"

"Yeah, but that raises another problem" Chin stated.

"There's no doubt that the cartel has given Matt a deadline for him to return their money; the problem is, we don't know that deadline"

"You're right" Steve stated.

"And that also means we don't know how long we have to find them before the cartel kills them"

"You think the cartel is going to kill them whether they get their money or not?" Kono asked.

"Matt stole ten million dollars from them" Steve stated.

"And whether they get their money back or not, they're probably going to want to make Matt pay for what he did; even if that means killing a little girl and a pregnant woman"

"So let's find them before that happens" Kono stated.

Out in the middle of nowhere, on a long stretch of road, a black van was making its way along the highway. Nathan and his hired help, along with Danny and April who they had taken from April's house, had been in the van for over half an hour now. They drove through the outskirts of Honolulu, trying not to raise any suspicion to HPD, to the other side of the city and continuing on to the other side of the island. Both Danny and April remained in some way incapacitated in the back of the van with Nathan keeping is shot gun trained on them. Danny was still knocked out cold from being kicked in the back of the head, again, but April, though still fairly incapacitated by the sedative that had been injected into her neck, had started to very slowly regain consciousness as the drugs started to wear off; something neither Nathan or his rather large hired help had even anticipated, thinking that it would take several hours for it lose its effect.

As the sedative began to wear off, April could feel the cold metal floor of the van knock gently against the side of her face. She stayed completely still as she tried to open her eyes ever so slightly so Nathan wouldn't notice that she was waking up, though her eyelids were quite heavy, she managed to open her eyes slightly. Through the small crack she had made when she opened her eyes, April could see Danny lying next to her; he was all fuzzy, but he was there and he was bleeding from the side of his head. Though the bleeding had begun to slow down, she could make out a pool blood next to her brother's head. Her heart started to race at the sight of Danny bleeding on the floor, but the slight sensation kicking inside her stomach brought the relief that her baby was okay. As the drugs took hold again, April closed her eyes as the sedatives took her back under.