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AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Hey there my wonderful readers. Here's this week's update. Please enjoy Steve getting sassed by everyone for the next two chapters! Don't forget to drop a review or a fav or a follow and I'll see you guys next week!
Chapter 413
Over the next couple of days a lot of Steve's time was dedicated to the restaurant. Luckily, he was good with his hands, because they were cutting costs by not having to hire workers. You know, since he had been doing all the work.
It was exhausting, of course, and he may have mentioned that to Rowan a few times. That lead Rowan to asking if they needed some money. She even said it was important she could transfer it into his account before the end of the day, or if he wanted she could send Con in to get money from their Vault.
That brought up the argument of why he'd have access to her vault and not Steven, but she just said that it wouldn't be from her vault it would be from Con's, she'd just pay him back later. Steve wasn't sure he believed that, because he was sure that letting her brothers have access to her secret bank account was something Rowan would do.
But he didn't want to argue with her when she was off in a different state, surrounded by actors and other attractive people that she could leave him for. So he just thanked her for thinking about him and said if he needed to he'd ask but right now they were okay.
But as he was sanding off their counter tops, sweating and struggling to break behind the N95 mask he had on, he was starting to think he should have taken her up on the offer.
Kamekona was behind him watching Steve work, just sitting there and eating. God how Steve wanted to be that person. To be able to sit there and watch someone else sweat through the work.
"Hey…" Kamekona suddenly called and Steve half turned to him. "You missed a spot."
If Rowan were here, she'd've been flirting with him by now. He was in jeans and a off-light-navy blue tee-shirt. He had taken pictures that morning, like she had been doing for her outfits. The response he had gotten back was favourable.
Like, she might pop in later to witness that outfit herself, kind of favourable.
But she wasn't there. He had Kamekona who was determined to be annoying.
"Excuse me?"
"You missed a spot," he repeated but that wasn't why he had asked. Steve heard what he said he just didn't believe that Kamekona had the audacity. He should have believed it.
He looked at Kamekona, realizing that he wasn't going to realize that what he said was obnoxious, and as he did he noticed the cream cheese on his face.
"Oh yeah, so did you," he said, gesturing at his face.
Kamekona's eyebrows furrowed but he figured it out. As he wiped it off, Danny let himself into the restaurant.
Steve called a hello out to him and got a" "Hey we got something very important to discuss," from Danny in response.
Danny had been in charge of getting the coffees. One of him, one for Steve and one from Kamekona. He had been gone a while, but his timing was great, because Steve needed a break.
He reached out for his coffee with a smile. "Okay. Thanks man." He quickly took off his mask and took a sip of the much needed caffeine and then immediately grimaced. Cause that tasted rank. "Yo, there's something wrong with this coffee."
Kamekona put a hand out right away. "Must be my soy cappuccino. Dairy's been upsetting my tummy lately."
He made no move to get up and get it from Steve which meant he had to walk over and personally hand him the cup.
"You should lay off the cream cheese then," he said as he reached for his own coffee. That time when he got it and he took a swig, he sighed with appreciation. Now that was good coffee.
"It's lactose free, brah. Allows me to get my nosh on without all those bubbles in my bowels."
"Well, now that we are all thoroughly disgusted," Danny said breaking up the conversation between them. He then pointed at Steve. "You and I have to discuss fabrics."
"Fabrics?"
"Yeah, fabrics. We, uh, still haven't looked at the swatches. You haven't looked at the swatches for the booths."
He then pulled out this white Bristol board, probably the size of a binder. And stapled to that white background were swatches of fabric. Fabric that all looked like the same colour of red.
"Okay. I don't, uh…" Steve leant in to take a closer look. "I'm sorry, I don't see any… they all look the same to me, Danny."
"Right. To your untrained ignorant eye, they would all look like red. But they are not. See, this one, this beautiful one right here is garnet, this is currant and this is uh, blood, which I'm guessing you'll pick."
He pointed them each out and said the name but they still all looked like red. And the crack at his violent past and all his injuries was not necessary.
Steve raised his hand like a diligent student. "Okay, I have another suggestion if I… may I?"
"Sure."
"Thank you," he said as he lowered his hand. "I was just thinking that maybe the booth section, you know, could maybe go black."
Danny did not look impressed. "What? No. No, we can't do that. It's an Italian restaurant. You can't have a black booth, it's got to be red." Steve huffed at him. "Know what? Don't worry about it. I already ordered the garnet."
What? But… he didn't even know which one the garnet was!
"You ordered it?"
"Sort of."
Steve glared at him. What the hell did that even mean? Why would Danny do that? Just go over his head to order a fabric in a color he didn't discuss with Steve. Actually, it was exactly like Danny to do something like that, but that didn't mean he should have.
They were supposed to be partners.
Across from them Kamekona shook his head. "Yo. You boys are focusing on the wrong thing entirely. Ain't gonna matter what it looks like if you can't get nobody inside."
"Huh?"
"This dining and hospitality business is all about marketing. You fellas need a brand. With that in mind, I had my guy whip this up." He took out a bag he had been carrying with him and then unfurled a white tee-shirt to show them. "Huh?"
It had a caricature of Steve and Danny sitting at a table with a red and white checkered table cloth. They had a plate of spaghetti between them, and they were Lady and the Tramping it. And the name he had picked was: "McDanno's Bar and Grill."
"But it's not a bar and grill," Danny said coming to stand beside Steve. "And I hate that shirt so much."
Yes. Yes. Finally something Steve agreed with, because he too hated that shirt.
And the name of their restaurant was Steve's.
Both of them stared him down and he tsked at them. "Well, you gotta problem. Cause I ordered 400 of these and my guy don't work cheap."
"400? Why would you order…"
"Well Ro said she wanted like a hundred of them."
Of course his wife knew about this. Of course she did. What was she going to do with that many shirts? Wallpaper the house with them?
"Kamekona. Thank you for trying to help. Appreciate it. But this is gonna be… it's gonna be a different kind of establishment than the one you're used to running."
Danny was hitting him with a shit-eating grin for some reason. "That's correct. That's correct. You see, because we're gonna have plates and we're gonna have silverware, okay? And we're gonna have a kitchen that could pass a health code inspection."
None of this seemed to impressed Kamekona though. In fact, it looked like he was going to argue. But Steve put a pin in that argument the second his phone rang.
He fished his phone out of his jean's pocket, disappointed to see that it wasn't Rowan calling him to tell him she wanted to pop in and ravish him in his casual clothes.
Danny, however, seemed to be panicked about something because he quickly said: "Hey, if that's the landlord, please tell him I put the check in the mail."
Steve glanced up to him. That was awfully suspicious. "Did you?"
"I did not."
See. See. What the fuck?
"Do we need money already?" Steve asked. "Do we need to ask Ro?"
"No, we do not need to ask your wife for money."
Yeah but he had a feeling he would have to eventually. He also had a feeling that Ro knew that, which was why she had asked him if he needed a loan.
Steve answered his phone and immediately smiled at the voice on the other end. He told him they'd swing by and then turned that smile onto Danny.
"You'll never guess who's in town."
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
It was Harry Langford.
Harry was in town and had called them up to see if Steve and Danny wanted to have lunch with him. They met him on the beach by his hotel, and he told them all about how he was retired and he was basically travelling the world, then he introduced them to his girlfriend.
Steve had been surprised that the man had called them up, and had said that to him. Harry had smiled at him and admitted that he had called Rowan first, but she wasn't on the island. Something akin to jealousy flashed through Steve's system when he heard that, okay, that was a lie, it was jealousy.
A possessive streak of hot, sickening jealousy.
It took all his willpower not to slug Harry right there on that beach.
But luckily he got a call for a case, said he'd catch up with Harry later, while firmly planning on calling his wife and asking why she hadn't told him that that Harry Langford, one of her goddamn ex-boytoys had called her.
Their case, was a big one too. Jimmy Okada, head of the Okada crime family had been murdered. The Feds had a surveillance team on him and everything, and while they heard everything that happened in that room, they had been barricaded into their van by the shooters. They hadn't been able to help or get eyes on who did it.
But they figured it to be a play for his territory. This was a big deal. To have pulled something like this off against such a strong player was remarkable. And who do you think that sounded like?
They were heading to see the one person who they figured was either in on it, or potentially behind it, when someone came off their elevator, coincidentally while they were trying to go down it.
Yep, it was Harry Langford. Again.
He was dressed in a nice light blue suit, crispy white shirt, no tie. He looked more like the British Spy they knew him as. And he wanted to tag along.
Turned out, the man was bored. Apparently, retirement didn't suit him.
Steve didn't see a problem with him coming along, at least with him tagging along he'd be able to make sure that he didn't call Rowan again. Keep him from maybe jet setting off to California next to see her.
They drove together in silence, heading towards the house, Harry in the back of the Camaro. He looked out the windows trying to establish where they were and where they were going.
They had sort of filled him in, at least on the case and it's particulars, but not about who they were going to see, other than he might be in on it, or at least know about it.
"Seems pretty residential for killer…"
Danny shot a glance to Steve who refused to say anything. He was grinning at him, because he no doubt guessed that this was a bit of a punishment for calling Rowan, but Steve wasn't going to admit that.
"Yeah, he's been relatively tame recently," Steve admitted. Which was only half a lie. "Still deadly when he wants to be though."
"Ah, so half in retirement… like me."
They got to the house, and Harry went quiet. Steve parked in the driveway and then hopped out. He dashed up to the door, got the emergency key out from under the rock and then let himself in.
He got into the house, ready to call out for him, when Con slid into view, gun raised and pointed in Steve's direction.
He had nothing on except a pair of boxers and his white rabbit mask which meant he meant fucking business.
"Con! Con! It's me!" Steve cried, his hands up and Con immediately dropped the gun.
"What the fuck, McGarrett!" Con cried. "The emergency key is for emergencies only…"
"You let yourself into my house all the time."
"Yeah, but that's different. You're always in a state of crisis!"
"I am not."
Con just waved at him. "Give me a minute," he said and then walked back to his room, probably to put clothes on.
It was weird that he was still asleep at this point in the day. Was he tired because he had been busy killing Jimmy Okada last night?
When Con came out of his room, he had put on his white shirt and a pair of his black jeans. "Right. So. What's going on? You need me? Is that it? Who do you need me to kill?"
Steve opened his mouth to tell him that he didn't need him that way but Con suddenly paused. He leant to the side as if trying to see around Steve and when Steve turned he found that Danny and Harry had made it through the front door.
Con was immediately smiling, which was odd because he didn't usually smile when he saw Steve or Danny, especially when they were together.
"Oh look. It's Ford! Come here!" he cried. He opened his arms as if to give the man a hug.
Harry's face paled. He pulled out his phone out of his pocket, which was not ringing and said: "I have to take this," the practically dove out the door.
Con watched him go with an amused smile on his face. "What a guy," he said with a shake of his head. Confusing, considering Con had be vehemently against Rowan dating him according to her. Con hadn't liked or trusted Harry at all.
After a moment he turned to Steve, his eyes narrowed. "He knows Ro ain't here right?"
Steve frowned at him. "He's not here for Ro."
That had Con nodding. "You know he's fucked Ro, right?"
Yes, yes, he did know that, but he didn't need Con just throwing it in his face like that.
"Why do you need to do that? Why? Why?" Steve cried.
"Eh, it's fun," he said with a shrug and then crossed his arms over his chest. "Do you want something? Or did you just want to scare the pants off of Ford?"
"It's Langford, and no," he said and then cleared his throat. "I'm here about a case…"
"Again?"
"Yes, I wanted to see if you knew anything about it," he said and Con waved at him to get on with it. "Jimmy Okada got mowed down last night…"
"Not shit. Big Jim got taken down?" he asked and the whistled. "That's gonna cause some friction… probably a war…"
"Yeah and I was wondering if you had a hand in it?"
"Me?" Con echoed. "Why do you think I'm involved?"
"Because that's a big deal, and apparently a really hard assignment. It sounds like the kind of job you'd take."
"Yeah you got me there," Con said with a scoff. "But how could I have done it? I was at your place last night. And besides, I'm not taking new gigs, promised Ro I'd dedicate all my attention to you. Can't take any side gigs until mami is back on the island."
"Yeah," Steve said. "Could have done it after you went home?"
"Did you not hear about the promise? No new side gigs until she's back, what aren't you getting?"
"Alright fine, so you weren't involved."
"Do you need me to be?" Con asked. "Do you need me to help out? Find out who did it something?"
"No…"
"Are you sure? My calendar is wide open so I can totally tag along if you need me to."
"I don't need you this time, I've already got Harry tagging along."
"I see how it is," Con said, moving for his fridge. "Replacing me with the British model."
"Well at least I know he won't go rogue on me," Steve shot back.
Con shot him an amused sort of smirk. "Right. The 007 knock off isn't going to go rogue on you. Sure."
Steve shook his head, my god he was so patronizing.
"Right, well that's for the info," he said as he headed towards the door. "Seriously, please don't interfere today. Okay?"
"Aces," Con said as he busied himself with making himself what was probably breakfast.
Steve left him there, hoping that for once, his brother-in-law would listen to him.