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AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! It's another late update, I know. But I hope you enjoy it none-the-less. See you guys next week!
Chapter 414
Once they established that Con wasn't in on it, they went to the next person they could think of that would help them. They went to Kamekona and let Harry order some food. This killed two birds with one stone. Firstly, it stopped Harry from complaining about being hungry and it made Kamekona happy. That meant, when they asked him for help he'd be more receptive to their questions. And the second he was ready they asked him who on the island would be selling the kind of firepower needed to take down someone like Okada.
Kamekona had thought about it for a moment and then had given them a name. A name and a place, problem was, this guy knew all the cops on the island.
Well.
Except for Harry, you know because he wasn't a cop on this island. Not a cop at all in fact.
So they sent him into the dive bar to meet their guy, a gun runner named Loto Manui. And it had worked. He passed the guy's test, got invited to see the better merch in the back of a truck and that was exactly how they lost Harry.
That left Steve and Danny following the truck in the Camaro, listening to the sound of a scuffle on their headsets because, of course, Harry was in a fight with the three men he had with him in the back of the truck.
The entire time they were chasing that truck, Danny had been bitching. How this had been a horrible idea, putting the man who was retired onto this mission. He was clearly going soft. Steve should have known better.
But then the truck crashed, for a reason no one understood at that moment, which allowed Steve and Danny to catch up, and to approach the truck.
They got the door open and Harry was the only one standing. Literally. Manui and his three men were down, even the driver had been accidentally shot. Hence why the truck crashed.
Steve and Danny had to chase him down and by the time they got Harry had beaten up everyone in the back with him. All three men were down except Manui.
Yeah and Danny thought he was going soft.
Luckily Manui was still conscious, which meant they got to zip tie him, bag his buddies, and then Danny was doing his interrogation techniques. And from where Steve was sitting he was not getting anywhere.
"Uh, look, someone is making a big play for Okada, alright? And they need a lot of guns to do that. So what I'm gonna ask you is who made the big purchase recently?
Manui glared up at Danny but otherwise said nothing.
Danny glanced back to where Steve and Langford were sitting, leaning against the hood of his Camaro, both looking very intimidating with their crossed legs. Steve's arms cross across his chest, Langford's clasps neatly in his lap.
"Okay. Um, I assume you are familiar with the term good cop-bad cop. And in this case, I am definitely, definitely the good cop, alright?" he asked and then he glanced back again to Steve and Harry. "Those guys on the other hand, they are, uh, the bad cops. In fact, they're not even cops. So, if I was you, I would speak to me as opposed to them."
And yep, that didn't work either. Manui just stared at him, that glare permanently on his face with a bit of a smug smile.
"No? Okay. I warned you, buddy." Danny turned back to both Steve and Harry. "He's all yours."
Both men finally smiled. They straightened right away, but Steve was first to move away from the car.
"Alright. Mr. Manui had decided to make this fun for us," Steve said, but then Langford stood too.
"Could I have first crack at him?"
"Of course! Please, as our guest I insist."
Harry gave him a bit of a nod and then stepped up to Manui, crossed his arms over his chest and said: "I've got one word for you mate. Pierce."
Right away Manui's eyes widened. And there was a typical response to her name that Steve was very much used to now. The problem was he didn't want Harry using her like that, especially when she was in Hollywood without protection from any fallout.
Steve took half a step towards him. "What are you doing?"
"I'm doing what you're famous for," Harry said and then moved closer to Manui who was looking at them with wide eyes of suspicious fear.
"You know Pierce? You… you with… her?"
"Oh no, not me. This one, here," he said and then pointed back to Steve who was staring at him, while, standing right there beside him smiling smugly was Danny. "That one, he's married to her. Congrats by the way. Has her brothers on speed dial? One of which is still on the island…."
"Yeah, no, we don't… we don't use Rowan like that…"
"Yes, you do, girl complained about helping you with your cases all the damn time. You throwing her name around all willy-nilly despite hating where that power came from," he said. "And now, now you're best friends with her eldest brother, and the youngest lives on your street. We could literally drive there right now, I'm sure he wouldn't mind putting on that white rabbit mask and…"
"Okay, okay I'll talk!"
Danny moved forward, ready to get all the answers he wanted. Which left Steve with Harry, staring at one another. Harry had a cocky smile on his face while Steve glared at him.
Steve wanted to tell him off. Steve wanted to yell at him for using his wife's name in vain, but he knew if he did both Harry and Danny would bring up how many times Steve used it in the exact same way Harry had used it now.
After a tense stare off, Harry let out a bit of a laugh and said: "You know, I totally get why you do that now. It really does make everything so much easier."
He then moved around Steve to move back to the Camaro and Steve just watched him go.
My god he just wanted this to be over. He wanted Harry to leave.
He wanted to call his wife and apologize, and then warn her of what Harry had done. And as soon as he got away from them, he would.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Things had not gotten better after the truck.
They went to see the man that they thought was making the play on Okada. They stormed his place, seized all of his guns, he had tried to run and Steve was just… he was done with the whole situation.
He shot the man's leg out from under him when he made a run for it.
After the gunshot, the young man was more than willing to answer their questions in return for a trip to the ER. He was very clear that, yeah, he had bought up all the guns off of Manui, but not because he was trying to go after Okada. He bought them up because someone had gone after Okada.
He had known that there was a RICO cause on Okada and he figured it was only a matter of time before he was making a play on his territory. But that was after the Feds took him down.
Steve wasn't sure he believed him until they got the ballistics report back. The report that said that there was only one gun used.
So there wasn't a team of men that stormed Okada's gambling den. It was one hired gun. One man who gotten in and took a whole security team out. Stopped the Feds from interrupting him.
When they found that out Harry turned to him and asked: "Are you sure your brother-in-law isn't involved. It's very much his MO."
He was right, one lone gunman taking out a whole team plus one of the biggest players on the island all while the FBI were outside listening. Locking them in the van, basically humiliating them. Yeah that was definitely his MO. But he said he hadn't done it and he wouldn't lie… actually he would.
Goddamn it.
He put in a call to Con and found out that he had go to sit with Okada junior. Said the kid called him in for security and he was bored and Nahele wasn't back from school yet, so he figured he'd kill some time.
Steve thanked him for being so helpful and got a: "Pft, I'm not doing it to help you. I'm doing it to get paid. I have a mortgage now."
Which was also a lie. Con paid for his house in full. According to Rowan he still had enough in that bank account of his to buy another house if he so wanted. So that was just him being difficult. Didn't want Steve to know that he wanted to help him with his case.
They found the waitress that had gone missing after the attack. At first they had wanted to ask her what they saw, now they had a feeling she was in on it. They had figured out that she had checked into a hotel. When they got there though, she was dead. So that kind of confirmed that she was in on it, and someone had gotten to her before the cops could.
They had found her phone though, and it had a lot of calls to one number. A burner phone.
Steve figured, what the hell? Why not try calling it, see what he got?
And while he was doing that, Grover and Tani had gone to see the owner of the gun. It had been stolen before the attack, and they wanted to know if the owner had seen anything or knew anything about the person who had taken it.
John Walcott was a piano teacher, they had interrupted a lesson. John Walcott seemed normal to begin with, but then they stopped believing his story. For starters it didn't make sense that someone broke into that place and left almost all the good stuff behind… except the gun.
Then his phone rang and guess who it was. McGarrett on Annie Hugh's phone.
Yeah so he was working with the dead waitress.
But their interrogation was cut short when SUVs showed up, with a lot of men with guns.
Tani and Grover managed to hold them off, but in the end John Walcott had vanished.
And Steve knew where he was going.
Or he did, now.
Turned out three years ago, John Walcott's son was run over by a car, a hit and run. Walcott had witnessed the whole thing but hadn't reported the right kind of car. That was odd, but they figured that Okada must have convinced him not to report it to the police, and probably not kindly.
Okada had killed his son. This was all about revenge.
This left them all racing to the Okada's high rise. The massive building where Derek Okada lived, and he and his dad worked out of. They needed to get there before John got the revenge he wanted.
"It'll be okay," Ford said from the back of the Camaro. "You've got the Rabbit there with him."
"I do," Steve said. "I do have… you know I didn't send him there, but Con doesn't renegade on deals."
"Then why are you worried?"
"Worried?" Steve echoed. "I'm not worried."
"Yes, you are."
Steve faltered momentarily and then sighed. "Cause if something happens to Wo Fat's baby brother on my watch, that man will kill me."
"No, he won't. You married his sister. Rowan would never let him."
"Fine, he wouldn't physically kill me but he would lecture me and honestly that's worse."
They were quiet the rest of the drive. They were quiet as they moved up the building. They were quiet for only a few moments after they found all the bodies.
Steve had looked them over and Danny had asked: "Was this Walcott or Con?"
Steve didn't have an answer for him either. Though he did say: "You're not allowed to call him that. You have to call him Sin Nombre."
Steve decided he needed the rush rest of the way. He was fairly certain it was Walcott who had done this damage, and he was worried about what would happen when he got up to where Con was.
If Con went down on Steve's watch he wasn't sure that Ro would forgive him. Wo Fat definitely wouldn't forgive him.
When they got to the top of that building he found that there were only three survivors. Derek, Con and of course, there was John Walcott.
It was clear that Con had winged him, but he hadn't killed him. Unusual for him. He was usually a wonderful shot. And for some reason the two of them were pointing a gun at Derek Okada.
Like… both of them were pointing a gun at him. Con was standing in front of the kid with the gun pointed at him, Walcott was to the side, gun pointed at his head.
"You know who I am, why I'm here," John was saying to Derek and while Steve wanted to sneak up on him, he knew he wouldn't get a chance.
"Drop the weapon John," Steve cried and Con shot a glance at him. He then turned back to John who had moved so he was behind Derek, blocking Steve's clear shot. Damn he should have just shot him instead of telling him to drop the weapon.
"Don't do it," Con said. "I know McGarrett, he doesn't want to shoot you. And he's not gonna." What the fuck?! "Shoot him. Shoot him before you lose your chance."
If Steve thought he could get away with it, he'd've fucking hit him.
"For the love of god, why are you helping him?"
Con shot him a scowl. "Man's lost his little boy, to this little shit, he deserves the bullet."
Oh no. This was tied to his own kid. He had lost his own son and now he was going to help this man get revenge. Just like he had.
"Who… who told you that? I just found out that!" Steve cried.
"Got my sources."
"Is that source your sister?" Danny asked and Steve found himself growling. Why would Rowan give Con the tip and not him?
"He has to pay," John said interrupting them. "And not just for Annie. Tell them, Derek."
Derek's eyes were whipping between him and then Con. He was probably super confused as to what was happening at that moment. To be fair he had hired the most proficient assassin on the market and the man had straight up turned on him.
He probably wasn't expecting a sob story to get to him. And before Rowan that might have been true, or maybe not. Con was rather touchy about his family, both the new living one and the dead one.
John was getting weepy. But his gun stayed on Derek.
"Kid was in the car, the car that killed Aiden. When they saw what they had done, Derek here tried to buy my silence. But his father wouldn't have it. Said he'd already taken my son, and if I went to the cops he would have killed the rest of my family too."
"See. This mans got tah go!" Con said. "Shoot him in the dick before you shoot him in the head!"
Steve rolled his eyes. "Con, don't make me call your sister!"
That time Con shot him a bit of a smirk. "No? Not gonna threaten me with big brother?"
"No! Cause Wo would agree with you!"
Steve was right and he knew he was right. But Con still said: "And Rowan wouldn't?"
He'd like to think she wouldn't but now that he thought about it… yeah… maybe she would.
"This isn't going change anything. You understand? You put that gun down. We can talk about it. We'll work through this, John."
Con nodded. "You've committed several murders. Very impressive murders, but they are murders. You going to jail. Might as well make it worth it."
"Con, for fuck sake. Stop it!" Steve hissed.
"Oh like you wouldn't do it? If it was Nahele under that car, or Ro? Like you didn't do something just like this to avenge your own father!"
"That was different!"
"Why? Because you have a badge?!" Con cried and he turned back to John. "Man. When they killed my whole family. Do you know what made me feel better? Killing the son'of'a'bitch who did it. And I didn't just kill him. I killed his whole family. A family for a family. And it was the best decision I ever made."
"Don't listen to him John," Harry said. "I've been where you stand. Someone I loved very much was taken away from me. You think this will take away the pain but it won't, and it won't bring them back."
"He's right. The pain won't go away. And it doesn't bring them back. But you'll sleep better at night knowing that he got what he deserved. What he really deserved."
John was staring at them, and then at Derek who was still acting as a shield for him.
"I've already made my choice," he said and then he pulled the trigger.
Steve jumped but not Con. Derek caught the bullet in the back of his head. The spray kicked back onto both John and Con, but the second his body dropped both men lowered their guns.
John put his on the ground, Con put his back in it's holster under his arm. Form there John cooperated with the arrest, didn't even bother to fight or argue.
But before Tani got him away, Con asked: "See, don't you feel better?"
He didn't answer, thankfully and Steve sent them off before he turned back onto Con.
"What the hell was that?" Steve cried. "Is everything going to become a vendetta for you?"
Steve then paused. Where had he heard that before?
Con blinked his eyes. "No. it's not a vendetta. It's about fairness. That man's son died. He deserved to get some vengeance."
"Yes, and Derek should have gone to jail…"
"Well daddy made sure that wasn't going to happen. So… this was the way to go."
"Con!" Steve shouted. "This was reckless, dangerous, and a complete… I mean… you aided in a murder!"
"Yeah," he said with a bit of a laugh. "It's not even the worst I've done."
"How did you… how did you even know? Huh? When did Rowan tell you? Because she's been too busy to answer my calls! So when did she get the time…"
"It wasn't Ro. Wo had the info," Con said. "He sold Walcott his hardware. All his hardware actually. He mentioned the man had told him why he was doing it… he didn't care at the time but uh… he remembered. Relayed it to me. I knew it was John before the he took the job, figured he'd show up here. If he told me the same story as Wo, if I believed him, I figured I'd help."
"Why did you shoot him then?"
"Man shot at me first," he said and then pulled out his jacket where Steve could see a bullet had gone through the leather. "I'm lucky it only hit the jacket. At least I know I can get that patched."
Steve almost shook his head. "You're ridiculous. And this is not over. We will argue about this when we get home," he said before turning to Grover and saying: "Could you make sure they don't arrest him on the way out."
Grover nodded and motioned for Con to follow him, which he did, no problem. That left Steve up there with the dead bodies, Danny and Harry.
Harry was smiling at him. "Well, never a dull moment with you two," he said. "Glad to see that marrying into the crime family has had it's benefits."
"It's given me grey hair and high blood pressure," Steve growled.
"Well, higher blood pressure," Danny said. "So uh… you going to go back to your hotel… and your girlfriend…"
"At little nervous about that, though," Harry admitted. "I may have told her I was nipping out for some sun screen."
Oh, what a lie.
"Well… what about this? Danny and I are doing a sort of soft run of our restaurant. We're uh… catering a little event at my house, why don't… why don't you bring her a long?"
Harry thought about it a moment before saying: "what's the dress code."
"Fancy," Steve said. "It's uh… it's a big moment we're celebrating today."
"Right, then we'll see you there," Harry said.
And for the first time in eight hours they finally went their separate ways.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Steve and Danny were treating this Premiere party like practice for their restaurant.
And it was not going well.
Danny had decided, well before this date, what the menu would be. Steve just had to be dressed up and play the nice host. Made sense, because it was his house.
While Steve and Nahele set up the viewing area with the couch and chairs for others. He even set up the dining room table so there would be somewhere for the food to go.
After that Steve went into the kitchen to help while Nahele flipped he TV to the correct channel. Helping in the kitchen was where things started to go haywire.
Danny kept complaining about Steve being underfoot. So much so that between the two of them they managed knock over a whole plate of bread for the panini bar that Danny was setting up.
Danny had been livid. All these extra ingredients would now go to waste.
He ordered Steve out of the kitchen. But it was HIS kitchen! Why should he leave his own kitchen?
He shooed Steve away, told him to go get changed, so he did. But only because he needed to. The party was fancy wear and both he and Nahele needed to get into their suits.
When he came back down, Danny had found a solution. He had turned the extra ingredients into what he called an Insalata Caprese with the addition of olives and olive oil, which basically an antipasto of sorts. He also figured the cold cuts would make it into the Panini's anyway, specially with the group that they were inviting.
Steve took all of the trays over to the table, including the new dish. Which was good timing because that was when people started to come.
Steve started doing what he was supposed to be doing. He started playing the good host.
It was the getting the drinks for people that he ran into another issue.
He had been going to the kitchen to get a more drinks when he slammed into something on the other side.
Which was Danny who had been coming out with the main. A handmade Gnocchi in a special Williams' family Bolognese sauce.
This led to a complete and utter meltdown from Danny who started by raising his voice, his hands waving about almost frantically. He eventually settled with sarcastic comments. Mostly about how Steve was ruining this whole night.
Danny had to take his shirt off, and change into one of Steve's shirts, seeing as Steve had ruined his for the party. Luckily, it wasn't the only batch of Gnocchi, either. Danny got the Gnocchi ready, another bowl for people to serve themselves out of.
He set it out and then went upstairs to borrow Steve and Rowan's room to freshen up before the show.
By the time Danny was downstairs again the whole crew was there. Everyone they invited, from Kamekona and Flipper to the Governor herself, and of course the guest of the hour, Harry Langford and his date, Veronique, who didn't look nearly as angry as Harry had said she would be.
They were all sitting in place, eating, having a good time but when it came time, they all went quiet with Nahele crying: "It's starting!"
They turned the TV up and then they all sat there on bated breath watching all the celebrities and the interviews.
"Are we sure she's going to be on the TV?" Danny asked and Steve shot him a glare.
"She wrote all the music!"
"Yeah, but is that as important as all the stars?" Danny shot back.
And there were some big names in that movie. Hugh Jackman for one.
"Someone should have told me that we had such a popular artist on the island," Governor Dennings interjected. "Maybe we'll have a Hawaiian Premiere when she's back. Seeing as one of our very own practically wrote the whole thing."
Steve shot a glance to the Governor. "I'll shoot her a text. See if she can talk to the movie execs to set something up."
"Oh, if she does, tell her to give them my number, it'd like to make this a state event."
Steve had a feeling that Rowan wouldn't like that. "She might not like that, it was hard enough to get her to do this one," he said with a nod to the TV. "But uh… maybe she will if you uh… approve some time off…"
She shot him a bit of a prim glare but it was clear she got the message.
"Look! There's mom!" Nahele cried and the whole place went quiet as Steve maxed out the volume and the TV got the full attention.
"And here's our surprise tonight. Talk about an unknown dark horse. Rowan Pierce, a Hawaiian song writer, who wrote all the music for this movie. She is also the mastermind behind all of Alex and the Doctor's albums. Here she is, definitely shining here tonight. She's coming down the carpet with Trevor Peirce who wrote the actual screenplay. Fun fact, he is not actually related to Rowan though they share the same last name…"
"Wait a second, that's not her dress," Con said on his spot on the couch beside Nahele.
And he was right, it wasn't her dress. She was standing on that red carpet, a thin smile on her face, clearly not her usual happy self. Steve was worried, of course, but not so much about the dress.
The dress she was supposed to wear was this beautiful blush gown with golden accents. It had looked good on her, and he had even more fun stripping her of it. She had dressed up before she left so he could see her, so her could experience it. Granted he had to be so much more carefully than he normally was, wasn't allowed to rip it up or anything.
The dress she was wearing at that moment was all black. It had a high-low skirt that had gold embroidery in the shape of feathers on the inside of the skirt. Ingenious, really. With the high-low skirt it looked like a trail of peacock feathers.
The bodice was also gold embroidery, but it was done on a sheer black fabric of sorts. It had a high neck and no sleeves. The embroidery on the chest bodice was also feathers, which tied into the skirt.
She still looked beautiful, of course, but it wasn't what they were expecting. At least, the people that knew what her dress was supposed to be.
"That's weird," Steve said. "She uh… she must have had a wardrobe malfunction."
Con didn't seem too happy about that, he was fiddling with his phone, bouncing it up and down on his thigh. He had dressed up too, just like everyone else had at this party and yet he was still in his uniform. White dress shirt and black dress pants. He just wasn't wearing the jacket. Which also meant that he wasn't wearing his under-arm holsters, but Steve didn't think that meant he was unarmed.
He no doubt wanted to text her, but there would be no point. This was a live show, Ro wouldn't be able to answer.
Veronique, who was sitting with Ford in the two chairs by the end of the couch closest to Con, cleared her throat after a moment of silence.
"So… not that this isn't interesting, but why are we having a viewing party for this premiere? Are we all just invested in the movie or…?"
"It's Ro. Rowan Pierce," Jerry said. "We're all here because she's our friend. This is her first red carpet event, and we can't be there, so we're here instead." He then paused and added: "The kid shouted that it was his mom…"
"Oh, I must have missed it," she said flippantly. Yeah, Steve was starting to like her less and less. "And besides, it's not like I know her."
"Yeah, you might not but your boyfriend does," Con said and that was entirely the wrong thing to say.
"Oh does he?" Veronique asked. Harry opened his mouth to answer but was cut off.
Con leant in and whispered: "Yeah, see, Ro, she's my sister and your boyfriend had sex with her against my wishes and then arrested her… and then we half blew him up."
Veronique turned a surprised look onto Harry who looked rather surprised at this turn in conversation.
"But uh… you don't have to worry about that. Ro married this lug over here," Con said and then reached over Nahele to tap Steve on his chest. "… so she's off the market. Though we are trying to convince her to divorce of him, of course…"
"Stop talking. You're making it worse," Steve said.
"Oh I know," Con said as Steve pulled him back. "That's the point."
"Ah, so you're trying to put me in the doghouse." Harry asked and Con just smiled at him.
"You faked liking my sister so you could get intel on us and then arrested her to use as bait," Con said. "So yeah, I feel like you deserve a little… tough love."
"Well, for starters, I didn't arrest her, the chaps at MI6 chose to do that against my advice. And as for faking… well… I didn't have to fake anything. Rowan is and always has been entirely lovely, which is more than I can say for you two."
Veronique crossed her arms over her chest, a glare pinned right on him. Yeah, Steve felt the same way about that. Not that Rowan wasn't lovely, she was, but Harry didn't need go around talking about how he seduced Steve's wife and enjoyed it.
Harry glanced back, caught that glare and then inclined his head at the sight of it. "And I did not help things. Clearly."
"Clearly," Veronique said. "I would have very much appreciated the heads up that this was an event celebrating your ever so lovely ex."
"Right, before you two get into a fight, or before you storm off, I'm just gonna say that dessert is ready. It's the William's family Tiramisu, and what will be the house special cannoli," Danny said getting everyone's attention.
This was purposely done of course, not just because of the argument but because Ro was no longer on the screen.
"But what I'm going to need is for Steve to stay right where he is, so he doesn't ruin anything else."
Steve shot him a glare. "I didn't ruin anything you got in my way!"
"Whatever, just stay on the couch, stay on the damn couch!" Danny said moving towards the kitchen.
Steve got up right away with a: "Hey! Does anyone need a refresher on drinks?"
He, right away, went about taking orders like the good host he was try to be. Danny was shouting at him to stay out of his kitchen which just convinced him to keep going.
He even shouted: "It's my damn kitchen!"
On the couch both Nahele and Con shook their heads. "This restaurant is going to be the death of them," Nahele whispered and Con nodded his head.
They both let out a sigh before getting up to do damage control. You know, before the two best friends/restaurant owners bickered themselves to death.