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Chapter 10

Time seemed to be running out for Steve, who had asked Charlie not to come to Hawaii while Joe was there. The dragon caretaker hadn't been thrilled with this request, but Steve's arguments had convinced him.

Indeed, in the evening his innocence had been proven, Steve had stayed at the 5-0 offices to have a beer with the team. Joe had come to find him alone after they'd discussed Wo Fat.

"Who's Charlie?" he'd asked.

"Who?"

"The owner of that phone you've tried to reach at least ten times tonight."

Steve had remained silent and waited for Joe to say more, such as why he had that phone in his hand. His mentor had looked at him for a long moment before handing him the device.

"So?" Joe insisted.

"A friend passing by," Steve replied, trying to hide the tension that had overtaken him.

"He knows how to protect his data," the older man had simply said, handing back the device.

Steve had watched his mentor leave the premises and hurried off to join Charlie, who had no recollection of running into Joe. Concerned, the soldier had asked him not to come to Hawaii if Joe was around. The wizard had finally agreed, on condition that the two of them spent the rest of his week's vacation together in an out-of-the-way place. Steve had agreed, taken a medical leave of absence and let Charlie, at last, speed up his recovery before the two of them headed off to a magical island in Hawaii. They'd spent four days in the bungalow they'd rented, making love, eating and swimming with magical sea creatures.

The soldier had returned from those four days as relaxed and happy as he'd rarely been, but he hadn't seen Charlie for several months. He was discovering more and more about Wo Fat, wondering who Shelburne was, and had more and more reason to distrust Joe. He missed his man, so he threw himself heart and soul into his job and his personal investigations to forget his annoyances. The only good news had been Catherine's departure on a mission far from Hawaii and Kono's reintegration into the team.

He'd believed it when Jenna told him she'd found her fiancé, so he'd hopped on a plane with her and sent Charlie a message just before turning off his phone.

"I have something to do, it may take me a few days, I'll call you as soon as I get back to Hawaii. Te iubesc."

He spent the first part of the flight studying the terrain, preparing their itinerary and intervention-the exchange was planned in the forest on the outskirts of a small mountain village-and then thought about Charlie. Jenna tried to find out a little more about his private life, but he didn't say anything - he didn't know her well enough yet to confide in her - and she even mentioned the name of her boyfriend, which made him tick, but she didn't reply to his colleague. She didn't insist, and they finished their journey in silence.

Steve realized something was wrong as soon as the car carrying Jenna's fiancé arrived, and knew that the hooded man was not her fiancé, nor did he have the build. He repeatedly prevented the young woman from jumping into the trap before spotting a man ready to open fire on them. Steve machine-gunned the Koreans without hesitation, causing a firefight to break out. He took cover, hoping Jenna had done the same.

When calm returned and the click of a gun sounded behind Steve, a vicious doubt crept into his mind and the soldier turned around with a slow , incomprehension and the pain of having been betrayed flooded him as Jenna apologized and prevented him from anticipating the coming of a man to his left who threw a punch. Steve was thrown to the ground, still conscious but stunned, and recognized what appeared to be his nemesis: Wo Fat.