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Chapter 15

Steve returned home on edge and sat down in a beach chair. He put his head in his hands and went over the events since his return from Romania: Joe had been discharged from the military for rescuing him in Korea, and since then, he had been acting strangely. He claimed to be researching Shelburne, which wasn't true; he was making trips to Japan, he refused to talk about his activities, he had—according to him—helped Hiro Noshimori fake his death, and he was getting more curious about Steve's relationship with Charlie. Whenever Steve tried to figure out what Joe was up to or what he was hiding, his former mentor would accuse him of being secretive and deflect by mentioning someone often at Steve's place.

Steve wasn't sure how to handle Joe concerning his relationship. He still believed that the less Joe knew, the better. But he had a feeling that Joe already knew something. What he couldn't understand was why, if Joe knew, he kept trying to push him towards Catherine whenever she was around. Charlie was finding it increasingly difficult to tolerate the woman's presence, and Steve couldn't fathom what the two militaries were playing at. He was doing his best to calm his lover, and the only thing that had eased the situation somewhat was the fact that Charlie had been coming to see him more often in Hawaii.

Charlie had come for Chin's wedding and was back for the weekend. When Steve saw him in his suit, he had an immediate urge to take him home and make love to him on the spot. The dragonrider was just too sexy in that outfit for Steve's mental well-being. However, he remembered that Charlie was Chin's best man and restrained himself—though he did pull Charlie into a secluded corner to kiss him passionately and make him feel the effect he had on him. The redhead had been quite excited by his actions but managed to keep things in check. Nevertheless, after the party ended and they kept their distance the whole evening, they made love passionately at Steve's place.

Two freckled hands grasped Steve's, and he looked up at his partner, who had arrived earlier in the day.

"I thought you'd come say hello when you arrived," the Englishman murmured.

"Sorry, I needed to calm down."

"What's going on?"

"Joe has started a war with the Yakuza. I had to go rescue him from there, gun in hand, and he still refuses to explain what's happening. According to him, my being tortured, Jenna being killed, aren't good enough reasons for him to tell me the truth. He says I'm disrespecting him by asking for explanations and keeps coming back to the fact that I have secrets too."

"Why don't you tell him the truth about us?"

"I don't feel right about it; it's an intuition, something's holding me back."

Charlie nodded and didn't press further, for which Steve was grateful. They stayed like that on the beach for a while and then headed back inside, not noticing a presence in the shadows. The two men decided to go hiking for the weekend. Steve informed Danny and turned off his phone before they embarked on the trails through Hawaii's highest peaks. Those two days, just the two of them in nature, did wonders for them. They could enjoy each other's company without being interrupted by a case, Steve's musings about Joe or Shelburne, or Catherine. Once again, the separation was difficult for the couple when Charlie had to leave. Steve thought about his idea of joining Charlie in Romania more and more. The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to throw caution to the wind and pack his bags. However, Shelburne and Wo Fat continued to hold him back. The only thing that kept him going on Hawaii without going crazy from missing his soulmate too much was knowing he'd see him again soon—for Valentine's Day.

However, the time without Charlie was long for Steve. He managed to convince Joe to confess the truth about Adam Noshimori's father and to ease tensions with the Yakuza. Then his mentor admitted that Shelburne was a code name for a mission and that he had killed Wo Fat's father during that mission, putting everyone in Hawaii in danger as a result. He was leaving because of that. Steve tried to ask more questions, to dig deeper into these revelations, but Joe refused each time and told him that now he had to take care of himself, his future, and Catherine.