At a Gallop
Cacti, Steel, and Surf
Rating: PG-13( for a bit of language)
A/N: Sorry it took me over a week, but this one is longer than usual so hope fully that makes up for it.
Once again, Italicized words are either in, Hawaiian or Spanish.
Danny groaned and cussed as he rolled out of bed early Tuesday morning, barely comprehending what he was doing. Chin was on the phone apprising him of the current situation that had come up at two in the fucking morning.
Yesterday they’d had to run around the damn island looking for a millionaire’s daughter who’s been kidnapped to get a measly 2 mil out of the man and they didn’t get back in the office until late, and left the office even later after filling out all of the paperwork that was generated when Steve decided he had to crash a police cruiser into the suspect’s vehicle.
He’s had such little sleep that he didn’t even think about what he was putting on as he talked to Chin.
Kono heard the door open of the Five-0 HQ a turned around to wish Danny good morning when her words stuck in her throat. She watched as Danny made a bee-line to the coffee pot, mumbling Spanish as he poured himself a mug full and sighed, his eyes closed as he drank it. She tried to comprehend what she was seeing, but it was almost too good to be true.
She’d seen Danny without out the tie, hell she’s seen him in jeans and boots before, too. But she’d never seen him dressed in jeans as he was now.
Danny was standing there, still half asleep, in faded worn blue jeans that showcased his ass nicely, with a plain white t-shirt and one of his usual work shirts, blue, thrown on top open and not tucked in, and what she assumed were brown cowboy boots. It looked good on him and he seemed a lot more relaxed in that than he did in his usual “professional” attire.
Kono twitched slightly as she heard the HQ doors opening once more and turned to see Chin and Steve walk through the door, carrying things for breakfast at this ungodly hour. Chin barely paused as he took in the sight of Danny dressed as he was, not letting it phase him. Steve, on the other hand, stopped in his tracks and looked Danny over admiringly.
Steve had to admit, when Danny had threatened to come to work in what he was comfortable in he’d had the picture of obscenely tight jeans and t-shirt. It just figures that, while it wasn’t what he had imagined, it still looked damn good, especially since Danny seemed to have forgotten to brush his hair before driving over. The tousled hair and stubbled jaw added to Danny’s appearance, making him look more like a tired country boy than some mainlander who was out of place in any setting you put him into.
It looked good on him and Steve had to really resist the temptation to go and run his fingers through those wild blond strands.
They hadn’t advertized or even clued Chin and Kono in that they were together yet, waiting to see if it was what they both knew their feelings were leading them toward. So far since Sunday all they’d had the chance to do was have dinner that night and then chase a lunatic with delusions of easy gotten money run them ragged yesterday.
It wasn’t that they felt they couldn’t say anything to the other two, they just wanted to get used to the change in their relationship first before they started to publicly announce the change in that status. Of course this was a given that Chin and Kono somehow didn’t know already; those two could be eerily well informed about their lives when they wanted to be.
Chin Ho just glanced at Danny as he continued to sort through the information they had on the main computer, “Still asleep, brah?”
Danny glanced up, slightly more awake than he had been, and when he answered only a small trace of his Jersey accent remained. “Yeah, a little. I didn’t get home until around 1 and it’s,” Danny squinted at his wrist watch, “ 2:45 in the morning. I’ve had an hour sleep after just go, go, going all day yesterday. Hell, Steve looks like a zombie too, if you hadn’t noticed.”
Chin and Kono, both of which were exhausted as well, looked at their leader and saw him leaning a hip against the computer table, his eyes closed and slow even movements of his chest.
Their boss had fallen asleep standing up.
Kono giggled a little hysterically before she poked Steve right under the ribs causing him to snort and jerk out of his little nap, “Boss, we’ve all been awake since at least 5:30 yesterday, if we have to be awake so do you.”
Steve just nodded and looked at Chin, “Sorry, gotten used to sleeping during this time. What have we got?”
Chin went back to the table and pulled up the photos of the crime they were now investigating.
“1:30 this morning the alarm of the Hawaiian State Bank sounded. When units arrived, there was nothing there, including several millions of dollars that were in the vault. A good portion of the safety deposit boxes were emptied also. Officers alerted us and then cordoned off the area before canvassing it for evidence and possible suspects. All they found were two dead security guards, they used a garrote.”
Danny winced at the picture, “Was the murder weapon still there or did they take it with them?”
“They took it with them. Whoever did this were professionals. There wasn’t much evidence to find, not even a finger print. A crime scene team is going over it now to see if there was anything Kono and I missed.”
After working for several hours, and hunting down information, they had a hair and a partial print to go with. Chin was at the palace going over security footage and several of the traffic cameras in the area to track their thieves. After tracking them to an alley, they disappeared so Steve and Danny left to take a look around.
As they looked through the barren dirty alley they found two black duffle bags, filled with the clothes and supplies they recognized as belonging to their thieves.
As Steve looked through the bag, Danny looked through the rest of the alley when he saw a door, Employees Only emblazoned boldly in red across it and scratches on the lock. Without telling Steve, Danny walked around the front and looked at what the building was only to see it was a maintenance building branched off of the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani, one of the many hotels in Waikiki.
When he heard Steve yelling for him he swiftly walked back to where he’d left his partner.
“Yo, Rambo, I’m fine, I was just seeing where the door with the scratches on the lock led. It looks like a maintenance entrance to a hotel. I’m guessing-considering they had to pick the lock-that our thieves are guest here at the hotel.”
Steve’s eyes were narrowed and his jaw tight as he looked Danny over, looking for any sign of foul play. Steve hoped that Danny hadn’t seen him jump when he had, seemingly, appeared out of nowhere. It was a habit that Steve realized Danny didn’t even realize he was doing, as if he was a ghost.
Steve had just opened his mouth to berate Danny about not telling anyone where he was going when they both hear a giggle and a soft “oh.”
There standing at the mouth of the entrance was a couple, tourists by the look of them, whom it appeared had been wanting to use the alley. Steve and Danny traded looks, the length and color of the hair they had found matching the husband’s hair and it was the middle of the day, a bit early and rather conspicuous to be necking in an alley.
Danny strode up to them and smiled charmingly, “Hi, I’m Detective Daniel Williams. We’re currently investigating some suspicious luggage we were alerted was in the alley. Tell me have you seen any suspicious characters around?”
Steve was silent as he watched his partner get their names and when they arrived at the hotel. He had to admit, his partner was good at getting information out of unwilling suspects without them knowing.
The couple had been on the island for a week and were planning on leaving in the next few days, this was an anniversary surprise for his wife. When they said that, there was a subtle thrum of unease and wariness radiating off them, as if they weren’t sure that they were telling the truth.
When the two had left, Danny had their contact info, what room they were in, and their names.
Alexandre and Annette Moreau.
Chin, after Danny called him, dug around and found out that they had only really existed for a few months, their background sketchy and bland. It was apparent that everything before was fabricated. After some more digging and using photo recognition they found the real identities of their tourists.
Anna Maria and Darren Granger, he was a wanted in several countries for thievery and forgeries and she was wanted in even more for murder, hacking, fraud, and extortion.
Together they were quite the dynamic duo and had managed to avoid detection, until after they were long gone at least, for close to a decade.
After making this discovery they compared the partial print they’d found at the scene and matched it to Anna Maria. The hair they believed belonged to Darren. After piecing all of this together Steve sent Kono and Chin to see if they could inspect the maintenance building for proof the Granger’s were there, even possibly the money and various documents and items they had pilfered from the safety deposit boxes while He and Danny tracked down their thieving duo.
They split up and when Chin and Kono found Darren with two dark bags thrown over his shoulder, they reacted, ordering him to put down the stolen goods and put his hands in the air. When he put the bags down and then pulled a gun, Chin didn’t even think as he put two bullets in his chest and shoulder.
At the same time, Steve and Danny walked cautiously up to the Granger’s hotel room, both pulling their weapons to see the door already open and the room thrashed. Gently easing it open further they canvassed the room, hoping to find something. It was when they heard rapid footsteps from behind them that they noticed the closet door was swinging silently.
Steve and Danny barely acknowledged each other as they both took off down the hall after Annette, they missed the brunet woman by mere seconds and she grinned fiercely as the elevator doors closed on her bag laden form. Steve pressed the down button and they waited, their bodies thrumming with energy, then they were headed down for the ground floor. As soon as they reached it, the saw the chaos left behind from Annette after she had barreled her way through the lobby.
Bursting outside, they barely caught sight of her as she commandeered a motorcycle and jetted off down the road. They scrambled into the Camaro and took off after her, Steve at the wheel. They lost sight of her momentarily and when they caught up to where the bike was she was gone and it laid there on the ground, engine still running. Danny pointed at the rather frantic man that was shouting at one of his employees so they got out and went to talk to him.
Ho'ola'i Juarez looked at the two men as they quickly strode towards him with a purpose. He muttered under his breath in Spanish, irritated to not only have lost a horse but to have to deal with these two haoles.
“I hate Tuesdays, something always goes wrong on Tuesdays. Insane bitch, now I have to find my horse. I am sorry, sirs, we cannot help you with anything right now, we are having a bit of a crisis with one of our horses.”
Steve opened his mouth to explain the situation when Danny placed a hand on his bicep to silence him. “Un momento, por favor, Señor. You just said that some woman just stole one of your horses. We’ve been chasing that woman. Do you know which way she went?”
The dark skinned man faced the two full on and looked at the two of them and then noticed the badge hanging on each of their hips. “Sí, I’m the owner, Ho'ola'i Juarez, she went on one of our toughest trails at a full gallop. I was preparing to go after her myself.”
Danny began talking to Señor Juarez in rapid fire Spanish, leaving Steve in the dust, so he wandered over to some of the ranch hands to ask questions and missed when Danny left on a tall Smokey Black Gelding, Merucry, at a fast trot that eventually transformed into a gallop once he was on the trail.
Chin Ho and Kono arrived slightly bloody from Darren and asked about his wife. When Steve turned to ask Danny he realized that the blond was no longer there and the owner, Señor Juarez was watching the trail the woman had supposedly gone down.
With mounting frustration, Steve called Danny’s cell only to get a message that the person he was trying to reach was without service. Steve began to pace as Chin and Kono explained what they had pieced together thus far. Learning how ruthless Anna Maria Granger could be made Steve’s anxiety rocket to new levels for his partner.
He trusted Danny, explicitly so, and knew the man could take care of himself. But the recent change in their relationship, the fact that, for once, Danny was the one without back up, unnerved and worried him. He never minded getting into situations with the blond at his back or vice versa, didn’t even mind going in by himself. But now, he realized almost numbly, he was more than likely feeling what Danny must feel every time he went out without any back up of his own.
Danny and Mercury thundered down the trail, Danny’s eyes quickly and efficiently taking in his surrounding, looking for any sign of Annette Granger. He slowed Mercury as he noticed Anna Maria’s tracks becoming less heavy and rushed and more sedate, knowing she probably thought she was safe and none would come after her.
Danny listened to his surrounding intently as he and Mercury now moved at a slow trot, the gelding steps soft and silent on the packed earth, alert for sounds much like his current rider in case of danger.
Then Danny heard it and he and Mercury both stopped, barely twitching to catch the sound again.
Dismounting, Danny quietly soothed and reassured the gelding, hushing him as he drew his weapon. Danny silently walked to the area where he heard faint cussing and rustling of the underbrush from Mrs. Granger’s pacing as she tried to call someone on her cell and the snuffling as Diamond, the young mare Anna Maria had taken, relaxed in the in shaded area, nibbling on grass.
Anna Maria Granger froze as she felt cool metal nudge the base of her skull.
“Five-0, drop the phone and put your hands behind your head.”
She closed he eyes and cussed loudly as she did as she was told, gritting her teeth, pissed she’d been found. When his hands reached hers to cuff them together, she reacted trying to grab his holstered weapon, however Danny was on high alert and subdued her to the ground without much problems, knocking the wind from her lungs.
Anna Maria wheezed as Danny flipped her over, cuffed her hands in front of her, hauled her to her feet, and helped her mount Diamond for the ride back. Leading Diamond by the reins, Danny scooped up the fallen cell phone as he led them back to Mercury and lifted himself onto the gelding’s back without dropping Diamond’s reins.
Steve paced for over an hour when they heard a few of the ranch hands shouts. The majority of the Five-0 looked towards the commotion and went to see what was going on. They were treated to the sight of Danny sitting atop a tall dark grey horse, leading another brown one with a white Diamond in the middle of her forehead and Mrs. Granger seated on its back, coming down the trail towards the Stables.
The three currently present took the time to admire Danny as he sat and moved with the horse with a sense of grace they hadn’t seen in their team mate before.
Steve watched as his partner guided the horse where to go with sure movements, no hesitation or uncertainty. Danny had never seemed as at home as he did unless he was with Grace or, he was startled to realize, alone with him.
He hoped Chin and Kono didn’t hear him swallow hard, his groin stirring slightly as he watched his partner do two of the things he excelled at, at once. Being a cop and riding a horse had never really been anything he’d ever associated together, save for probably those that patrolled New York’s Central Park, but Danny seemed to blend the two effortlessly.
Danny dismounted Mercury and the ranch hands helped Mrs. Granger off Diamond and right into two of the HPD’s finest. He petted Mercury slightly, smoothing the hair along his snout and telling him his thanks. He personally led the horse towards Señor Juarez, wanting to personally thank him for letting him go after Mrs. Granger on one of his horses.
Señor Juarez Stared at Danny for a few moments after accepting the reins, sizing him up, “You are an excellent rider, Detective. Thank you for returning both of my horses to me safely.”
Danny smiled that same lopsided smile he’d given Steve the other day, broadcasting the enjoyment he’d had.
“You welcome, and thank you for allowing me to take Mercury to find both your horse and Mrs. Granger. I appreciate it greatly, I haven’t had much in the way of chances to find a place I and my daughter can ride, or just had a decent ride myself. You have some good trails here, I hope you won’t mind too horribly if I bring my daughter and come one day for just a ride and not chasing after suspects.”
Señor Juarez grinned, “If your daughter has learned from you, I don’t believe we’ll have a problem with.”
The grin on Danny’s face as he walked towards his team was practically euphoric, and while Steve had gained a few grey hairs from worry and realized how Danny felt every time he went off by himself, he figured he wouldn’t have changed Danny being the one to go after Granger for the world.
Chapter Nine / Chapter Archive / Chapter Eleven
Rating: PG-13( for a bit of language)
A/N: Sorry it took me over a week, but this one is longer than usual so hope fully that makes up for it.
Once again, Italicized words are either in, Hawaiian or Spanish.
Danny groaned and cussed as he rolled out of bed early Tuesday morning, barely comprehending what he was doing. Chin was on the phone apprising him of the current situation that had come up at two in the fucking morning.
Yesterday they’d had to run around the damn island looking for a millionaire’s daughter who’s been kidnapped to get a measly 2 mil out of the man and they didn’t get back in the office until late, and left the office even later after filling out all of the paperwork that was generated when Steve decided he had to crash a police cruiser into the suspect’s vehicle.
He’s had such little sleep that he didn’t even think about what he was putting on as he talked to Chin.
Kono heard the door open of the Five-0 HQ a turned around to wish Danny good morning when her words stuck in her throat. She watched as Danny made a bee-line to the coffee pot, mumbling Spanish as he poured himself a mug full and sighed, his eyes closed as he drank it. She tried to comprehend what she was seeing, but it was almost too good to be true.
She’d seen Danny without out the tie, hell she’s seen him in jeans and boots before, too. But she’d never seen him dressed in jeans as he was now.
Danny was standing there, still half asleep, in faded worn blue jeans that showcased his ass nicely, with a plain white t-shirt and one of his usual work shirts, blue, thrown on top open and not tucked in, and what she assumed were brown cowboy boots. It looked good on him and he seemed a lot more relaxed in that than he did in his usual “professional” attire.
Kono twitched slightly as she heard the HQ doors opening once more and turned to see Chin and Steve walk through the door, carrying things for breakfast at this ungodly hour. Chin barely paused as he took in the sight of Danny dressed as he was, not letting it phase him. Steve, on the other hand, stopped in his tracks and looked Danny over admiringly.
Steve had to admit, when Danny had threatened to come to work in what he was comfortable in he’d had the picture of obscenely tight jeans and t-shirt. It just figures that, while it wasn’t what he had imagined, it still looked damn good, especially since Danny seemed to have forgotten to brush his hair before driving over. The tousled hair and stubbled jaw added to Danny’s appearance, making him look more like a tired country boy than some mainlander who was out of place in any setting you put him into.
It looked good on him and Steve had to really resist the temptation to go and run his fingers through those wild blond strands.
They hadn’t advertized or even clued Chin and Kono in that they were together yet, waiting to see if it was what they both knew their feelings were leading them toward. So far since Sunday all they’d had the chance to do was have dinner that night and then chase a lunatic with delusions of easy gotten money run them ragged yesterday.
It wasn’t that they felt they couldn’t say anything to the other two, they just wanted to get used to the change in their relationship first before they started to publicly announce the change in that status. Of course this was a given that Chin and Kono somehow didn’t know already; those two could be eerily well informed about their lives when they wanted to be.
Chin Ho just glanced at Danny as he continued to sort through the information they had on the main computer, “Still asleep, brah?”
Danny glanced up, slightly more awake than he had been, and when he answered only a small trace of his Jersey accent remained. “Yeah, a little. I didn’t get home until around 1 and it’s,” Danny squinted at his wrist watch, “ 2:45 in the morning. I’ve had an hour sleep after just go, go, going all day yesterday. Hell, Steve looks like a zombie too, if you hadn’t noticed.”
Chin and Kono, both of which were exhausted as well, looked at their leader and saw him leaning a hip against the computer table, his eyes closed and slow even movements of his chest.
Their boss had fallen asleep standing up.
Kono giggled a little hysterically before she poked Steve right under the ribs causing him to snort and jerk out of his little nap, “Boss, we’ve all been awake since at least 5:30 yesterday, if we have to be awake so do you.”
Steve just nodded and looked at Chin, “Sorry, gotten used to sleeping during this time. What have we got?”
Chin went back to the table and pulled up the photos of the crime they were now investigating.
“1:30 this morning the alarm of the Hawaiian State Bank sounded. When units arrived, there was nothing there, including several millions of dollars that were in the vault. A good portion of the safety deposit boxes were emptied also. Officers alerted us and then cordoned off the area before canvassing it for evidence and possible suspects. All they found were two dead security guards, they used a garrote.”
Danny winced at the picture, “Was the murder weapon still there or did they take it with them?”
“They took it with them. Whoever did this were professionals. There wasn’t much evidence to find, not even a finger print. A crime scene team is going over it now to see if there was anything Kono and I missed.”
After working for several hours, and hunting down information, they had a hair and a partial print to go with. Chin was at the palace going over security footage and several of the traffic cameras in the area to track their thieves. After tracking them to an alley, they disappeared so Steve and Danny left to take a look around.
As they looked through the barren dirty alley they found two black duffle bags, filled with the clothes and supplies they recognized as belonging to their thieves.
As Steve looked through the bag, Danny looked through the rest of the alley when he saw a door, Employees Only emblazoned boldly in red across it and scratches on the lock. Without telling Steve, Danny walked around the front and looked at what the building was only to see it was a maintenance building branched off of the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani, one of the many hotels in Waikiki.
When he heard Steve yelling for him he swiftly walked back to where he’d left his partner.
“Yo, Rambo, I’m fine, I was just seeing where the door with the scratches on the lock led. It looks like a maintenance entrance to a hotel. I’m guessing-considering they had to pick the lock-that our thieves are guest here at the hotel.”
Steve’s eyes were narrowed and his jaw tight as he looked Danny over, looking for any sign of foul play. Steve hoped that Danny hadn’t seen him jump when he had, seemingly, appeared out of nowhere. It was a habit that Steve realized Danny didn’t even realize he was doing, as if he was a ghost.
Steve had just opened his mouth to berate Danny about not telling anyone where he was going when they both hear a giggle and a soft “oh.”
There standing at the mouth of the entrance was a couple, tourists by the look of them, whom it appeared had been wanting to use the alley. Steve and Danny traded looks, the length and color of the hair they had found matching the husband’s hair and it was the middle of the day, a bit early and rather conspicuous to be necking in an alley.
Danny strode up to them and smiled charmingly, “Hi, I’m Detective Daniel Williams. We’re currently investigating some suspicious luggage we were alerted was in the alley. Tell me have you seen any suspicious characters around?”
Steve was silent as he watched his partner get their names and when they arrived at the hotel. He had to admit, his partner was good at getting information out of unwilling suspects without them knowing.
The couple had been on the island for a week and were planning on leaving in the next few days, this was an anniversary surprise for his wife. When they said that, there was a subtle thrum of unease and wariness radiating off them, as if they weren’t sure that they were telling the truth.
When the two had left, Danny had their contact info, what room they were in, and their names.
Alexandre and Annette Moreau.
Chin, after Danny called him, dug around and found out that they had only really existed for a few months, their background sketchy and bland. It was apparent that everything before was fabricated. After some more digging and using photo recognition they found the real identities of their tourists.
Anna Maria and Darren Granger, he was a wanted in several countries for thievery and forgeries and she was wanted in even more for murder, hacking, fraud, and extortion.
Together they were quite the dynamic duo and had managed to avoid detection, until after they were long gone at least, for close to a decade.
After making this discovery they compared the partial print they’d found at the scene and matched it to Anna Maria. The hair they believed belonged to Darren. After piecing all of this together Steve sent Kono and Chin to see if they could inspect the maintenance building for proof the Granger’s were there, even possibly the money and various documents and items they had pilfered from the safety deposit boxes while He and Danny tracked down their thieving duo.
They split up and when Chin and Kono found Darren with two dark bags thrown over his shoulder, they reacted, ordering him to put down the stolen goods and put his hands in the air. When he put the bags down and then pulled a gun, Chin didn’t even think as he put two bullets in his chest and shoulder.
At the same time, Steve and Danny walked cautiously up to the Granger’s hotel room, both pulling their weapons to see the door already open and the room thrashed. Gently easing it open further they canvassed the room, hoping to find something. It was when they heard rapid footsteps from behind them that they noticed the closet door was swinging silently.
Steve and Danny barely acknowledged each other as they both took off down the hall after Annette, they missed the brunet woman by mere seconds and she grinned fiercely as the elevator doors closed on her bag laden form. Steve pressed the down button and they waited, their bodies thrumming with energy, then they were headed down for the ground floor. As soon as they reached it, the saw the chaos left behind from Annette after she had barreled her way through the lobby.
Bursting outside, they barely caught sight of her as she commandeered a motorcycle and jetted off down the road. They scrambled into the Camaro and took off after her, Steve at the wheel. They lost sight of her momentarily and when they caught up to where the bike was she was gone and it laid there on the ground, engine still running. Danny pointed at the rather frantic man that was shouting at one of his employees so they got out and went to talk to him.
Ho'ola'i Juarez looked at the two men as they quickly strode towards him with a purpose. He muttered under his breath in Spanish, irritated to not only have lost a horse but to have to deal with these two haoles.
“I hate Tuesdays, something always goes wrong on Tuesdays. Insane bitch, now I have to find my horse. I am sorry, sirs, we cannot help you with anything right now, we are having a bit of a crisis with one of our horses.”
Steve opened his mouth to explain the situation when Danny placed a hand on his bicep to silence him. “Un momento, por favor, Señor. You just said that some woman just stole one of your horses. We’ve been chasing that woman. Do you know which way she went?”
The dark skinned man faced the two full on and looked at the two of them and then noticed the badge hanging on each of their hips. “Sí, I’m the owner, Ho'ola'i Juarez, she went on one of our toughest trails at a full gallop. I was preparing to go after her myself.”
Danny began talking to Señor Juarez in rapid fire Spanish, leaving Steve in the dust, so he wandered over to some of the ranch hands to ask questions and missed when Danny left on a tall Smokey Black Gelding, Merucry, at a fast trot that eventually transformed into a gallop once he was on the trail.
Chin Ho and Kono arrived slightly bloody from Darren and asked about his wife. When Steve turned to ask Danny he realized that the blond was no longer there and the owner, Señor Juarez was watching the trail the woman had supposedly gone down.
With mounting frustration, Steve called Danny’s cell only to get a message that the person he was trying to reach was without service. Steve began to pace as Chin and Kono explained what they had pieced together thus far. Learning how ruthless Anna Maria Granger could be made Steve’s anxiety rocket to new levels for his partner.
He trusted Danny, explicitly so, and knew the man could take care of himself. But the recent change in their relationship, the fact that, for once, Danny was the one without back up, unnerved and worried him. He never minded getting into situations with the blond at his back or vice versa, didn’t even mind going in by himself. But now, he realized almost numbly, he was more than likely feeling what Danny must feel every time he went out without any back up of his own.
Danny and Mercury thundered down the trail, Danny’s eyes quickly and efficiently taking in his surrounding, looking for any sign of Annette Granger. He slowed Mercury as he noticed Anna Maria’s tracks becoming less heavy and rushed and more sedate, knowing she probably thought she was safe and none would come after her.
Danny listened to his surrounding intently as he and Mercury now moved at a slow trot, the gelding steps soft and silent on the packed earth, alert for sounds much like his current rider in case of danger.
Then Danny heard it and he and Mercury both stopped, barely twitching to catch the sound again.
Dismounting, Danny quietly soothed and reassured the gelding, hushing him as he drew his weapon. Danny silently walked to the area where he heard faint cussing and rustling of the underbrush from Mrs. Granger’s pacing as she tried to call someone on her cell and the snuffling as Diamond, the young mare Anna Maria had taken, relaxed in the in shaded area, nibbling on grass.
Anna Maria Granger froze as she felt cool metal nudge the base of her skull.
“Five-0, drop the phone and put your hands behind your head.”
She closed he eyes and cussed loudly as she did as she was told, gritting her teeth, pissed she’d been found. When his hands reached hers to cuff them together, she reacted trying to grab his holstered weapon, however Danny was on high alert and subdued her to the ground without much problems, knocking the wind from her lungs.
Anna Maria wheezed as Danny flipped her over, cuffed her hands in front of her, hauled her to her feet, and helped her mount Diamond for the ride back. Leading Diamond by the reins, Danny scooped up the fallen cell phone as he led them back to Mercury and lifted himself onto the gelding’s back without dropping Diamond’s reins.
Steve paced for over an hour when they heard a few of the ranch hands shouts. The majority of the Five-0 looked towards the commotion and went to see what was going on. They were treated to the sight of Danny sitting atop a tall dark grey horse, leading another brown one with a white Diamond in the middle of her forehead and Mrs. Granger seated on its back, coming down the trail towards the Stables.
The three currently present took the time to admire Danny as he sat and moved with the horse with a sense of grace they hadn’t seen in their team mate before.
Steve watched as his partner guided the horse where to go with sure movements, no hesitation or uncertainty. Danny had never seemed as at home as he did unless he was with Grace or, he was startled to realize, alone with him.
He hoped Chin and Kono didn’t hear him swallow hard, his groin stirring slightly as he watched his partner do two of the things he excelled at, at once. Being a cop and riding a horse had never really been anything he’d ever associated together, save for probably those that patrolled New York’s Central Park, but Danny seemed to blend the two effortlessly.
Danny dismounted Mercury and the ranch hands helped Mrs. Granger off Diamond and right into two of the HPD’s finest. He petted Mercury slightly, smoothing the hair along his snout and telling him his thanks. He personally led the horse towards Señor Juarez, wanting to personally thank him for letting him go after Mrs. Granger on one of his horses.
Señor Juarez Stared at Danny for a few moments after accepting the reins, sizing him up, “You are an excellent rider, Detective. Thank you for returning both of my horses to me safely.”
Danny smiled that same lopsided smile he’d given Steve the other day, broadcasting the enjoyment he’d had.
“You welcome, and thank you for allowing me to take Mercury to find both your horse and Mrs. Granger. I appreciate it greatly, I haven’t had much in the way of chances to find a place I and my daughter can ride, or just had a decent ride myself. You have some good trails here, I hope you won’t mind too horribly if I bring my daughter and come one day for just a ride and not chasing after suspects.”
Señor Juarez grinned, “If your daughter has learned from you, I don’t believe we’ll have a problem with.”
The grin on Danny’s face as he walked towards his team was practically euphoric, and while Steve had gained a few grey hairs from worry and realized how Danny felt every time he went off by himself, he figured he wouldn’t have changed Danny being the one to go after Granger for the world.
Chapter Nine / Chapter Archive / Chapter Eleven