"Now, normally we don’t give our victims anything to drink, but you’re the exception," Alexa said. "And if you cooperate, we might even let you to the bathroom we well? Understand?"

Joe nodded, he wanted desperately to escape, but he knew that they wouldn’t give him the chance, he could only hope that his father and brother could find him.

Alexa came down the remainder of the steps, she held up Joe’s head while he drank some of the water.

Joe drank the water, when he finished, he asked, "What are you planning on doing with me?"

"Simple, why we have our fun with you, we’re going to make your Dad pay for what he did to our Father," she replied, with anger apparent in her eyes.

"Just do what you plan to do with me and leave my family out of this," Joe glared at her, he didn’t like the idea one bit as being used to get revenge on his father for him doing his job.

"We plan on doing things to you, we heard you were the impatient one, but that won’t change what we have planned," Alexa said, with that she walked back up the stairs.

After a few minutes, Thomas and Alex came downstairs, "So are you going to behave if we let you use the bathroom?" Alex asked. Joe nodded, and Thomas and Alex unstrapped him, they pulled him off the table, at first he fell, but after awhile he regained the feeling in his legs, and with Thomas and Alex holding onto him on each side, they escorted him to the small bathroom in the basement, they left him in there, he looked around but couldn’t see anything to use, a few minutes later, he knocked on the door, and Thomas and Alex grabbed his again, he was getting mad at the rough treatment, and he lashed out at Alex with his leg, which caused Alex to trip and let go of him, with his right arm free, he threw his all into a punch into Thomas’ jaw.

Man, this man’s jaw must be made of steel! Joe thought to himself, Thomas roared and punched Joe hard in his jaw, which sent him reeling backward, causing him to hit his head against the banister of the steps, dazed, he couldn’t resist rain of blows he received from two of his captors, until he finally fell into unconsciousness.

When Thomas and Alex saw that Joe was unconscious, they picked him up and put him back onto the table and strap him back into place. "It seems that our surveillance was accurate, this one is the defiant one, seems like he is more like his Father than the other one is."

"Not many people know that Fenton Hardy has a temper, but then again, his determination is what makes his a great detective," Alex remarked.

"Well he hasn’t found us, and he probably won’t find us until it is too late," Thomas replied. With that Thomas and Alex climbed the stairs, when they reached the top, Alexa came up to them, she had heard all the ruckus from where she sat in the living room reading. "What was all that I heard downstairs?" she asked.

"Seems like the little brat decided to take advantage of our hospitality and try to escape again," Alex replied. "But he failed."

"Is he still alive?" Alexa demanded. "He can’t die too soon, it would spoil our plans."

"Don’t worry, that kid’s still breathing," Thomas snapped.

* * * * *

"Have you narrowed it down yet?" Frank asked, looking over at his father anxiously, as he spooned some soup into his mouth.

"No, but Con is coming over later, and giving me all the locations of stolen vehicles, that should help narrow it down, oh, I forgot to tell you, I called your Mom earlier, she says she’s fine, and Elizabeth is too," Fenton said.

"That’s good to know, hopefully everything will be back to normal, and..." Frank started to say, but he felt an intense pain, that he couldn’t explain, like he was being beaten up, and he dropped his spoon.

"Are you all right?" Fenton asked worried.

"I’m fine, but all of a sudden I felt as if someone was beating me up," Frank replied. "Oh no!" Frank gasped. "It’s Joe, it has to be, they’re starting, he was in pain!"

"Are you sure? I’ve only witnessed this in Elizabeth, when Joe was in trouble," Fenton commented puzzled, even though he wouldn’t be shocked, Frank and Joe shared a close bond, that even he and his siblings didn’t have, and he knew from past experience that they sensed when the other was in danger, for Frank to sense this much pain, he knew it had to be bad. "Don’t worry, Frank we’ll find Joe as soon as we can."

"I know, I think I’ll look at more files, the sooner we find Joe, the better I’ll feel," Frank replied, getting up from the table and putting his bowl and glass of milk into the sink, he quietly left the kitchen heading towards his father’s office. Fenton stared after him, knowing that he had to find Joe, as much for his sanity as for Frank’s, he knew Frank would fall apart if anything happened to Joe. Unable to continue to eat, he got up and cleaned the dishes and put them in the dishwasher.

He walked into his office, to find Frank busily going over the files, Frank looked up and asked, "Why, do people do things like this?" he asked, he looked like he could barely contain his emotions.

"I don’t know, son, some people can’t handle grief well, and they lash out, and some people want to have power over people, and it gets twisted and that is why we have to stop these people, what they’re doing will never make sense." Fenton said.

"Nothing about this case will ever make sense, and the sooner Joe is back, the better," Frank said.

Fenton only nodded, as he put his head in his hands.

Knowing his father was upset, but didn’t want to display too much emotions, even in front of him. Frank went up to his room, and let his father be alone, he and Joe knew that their father cared deeply for them, and even when he was away on cases, they understood, because when he was home, he made sure to be there for him and Joe whenever they needed him. Elizabeth knew that as well, they were proud of their father’s accomplishments, and appreciated his advice whenever they needed it, on their cases or on a more normal matters. Even though Elizabeth had decided long ago, that she only wanted to help on researching cases for them, and not actually getting into solving cases like Frank and Joe did, she still listened to their father whenever he was helping the boys with a particularly difficult case, whenever his insight might prove beneficial to help solving the case.

Frank’s thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of his telephone, "Hello?" he answered.

"Frank, why haven’t you called me, you promised you would," Frank heard Callie’s voice say. "Is something wrong? I know something is because the only time you forget to call is when something had happened."

"No. Nothing’s wrong, I just came down with something and couldn’t make our date," Frank replied.

"Well, apparently, Joe has it too, as Vanessa said that Joe didn’t take her out either, I know she told me that he was working on a case, but since your home, he must be sick, you two never work on a case alone, your Dad doesn’t allow it," Callie commented.

"Well, sometimes, we do, you know that Callie, everything’s fine, I’m feeling pretty bad right now, I’ll call you when I get the chance, okay?" Frank said.

"Okay, but let me know, if I can help. Okay? Bye," Callie said.

"Bye," Frank said, as he hung up the phone.

Frank went back downstairs, Fenton looked up from where he was sitting at his desk, "Who was that?" he asked.

"Callie, she was wondering why I hadn’t called her back," Frank replied.

Frank had noticed that Fenton had spread out his papers on the desk, and was carefully pouring over his notes, when Frank heard the doorbell ring, he turned around and went to answer it.

Frank opened the door, he saw Sam Radley standing there, he was tall, sandy-haired, with green eyes, and helped his father out on numerous cases. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I stopped at the police station, and Con asked me to send over some papers, I found some more information," Sam replied.

Fenton came to stand next to Frank, "What information have you found?" he asked.

"A friend of mine that works in the forensics department found a hair that matches the one found in the van, it was found in the rope that they used to tie Joe up with, it’s also links to the other murders that have happened since we caught Thomas Draven, Sr. We now have the evidence to put the rest of the clan away," Sam explained.

"That’s great, come on in, we can go over the information in my office," Fenton said.

They all walked into Fenton’s office, where Sam set down the files he was carrying. Fenton picked up the top paper on top, and it was the report on the rope they found in the barn, Fenton sat down with a heavy sigh.

"Dad, what is it?" Frank asked, a look of concern on his face.

"It is Joe’s blood on the ropes," Fenton replied.

Frank knew it was Joe’s but somehow the reality hadn’t sunk in. Joe was somewhere, in pain, probably scared, even though Joe wouldn’t admit it openly to anyone but him or their sister.

"Frank, are you okay?" Fenton worriedly asked.

"Yeah, I’m fine," Frank said.

"It looks to me like both of you are not feeling well," Sam observed. "Have any of you had any decent sleep lately?" he asked.

"Not really, the hair has been a real big help, but it hasn’t helped to bring us any closer to finding Joe," Fenton replied.

"Well, I know what I will do, I will help you pour over the files to help find Joe as soon as we can, Mary and I don’t have children of our own, but I know from experience Fenton how much you all care for each other, so I am going to do my best to help," Sam replied.

"Thanks," Frank said for them both.

Fenton was about to say something, when the phone rang. "Hello?" he answered.

"Still at home? I was certain you would be out looking for your son," the voice said into the phone.

"What are you doing to my son!" Fenton demanded into the phone.

"Now, now, I thought you were more level-leaded than your son," Alexa retorted.

"Let me speak to him," Fenton demanded.

"You see, he can’t speak right now, he’s not feeling well right now," Alexa smirked.

With that, the connection went dead, Fenton bowed his head.

"Dad, what is wrong?" Frank worriedly asked.

"They’ve hurt him, they said he wasn’t able to talk," Fenton replied.

Sam saw the distant look in Fenton’s eyes, he recognized it every time Frank and Joe were in peril and he couldn’t be there for them. "Don’t worry Fenton and Frank, we’ll find him time," he said encouragingly.

With that Fenton began looking through the files more thoroughly than he had ever in his life, for he knew his son’s life depended on him covering all the bases, while he was doing that, Sam got up and put a map of the area on the tack board in Fenton’s office, so they could plot out the possible locations.