Frank was surprised when Joe didn’t come downstairs after he heard the shower shut off.  But that was nothing compared to the shock when he realized that Joe had locked both doors to his room...both of them!  That was something they never did! They always left the ‘backdoor’ open for each other…always!

“Joe?”  The dark-haired teen rapped lightly on his brother’s bedroom door.  “Joe? You in there?”  Of course he’s in there, you nimrod, Frank chastised himself.  “Are you okay?”

“S-sleeping,” came a groggy reply and Frank frowned, looking at his watch.  What was Joe doing in bed before eight o’clock?

“Are you sure you’re all right?” the older teen pressed.

“Yes,” he heard his brother’s muffled voice, and his frown intensified. He was half tempted to pick the lock to the room, but that was a blatant invasion of privacy and something he would never do.  Not for something like this, anyway.

“Joe,” Frank started again, “Mom’s left your dinner in the microwave. You might want to come down and eat it, cause it’s stuffed pork chops and there’s no way they’re making it until the morning!”

This time there was no answer and he called out louder, “Joe?!”

“Frank,” his brother’s voice sounded very weary, “I just want to sleep. Please…”

Opening his mouth to say something else, Frank changed his mind and just sighed, “Okay little brother.  Okay.”  And he turned, left and went into his own room; however his thoughts never roamed much further than the locked door…

* * *

Davis Getty was on a high. He always got a rush out of beating the crap out of someone.  And the fact that this time it was Frank Hardy’s younger brother, added an extra something to it!

After he and Evan dropped Seth and Jorgen off at their houses, they cruised back to Davis’ place.

“What you still grinning at?” Evan asked a while later, as they sat in the kitchen chomping on Chinese food.

The dark-haired teen sat back in his chair, a look of utter contentment on his face.  “I just keep thinking of the look on little Joey’s face as the boys held him while you and I pummeled the hell out of him….Man, it was sweet….”

Evan gave a little chuckle as he shook his head at his long-time friend.  “Yeah, it did feel kinda good. You didn’t need Seth and Jorgen to hold him, though; I think it would have made it a bit more interesting to watch him try and defend himself.  Pathetic!”

“True, but we didn’t have much time and besides, Lily didn’t want him hospitalized…and it’s easier to control damage with a non-moving target. Tsk, tsk, Pratt the Brat, you know that!”

“Hmmm,” Evan said as he picked up an egg roll and chewed on it quietly for a few moments.  Davis, watching him, knew his friend had something on his mind.

“Okay,” he said, “Spill. What’s got your knickers in a knot this time?” Evan tended to be the group worrier, and this was something both Davis and Lily had gotten used to over the years.  He worried, they told him how stupid he was to worry, and they were always right.  So Davis waited for Evan to spill his guts and then he’d reassure him, as usual.

“Well,” Evan started slowly, and the other teen was surprised to see a different kind of hesitancy than was normal when he was anxious.

Davis stood up and went to get some ice for his hands as he waited for his friend to get the words out; both hands were sore and the knuckles bruised.  He hadn’t expected them to be tender, but then realized he should have; Joe might be only fifteen but he was in good shape for his age; the older teen knew that if he kept working at it, he’d be a force to contend with in another year or two.

Wish it had been Frank though, Davis thought to himself – his only regret - as Evan seemed to have stalled for words.

At sixteen, Frank Hardy competed on the school’s karate team and had already led Bayport High to one state title, and the older Getty would love an opportunity to go one-on-one with him.  Sure that at least Frank would offer him some real competition….And then Evan finally found his words….

“I don’t think we should have had Jorgen with us tonight.”

“What are you talking about?” Davis demanded, sitting back down with an ice pack on his right hand.  “Jorgen is one of the boys.”

“Yeah…” Evan agreed, a bit reluctantly. “However…he does have an interesting sense of fair play, and I know he wasn’t very cool with how things went down.”

Davis gave that some thought.  His Icelandic friend had been a great asset to his group, particularly with their nocturnal prowling; however Evan was right.  Of the four of them, Jorgen had been the most reluctant to jump the younger boy.  Oh, he did help hold him while the others worked him over, but his heart was definitely not in it!  Before he could comment though, Evan finished, “He has a kid brother, Joe’s age.”

Immediately the dark-haired teen turned on his friend and said, heatedly, “And you felt it pertinent to only tell me about this NOW??”

“I only found out about it, myself!” Evan defended as Davis scowled, wondering how he’d overlooked that small detail.  He had made it his job to know everything about the people in his group, but with Jorgen, he had been more lenient since the blond kid’s family was still in Iceland and he didn’t consider it important to know about them.

I won’t make that mistake again, he thought and then shrugged and forced himself to calm down.  “It won’t be a problem,” he said resolutely.

“How—”

Davis cut Evan off.  “Because Jorgen can’t say a damn thing to anyone without implicating himself.”

“But—”  the red-haired boy tried again, and once again his friend cut him off, his voice curt:

“He was there, Pratt, and did nothing to help.  Sure, he might not have technically did anything to the kid, but he held him up for us…and I really don’t think Frank Hardy would be splitting hairs like that, if Jorgen tried to tell him anything.  No, we’re fine,” Davis finished and then got up and left the room, signaling the end of the conversation.

He needed to talk to Lily.

* * *

Lily was lying down on her bed, stroking the white fur of her Persian cat, Sophocles, with a faint smile on her pretty face.  She was going to call Frank but decided to wait a bit first.

She wondered how Joe was feeling, knowing he had to be very sore. She smiled at that thought; she’d never realized how exhilarating watching violence could be…controlling it, actually.  Sure, Lily had set her brother and his buddies on people before, but never like this…never while she watched.

Suddenly she was filled with an intense need to see Frank, and pushing the cat aside, got up off her bed and opened the door to go downstairs.

“What do you want?” she asked as saw Davis coming down the hallway towards her.  His room was on the other side of the house and he had no reason to be in her part!

“I need to talk to you,” Davis said, “We need to do something tonight.”

“It’s a school night,” Lily said, failing to hide her irritation at him not seeming to remember this.  “I don’t ‘do somethings’ on school nights.”

She started to go past him, but stopped as he just said, “Jorgen’s feeling sympathetic about what happened.”

Lily scowled.  “Shit.”  Letting out a heavy sigh, she rolled her eyes and then snapped, “Fine. But I pick the mark.” And then she turned, went back into her room and slammed the door.

Davis went back downstairs. It wasn’t even worth reminding her that she always picked the mark….

* * *

Joe awoke in a panic.  Fighting with his blankets he jolted up in bed, and then immediately gasped in pain as it jarred his abdomen.

His room was dark, and he glanced at the time, taking deep breaths to try and calm down – it was 11:30 PM.

Gingerly he reached out to turn on his lamp, biting his lip so he wouldn’t cry out as, right now, any type of movement was excruciating!

“Damn Gettys,” he mumbled as he lay back down, and then curled onto his side, deciding that was the least painful position to lie in.

Around him the house was quiet and he didn’t even hear the soft clicks of Frank’s keyboard; he decided his brother was either reading or, more likely, sleeping.

He wanted so much to talk to Frank and have his brother comfort him, but he was afraid that he’d be rejected; told that he was just being jealous and selfish. Joe just didn’t know any more where he fit into Frank’s world, or his heart….

The biggest fear the blond teen wrestled with was the terror that he’d fulfilled his purpose for Frank, and now that he had Lily in his life, he didn’t need or want a little brother any more.

The logical part of his brain told him he was being foolish, bolstered by his brother’s actions; but his logic, never his strongest suit to begin with, was skewed by the pain he was in, and so he fought with whether or not Frank was genuinely concerned about him or whether he was just saying the right words…doing the right things…

Your brother told me what you said…. Her words washed over him again, chilling him to the bone.  If you, or any of your little friends, cause me even another ounce of grief, you’ll consider what you just got a love tap….

Joe wasn’t afraid of Lily or even Davis and his friends…what he was, was defeated. Your brother told me what you said….

Fine, Frank, he whispered choking back a sob, if you really want Lily, you can have her.

Exhausted, hurting, emotionally burned, the blond teen slowly closed his red-rimmed eyes and prayed that this time when he went to sleep, there’d be no monsters to hold him down…no monsters wearing Frank’s face….

* * *

It’s hard to say exactly what woke Iola Morton, but as her eyes flew open, she started to scream as she saw someone: a stranger dressed in black and wearing a ski-mask, standing right over her.  But the stranger, anticipating that, shoved a piece of masking tape over her mouth and then hauled out of her bed!

No, the pretty brunette’s mind screamed, No!  But it was useless, she couldn’t force a sound past the tape!!

Kicking and struggling furiously, the fifteen-year-old tried desperately to break away – her brother was sleeping just across the hall from her!  But she couldn’t!

Her attacker was a lot stronger than she was, and easily moved her along the hallway and down the stairs. Three other people, dressed in black and wearing ski-masks, met them at the bottom of the stairs.

Frantically the girl tried to twist away again, but then gasped in pain as she felt a searing pain shoot through her wrist – it was sprained! However, instead of forcing her to give up, she fought even harder until one of the people in black – much smaller than the other three – stepped towards her and slapped her hard across the face.

“Knock it off,” a female voice whispered, and then nodded to the guy holding her.  “We take her.”  And then turned and walked out the front door; a stunned Iola Morton was dragged along behind her.

Slumbering blissfully unaware, Chet Morton turned over in his sleep and burrowed down….

* * *

Iola was terrified.  She was surrounded by the four people who kidnapped her and she had no idea what they wanted.

After about ten minutes, the truck pulled over by a desolate stretch of road, and everyone got out, the girl as well.  Wearing only her nightdress, Iola hugged her arms around her slender body in an effort to keep warm.  Her kidnappers had let her take the tape off her mouth after they left the farm, confident that at this time of night, and this far out from the main areas, no one would hear her.

Iola knew they were right…

And then one of the kidnappers pulled out a small gun and aimed it right at her!

Eyes wide in a white face, Iola was too scared to even scream!  She just stared at the barrel of the gun and knew she was going to die!

“Why!” she finally whispered, unable to see the sense of this, and the person holding the gun, a female scoffed:

“Why?”  She glanced back at her accomplices.  “She wants to know why.”  She turned back to the paralyzed girl.  “Because we always take one thing of value from each house we do…one thing of value as determined by me.  And I’m sorry honey, but the only thing of value in your house, was you.”

Raising the gun up a little higher, the female kidnapper took careful aim and started to squeeze the trigger…

“Bye, bye Iola,” she whispered and the night was shattered by the sound of the gun going off!!