"Callie!" Frank cried out as he ran through the door and right into Con Riley.

"Frank, she’s all right. They’re all fine." Con said quickly seeing the absolute terror in his friends eyes.

"Where? Where is she?!" Frank yelled frantically, trying to pull away, needing to see for himself that Callie was indeed safe.

"In the living room." Con replied calmly. "Calm down, Frank. They’re fine. Sam was the only one who was injured and it’s just minor. Just take a minute to calm down, okay?"

Taking a deep breath, Frank tried to steady his nerves and slow his erratic heart beat. Feeling only slightly more composed, Frank followed Con into the living room, shocked at what he saw.

Callie and Vanessa were seated on the couch talking quietly. Sam was in a chair, watching as an EMT wrapped a gauze bandage around his left forearm. An end table had been over turned, a lamp was broken and the shattered remnants of a vase littered the floor.

"What happened?" Frank asked, stunned.

Hearing her husband’s voice, Callie jumped off the couch and flew into his arms. Holding her tighter than he thought possible, Frank buried his face in her hair. Feeling Callie tremble in his arms, Frank murmured in her ear as he gently rubbed her back. Frank felt as if he could stay lost in that moment forever but a soft voice brought him back to reality.

"Frank, will Joe be back soon?" Vanessa asked, sounding a little lost.

Still wrapped securely in his arms, Callie felt Frank stiffen at Vanessa’s question and knew immediately Joe wasn’t coming back. Holding on to Frank a moment longer, she gave him an extra squeeze and a kiss on the cheek as the two separated. Slowly turning to look at Vanessa, Frank reached out and took her hands in his.

Vanessa looked from Frank to Callie and back again. "He’s not coming back, is he?" She asked trying to keep the tremor out of her voice.

Seeing the look of devastation Vanessa was attempting to hide, Frank’s guilt grew by leaps and bounds. "I’m sorry, Van." Frank said hoarsely, squeezing her hands. "It was a set up. I was sitting at the entrance to the road where his car was stopped. I just assumed anyone trying to ambush him would have to go in that way and I would see them. I was wrong. They came from the other side. I never even knew he was in trouble." Frank shook his head as if the movement would shake off the guilt he was feeling. "I never should have let him go alone."

Vanessa wiped away a tear. "You didn’t let him go alone. You got as close as you could without endangering your mother."

Frank smiled at her gratefully, wishing he had a fraction of her inner strength at that moment.

"He’s probably with your parents now, right?" She asked hopefully, missing the anxious look that briefly flashed in Frank’s eyes.

"I’m sure he is." Callie replied, hugging Vanessa. "And between Joe and Mr. Hardy, they’ll come up with an escape plan in no time." She added positively, looking to Frank for support.

Ignoring Callie’s comment, Frank looked over at Sam. That one simple gesture let Callie know Frank was holding something back; something he was not ready to share with Vanessa just yet. Thankfully, Callie observed, Vanessa hadn’t noticed Frank’s lack of response.

"I need to talk to Sam for a minute." Frank said, giving Vanessa’s hand a final squeeze before making a quick exit. Seeing the EMT’s packing up their gear, Frank walked over to Sam and Con Riley, suddenly feeling exhausted.

"You okay?" Frank asked Sam, eyeing his bandaged arm.

"Fine." Sam shrugged it off. "Didn’t even need stitches. Where’s Joe?"

Frank shook his head no. "You first. What happened here?"

"We were attempting to watch TV until you and Joe got back. I went into the kitchen to get a drink. Next thing I know I hear the front door open. I heard several sets of footsteps and male voices ordering Callie and Vanessa to kneel on the floor with their hands behind their heads.

"Apparently whoever it was didn’t realize I was here, too. The girls stalled them long enough for me to sneak up on them. Unfortunately there were four of them and only one of me." Sam finished.

"Still looks like you got the better of them." Frank commented surveying the damage to his living room.

"Not me." Sam chuckled. "Callie and Vanessa. When I made my presence known, they all turned to look at me, obviously surprised. Vanessa beaned one of them with the lamp, Callie used a vase on another, one of them came at me with a knife," Sam paused holding up his bandaged arm, "and the other one just took off."

"Did you catch any of them?" Frank asked hopefully.

"Vanessa’s guy." Con smiled. "He was still out like a light when we got here."

"Good for her." Frank murmured, glancing at his future sister-in-law.

"He’s still unconscious, though, so we haven’t been able to question him yet. We have no idea who they were or why they wanted the girls." Con frowned.

Sam noted the anger flash in Frank’s eyes, turning them almost black. "But you do." He observed.

Frank hesitated looking at Con, unsure whether to say anything in front of him. Any hint of police involvement would result in his family being killed immediately – that much Frank knew for sure.

"Off the record?" Con guessed.

"Has to be." Frank confirmed.

Putting away his pad and pen, Con motioned Frank and Sam to follow him out of earshot of the officers collecting evidence in the room. "Okay, go ahead."

"It’s Jarrell." Frank replied soberly. "And he’s got Joe."

Con ran a hand through his hair nervously as Sam muttered something unintelligible.

"What happened?" Sam asked, looking at Frank intensely. To anyone else, Frank appeared as calm and in control as always. Having known Frank since he was a small boy, however, Sam could tell the strain of the last twenty-four hours combined with lack of sleep was starting to take a serious toll on him.

"First, I haven’t told Vanessa everything yet. All she knows is Joe was caught."

Con and Sam nodded their understanding.

"I tracked Joe to a dirt road leading into a heavily wooded area about a mile and a half past Hunter’s Crossing. I didn’t want Joe, or anyone else, to spot me so I pulled off the main road into the shadows. I still had a clear view of the road so I could see anyone going in or coming out. The tracker showed Joe had stopped about a half mile down the dirt road.

"I waited and waited for him to start moving again, but he never did. When forty five minutes went by with no sign of movement, I knew something was wrong." Frank stopped and looked at Sam guilt ridden. "I should have insisted we go together. I could have hidden in the back seat, the trunk…something." Frank rubbed a hand across his eyes tiredly.

"You couldn’t risk it, Frank. They would have killed Laura in an instant. Your plan was a good one." Sam reassured him.

"Then why is Joe missing? And hurt?" Frank whispered harshly.

"How do you know he’s hurt?" Con asked, his eyes narrowed.

"Outside." Frank said quietly. He nudged them towards the door, glancing back over his shoulder to make sure Callie had Vanessa occupied.

"When I got to his car I saw an envelope lying on the ground. When I bent down to pick it up, I saw blood on the grass." Frank explained leading Sam and Con to his car. "There were spots of blood in the dirt and on Joe’s car."

Pulling open the passenger side door of his car, Frank asked Con for a latex glove. Putting it on, he reached in and pulled out the bat. By the dim glow of the car’s interior light, Con and Sam could easily make out the dried blood and blonde hair stuck to the end of it.

"Do you want me to have it tested just to make sure?" Con asked. "Off the record?"

"Would you?" Frank replied, knowing it would confirm the blood and hair belonged to Joe.

"Of course." Con said, taking the bat in his gloved hand. "Be right back."

Frank waited until Con had stowed the bat in his police cruiser and rejoined them before continuing. Reaching back into the car, Frank pulled out the envelope he’d found on the ground.

"This is supposed to contain the ransom demands Joe picked up. My guess is the only thing in here is blank paper." Frank said with disgust as he held the envelope aloft.

"What makes you say that?" Sam asked.

"When I got back to my car, I found this on the windshield." Frank reached into the car one more time. Emerging with the note from Jarrell, he held it up so both Con and Sam could read it.

"Your entire family." Sam read from the note. "So Jarrell expected to have Callie and Vanessa, too, by the time you got this note."

"Exactly." Frank confirmed. "He had no idea you were here. Which means his men weren’t watching the house and I could have gone with Joe without them ever knowing!" Frank said with disgust aimed solely at himself. Slamming the car door shut in frustration, Frank slumped against it running his hands through his hair.

Seeing that Frank was slowly starting to unravel, Sam tried to get him back on track. "Frank, what we need to do to is, number one, get the girls to a safe house – now. Number two, figure out where Jarrell is holding Joe and your parents. Three-"

"Get them back!" Frank finished for him, anger surfacing in his voice.

"Right. And we’ll never get that done if you keep second guessing yourself." Sam squeezed his shoulder. "You and Joe both knew there was a risk tonight. Plan A didn’t work out in our favor. We have to regroup and come up with Plan B. And we can’t do that if you keep beating yourself up about this. I need you at one hundred percent, Frank. No distractions."

Frank sighed and looked at the man he’d come to see as a second father, knowing Sam was absolutely right.

‘You may have won the battle, Jarrell, but you won’t win the war.’ Frank thought with new determination.

Seeing the familiar look in Frank’s eyes, Sam smiled inwardly and then turned to Con. "I’ll have to get Callie and Vanessa to a safe house and stay with them. If Frank needs any help, unofficially…" He let his voice trail off.

"All you have to do is call." Con assured Frank. "In the meantime, I’ll finish up here and get down to the station so I can get the bat tested." He stopped and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "How do you want to report this?" Con motioned towards the house.

"Attempted robbery." Frank replied. "Even when that guy wakes up, he’ll never talk. Not about Jarrell anyway."

Nodding in agreement, Con let one of the officers know he was heading back to the station and left.

"So Vanessa doesn’t know that Joe has probably been hurt." Sam commented as he and Frank walked to the house.

"No." Frank admitted. "I haven’t told her yet."

"Don’t." Sam advised. "It’ll be hard enough getting her to agree to go into hiding as it is. If she knows Joe is hurt, she definitely won’t want to go. I’ll tell her once we get to the safe house. Does Callie know?"

"She kinda picked up that I wasn’t telling them everything." Frank replied as they walked into the house.

Immediately Vanessa descended on them, wanting to know what had happened to Joe. Swallowing his guilt and almost choking on it, Frank gave her the abridged version of what had gone on, saying simply he found evidence of a struggle and then told she and Callie about the note from Jarrell.

"Those men who broke in tonight work for Jarrell. They were supposed to grab both of you too." Frank explained.