"Van? Do you want to go sit in the living room?" Callie asked. "It’ll be more comfortable."

Vanessa looked up and noticed the table had been cleared and Laura was in the kitchen starting on the dinner dishes. She had been so caught up in her own thoughts she hadn’t even noticed.

"I’m sorry." Vanessa apologized. "I should help with the dishes. I wasn’t much help here." She said waving her hand over the now spotless table.

"No, Van. She doesn’t want any help. I think she just wants to be left alone for a little while." Callie said gently, leading Vanessa towards the living room.

Vanessa was suddenly hit with a wave of guilt. She had been so caught up in letting everyone comfort her, it hadn’t occurred to her that Laura would need comforting too.

"How could I be so uncaring?" Vanessa said miserably, dropping her head into her hands as soon as she sat down on the couch. "I’ve just been letting her take care of me, not even thinking about how she must be feeling."

"Actually, I think that was good for her." Callie said comfortingly. "It gave her something to focus on."

Vanessa almost felt envious. She hadn’t been able to focus on anything other than Joe since the moment she realized he’d missed his flight.

"And I think you need something to focus on, too." Callie continued. "Why don’t you tell me what you and Joe are going to do when he gets back."

Vanessa looked at her with haunted eyes.

"Callie…what if he never comes back?" She whispered.

"He’ll come back." Callie said with conviction. "I’m sure he’s still got a few glares and choice words he hasn’t hurled in my direction yet." She joked, knowing how angry Joe still was with her for the part she played in Vanessa’s recent kidnapping.

Vanessa smiled in spite of herself. "Believe it or not, I think he’s ready to forgive and forget. He asked me to call you and see about the four of us going out to do something fun this weekend."

"What?!" Callie gasped, only half-jokingly. She knew what she had done, betraying Frank and giving in to the blackmailers, was almost unforgivable in Joe’s eyes. Adding in the fact that Vanessa had been kidnapped because of it and she thought it would be much longer than a month or so before she could even begin to earn her way back into his good graces.

"He really does understand what you were thinking; what you were going through. If I hadn’t been taken hostage his reaction would have been very different." Vanessa reassured her friend. "In fact he forgave you a while ago. It’s just taken him a lot longer to deal with the aftermath. I think he really misses you."

"Well, I know I miss him." Callie said wistfully.

"So do I." Vanessa whispered.

*****

Frank mindlessly pushed the food around on his plate, his thoughts revolving completely around his younger brother. Where was he? Was he cold? Hungry? Hurt? Was he still alive? Once again, Frank cursed himself for not remembering to switch the ringer on his cell phone back on after the meeting the day before. If he had, his little brother would be at home with Vanessa right now, where he belonged.

"Frank, you have to eat something." His father said. "We don’t know what kind of shape Joe will be in once we find him. I can’t be worrying about him and you too."

"Sorry, Dad." Frank took a small bite of his cheeseburger, not really tasting it.

Seeing the worry in Frank’s eyes, Fenton reached across the table and squeezed his shoulder. "We’ll find him, Frank."

"What if we find him and he’s already…"

"He’s not!" Fenton said, fiercely. "He can’t be." He whispered, consumed with guilt. He was the one who had sent Joe on this assignment. It was supposed to be an easy task with no element of danger at all. Yet somehow Joe had vanished into thin air, only to end up in the hands of one of the most violent organized crime families in the country.

Seeing the haunted look on his father’s face, Frank opened his mouth to try and reassure him when the words suddenly stuck in his throat. His eyes were fixed on two men who had just gotten out of a blue Saturn parked by the door. Fenton turned to see what had his son so mesmerized and gasped out loud as the men entered the restaurant.

Malick and Rashman, unaware they were being watched, waited for the hostess. As she greeted them, she led them to a booth right next to Frank and Fenton, which was divided by smoked glass for privacy.

As the men approached and were seated, Fenton slid down in his seat so as not to be seen by Keith Rashman. Although it had been years since Fenton testified at the trial that had sent Craig Rashman to prison for the rest of his life, he was unsure whether or not Keith Rashman, who had attended his brother’s trial every day, would still recognize him. Fate had suddenly dropped these two men in his lap, and he didn’t want to take any chances on losing this solid lead to Joe.

A moment later a waiter appeared and after placing their orders, the two men began talking quietly with Frank and Fenton able to hear every word.

"What else can we do to get him to talk?" Rashman said, frustrated. "He’s half dead already and he hasn’t said a word yet. I’m running out of things to do to him."

"I know, I know. I thought for sure just showing him that bottle of alcohol would have him singing like a bird." Malick visibly shuddered as Joe’s screams of pain echoed in his head. "That had to hurt like hell."

Frank looked at his father in alarm, knowing without a doubt they were talking about Joe. He could see the worry in his father’s eyes but they both remained silent. Frank prayed that his brother’s stubbornness hadn’t finally gotten him killed.

"Damn." Malick said suddenly.

"What?"

"I hope the coyotes don’t smell the blood and get to him before we get back. He won’t do us any good if he’s dead. We better get this stuff to go." He stood and went in search of their waiter.

As he waited alone in the booth, Rashman’s cell phone rang.

"Yes?" He answered simply. "Yes. I understand. Yes, we’ll take care of it right away."

Snapping the cell phone shut, he waved Malick back to the table. "We have to go."

Even with the tall glass for privacy Rashman still decided not to take any unnecessary chances.

"The event has been cancelled." He said vaguely. "We’re to eliminate the problem on this end and make sure we clean up…leaving nothing behind."

Frank kept the expression on his face neutral, but his heart skipped a beat.

He looked at his father and realized they were thinking the same thing. Despite Agent Gray’s promise to give them twenty-four hours, there had obviously been a public announcement canceling Senator Hurley’s fund raising dinner. As a result, Rashman and Malick had just been ordered to kill Joe and dispose of his body where it would never be found.

"Let’s go." Fenton said to Frank. Turning so only his back would be visible should the men in the other booth look over, Fenton stood up and threw some money on the table, then quickly led Frank out of the restaurant.

As soon as they were outside the restaurant, Fenton walked rapidly to their rental car while talking to Frank over his shoulder.

"Did you see which car was theirs?"

"The blue Saturn." Frank pointed to the car right next to the entrance.

Opening the trunk of their car, Fenton began searching through the small overnight bag he had packed. He pulled out a leather case and opened it up. Frank recognized the transmitter and receiver his father had recently purchased.

"Not knowing what kind of trouble Joe had gotten into, I thought I should bring this along just in case." Fenton said, handing the receiver to Frank. "Get in the car. I’ll be right back."

Frank slid into the passenger seat and turned on the receiver, then watched as his father casually placed the transmitter under the bumper of the Saturn, looking to anyone else as if he were picking something up off the ground. Frank fiddled with the receiver until he picked up the transmitter’s signal just as his father got into the car.

"From what they said, I’m guessing they must have Joe somewhere very isolated." He said grimly, recalling how the two men had blithely discussed the way they had apparently tortured and beaten his son. "It will probably be impossible to tail them without being spotted."

"What’s the range on this?" Frank asked.

"Don’t worry. We won’t lose them no matter how far ahead of us they get."

"I just don’t want them to get so far ahead of us that they have time to kill Joe before we can stop them."

"That will never happen." Fenton replied. Frank felt a chill at the tone of his father’s voice and suddenly wondered if these two men realized what they had let themselves in for by kidnapping and beating Joe. He’d never seen the full force of his father’s wrath turned loose on anybody, but he distinctly remembered Sam Radley telling him about it once. ‘He makes Joe look like a pussy cat.’