‘Frank is SO not going to like this. And she’ll have a field day pointing out how I screwed everything up!’ Joe sighed heavily.

"ARE YOU NUTS?!" Frank yelled, barreling into the living room. "You can‘t go anywhere with him!"

"I don’t have a choice, Frank," Joe scowled, realizing he had to go along with Steven’s plan. He glanced at Callie, who was uncharacteristically quiet. "He didn’t say anything incriminating. It would be my word against his and no one would believe me."

"We believed you," Callie said, quietly.

‘We?!’ Joe did a double take. He was a little surprised at her support given the instant dislike they’d taken to each other.

"And Frank is right. If you go meet him alone and he’s brought his friends, they could really hurt you."

Joe looked at Callie in surprise, trying to figure out if she were really sincere or just trying to impress Frank. Was that genuine concern he saw in her eyes? "Thanks for worrying about me, but Steven has to be stopped tonight. I don’t want him going after Iola again!"

"And I don’t want him going after you again!" Frank blurted out. "What if he brings his buddies to finish what they started in the stairwell? They could do some serious damage to you, Joe."

"I know that, but do you have a better idea? We don’t have any real evidence against them and until we get some, it’s just gonna get worse and worse."

Frank glowered silently and Joe knew that meant he was dead set against it but couldn’t come up with any alternative. Standing up, Joe tucked the small recording device in his pocket. "Look, we’ll probably just hang out in Steven’s room while he tries to intimidate me. I’ll pretend to be scared of him, get him to repeat everything, agree to help him and he’ll drive me home. I’ll be fine and we’ll have more than enough evidence against him and the others."

Hearing a car pull up outside, Joe moved to the window and pulled the curtains back to look out. "He’s here," he announced turning back to Frank and Callie. "I’ll be back in a few hours. Don’t worry, everything’ll work out." Joe sprinted for the front door before his brother could protest.

Jogging down the driveway, Joe opened the door to the pick-up and climbed in. "Hi, Steven. Thanks for picking me up. Man, I can’t wait ‘til I can drive myself."

"No problem, Hardy," Steven replied, as he pulled away from the curb.

Driving to the end of the street, Steven turned right, immediately raising Joe’s suspicions. "Uh, don’t you live the other way?" Joe tried to keep the nervousness out of his voice.

"Wow, you really are a great detective," Steven replied derisively. "We’re picking up Jonathan."

"Jonathan? I thought it was just gonna be me and you?"

Steven chuckled. "He’s my best friend. I didn’t want him to miss out on the fun."

‘Fun?’ Joe thought uneasily, wondering if maybe Frank’s and Callie’s fears were justified. ‘And I walked right into it…’ Turning his head, Joe stared out into the night, hoping he hadn’t gotten in over his head this time.

*****

Callie stood staring at the front door, stunned at the swiftness of Joe Hardy’s exit. "Does he always do that?" she asked.

"Do what?" Frank responded absently, still worried about his brother and angry with himself for not being able to stop Joe.

"Just disappear like that? Here one second and gone the next?"

"When he’s about to do something incredibly stupid that he knows I won’t like and will probably land him in trouble – YES!"

Callie turned to Frank, clearly hearing the frustration in his voice. "You really think he’s walking into trouble?" she asked gently. Being an only child, she had no frame of reference for what was going on between the brothers, but whatever it was obviously had Frank upset.

"I’m not sure, but when he goes off and does something on the spur of the moment without thinking it through first, well, yeah… he usually ends up in trouble." Frank sat down on the couch heavily and sighed.

Watching him, Callie felt her heart flutter. ‘I bet he’ll make a great dad someday…’

Moving to the couch, she took a seat next to him and laid a hand on his leg. "Well, we know where he’s going. If you’re that worried about him, we could drive over to Steven’s house and keep watch for any signs of trouble."

Callie held her breath, waiting for Frank’s response. When he looked at her with those deep brown eyes, a mixture of concern and relief on his face, Callie almost melted.

"A stake out?" Frank asked hopefully.

"Well, yeah, I guess that’s what it would be," she giggled, already thinking about sitting in the darkness of the car, curled up next to Frank Hardy.

"You… wouldn’t mind? I mean I promised to take you for a pizza after we finished comparing notes. Sitting around waiting to see if my brother needs to be rescued isn’t exactly the same thing."

Hoping she wasn’t moving too fast, Callie rested her hand on top of Franks. "Actually, I was just looking forward to spending some time with you. You know, just getting to know each other a little better?" she replied, looking at him through half lowered lashes. "It doesn’t really matter to me if that happens in a pizza parlor or your car. And this way you can be there if Joe needs you."

As Frank stared at her, Callie wondered if she’d moved a little too quickly. He was a little shy and the last thing she wanted was to scare him off. She recalled he was a hot topic of conversation among several other sophomore girls in the locker room after gym class and didn’t want to lose him to one of them before she even had a chance to make an impression.

Suddenly Callie felt a tingle race down her spine straight to her toes. Looking down, she saw Frank had gently curled his hand around hers. "You’d give up dinner at the pizza place to baby-sit my little brother. I think that makes you pretty special, Callie Shaw," he murmured softly.

As they stood and walked out to the car, Callie happily noted that Frank never let go of her hand.

*****

"Want another one?" Callie asked flirtatiously, holding a French fry in her outstretched hand.

In lieu of the pizza Frank had promised her, he had insisted they at least drive through the local fast food place. "Stake outs are no fun on an empty stomach," he had joked.

"Mmm, thanks," Frank replied. Keeping his eyes on the road, he opened his mouth just enough for Callie to pop the crunchy French fry in.

"Here." She now held out a cup of soda, scooting a little closer to Frank, ostensibly to get the straw closer to his mouth.

"You better be careful, I could get used to this," Frank joked.

‘And I could get used to doing it,’ Callie thought, sighing inwardly. As the light ahead turned yellow, Frank slowed the station wagon and came to a stop.

Callie picked up her own drink and sipped through the straw, glancing at Frank, happy to see him staring back at her. As she coyly looked out the front window, the light turned green again. Frank had just begun to move forward when a pick-up truck ran the red light directly in front of them. He slammed on the brakes and instinctively threw out an arm to brace Callie against the seat.

"Are you okay?" he asked, his voice a mixture of anger and relief.

"I-I’m fine," Callie replied breathlessly. "Frank, did you see-"

"Yeah, I saw," he replied grimly. "Hang on."

Callie quickly put her cup in the cup holder and held onto the door handle tightly, all thoughts of flirting with Frank gone. She gasped slightly as Frank yanked the wheel hard to the right and sped down the road in pursuit of the truck. Taking a quick glance at him, she clearly saw the anger in his eyes.