My story is wrapping up now. I will have one more chapter after this one. Somehow, it was much shorter in my head then it ended up on paper, but hopefully it doesn't drag.

Thanks again for all the kind reviews and messages along the way.

I do not own any rights to the Dukes of Hazzard or its characters.

Things were beginning to get a little desperate for the search party looking for Bo and Luke. Try as they may, they just couldn't seem to catch a break in locating the ever illusive maroon van with bars on the back doors. Even taking all the short cuts and breaking every speed limit in the book, they still started out enough behind that there was no sign of them anywhere. Ironically, the two people who had even the slightest chances of driving fast enough to catch the van were the ones who were trapped in the back of it.

Once they reached the Chickasaw County line, they met with Sheriff Little and shared information. He assured them that no vehicle even remotely matching that description had crossed the line or had been seen at all on any of his roads. The logical thought would be that wherever the van was, there was a good chance it was still in Hazzard.

It was getting close to six o'clock by now, and within a few hours the sun would be setting. Enos suggested that perhaps Steel had seen the roadblock and decided to find a place to hide out until morning. If this were the case, it would give them enough time to search some of the abandoned warehouses and storage areas within a few miles. Little's men would continue to stop every vehicle that tried to cross into Chickasaw, and would let them know if anything turned up that might lead them to the Duke boys. Feeling the need to cover extra ground, they decided to split up. Rosco, Enos and Boss would check all the areas to the East, while Cooter, Jesse and Daisy checked to the West. They all promised to stay close to their radios and would check in with each other every half hour regardless of if they had anything to report.

Luke hadn't even realized that he'd fallen asleep until he heard a door open and it made him jump back to consciousness. He'd lost track of how much time had passed, and with the blindfold on he couldn't even tell if it was dark or light out. He tried to sit up a little straighter as he heard footsteps coming close to him. Surprisingly, he felt something cold and wet being placed to his lips and realized he was being offered some water. Being quite thirsty, Luke gulped what he could before the bottle was taken away. "Thank you." Luke offered, barely above a whisper.

He then heard the steps leading away from him, and heard a slight rustling sound and Bo groaning a little and knew that Bo was being woken up. He assumed Bo was given some water as well when Luke heard him giving his thanks.

The voice he heard next was not Steel's, so Luke figured it must have been his accomplice, Leon. "Lean forward a bit." Leon said to Bo. Bo gave a huge sigh of relief when he felt that his blindfold was finally being loosened. "Thank God," Bo moaned.

"You tell Steel I did that, and you'll be sorry." Leon threatened. "And don't go thinking that this means that I'm gonna do anything else to help ya, 'cause that ain't the case!" Then he added a little more softly, "I suffered with migraine headaches my whole life, so I can sympathize with the pounding you've been feeling."

"How is your head now, Bo?" Luke inquired.

"It still hurts, but it's bearable as long as I don't move. The minute I move my eyes or head it starts pounding again. Hopefully it'll lighten up a bit now."

Luke decided to gently test the waters with Leon. "What time is it?" He asked

"That don't make no difference to you." was the answer Luke heard as Leon turned and headed toward the door.

Trying to keep Leon talking for a minute, Luke continued, "Do you think there's any chance of us getting some food? I'm getting pretty hungry."

"I doubt it. Water's one thing, but Steel didn't say anything about any food. You'll be fine until morning. I know you both ate today, so I'm not worried too much about you missing supper."

"You know," Luke was starting to push a little more now, "It's not too late for you. You could just take off and your part in all this will still be real small. We'll even say that Steel was working alone…."

There was now a second voice in the room as Luke heard the door slam again, and this voice wasn't anywhere near as decent as the first. "Nice try, Duke!" It sneered. "Leave it to you to try to pull a fast one with Leon, but it's not gonna work." Then turning to Leon, Steel continued, "Take blondie there into the other storage unit. I'm gonna separate these two until we're ready to move again."

Luke argued with that. "That ain't necessary. What can we do anyway? You've got us tied up ten times tighter than needed, there's no way we can get out of this."

"I'm not taking any chances." growled Steel. Again to Leon, "This one here's the thinker, while that hothead over there acts before he thinks. You put a schemer and an impulsive together and you get unpredictable, and I hate surprises. Now do what I said and take him out of here. Make sure he's secured real tight before you leave him." Leon dutifully untied Bo from the post and led him out to the adjoining warehouse.

Never one to back down, Luke continued. "You're never gonna get away with this, Steel. Sure, you had a real good plan going with the frame ups, but you messed up the getaway, and now you've screwed yourself into a corner, and it's just a matter of time before you're caught."

"And who do you suppose is out there to save you?" retorted Steel. "You think your sheriff's gonna come save your sorry hides? Keep in mind, Duke, that he's the one who got me involved with you in the first place. If it weren't for him hating the two of you so much, we never would've even met!"

It was almost hard to argue with that, as Luke knew it was a partial truth. "Well, a lot's happened since then, and we've all come to an understanding, for the most part. What's past is past, and we try not to dwell on that." Luke decided to switch gears a bit. "Besides, me and Bo's got no quarrel with you. You were the one coming after us, we didn't come looking for you. We never done nothing to you, and you planted a gun in our car, set us up for grand theft auto, even landed our uncle in the hospital with a head injury that dang near killed him! In one week you turned our lives into a living Hell, and we did what we had to do to get out from under you. We weren't the ones who made it personal. You had guns pointed at us, and we did what we did to survive."

Steel sighed as he leaned back against the wall. "You just don't get it, do you, Duke. This ain't about getting even with you or your cousin, this is about finishing the job. I had a stellar reputation for always getting my man, and after you and Coltrane, that was ruined. Come Hell or high water I will finish this job, even without getting compensated for it." He punched his fist into the palm of his other hand, "And I'm gonna really savor getting Coltrane for this. You see, he called me, offering four times my fee to put you two away for good, and when I do he stiffs me my fee and gets me sent away for two years." He kicked against the wall behind him. "And, to make matters worse, when I serve my time and get out, I ain't got a business to go back to 'cause no one wants to hire me as a detective anymore since my reputation's been ruined. I was only doing what I was hired to do. But now, see now….I've got a real score to settle with that sheriff of yours, and I don't care who I have to step on to get to him. I chose the two of you just for the sheer delight in seeing you squirm."

Curiosity got the best of Luke, and he had to ask. "About the set up…I'm assuming you got look alikes somehow for me and Bo, and you had the fake General Lee already from the attempted theft charge two years ago, but there's one thing that's got me stumped."

Steel bit at the bait. "Yeah? What's that?"

Luke leaned forward against his restraints. "How did you pull off the shine jug? How would you know I'd be at the still sight and touch that jug, and how was it that the one jug that I touched was the one that didn't break?"

Steel couldn't help but show the tiniest hint of a smile, "I'm pretty sure I don't know what you're talking about, but if I were to plan that type of a set up…" He walked closer to Luke so he could speak more softly, "I would probably track my prey for a good three weeks or so, to be sure I knew of their habits before I launched my attack. Now, if someone did that with you, they may find that after the pond, your favorite thinking spot is the still site, and if there were some commotion going on at the pond that prevented you from having peace and quiet, say like a noisy motor boat, you just may decide to go to the still site after all. Then, it would just be a matter of placing a freshly wiped down jug made of special bulletproof glass on the couch where you like to sit, knowing that you would pick it up to move it. Then have the so-called look alike be sure to wear thin latex gloves so your prints would be the only ones on that jug when the police dusted it." Steel chuckled a bit before walking away. "Of course, that's all just speculation."

Luke sat dumbfounded for a moment as he heard footsteps leading back toward the warehouse door. "Good night, Duke, and sweet dreams."

The rescue team had been searching every dirt road in the area for about two hours, looking for any sign of the van or somewhere that may be used as a makeshift hideout. So far they had come up dry, and hope was fading that they would be able to find anything until morning as they had now lost the daylight. They circled back and rejoined at a cabin at one of Boss Hogg's old still sites to once again put their heads together. They decided that the only option they had was to stay at the cabin for the night and get a fresh start first thing in the morning. Little's men would have the road blocks up overnight, and their rescue mission became more dangerous without the safety of at least some daylight.

Enos sat up and made a checklist of all the locations they had already searched, and which ones were left to be searched. Unfortunately, they had started out going in the opposite direction that Steel had chosen so unknowingly they had wasted some time. However, little did Enos know that the very next location on his list to be searched was the very same place that Steel was now holding his hostages. Luke had been right in his warning to Steel. It would just be a matter of time now.