Eh, sorry… I've been having some problems figuring things out. Thanks to everyone for the encouragement.
Sorry I didn't get this up sooner, ff wouldn't let me upload.
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Fenton sighed. He was grateful that Alan and his boys had come over there to help. He remembered when he'd met the man. It was funny, actually. He'd met over a beer before his sons were ever born.
Flashback
"Hi, I'm Alan," the slightly overweight man said.
"Hi, Alan, I'm Fenton." That day, Fenton had been investigating a case involving the same bar. "So seen anything, well, funny going around here lately?"
Alan shrugged. "No, not that I can think of - just the usual, a couple of fights. Why?"\
"Because I'm investigating a case from here," he whispered quietly. Something told him that he could trust the man, and he usually trusted his gut instincts. "Someone is letting teenagers have beer and wine. And that's not all," he added.
"Hmmm?" Alan asked.
"Embezzlement."
"What's that?" Alan asked, totally confused.
"Well, I don't know if it'd be classified as 'embezzlement', but I've heard rumors that the owner wants to burn down the bar."
END FLASHBACK
Fenton sighed. Alan had agreed to stake out the bar and had helped him catch a criminal. It was funny, because now Alan was helping him again, agreeing to lend his sons (Don and Charlie) to help him out. He was exited once he heard of Charlie's numbers.
LATER
They pulled into the driveway of the shabby-looking house. SWAT had gotten there 15 minutes ago and cleared out the house. "Well, did you find him?"
"Nope. Only a damn teenager," the swat manager cursed. He'd been after the man for a while.
"Damn teenager? Hey, that's my son!" Fenton rushed over to Joe, who was badly shaken.
"Dad!" Joe jumped off the pick up truck's back. It had been in the yard and he had been waiting there for the past ten minutes.
"Joe!" Fenton said, running to hug him.
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Don observed the scene. Joe was 17, Fenton had said. He had blonde hair and athletic build. He guessed his brother looked something like him and the boy's mother – what was her name? – Laura.
Charlie was exited. "Now we can get the data," he said, "and from Joe we can probably find Frank by tracing out the kidnapper's moves and –" Don tuned Charlie out. He was busy thinking of some things.
Like, why the hell would the kidnappers only ask for $20,000? That wasn't a lot of money. That was barely "grinding teeth" for the Hardy's. They probably could rob that in the family's television.
Suddenly, things started to click into place when he heard Joe explain something about Frank going through torture. The kidnappers had never wanted Joe; he had just gone along for the ride – unwillingly; they had kidnapped him and probably hadn't even wanted the ransom money – they had just wanted the revenge on Frank.
He paled when he thought of something and hurried to grab his cell phone out of the car. It was time he called David.
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"Ahhhh!" Frank yelled as the car swerved around another car. All he saw was blue seat outliner and all that he knew was that he was on his way to hellsville and his hands were tied.
"Shut him up," the driver grunted. "Can't think in this stupid mother cramping traffic!"
"Shut up!" the passenger in the back seat told Frank. He kicked Frank in the side to keep him quiet.
"Don't move a DARN muscle," he growled.
"Stop!" Frank shouted when the man lowered his knee on his leg. The man kicked him in the side and swore.
"Where's boss?" he asked, referring to John, Frank's "fake" older brother.
"Flying."
"Lucky SOB. He doesn't have to put up with this one."
"Well, I can't help it," the driver said, sounding pissed. "Just keep him shut up when we go through the toll booth, okay?"
"Toll booth?" Frank thought. Sounds like someone forgot to keep their mouth shut!
A few minutes later, they pulled to the tollbooth and the lady asked the man for some change.
Frank knew it was risky, but at this point, risky was everything. It was now or never, and Frank was willing to take the dive.
---------------------------------------------------------Thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter. Please review this one as well?
