Give it up for Dragonmaster65 - Thank you for putting up with my insanity and pushing me to constantly improve.

A/N: Thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, favourited and followed this story – Much appreciated!

Chapter 8

"Flash drive's destroyed. Obler won't be a problem again."

"Great work."

"There is just one loose end. Vanessa Bender. And the guy who was poking around Obler's apartment last night. It was an unforeseen circumstance. He was well trained, my men couldn't handle him."

"It's not a loose end. It's the whole damn thing falling apart."

"I'll handle her."

"And the guy too."

"Nothing can connect us to this thing."

Callie had planted a bug at Emerson's office when he was leading everyone out for a facility tour. Now everything that transpired in his office room could be heard by the brothers. Frank had run the voice print match against the voices they heard through the bug and was able to establish that one of them belonged to Mike Emerson.

"We were right. They are still after Vanessa and now you, too, Frank," Joe said. He took no joy in the realization.

Frank nodded. "At least we now know for sure that Emerson is involved. Who is he talking to I wonder?" he mused.

"Well, Callie will be here soon enough as will Vanessa, she has been knocking around the office all day and jumped at the notion of getting coffee for all of us. We can ask her if they sound familiar," Joe suggested. "Callie did good planting the bug."

"You gave it to her, didn't you?" Frank glared at his brother. Joe took it in stride; Callie had offered. He'd simply taken her up on it.

"Would you have let me if we told you?"Frank shook his head. "Not likely," he said gruffly.

The doorbell rang and Joe got up to open it. Callie and Vanessa were standing at the door.

"Look who I found," Callie nodded at Vanessa who was balancing four lattes.

"You did good Callie," he said with a wink.

"Underestimated me, did you?" Callie smirked.

"No way. We did hear some interesting conversation that corroborated what we were already thinking," Joe explained. He stepped out of the way to let Vanessa step in as well, taking a moment to check that no one else was in the hall to have seen the girls enter together.

"I also have a lot to tell you guys from my visit this morning. I may have snagged a dinner appointment with Mr. Virtanen tonight," Callie said, sounding quite pleased with herself.

"Whoa! Don't go making plans like that. Frank would have a heart attack. Speaking of which, you better go to your boyfriend before he wears a hole on the floor of my office."

Calie laughed and walked in. Joe looked at Vanessa who was smiling softly. Their eyes met for a moment too long and then they both looked away, embarrassed. Joe cleared his throat. It was only eye contact! He shouldn't have been so flustered.

"Do you know a Erin Miller?" Joe asked her as they walked inside. Focusing on the case would be best to help smooth over that moment.

Vanessa replied eagerly, a beat too quickly. Her cheeks were still tinged pink. "Sure," she said. "She worked in clinical trials. I didn't know her personally, but I had seen her around. She passed away rather suddenly. Why?"

"We have reason to believe she might have been Emerson's mistress. We matched her voice to the recording," Joe explained.

Vanessa stiffened, her eyes widened in shock and she stopped walking. "Are you saying what I think you are?" She was clearly worried now that Erin had died because of the recording.

Joe could see that this new discovery had scared Vanessa. He gently reached out and rubbed her shoulders. "Come on inside. It'll be okay."

Callie was sitting on Frank's lap and his arms were around her waist and yet the expression on both their faces was the same. They looked angry.

"Frank, I wasn't asking. I'm telling you of the dinner engagement. It will be in an upscale restaurant and I will be dining with Steven Ranella. I'll be okay," Callie insisted.

"These people murder and make it look like natural causes. I'm supposed to be okay with you going You already took a risk by going this morning. They could find the bug, know it was you, and hurt you," Frank snapped. "I can't have that happening. Sorry, you can't go."

Callie's large brown eyes flashed with anger but she didn't argue any got up from his lap and went and sat on the couch. Joe didn't want to step in - it wasn't his girlfriend - but Vanessa who had also witnessed the exchange went to sit next to Callie.

"He's right you know. You would be taking a big risk. Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate what you did this morning but I can't live with the guilt if something happened to any of you," Vanessa said quietly.

Callie smiled at the other girl, the motion not quite reaching her eyes. She was clearly still upset. Joe moved to his desk and tried his best to pretend that he wasn't listening in. "I know he is right. It is just frustrating that's all. How are you holding up?"

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Vanessa appreciated what Callie had offered to do and even more so how quickly she got over her anger to ask a woman she barely knew how she was feeling. She squeezed Callie's hand once in appreciation.

"I'm okay," she admitted. "Feeling a little hopeful under all the nerves. It feels like the more leads we find, the more there is to worry about. I wish this nightmare would get over."

She looked over her shoulder at the two young men working away on their computers. Frank had headphones on, but Vanessa's attention was more so on Joe. She turned back to Callie and edged closer to her. "The brothers, they work very well together," she said simply.

"Yes, they do. They complete each other. They're pretty good detectives and have been working with their dad since very young. Unfortunately, they have also seen their share of horrors," Callie said. Her gaze also turned to Joe before she turned to Vanessa and rubbed her shoulder. "This nightmare will get over, one way or the other," Callie said in a determined voice.

Vanessa nodded her head. "You trust them, then? You sound certain," she said.

"Implicitly," Callie replied. "After all, I don't let just anyone tell me I should skip out on a complimentary meal at a five star restaurant!" Though she was joking, there was still a sharpness to her teasing. Chuckling to herself, Callie shook her head.

"All joking aside, they do know what they're doing. And they're building a strong case for you. Just a few more days and I'm sure you'll be back at home living your life. Then you can finally get out of their apartment. That can't be any fun," Callie said.

Vanessa nodded slowly. A few days was such a short time and yet so long. Hopefully though Callie would be right and Vanessa would be able to get back to her normal, everyday, boring life. One where she wouldn't get to see either Hardy boy.

Her eyes flicked once more to Joe sitting at his desk. Lowering her voice, Vanessa asked Callie, "Soooo Joe isn't seeing anyone?" She nervously twirled her finger in her hair.

Callie smiled. She had a twinkle in her eye now that only made Vanessa more uncomfortable to have asked in the first place. "At the moment, no. He has only been in one serious relationship." Callie's expression softened and Vanessa remembered how Joe had mentioned his last girlfriend had passed. After clearing her throat Callie continued, "I think he guards his heart now."

Vanessa let out a soft sigh and leaned back on the couch. She felt drawn to Joe Hardy; there was something about him that made her want to be there for him even if just as a friend. She glanced sideways at Callie and wondered if the other girl would be opposed to Vanessa starting something with Joe. Callie seemed protective of him.

Vanessa turned her attention back on Joe and felt her heart flutter. This time she knew it wasn't because of her nerves or out of fear of being caught sneaking around. She decided then that she was going to be a part of his life one way or the other.

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I can't hide it anymore. What we're doing is wrong fizz fizz fizzzzz fizz fizzzzz fizz fizz fizzzzz fizz

The static drowned the rest of the conversation. Frank and Joe sat peering at their laptop. Frank had taken off his headphones to play the recording once more for the group. "Phil sent me a new software that I can use to try and clean up this recording. Fill in the blanks," he explained.

Callie piped in, "I think Erin recorded this in Emerson's office, listen. I can almost hear the fountain that's there."

What we're doing is wrong fizz fizz fizzzzz fizz fizzzzz fizz fizz fizzzzz fizz

"So?" Joe asked quizzically. "She recorded the conversation on her cell phone to blackmail him."

Frank shook his head. "No, I don't think so. Using the bug Callie planted, I was able to capture some baseline of the room's noise. Now I can strip it back out of the original recording," he said.

"Listen to this version. This is much clearer."

I can't hide it anymore. What we're doing is wrong. I wanna tell someone. This keeps me up at night, knowing what our drug has done.

A man's voice accompanied Erin now.

You need to think very carefully…..fizz fizz fizzzzz fizz fizzzzz

The tension in the room snapped and even Frank let out a cry of surprise. Vanessa cupped her hand over her mouth to stifle the gasp that came over her. All around the office were wide eyes and open mouths.

"I wanna tell someone. This keeps me up at night, knowing what our drug has done." Joe repeated.

"I still have to clean up the last part of the recording, but there's enough here that you can tell that Erin was not having an affair with Emerson," Frank surmised.

"She was threatening to blow the whistle on him," Joe finished his thought.

"OMG!" Vanessa stood up. "The drug is going to be launched in two days. What are they trying to hide?"