A/N Things are heating up, so to speak. Hope everyone enjoys. Feel free to leave a review.

Chapter Twenty-three

Nancy's POV

Jake and I waited for Officer Turner to arrive near where I had parked my car. I didn't want us to obviously be standing next to a building that contained at least one and possibly more armed men inside just waiting to sneak a peak at us.

Officer Turner pulled up in an unmarked vehicle less than five minutes after I called him.

"I'm glad you could get here so quickly," I commented once he stepped out of the car.

"I was lucky enough to be in the area when you called, so it didn't take me that long to get over here," he replied. "So, let me get this straight. You two were sneaking around that warehouse over there and saw Frank and Joe Hardy being led inside by a man with a gun?"

I nodded, "That's what we saw happen."

"I thought you would have brought more cops as backup with you?" Jake asked.

"I wanted to make sure of what was going on first before I called in for backup," Officer Turner replied. "As busy as our department can get at times, I didn't want to be herding them over here for no reason."

"Frank and Joe's lives are at risk," I snapped angrily. "That should be reason enough."

Officer Turner held a hand up to me as if trying to calm me down. "Regardless, I wanted to be on the scene first to check out your claims before I called more officers in to deal with the situation."

I was peeved that the detective standing in front of me wouldn't believe our claims, but I somehow managed to hold my tongue and not lash out at him.

Jake and I led Officer Turner to the building that Frank and Joe were led into and then left him to search around the building to see what he could find out. I was hoping that it wouldn't take him too long before he would call in for backup.

"How do you think that douche is going to find out what's going on inside the building by walking around the thing?" Jake asked me.

"What?" I asked puzzled.

"The windows all around the building are so grimy from not being cleaned in fifty years that you can't see anything through them," Jake explained. "Frank and Joe could be standing right in front of one and you wouldn't be able to see them."

"Then he would have to go inside," I thought out loud.

"And since there is at least one armed guy inside, I would imagine that could be a problem," Jake reminded me.

"We need to warn him," I said starting to move in the direction Turner had taken.

"Nancy," Jake said grabbing a hold of my upper arm to keep me from straying too far away, "I don't trust him."

"He's a cop," I said to Jake.

I felt I had a good sense of judging people's characters and wasn't concerned about Officer Turner. He wasn't a shining star by any means, but I didn't think he would stoop to criminal behaviour.

As if guessing what was going through my head, Jake spoke, "Look, I know you may be able to judge people better than me because you've been solving mysteries for a long time, but I still don't think that everything adds up here."

I had to admit that at least Jake didn't have a silly reason behind what he said. "Then what do you suggest we do?" I asked.

"I think we need to call the cops in," Jake proposed.

Before I could say anything to Jake, I looked away at the sound of approaching footsteps. Officer Turner was walking back toward us with a grim expression on his face.

"What did you find?" I asked walking toward him with Jake standing behind me.

"I had to go inside because I couldn't see anything much through the windows on that place. The inside wasn't much better. Looked like it hasn't been cleaned in ages," he spoke. "I didn't see any sign of Frank or Joe inside the place, but there was some scuff marks on the floor inside that could be a sign of a struggle."

"We would have seen them leave the building," I argued.

"If they actually went inside that building, they could have left by a different exit," Officer Turner suggested. "The building has multiple doors."

I was tired of him treating us like we were stupid. I would almost rather have his lewd advances over this.

"I want to go inside," I stated firmly.

"Why?" Officer Turner asked in a surprised voice.

"I need to see for myself what you claim to have seen," I told him angrily.

"Nancy," Jake said softly from behind.

"What?" I asked as I angrily turned around to see what he wanted.

Jake knew that I was mad and raised his hands up in the air in surrender. I couldn't handle dealing with two men that I was fed up with when all I wanted was to make sure Frank and Joe were okay. I couldn't get the sight of a man holding a gun on them out of my head and no one would be able to talk me out of checking everything out.

"Okay, follow me," Officer Turner told me with a heavy sigh.

I walked behind him and heard the footsteps that indicated Jake was coming with us. I knew he had his reservations about the whole situation, and while I respected what he thought, it wasn't going to change my actions this time. I knew that I was probably being a bit foolhardy, but when my companions could be in danger, I was going to do whatever I could to help.

I followed Officer Turner until he reached the same door that I had seen Frank and Joe ushered into. The detective paused in front of the door and turned to glance at me as if measuring to see how much I really wanted to go through with this. I gave him a silent nod of my head to confirm that we should follow through. Officer Turner then opened the door and walked inside.

I followed him inside the warehouse with Jake still at my back. I took a moment to let my eyes adjust to the dim lighting. I frowned as I looked around the vacant room we were standing in because if the building had lights on inside, then someone must be using it. I couldn't understand why Turner didn't call for backup. It was clear to me that Jake and I weren't crazy and someone was definitely using this place for something.

I crept behind the detective as silently as possible because even though he didn't see anyone in the place, I preferred to be cautious. I grimaced at the fact that Officer Turner didn't seem to care about how much noise he was making. His footsteps echoed throughout the warehouse. There was no doubt in my mind that if anyone was still left inside, they would definitely know that someone was in here with them now.

I glanced back quickly at Jake, who was moving quietly behind me. I could tell from the look he gave me that he was unimpressed with the detective we had in our company. It made me feel a flicker of regret for being so stubborn and not listening to Jake when he was trying to tell me earlier that we should just call and request additional cops ourselves. That lingering bad feeling Jake had mentioned earlier was growing in my gut, but I was too far into this situation to turn around.

"Are you okay?" Jake whispered in my ear causing me to jump.

"I'm fine," I whispered back.

I noticed that in my silent contemplation, Officer Turner had gone on ahead of us and we were left alone in the same room we entered from the doorway. I shook my nerves away as I remembered that I was here to check for any clues as to where Frank and Joe might have gone since the detective didn't find them in here earlier when he was checking the place out.

I moved through the vacant room toward a doorway that was up ahead. As I entered the next room, I gasped.

To my right were Frank and Joe Hardy and they were both tied up to two chairs that stood in the center of the room. Their mouths were taped shut preventing them from making any sounds. I looked around wildly for a moment wondering where Officer Turner had gone off to. There was no way he could have possibly overlooked something like this.

Those thoughts were pushed toward the back of my mind as I saw Frank's widened eyes. I rushed over to his side and started trying to undo the knots tied in various strands of rope as quickly as I could.

"Frank, it's okay," I told him quickly and quietly as I began untying the ropes binding his wrists together behind the chair. "Officer Turner is with us and we're going to get you out of here."

I heard a muffled response coming from him but didn't stop to take off the tape keeping his mouth shut. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jake working on getting Joe loose.

Whoever tied these things knew what they were doing. I had barely managed to get one knot undone when I heard footsteps approaching the room. I glanced at Jake, who was already looking toward me with a concerned expression on his face. I was pretty sure it was Officer Turner, but something could have happened to him during the few minutes that we've been separated.

There wasn't exactly a place to hide in this big, open room, so I went for the standby of ducking behind Frank's chair. I saw that Jake was doing the same thing behind Joe. The only problem with this situation is that it was pretty hard for me to hide behind a chair, much less someone as large as Jake. I knew that if it wasn't the detective coming toward us, we would definitely be in trouble.

I let out a breath of relief as I saw Officer Turner round the corner into the room.

"Good work Nancy," Officer Turner congratulated. "You found the boys."

"Come over here and help us," I told him as I looked back down to continue working on Frank's knots.

"I don't believe that will do," Officer Turner replied.

I looked up and stared at the detective, who was now holding a gun in his hand pointed toward us. I realized then that I had made a potentially fatal mistake in letting my feelings for Frank take over and keep me from making solid decisions. Jake was right all along and Officer Turner couldn't be trusted.

"I want both of you to slowly back away from the chairs with your hands up," Turner ordered.

I stood up slowly and saw out of my peripheral vision that Jake was doing the same things. I contemplated what I might be able to do in order to distract Turner long enough for us to escape, but I knew it was going to be hard to accomplish with Frank and Joe still tied up.

"No funny business, Miss Drew," Turner scolded. "Roger! Larry! Get in here!" he hollered.

Two men in their late thirties came into the room quickly. I recognized one of them as the one that had trained the gun on Frank and Joe earlier. I held back the sigh as I realized that we were now dealing with three armed men and two of us were tied to chairs with no way to escape.

"Tie those two up," Turner ordered.

"But there's no more chairs to tie them to," one of the men told him.

"Then just let them sit on the floor," Turner barked. "I don't care as long as they're tied up tight and can't escape."

One of the men left the room only to return a few minutes later with a large quantity of rope. I looked over to Jake, who eyed my nervously. The man handed some of the rope over to the other guy before walking toward me. I wanted to do everything in my power to get free of this situation, but Turner was still holding a gun on all of us. I knew that even if I managed to distract one of his henchmen, he could still shoot any one of us and that was something that I couldn't allow to happen.

The man by the name of Larry grabbed my arm roughly and jerked me away from where I was standing behind Frank's chair. He hauled me at least eight feet away and began tying up my hands behind my back. I watched as Jake was given the same treatment.

After tying my hands together, Larry pushed me down onto the floor and began tying my ankles together. I winced as he tied the cords as tight together as his strength would allow. They were already cutting into my skin and even though I had tried my little trick of weaving my fingers together to give myself a little extra room to maneuver my hands, Larry didn't fall for it.

Once the men were finished securing us, they stepped away and Turner walked over and gave a good tug on each of our knots to check the work.

"You know, Nancy," he said into my ear, "it's a shame that you had to keep digging your nose into places it doesn't belong in. We could have had such a beautiful relationship."

"I would never date a creep like you," I hissed.

"You are so feisty," Turner said with a smirk. "I guess this would be the part where you ask your little questions."

"What are you planning to do with us?" Jake blurted out.

Turner looked over at him and smiled sinisterly. "I prefer to keep that as a little surprise, but it won't be too much longer before you'll find out first-hand."

I wanted to keep Turner talking for as long as I could. I wasn't confident in my ability to get out of these knots that were binding me, but I needed to be able to work on them for as long as possible with the hope of getting them loose. Besides, the longer he talks, the longer we have before he does something truly despicable to us.

I decided just to go out on a whim and asked, "Where's Caius?"

I could tell he didn't expect that question because his eyes widened for a second before the calm facade came back.

I heard a light clapping and some more footsteps come closer. Another man entered the room that I almost immediately recognized. He was the face of the other man in the picture with Turner that was kept at the police station.

The man was tall with blonde hair that seemed a little too blonde to be a natural hair colour. He was wearing an expensive looking suit with dress shoes.

"Very good deduction, Miss Drew," the man spoke.

"Caius," Turner said in a warning voice.

Caius waved a hand Turner's way as if dismissing him. He then stepped forward to get closer to me, although still well out of range.

"What I would like to know is how you decided I was behind all of this?" Caius asked pleasantly.

I hesitated a moment in deciding how to answer his question. Just in case something happened to us, I didn't want to incriminate anyone else in this ordeal.

I looked up at him and shrugged innocently. "It was mostly a guess. I wagered that you would be the most likely culprit behind the drug ring due to your ranking position in the company. However, I would love to know exactly how you came up with this scheme."

Caius smiled proudly. "That is quite the story. I guess I can give you the shortened version of what happened. Several years ago I attempted to get Aro to promote me to a position with more leadership."

"But I thought that you were already pretty high ranking within the company," I interrupted.

"I suppose I am, but Marcus is technically even higher than myself," Caius replied. "I wanted Aro to urge Marcus to retire so that I could grab that position. Once I was there, I would be within arm's reach of taking over the company should anything ever happen to Aro."

"Of course, Aro didn't see eye to eye with my thoughts," Caius continued. "He felt that the positions we currently held were what was best for the company. I might not have let him know how angry I was with his decision, but I went home that night and complained to my nephew. He was the one to suggest that I could interfere with the company business from behind the scenes without anyone noticing it. I would be able to split the profits with my nephew and help to ruin Aro's company in the long run. It was a possibility I couldn't refuse."

"Then Jane found out about what was going on and you had her killed," I said.

"It was a shame to have to do that, but I couldn't have questions arise before the time was right," Caius confirmed.

"But Felix messed up and didn't manage to kill the witnesses to the crime," I pointed out.

Caius sighed heavily. "When I found out from my nephew about Isabella Swan and Jacob witnessing the events of that night, I knew that we would have to play things very carefully for a while. It was an unexpected complication when Felix started losing his nerve."

"He was a liability that we couldn't afford," Turner interjected. "It was a good thing I followed you the day you went to talk to him. Felix might have told you guys everything if I hadn't have put a stop to it."

"You killed him," I stated. "What about Demetri's wallet that Frank and I found near the scene of the crime?"

Turner waved his hand in impatience. "When I found out that Demetri had been hired to find the Swan girl, I figured he might be handy later on. I snatched his wallet one day when he was visiting me at the police station and then I luckily had it available to place at the crime to point the finger in the opposite direction."

"So it really was just a coincidence that he didn't have an alibi for that time," I spoke, almost to myself.

"I've known of Demetri for years since he's from these parts," Turner told me. "It wasn't surprising to see you go barking up the wrong tree when it comes to him. He's always been a little crazy when he's investigating something. You probably could have learned something from him. He tends to be right about every case he's worked on."

"What about the car accident?" I asked angrily.

"That was your final warning to stay away from the case," Caius spoke up firmly.

"You almost killed us," I almost yelled.

Turner just shrugged indifferently. "It really wouldn't have been a loss to us."

"When Renata told us about the papers Carlisle had given you, we knew we'd have to get you out of the way soon," Caius said.

"Caius, I think we've said enough about all of this," Turner finally said.

Caius nodded, "I agree. It's a shame it had to end this way, but a man like me couldn't possibly go to jail."

Turner nodded to the two flunkies who had tied me and Jake up. They went out of the room only to return with cans of gasoline. I had a very bad feeling about what was going to happen and looked over to Jake. I could see a mixture of anger and fear in his eyes.

The men dumped out the gasoline all around the four of us as well as making sure to douse the walls all around the room. I could tell by the old structure of this building that it would probably go up like a fireball if a match was lit.

"Oh, one last thing," Turner said when the men had finally emptied all of the gasoline that was in the cans. He walked over to Frank and Joe and ripped off the tape that was around their mouths. "I figured that you guys might want to wish each other farewell while you have the chance."

With that, Caius and Turner walked out of the room. One of the men took a lighter out of his pocket and flicked it to produce a small flame. My stomach was uneasy with the latest developments in our situation.

Out of all of the cases I have worked on in the past, there have been numerous times that I've come close to not making it out alive. This was the one time that I was really unsure about our chances of getting out. I hated that I brought this down on Jake, who was just trying to help. No one knew where we were, so we weren't going to have a rescue party at just the right moment come in and save the day for us.

Frank couldn't turn his head enough to see where I was on the floor behind him, but I knew that I had to tell him something if this was going to be our last moments together.

"Frank, I love you," I said trying to keep the tears from falling.

"I love you too, Nan," Frank replied back in a scratchy voice.

With that, I watched as the man flicked the lighter over to a nearby corner and the room caught on fire.