A/N We're coming toward the end of the story and I really do have to apologize for the lengthy delays in getting this thing updated. The past couple chapters have been a little temperamental in my head, so I'm glad I finally got everything straightened out. I hope you guys enjoy the chapter and feel free to leave me a review.

Chapter Twenty-four

Frank's POV

I wish I could say that I couldn't believe Nancy would end up in this situation with the rest of us, but who was I kidding? Of course, she would get out of the house as soon as Joe and I left and try to investigate the case. It did surprise me that she ended up on this side of town with Jake. While I was glad that she was that intuitive to end up at the right place without having to follow people around like Joe and I, I was also really upset because of the position we were now in.

I couldn't even see her face because she was tied up on the floor somewhere behind me. It was nice to get Caius and the detective to confess to their crimes, but we didn't have any solid evidence like actually having the confession recorded. Even if we did, it would probably go up in flames just like the building we were in.

I could feel myself want to tear up from the torture of knowing that this was probably going to be our final moments with one another. I couldn't even see Nancy's face, which was killing me. When I heard her tell me that she loved me, I replied in kind with the same sentiments.

I would love to truly express all of my feelings for her right now, but it just didn't seem like the right time. First, there was the fact that we weren't exactly alone with one another. An audience comprising of my brother and Jake might not seem like much, but it still kept me from wanting to share my adoration for Nancy in front of them. My other reason for not wanting to get too sentimental was that it almost felt like we were giving up. Even though I couldn't see a way for us to get out of this situation, I just couldn't let myself give up all hope in the matter. I knew I needed to stay strong for everyone, for Nancy, so that we might be able to truly be together again.

The flames from the fire were flickering closer to us and the smoke was getting worse in the room. I was trying to breathe in shallow breaths with the hope that the smoke wouldn't cause any coughing fits any time soon. I wanted to be able to put forth my best effort in getting my hands untied and breaking down into a coughing fit just wasn't going to work.

Luckily, Nancy had loosened the bonds a little during her short period of time that she had worked on them before they were caught. I could feel the ropes cutting into my skin as I maneuvered my wrists and fingers in various directions to try to untie the knots.

"Hey, I've got a knife in my back pocket that would help us out if someone could get to it," Jake offered.

"Hang on, I'll try to get over to you and see if I can reach it," Nancy told him.

I could hear Nancy scooting across the floor away from me in the direction Jake's voice had come from. It was good to know that he had a knife in his pocket that hadn't been found earlier, but taking a look around the part of the room that I could actually see made me wonder if it was going to get us all out safely.

"How are you coming over there?" Joe asked me.

I turned my head to see him struggling trying to get his hands free. "I might be able to get my hands free in about ten minutes," I said.

"I doubt we have ten minutes," Joe shot back grimly.

"No, you might have five at best," a new voice spoke up from the doorway.

Joe and I both looked up quickly and barely recognized the man standing in front of us. Demetri was standing there wearing some kind of breathing mask like a fire fighter might have that covered his entire face. He was also carrying a large fire extinguisher.

"Demetri!" Nancy exclaimed from behind me. "How did you end up here?"

"Long story," Demetri stated quickly before using the nozzle on his fire extinguisher to fight back the flames that were now coming entirely too close to my legs for me to feel any comfort.

I saw Jake using the knife on Joe's bonds to get him free while Nancy was back to trying to help untie my hands with only her fingers. I knew that she would be able to untie them a lot easier than I would, but I didn't think it would be fast enough for all of us to get out alive.

"Nan, just get out of the building," I told her solemnly.

"No, I won't leave you behind," she replied and I could tell that she was probably shaking her head adamantly at me.

"Here, this will probably help," Demetri told us before tossing a pocket knife in our direction.

Nancy caught it firmly in her hand and quickly opened it up to use on the ropes binding my hands together. I felt the blade of the knife cutting through the rope quickly. I saw Joe stand up a moment later when Jake had cut off all the rope binding his hands and legs together. Based on the loosening of the rope around my wrists, I was pretty sure that Nancy would have me free quickly.

Demetri stayed nearby using his fire extinguisher to put the flames at bay as they neared us. I jumped up quickly when the rope was finally cut through on my wrists. I turned around just enough to grab the knife out of Nancy's hands and viciously cut through the rope that was tying my ankles together.

"Nancy, get out of here," I told her while sawing through the rope.

"I'm not leaving you in here," she replied with her hands on her hips.

I frowned at how stubborn she was being. I just hoped that she wasn't going to end up making a decision that resulted in her own undoing. I was vaguely aware of Joe and Jake hurrying out of the doorway toward an exit.

I managed to cut through the last of the rope around my ankles just as a wooden beam overhead came crashing down a little too close to us for safety. I grabbed Nancy's hand and hauled us out of the door following closely behind Demetri, who was still spraying all the nearby flames in sight with his fire extinguisher.

The smoke was so thick within the building that it was becoming hard to see anything around us. Nancy and I were bent over at the waist trying to hurry toward the exit while staying as low to the ground as possible. I could hear Joe and Jake shouting our names out from somewhere in front of us, so I used that as a compass to help guide us toward the doorway leading to fresh air.

We stumbled out of the doorway seconds later coughing heavily. All of us walked a short distance away to get further away from the burning building as we breathed in fresh air and tried to halt our coughing fit.

Joe's chest was heaving and he was bent over with his hands on his knees. His looked up at the three of us as we ventured toward him and Jake. "Thanks man, that was a close one," he told Demetri.

"No problem," Demetri replied. "I was glad to be able to help."

"What brought you out here in the first place?" I asked him.

"Funny you should ask that," he said as the corner of his mouth twitched into a smile. "This all started with Miss Drew calling me the other day asking about my whereabouts on the day Felix was murdered and mentioning my missing wallet turning up at the scene."

"How did my phone call change anything?" Nancy asked.

"Your phone call made me realize that I was being played and I don't let anyone get the best of me," Demetri said with a frown. "I was pretty sure that for my wallet to end up at the scene of a murder that it had to have been planted there because I hadn't been in that area during my initial visit to find Miss Swan. I might not have told you on the phone, but I was fairly certain that Turner had somehow managed to snag my wallet from me during one of my visits to the station."

"Why would you suspect him in the first place?" Jake asked. "I mean, I know he's guilty of it all now, but I'm curious as to why you might have thought something was out of the ordinary before."

"I've actually known the guy for a few years," Demetri confessed. "While I had never seen him do anything illegal, he always struck me as the type that might resort to questionable measures to get the job done."

"So you didn't trust him," I spoke up.

"No," Demetri confirmed with a shake of his head. "I never trusted him, but I've worked with him before when I needed additional information for a case I was working on."

"When I saw that Renata had gotten arrested on the news, I knew that you guys might need some help," Demetri continued. "I'm not really the type to work with a group, so I just stayed out of your way and did some snooping behind the scenes in places you might not think to look at."

"So you knew about Renata's connection to Caius?" Nancy asked.

Demetri nodded. "Like I said, I worked with Turner on occasion. I always like to know who I'm dealing with, so I found out a lot about Turner back then, which led to me knowing a good bit about the Volturi family. Renata is the type of person who is extremely loyal to her family. When she saw that you were becoming a threat, she did what she thought was best in taking care of the problem."

"Except she didn't manage to take care of me that night," Nancy stated.

"True," Demetri acknowledged. "The good thing is that she's in custody and shouldn't be able to get out."

"And the bad thing?" Jake asked.

"Turner's still walking around town with Caius," Demetri said. "Those two need to be brought down."

"Got any ideas?" I asked.

"I was checking out their property holdings a couple of days ago, which is how I found out about this burned out shack behind us," Demetri responded. "They've got a little cabin about thirty minutes north of here in a remote area that I imagine they probably went to in order to get away from the action down here for a while."

"I think we're forgetting one thing here, guys," Joe piped up.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Turner is a police officer," Joe pointed out. "He controls the police here, so how are we supposed to nab him?"

I watched as Demetri's eyes gleamed with mischief. I wondered what he had up his sleeve.

"Well, I've been in this business since you guys were little things crawling around in diapers," Demetri replied. "Over the years I've made quite a few connections with people pretty high up in law enforcement."

"So you're thinking about calling in the state police?" I asked him.

Demetri shook his head at me with a big grin on his face. "Since we're talking about millions of dollars being swindled away on this drug scheme of theirs, I'm pretty sure we can go higher than state police. I was planning on calling one of my buddies with the FBI."

It wasn't long before we heard sirens blaring out. All of us looked at each other quickly before coming to the same decision. We needed to get out of here before someone sees us. I think we all decided that it would be in our best interest to attempt surprising Turner and Caius before they get arrested.

As I got into the car with Nancy, I pealed away before the sirens came any closer. I saw Nancy pull out her cell phone from the corner of my eye and dial a number.

"Jake, where do you want to meet up?" Nancy asked. Nancy nodded before replying, "Okay, I'll let Frank know."

I turned to look at her for a moment to see what we were doing. "We're all going to meet at an old farmhouse that's about twenty miles outside of town," Nancy said.

"How am I supposed to know where to turn to get there?" I asked as I altered my route to start heading out of town.

"There's going to be a small sign at the road that says 'Foxtails Retreat', Nancy replied.

Nancy and I were pretty quiet on the drive out to the farmhouse where everyone would be gathering soon. After such a close call in that warehouse, I felt like there was so much for us to say to one another. I just didn't want to bring all of it up while we were still in the middle of this insanity. I have a feeling that Nancy was probably feeling the same way based on her silence. Every time that I glanced her way, she was just leaning her head against the passenger window staring outside at the passing landscape with a glazed expression on her face.

I finally saw the small sign labelled 'Foxtails Retreat' next to a small dirt lane. I turned onto the dirt track and began the slightly bumpy ride. If I had thought that I would clearly see the farmhouse we were heading toward, I would be wrong. I drove a quarter mile on this little dirt road without seeing anything more than tall grass and trees on either side on the road.

"How far do you think we have to drive?" I finally asked.

Nancy turned to look at me before replying, "They didn't say, but we saw the sign, so this must be the right road to take."

Another quarter mile led to a blind turn in the road. When I finally saw what was on the other side of the curve, I was relieved to see that we had finally made it to the farmhouse.

The farmhouse wasn't exactly like what I had envisioned. I guess I was thinking of something that might have resembled a large barn that was in disrepair. This place was more like a large cottage. Everything around it looked like it was being well kept and even lived in.

Nancy and I got out of the car as soon as the ignition was turned off and made our way to the front door. The door was opened by Joe before we even reached a hand out to knock on it.

"Come join the party," Joe quipped.

I placed my hand on Nancy's lower back and ushered her inside. Everyone was already here it seemed as I surveyed the interior. I turned toward my brother, who had already crashed on a nearby sofa.

"So, any news on what's going to happen now?" I asked him.

Joe looked over at me from his position on the sofa. "Well, Demetri called his friend with the FBI on the way over here. The agent, Garrett, gave him the surprising news that the FBI had already been watching things with Volturi Pharmaceuticals for a while now."

"Apparently they arrested some people about a year ago for another case that just happened to have some of the raw material in their posession," Jake spoke up as he came to sit down on the opposite end of the sofa.

"Anyway, when they saw the raw material, they managed to trace it back to the pharmaceutical company," Joe explained.

"How did they manage to do that?" I asked.

Joe shrugged. "I don't know but I guess they have their ways. Garrett and some of his men have been investigating the place quietly ever since. He was thrilled to hear that we have some additional information that can be used to prosecute these guys."

"So when will they be here?" Nancy asked.

"Within minutes," Demetri said.

True to his word, another car pulled up in front of the house and four men stepped out of it. They looked like the typical agent with dark suits and sunglasses on. As much as I was glad to get some additional help on this case, I really didn't think much about having to work with federal agents. They usually had a great big stick up their butts, not to mention most of them don't care to actually work with other detectives.

Demetri opened the door and greeted the man standing in front cheerfully. "Garrett, it's great to see you again."

"It's been a long time," Garrett responded.

Garrett turned toward the rest of us, who were still gathered around the sofa. "You must be Frank, Joe, and Nancy. I've heard good things about you three."

"What about me?" Jake grumbled.

"Where have you heard about us?" Nancy asked.

Garrett chuckled softly. "Any detective that solves as many cases as you guys do will earn a little attention on occasion from the bureau. A lot of the agents would never admit that someone younger than them might be better at the job. Luckily for you, I'm not one of them. I commend you on how well you've done with this case. Granted, we haven't been investing all of our man-power on this case, but you've still managed to come up with more evidence in less than a week that we can use against Caius and Turner than we have in the past year."

"So where do we go from here?" I asked.

"Good question," Garrett said. "I've got some more men staked out at the place where Turner and Caius retreated to after leaving the warehouse. They're pretty much just standing by and making sure that no one leaves the premises until we get down there."

"We get to come along?" Nancy asked with a hint of amazement in her voice.

"Don't you want to?" Garrett questioned quizzically.

"Of course we do," Nancy confirmed. "It's just that most people try to push us away by telling the same old story of it being too dangerous."

"And what do you do when they tell you that?" Garrett asked with a hint of a smile on his face.

"We usually go anyway and try to stay hidden from them," Nancy answered a little embarrassed.

"And that my dear is the reason why I'm allowing all of you to come along if you wish to," Garrett said smiling. "I'd rather know where you guys are so you can't get into any trouble."

We broke out in grins knowing that not only do we seem to find trouble, but trouble also finds us. It wasn't long before Garrett was on the phone corresponding with his men that were at the house watching Caius. They were trying to get the time line straight so that the whole operation would go smoothly when we all arrived and everything was set in motion.

Twenty minutes later all of us were leaving the farmhouse and piling into cars. Garrett had given us strict instructions on where we were headed as well as what location he wanted us to be in. He informed us implicitly that while he was allowing us to come along, he wanted us to stay back from the actual action taking place because he didn't want any of us at risk for injury. The rest of the agents would be prepared with bullet-proof vests and guns while all of us were just unarmed civilians. While I regretted not being able to really be involved in everything going down today, I understood the reasoning behind it. I also had to give Garrett credit for allowing us to come along in the first place. That's definitely not something that a lot of people would have done.

I pulled the car up behind Garrett's vehicle near the front entrance to Caius's vacation home. While the house was substantial in size, it wasn't fenced in like I expected for someone of Caius's stature. Surprisingly enough, we could have just driven up the drive to the front door. The drive wasn't even as long as the Cullen's.

Garrett stepped out of his car and said something over a walkie talkie as he walked back toward where we were parked.

"Guys, my group will be heading inside in about five minutes, so I would like all of you just to stay out here," Garrett told us as we all stood around the vehicles. "I don't want to run the risk of any of you becoming injured in the process of taking these guys down, so please follow my instructions."

We all nodded our agreement and I was actually a little surprised to see the looks on everyone's faces. They seemed to be serious about staying out of the way, which is something new to me. I can't really speak for Jake, but Joe and Nancy are definitely the type to want to be hands-on in any sort of operation.

I stood by the car and watched as the doors were broken in and agents ran into the house holding guns in the air and shouting orders. I felt my hand being gripped and looked down to see Nancy's hand wrapped in mine. She was staring straight ahead toward the house focusing on the entrance. I squeezed her hand gently and brought my attention back to the house. I was ready to see all of this over.

I finally saw some of the agents emerge from the house with Caius in tow. His hands were handcuffed behind his back and his head was hanging low. I think he finally realized that his plans were finished and he would be held accountable for all of his actions. The agents led Caius to a vehicle and put him into the back seat.

As soon as Caius was placed inside the vehicle, I saw Turner being led out. Unlike Caius, Turner's eyes were full of hatred and glared at us. I instinctively brought Nancy closer to my side under the murderous gaze he focused on us.

After Turner was placed in a separate vehicle, they cars drove off and Garrett walked back over to us.

"I see that everything went according to plan," I mentioned to him.

Garrett nodded. "I always hope for things to end this easily; but as you guys know, it doesn't always happen. Of course, we still have the justice system to deal with, but I'm pretty sure that it will go fairly well considering the evidence we've gathered in addition to your testimony on the case."

"Well, it was certainly a pleasure meeting you," Joe said as he extended his hand to shake Garrett's.

"Likewise," Garrett returned. "I'm sure I'll be seeing you in the near future. Take care of yourselves."

"You too," I replied.

Garrett turned away and walked back toward his car. All of us stood there for a few additional minutes as we watched the last of the agents drive away from the house.

"Anyone want to grab a burger?" Joe asked.

All of broke out into laughter at Joe's random remark. Leave it to him to always think about his stomach. We filed back into our vehicles and drove away from the scene and toward a good place to find a burger.