Thanks a ton to nicolelylewis for pointing out that I'd accidentally forgotten to post a chapter!
I wake up with a pounding headache. I put my hand to my forehead. I feel something sticky…blood?
"Joe," I whisper.
My bed is empty. I stagger to my living room and kitchen. No Joe.
My cell phone rings.
"Hardy," I growl.
"Frank, good to hear your voice," Edward says.
"Where's my brother?" I growl.
"Right here, say something Joe," Edward says.
Silence.
"Noble. He won't talk, wants to save you," Edward says.
I hear a sound and Joe groans.
"He's bleeding pretty bad, Frank," Edward says. "Why don't you put on a jacket and come see us? And step away from your computer."
Edward can see me?
I look over my head. A camera is mounted to my wall.
"I installed them while you were unconscious," Edward says.
I walk into my kitchen and see another camera pointed at me.
"No moving unless I give permission, Frank," Edward says. "See what happens when I get mad."
Joe cries out in pain.
"Keep your hands off my brother," I growl.
"Frank, you have no power over me. Come outside. Get into the white car. Remember I'm watching every step you take. One wrong move and you're an only child."
I walk outside. A white car is parked across from my condo. Joe is in the back seat. Edward has his hand around Joe's neck, with a knife in it.
"Get in. Nice night for a drive, don't you think?" Edward says.
"Joe?" I ask and get in the front driver's seat.
"Still alive," Edward says. "Say something, Joe."
"Run Frank!" Joe says.
"Your choice, Frank," Edward says. "Chances are you could get away. But not Joe. You've already cost him his sight. Will you cost him his life?"
"Frank, get out!" Joe says.
"One more word and I'll slice your big brother open through the car seat, understand Joseph?" Edward says.
I see Joe nod in the rearview mirror.
"Good. Now drive," Edward says. "Turn right at the end of the street."
I start the car and turn right.
Twenty minutes later, I turn onto a one lane dirt road deep in the woods. I pull up to an abandoned cabin.
"Get out!" Edward says. "Open the cabin door and stand outside. I need to see you at all times Frank, or Joe will have a painful accident."
I open the cabin door and stand outside.
"Now what?" I ask and turn around.
"Take the white pill and walk inside," Edward says.
A prescription bottle sits inside the cabin.
"Don't do it!" Joe yells.
I swallow the pill.
"Walk inside," Edward says and smiles.
My body feels like a puppet with someone else pulling the control strings.
I walk into the cabin and collapse to my knees.
My vision blurs. I struggle to focus.
Edward throws Joe on the floor. Joe lands about three feet away from me.
"Frank?" Joe asks.
I squint.
Joe moves his hands across the dirty wooden floor desperate to find me.
I'm too far away.
Try to tell Joe I'm ok, but my mouth won't work. Or my body.
"I didn't tell you to kneel, Frank," Edward says. "I'll have to punish you for that."
Edward slices open Joe's t-shirt with his knife.
Edward cuts the bandage off Joe's chest. I see a row of neat black stitches.
Silently I scream.
Edward slices through three stitches. Joe bleeds.
"Now we're even," Edward says.
My eyes close and darkness falls.