Disclaimer: I do not own the Hardy Boys or any of the book characters.

Thank you! To Wendylouwho10 as usual for reading for flow and content. Typos are mine and I find them all the time!

Rating/Setting: Rating is T. Started as kinda blue spine with a touch of Casefiles but is now completely AU. Frank is 20 and Joe is 19.

Author's Notes: Sorry that this one is a short chapter. But it is. ;) I will try to post on Tuesday, but we'll be traveling that day and visiting with relatives until the following weekend. However, I will have internet access, so I'll try to post Tuesday or Wednesday. Merry Christmas to everyone!

Chapter Sixteen

A sharp sound cut through the evening heat and humidity which prompted Frank to tackle Callie to the ground in the backyard.

"Frank!" she cried somewhat painfully. But her cries went unheeded as he kept her back to the ground, his body shielding hers. "Sweetheart, it was a car backfiring," she said quietly. No doubts were in her mind as to what thoughts were going through her boyfriend's mind. After a slight pause, he rolled to the side and lay on his back.

"I'm sorry. I…" Frank began and then stopped.

Callie rolled onto her side and propped herself up on an elbow so she could look down at Frank's face. "I know what you thought," she said softly.

He turned his head slightly to look her in the eye. "I think we should stay apart until Joe is found."

"Frank, it was a car!"

"It was a car this time, Callie. What about next time?"

His tone was calm and his expression neutral, but she knew what it cost him to say this to her. To actually voice that he might not be able to stop his brother and what he might be tasked to do. She didn't shoot his suggestion down immediately. "Are you going to a safe house?"

He shook his head no.

"Why not?"

"I have to be here. I need to be here in case he needs me. In case it all goes wrong."

Callie gave him a small smile. "I won't stay away either because I have to be here. I need to be here in case you need me. In case it all goes wrong."

Frank stared at her for a full minute. She could see him trying to come up with an argument to contradict his own words. But he failed.

"Callie, if all goes wrong I really don't want you around-"

"Frank, you've already said it before. Joe couldn't shoot you."

Frank gaze turned away but not before the guilty look in his eye was spotted.

"You're not betraying you brother, Frank. You're trying to be safe. You're trying to be cautious. That's all. If you didn't at least consider the possibility that it could happen you'd be doing yourself and your training a disservice." She reached out with her free hand and turned his face toward her. The sight of tears in his eyes were nearly her undoing and she realized how the days ahead would play with his emotions as everyone tried to figure out if Joe was out there and if he was, just who was his target. "Oh, baby," she said softly.

Frank sat up quickly catching her unaware for a moment. "Let's head in," he said as he got to his feet and turned to extend a hand to her. "Let's see what Cassidy is doing."

Realizing that Frank desperately wanted to change the subject, she took his hand and let him pull her up. As she stood, she asked, "She's returning home in three days isn't she?"

"Yes. We thought- We hoped that we'd have had this resolved by now but it hasn't and she can't be gone indefinitely. She's been here ten days and without anything to go on, we've told her to return to work."

Callie smiled; she liked Cassidy and thought that having her at the house had been helpful not only to Mrs. Hardy but also to Frank as she told him about their time at whatever weapons school that the pair had been at. She had been invaluable in helping everyone think like Joe would since she had been the only one to truly see him in action. She shuddered slightly. She wasn't an idiot and figured that they had been at a sniper school but she chose to let them all believe that she hadn't figured it out. Even now with everything that had happened with Iola and drug cartel, it was hard to imagine fun-loving, joke playing, Joe Hardy as a deadly sniper. But then, he hadn't been the same since his abduction years ago. Putting those thoughts to the side, she took Frank's hand, drawing a curious look from him and pulled him toward the house.

.**********.

Gary Older hung up the phone. They would have Joe in place tonight and tomorrow morning he would spring the trap. Tomorrow the Assassins would acknowledge the part he played in the success of the mission. Tomorrow Frank and Joe Hardy would both be dead and one more of the group that bested him would be gone. If only the Assassins wanted to take out all of them but they didn't. Maybe he could find a way to accomplish it himself in the future.

He grabbed his keys and headed out the door. A steak dinner was on tap for tonight in preparatory celebration of another successful assignment for his new employers.