Joe lay dazed on the bedroom floor with his arms tied behind him. His vision blurred as he glanced around the room. He noticed a young girl gagged and tied to a chair. Her eyes are bloodshot from crying. What have these men put her through? He blinked. Is that Cassie? She'd never show that much breast or ass. He shook his head to clear it. It is her. Is she all right? Joe scanned her body. She's trembling. There are a few scrapes and bruises, but nothing serious, at least on the outside. Who knows how long it'll take her to recover emotionally.

Joe gulped. Two girls close to Cassie's age sat beside her, gagged, and bound to chairs. The taller one has dried blood on her gag. She's probably bitten her lips to keep from showing emotion. The other one is afraid of me. The fear in their eyes will haunt me the rest of my life. I promise these men will suffer for what they've done.

The three girls were dressed alike, a tiny blue blouse held together by a single knot under the breasts and white shorts that sat well below their navels exposing too much rear end.

Two men yanked Joe off the floor and threw him onto a king size waterbed covered with a white sheet. Joe surveyed the area. Four men surrounded him.

Joe turned his head toward the window when he heard Matt yell, "There's enough fire power surrounding this house to level it to the ground. Let the agent and the girls go."

"Matt, no!" Joe shouted. "There are three innocent girls in here."

"You aren't as stupid as you look." A heavyset man hovered over him.

He appears to be the leader. His accent is Eastern European. Joe sat up. "You're surrounded. There's no way you'll get out alive. Let the girls go and surrender before somebody gets hurt."

"I've three girls and now a government agent. I think things are going my way." He glanced toward the numerous video cameras surrounding the bed. "I wonder what kind of price I'd get for a government agent performing on camera." He laughed.

"You might as well kill me now, because that'll never happen."

The man chuckled. "There are four of us and one of you. Your death could be arranged."

"Your accent tells me you're from the Balkans. I'd guess Bosnia."

"My mother country is the Czech Republic."

"Of course, child prostitution's practically legal there." Joe spat on the floor.

"I wouldn't make judgments. In your country, even with your many laws, child pornography's a very lucrative business." He walked over to Cassie and brushed his finger across her cheek. "Isn't she a pretty little thing?"

Joe struggled to loosen his hands.

When one of the men staring out the window called the leader to the window, Joe mouthed to Cassie. "Are you all right?"

She nodded. "I knew you'd come after me. You promised to protect me."

When she spoke those words, Joe's heart broke, but he replied, "You're right, I did."

The man turned from the window and faced Joe. "Our helicopter has landed, but in the front, not in the back as I requested." Again, he looked out the window, then walked to Joe grabbing the front of his shirt. "This is probably better anyway. Call off the snipers and tell everyone to get behind the frontage road."

When Joe glared at him, he grabbed the taller of the girls and threw her beside Joe. With a knife against her throat, he yelled, "If I don't hear you order the men to back away, I'll kill her. Her blood will be on your hands."

"Let me stand in front of the window, so they're positive it's me talking." Joe stood, walked toward the window, and yelled, "Matt, I'm giving instructions at the front door."

Joe turned toward the man. "Matt and I've been partners for over twenty years. He won't listen unless he can see me. You'd better take me to the front door."

Matt called out, "Joe, I'm watching the front door, but I can't see you."

Joe glanced toward the window, then at the man. "I told you. He won't listen unless he can see me."

The man shoved Joe to the front door. He hesitated before he opened it.

Joe's muscular frame filled the doorway. "Call the snipers off and get behind the frontage ...." Joe jumped and fell to the left, as a sniper shot the man standing behind him. He gulped. Now, there are three. A little more in my favor.

*****
As Sara and George finished painting the kitchen walls, she glanced around the room. "Would you call somebody? I need to know if there's good news."

"All right, but you have to agree to keep painting." After she nodded, he walked into the living room and dialed Matt's number.

After he put the phone back in his jeans pocket, George turned, and there stood Sara. "You agreed to paint."

"And you went into the living room so I couldn't hear the conversation."

"I did. If things aren't going well, I didn't want you worried."

Sara studied his eyes and sighed. "Things aren't going well, are they?" She took his hand in hers. "Please don't lie to me. I deal better with the truth."

George rubbed the back of his neck. "Matt, Joe, and two other men entered the house. While inside Joe was captured. Matt's almost positive one of the three girls inside is Cassie. All three are alive and unhurt."

"Is Joe hurt?" She held her breath.

"Matt doesn't think he's injured."

"But he's not sure, is he? Please take me to him."

"I'll make a deal with you. If Joe and Cassie aren't released by the time we've finished painting and cleaning-up, I'll take you there. Deal?"

Sara glanced around the room, then at George. "OK, it's a deal, but we'd better hurry. My patience has come to an end."

George studied a picture he'd removed from the hallway wall. "Cassie and you look so much alike. Does the resemblance continue or does it stop at the looks?"

"If you ask Joe, he thinks we act alike. He said something about us having him wrapped around our little finger." She laughed and took the photo from George. "I don't think we look alike. Cassie's a very pretty girl."

"Her mother's a very pretty woman."

As Sara laid the picture on the dining room table, their eyes met. "If we don't get started, we won't get finished. I have someplace I need to be."

*****
George sighed. He knew the last place Sara needed to be is where Joe and Cassie were. He wondered how he could stop her.