Read Online Brother Against Brother by Franklin W. Dixon - Free Book Online Page B

trapped.
    Joe threw himself at his adversary. He didn't care anymore about hidden weapons. He just wanted to smash that face!
    Frank scrambled backward, trying to block his brother's wild onslaught. Fists, elbows, and knees pounded at him in a whirlwind attack. Frank ducked as a knockout blow grazed his ear instead of connecting with the side of his head. "Have you gone crazy?" he gasped.
    But Joe just kept swinging with lunatic strength.
    "Okay, you asked for it." Frank swept his leg around, catching Joe behind the knees. Joe dropped to the ground, just barely bracing himself on his hands. Frank fell on him and his hands darted to the pressure points on the neck. First he'd get Joe calmed down. Then he'd ask him what was going on.
    But Joe wasn't finished yet. When he felt the fingers clamping down on him, he twisted with all his might, unleashing a right-handed haymaker from the ground up.
    Frank saw the blow coming and tried to block it. But he used the arm that had been injured in the rockslide — the arm that had gone numb. It was still weak, and Joe's punch brushed by it to land right on the point of Frank's chin.
    Joe grinned in triumph as he watched his enemy's head snap back, his legs go limp, his entire body slump bonelessly to the ground. "Get up!" Joe shouted, grabbing his enemy's shirt. "You killed Iola. You killed Rita's father! Get up and fight!"
    He tried to lift his adversary to his feet but the dark-haired guy was dead weight. Joe let him fall hard against the ground.
    He'd beaten him! All he had to do was tie him up, and bring him to the sheriff. ...
    But yet another memory was triggered — Joe charging out of some woods, pistol in hand, stopping when he saw the dark-haired guy sprawled motionless on the rocks, a big red stain on his shirt. Joe remembered how he had felt then—how upset he had been.
    Upset? Over an enemy being shot? How could that be? This guy was a filthy murderer, a killer for hire! In a flash Joe decided there was only one way to stop him from ever killing again.
    Joe picked up a large, flat rock, raising it over his head.
    "This is it!" he snarled. "This time I'll finish you!"

Chapter 12
    "What's going on?" a voice called down from the road. "Wait! What are you doing? Stop!"
    It was Rita. Joe heard her slide frantically down the gully, rush to him, and grab his arm. Joe let her pull the rock away, somehow glad for the interruption. His arms dropped to his sides.
    Rita stooped and looked at the dark-haired guy passed out cold. She checked his pulse, shaking her head when she saw the blood on his face.
    "What are you doing?" Joe asked.
    "What does it look like?" Rita snapped. "He's got a split lip and a bloody nose. And I'm trying to help him!"
    "I wouldn't get too close to him, Rita. He could be faking. We know he's a killer!"
    "Maybe he's a killer. We don't know for sure," she said. "And he's still a human being. We can't just let him bleed."
    "I go with 'An eye for an eye.' " Joe wiped the sweat and dust from his forehead with the back of his hand.
    "Look at him lying there," Rita protested. "He's young. He could be your brother. Why, he even looks like you."
    Joe stumbled back a few steps, confused. His mind was a jumble. What was going on here? Why was he relieved that Rita had stopped him from killing the dark-haired guy? Was he losing his mind?
    Rita took a clean tissue from her pocket. She gently dabbed at the guy's mouth and nose, cleaning him as well as she could, making his breathing easier. "We can't leave him here," she said quietly. "He's badly hurt."
    Joe stared at her. "You're not thinking of taking him with us, are you?"
    "Why not?"
    "I'll tell you straight out, Rita, I wouldn't want him behind me in the car while I was driving. He wants to kill us."
    "We could tie him up," Rita suggested.
    "We don't have anything to tie him with." Joe turned and climbed up toward the road. After a moment he turned and saw that Rita had not moved.
    "We're going to leave him," he said.