One hundred and four degrees.
Bobbi Martin tiredly flicked her raven bangs out of her eyes, gazed through the sweat trickling from them down the lenses of her glasses, focused again on the thermometer on her home’s deck. Yep—104 freaking degrees! The Martin family central air thoroughly defeated, she plucked the clinging fabric of her white tank top away from the pale flesh of her precociously buxom frame, fanned herself droopily as she wished the record heat wave drowning Snowden would go away—
“Bobbi, why do you have to babysit us?” The voice was tired and droopy like Bobbi herself, the girl sweating profusely despite the aquamarine swimsuit which was the only raiment on her wan, thin, blonde nine-year-old frame.
“Susie,” Bobbi reiterated, “I told you, our moms went out to investigate a case.”
Then why can’t we at least get ice cream?” the other sittee whined, scraping her wavy dark-chocolate-colored hair away from her milk-chocolate-complected face and adjusting the straps of her pink swimsuit.
“Because they’re investigating who robbed the ice-cream-truck driver yesterday, Destiny! I don’t like it any more than you do, but our moms told us to stay here!”
“But we’re hot!” Susie complained. “Just a little ice cream! We both got money!”
“I just told you!…” Bobbi bleated, turning toward the basement door. “Just…leave me alone…”
Susie and Destiny exchanged glances as their sitter faded downstairs into the somewhat cooler basement. And Susie’s blue eyes brightened with an idea. Destiny’s deep brown eyes smiled agreement…
Dark is good, Bobbi smiled to herself as she subsided into a beanbag chair in the darkest corner of the Martin basement. Dark means cool. And dark, she smiled, slipping the book lamp onto her novel, means time away from those little pests Susie and Desti—
The novel dashed from her hands, the light flaring out. A whirling storm of small arms and legs, light skin and dark, blonde ponytails and brown tresses. A manic, staccato fusillade of girlish giggles as she was flipped prone onto the floor—
“Susie Ross! Destiny White! You let me go right now!” Her answer—two breath-stealing thumps as two nine-year-old rumps sat heavily down on her. Bobbi fought to inhale as her arms were dragged behind her, her ankles pushed together—“You twerps stop this!” More giggles—and the scraping grip of ropes around her crossed wrists, her bare ankles—“I’m warning you, I’ll tell your parents!”—and knots pinched down on Bobbi’s bound limbs. More giggles—“Leave my socks alone!” Bobbi fulminated as her footies were peeled off her feet—“So help me, I’ll temmph!” her warning was interrupted with two footie socks crammed into her mouth—a strip of tape materialized over her mouth, smoothed by a quick dark hand—“Hmm! Wmmd mmph gmm!” Her only answer—more giggles and four hands peeling her feet back toward her hands—more rope—
“We’ll just go get our own ice cream!” Susie taunted her tightly hogtied sitter, straightening her blonde ponytail while she and Destiny stood tauntingly over her. “And we’re not bringing any for you! You can just go without for being so mean to us!”
“Yeah!” Destiny affirmed mockingly, straightening her suit straps after the battle, not noticing the sudden odd glare in Bobbi’s eyes. “We’ll keep all the ice cream for oursel”—from nowhere, big strong arms seized both little girls—sudden piccolo gasps as the two kids were lifted from their feet—
Two little sleuths writhed frantically against two silent sets of hands, but the hands and arms were far too strong. Small hands pulled behind two writhing backs—“Who are you?” Rope tightly encasing two sets of crossed wrists in reply—“Help!” Breath thumped out of small chests as they were thrown face-first to the floor beside their hogtied sitter—“Please stop!” and the mocking answer was more rope silently wrapped and knotted around two sets of footie-clad legs—“Please!” and short chuckles as the helpless girls found their feet tied cruelly to their bound wrists—
“Just like I planned!” one of the men taunted as he and his henchman rose to survey their quick work, Susie and Destiny wriggling in two tight hogties, Susie rocking plaintively side-to-side, Destiny straining her back bowed, pulling at her bonds. “I knew your moms couldn’t resist investigating that rinky-dink little robbery, so we wait for them to take the bait, and bang! Three little hostages! Now, your nosy moms can decide if they’d rather investigate the jewel-store heist or get their daughters back! Now, we’re going to”—and for just an instant, a flying, backhanded fist filled up his field of view—a resounding, metallic clank!—sudden total darkness—
“Just like mom thought!” a young dark-headed man in a karate tee shirt taunted above the two groaning, hogtied burglars as they awoke. “Let the crooks see them go out on an investigation, and bang! Two crooks caught red-handed, and a confession!” Two sets of bleary crook eyes saw the young man grinning as he rubbed his fist—a smaller young man dandling a crowbar in his hand—“And a couple neighbor pests who couldn’t resist tying up my sister!” the crowbar-wielding boy chuckled. “Thanks for the favor!” Bobby Martin snickered at Susie and Destiny while Jaden Ross grinned—
“I’d say we did a pretty good morning’s work!” Jaden observed with a satisfied smile. “What do you say we reward ourselves, Bob?”
“Sounds like a plan, Jaden!” Bobby affirmed with a grinning nod. “How about ice cream?”
“Just the thing, dude!” And they turned for the basement door—
“Hmm! Mmmtmm mmph, ooo jrrks!” Bobbi shrieked through her gag—her brother snorted a laugh—
“Please untie me!” Destiny pleaded—Jaden and Bobby kept sauntering away—
“Could you at least bring me back some ice cream?” Susie appealed winsomely, and two young heroes rolled their eyes in surrender…