Maggie considered the information she'd just learned.

"Why didn't you ask me to sign a prenuptial agreement?" Maggie wondered.

"Because I plan on being married to you until we're shriveled up, old prunes," Colby remarked.

Maggie embraced him. "Listen, you might shrivel up, but I'm not. I intend to keep my girlish figure, bub."

"I've given some thought to what we should call this place," Colby began. "I think it's important that the name represents you and the people who you've loved and lost."

"So, what do you think we should call this place?" Maggie asked.

"Seth's Fortress," he said with certainty.

"I love it, Colby. Seth would have loved it too," Maggie said with a heavy heart.

A few months later, Maggie and Colby opened Seth's Fortress in Philadelphia. The organization focused on homeless teens and prostitutes. It provided food, counseling, safety, and shelter to those in need. It was a place where kids found solace. There was a difference between prostitutes who were willing to sell their bodies and those who were unwilling. The signs were subtle to most, but not to Maggie. She could pick out the kids who had been forced into the business. Often, the police punished these young girls and boys for doing what they were being forced to do. News of the place spread quickly. Within three weeks, they were helping at least a dozen kids a day.

On Maggie's days off, she often took Joey to a movie or to the local bowling alley after school. Joey had a knack for all things athletic, and she'd grown fond of bowling after one of the girls in her class had a birthday party at Facenda Whitaker Bowling Lanes. Maggie and Joey enjoyed the time together; bowling was their "special" thing to do.

Maggie was returning to her seat after throwing a strike when she saw the long, narrow face and black eyes staring at them. His hair was still shoulder length and greasy. His hunched posture looked demented, and his large hands hung at his sides like dead weights.

Maggie stood, frozen in time, and her body was unwilling to take commands from her mind. She wanted to take Joey by the hand and run. Her breathing was labored and she felt lightheaded. It was too much for her to see him again. Maggie feared that the end of her life was soon.

A yellowish-brown, toothy smile spread across John William's gruesome face. Her fear and shock was evident, and her reaction brought sheer pleasure to the hideous creature. John William thumped down the two steps and into the pits where the bowlers sat. He continued to walk toward her, and she managed to make her right foot move and then her left. She made it back to Joey right before John William entered the area where they were sitting.

Chapter One Hundred Forty-Seven.

"Well, if it isn't Maggie. Look at you, all grown up and trying to act like you're not a filthy whore," he ridiculed.

"What do you want?" Maggie asked.

"Oh, I just wanna catch up. See how you've been. Find out who this gorgeous little creature is here with you. I could get a pretty penny for that one," he said.

"You need to get out of here before I call the police," Maggie threatened.

John William started to laugh. "You won't call the police. Because if you do, then Myles would surely kill you and that little bitch of yours," he said, gesturing toward Joey. "I'm pretty sure she's gonna be my bitch soon."

Joey was standing behind Maggie. Her face drained of all color as she grabbed onto Maggie's hips.

"Leave us alone," Maggie said in a weak voice.

"Nah, the fun is just startin', bitch. Myles has been looking for a new girl, and it looks like you got the kid he wants."

Maggie's mind was whirling as she frantically tried to come up with a way to get away from John William. Suddenly, she realized that there were many people around them, and she wasn't a helpless eleven-year-old anymore. She straightened her back and took a step closer to him.

"I suggest you leave us the fuck alone, John William." Maggie yelled his name. "Otherwise, I'm going to make such a scene that you'll wish you never knew me. Who the hell do you think you are? I'll tell you who you are; you're a fucking low-life, maggot-eating swine," Maggie spat.

John William was an imbecile, but he wasn't stupid. He knew Maggie would do exactly what she'd just described. So instead of standing there, he gave them a sinister grin, turned, and headed to the bar inside the bowling alley.

"Maggie, let's leave," Joey said.

"No. If we leave now, he'll just follow us home. It's too dangerous," Maggie warned.

Maggie took Joey by the hand and rushed over to the counter where the cashier stood.

"Can I use your phone?" Maggie pleaded.

The old man behind the counter gave her a searching look. Satisfied that she wasn't trouble, he handed her the phone. "I'll dial. No long distance calls."

Maggie pulled the piece of paper from her purse and read off the numbers as the old man dialed. It rang four times, and at the thought of no one answering, panic rose and fell in waves causing her stomach to clench into a tight knot. After the fifth ring, a voice sang in her ear.

"Yeah?"

"Tony?"

"Who the hell is this?"

"This is Maggie. I need your help," she begged.

"Where are ya, Maggie?"

"Facenda Whitaker Bowling Alley," Maggie stated. "I'm here with Joey, and the nice man at the shoe counter is letting me use the phone."

"I see. What exactly is the da issue?" Tony asked.

"John William," Maggie said.

"He's dare now?" Tony asked.

"Yes."

"He botherin' you?"

"Yeah. He said he liked Joey," Maggie said. The old man at the shoe counter was listening to every word. She hoped Tony would pick up on what she was trying to say.

"Is that right?" Tony asked rhetorically.

"Yep," Maggie said, grateful that Tony and Vincent had met Joey at the Melrose.

"OK, here's what you're gonna do. Stay put. When ya see me and Vincent come in, pretend like ya don't know us. Then get in your car and go home," Tony instructed.

"OK, but..." Maggie hesitated, worried that John William would find out where they lived.

"You just do what I'm tellin' ya. Everything will be fine," Tony assured her.

It took Tony and Vincent forty-five minutes to get from South Philly to the bowling alley in the suburbs. Maggie saw them before they saw her. In fact, she wasn't sure they saw her at all because they didn't acknowledge her. She watched them enter the bar. Then she told Joey it was time to leave.

"But that asshole is still in the bar," Joey argued. "What if he follows us home?"

Maggie could see John William sitting on the barstool closest to the door. He gave her a menacing wave.

"We have to go, Joey. We can't stay at the bowling alley forever. It'll be OK. Trust me," Maggie assured her.

Maggie and Joey went up to the counter, paid for their lane, and then proceeded out to their car. Sure enough, John William was starting his date-rape, child-stealing, murder van when Maggie backed out of the parking space. As she drove slowly back to her apartment, she watched him following in the rearview mirror. She didn't know what kind of car Tony and Vincent drove. She began to worry that they hadn't recognized him in the bar, and John William had managed to get away from them. Maggie pulled into a space at her complex and led Joey up to their apartment.

She watched John William from the window until finally he drove off.

Maggie didn't dare call Tony again to confirm they had followed John William. She only hoped they had, and they would threaten him enough that he would never think about going near her or Joey again. Maggie could not conceive of what Tony and Vincent had planned for John William to keep him away from her.

Chapter One Hundred Forty-Eight.

Tony called his boss, Salvatore, from the bowling alley. Tony and Vincent had told Salvatore all about Maggie and her trauma as a young child. Salvatore also knew that Maggie was Emma's only good friend from Double Visions, and Salvatore adored Emma.

"Sal, 'member that girl we talked about? Emma's friend, Maggie, from Doubles? She's the one who lost her little boy not too long ago to AIDS," Tony explained.

"Yeah, Tony, I remember. Why? What's going on?" Salvatore asked.

"Well, Maggie called us. She and her kid were bowling and that mother-fuckin', child-stealing ass-wipe shows up. This is the same guy who kidnapped her. Now the bastard is lurking around and threatenin' her. The girl was real scared, so Vincent and me drove here to the bowling alley. Now, we're sittin' here, watchin' the douche bag drink a beer at the bar. You know what we talked about if it ever came to this. We're gonna move on it this time," Tony said.

"Yeah, do what you have to do. But stick to the plan. Keep things clean and simple. Are you bringing in soldiers to take care of this?" Salvatore asked.

"Nah, me and Vincent are gonna enjoy takin' care of this one on our own. I'm gonna call a couple of the guys to help with the heavy liftin', though."

Tony and Vincent sat in the bar and waited for John William to finish his beer. As he stood to leave, the two mobsters followed. They saw him get into his van and follow Maggie back to her apartment. They watched as he scowled at Maggie and Joey as they got out of their car and rushed into their apartment. When John William drove off fifteen minutes later, Tony and Vincent followed him.

Tony and Vincent already knew where John William lived. They had followed him home from the Melrose. But today, they trailed him to be sure he didn't go somewhere other than his home.

John William parked in front of a row home on Erie Avenue in Philadelphia. The two men sat and watched as John William heaved his lanky body up the broken cement steps to his equally broken-down home.

The front porch was littered with broken chairs and large, warped, cardboard boxes filled with old car parts and rusty appliances.

"Let's give him ten minutes, then we'll move," Vincent said.

Tony looked in his rearview mirror at the men who came to help them. The men watched the house as dim lights illuminated the first floor and then the second floor.

"That must be the dipshit's bedroom," Vincent commented, pointing to the second floor.

Tony nodded. "It's time to move."

Tony, Vincent, and two of their meanest soldiers crossed the street. The front door was easy for one of the soldiers to unlock. Inside the house, there were pictures of naked children strewn across the ripped, busted-up sofa. It wasn't lost on Tony or Vincent that the pictures of the innocent young children were actual photographs.

"Sick fuck," Vincent whispered.

The four men quietly made their way up to the second floor and to the room at the front of the house. All of the lights were off by now, and the creeper lay sleeping in bed. The men followed the sound of snoring in the dark.

They moved swiftly to the four corners of the bed. Once they were all in position, Tony bent over John William and grasped him around the throat. John William drew in a quick breath as his eyes snapped open.

"What do you want?" John William managed.

"We wanna talk about a girl named Maggie and a little boy, who just died of AIDS, mind you, named Seth. You remember 'em, don't cha?" Vincent said.

John William began to struggle. But the four men had him pinned to the bed.

"Yeah, we thought you'd remember 'em, since ya was at the bowling alley today watchin' Maggie," Tony remarked.

"So ya see, we understand ya took them when they was just little. Ya remember doin' that, right?" Vincent said.

John William remained still. He began breathing deeply through his nostrils, and then he broke into grotesque laughter. Without knowing who Tony and Vincent were or that they were high on the Philadelphia mafia food chain, his thoughts gravitated to the creatures he worked for and their ability to get even. John William smoldered with defiance, and his eyes narrowed with evil amusement.

"You don't know who you're fucking with," John William stated.

The lines around Tony's mouth tightened. Then he lifted his chin slowly and took a long, exaggerated breath in through his nose.

"See, now, you probably shouldn't have said that," Tony said, "'cause now you're just instigatin' us to make things even more painful for ya." Tony rubbed his chin with his free hand. "Although, I ain't so sure that what you have comin' to ya could be any more painful."

Tony looked to Vincent and the other two mobsters, who all returned his contagious smile. John William struggled against the men who held him to the bed, and in an instant, Vincent snapped a cuff around John William's wrist, pushed him up on his side, yanked his other arm behind his back, and cuffed the other wrist. John William kicked at the men until Tony pulled a jagged twelve-inch blade from the holster at the back of his belt and jammed it into John William's thigh.

"You stop kickin', or I'll cut your fuckin' legs off," Tony threatened.

Finally, John William realized that he was in deep shit. Fear replaced the arrogance on his face. His wide eyes and the downward turn of his sloppy lips were telltale signs that he was scared. The four men quickly moved John William from the house into Tony and Vincent's car.

"Try not to leave any pig scum on my seats," Tony remarked to John William.

"Fuck you!" John William yelled.

With the car still in park, Vincent leaned over the backseat and clobbered John William in the face with a nose-splattering punch.

"Keep your fuckin' mouth shut," Vincent warned.

"You didn't get any of that Chester-the-molester blood on my seat, did you, Vin?" Tony mocked.

"Nah, but I got some on my hand," Vincent responded. He pulled a towel from under the front seat and wiped off his fist.