By the time we were passing through downtown Phoenix, there were no tears left in me to weep.

We made a quick stop so that I could have my first pee of the trip. Hunter tried his best to keep me together. I did whatever I could to maintain a brave face for him, even as I stared in the mirror for the second time that day. Before, I’d looked just plain tired; now, salty drops stung at my eyes and poured down my cheeks.

I had underestimated my father’s hate.

I was so utterly, stupidly naïve.

In the instant that he pulled a shotgun on Hunter, I realized how much of a threat that Dad really was to us. He wasn’t just my loving but stern father… he was a menace.

He’d always been a goddamn menace.

How could I be so optimistic?

So goddamn blind?

Now, because of my own selfish needs, I’d put Hunter in danger. Foolishly, I had allowed them to keep me from accepting what my man – my handsome, dark protector – had been trying to tell me from the very beginning…

This was never going to work.

My life would just have to continue without my father in it. What crushed my heart the most was that my darling little Connor would never meet his own grandfather.

But I’d made my choice.

Dad made his.

That was the cold reality I faced now.

Pulling myself together, I wiped my face dry and wandered out from the gas station bathroom. There, standing at the counter and paying for a few quick snacks, was the only man from my past that I needed.

I caught his gaze as he turned. A sympathetic smile crossed his handsome face as he closed the gap between us and pulled me close.

“Let’s get out of here, baby,” he whispered lovingly into my ear. “It’s gonna be three hours before we hit the Texas border. Maybe a little longer.”

Sadly, I nodded into his shoulder.

Hunter led me out the door to his motorcycle. We quickly scarfed down the chips, just to have something in our stomachs for the ride. He helped me onto the back of his metal chariot, and we pulled away.

But we didn’t get far.

Over the last few miles, as we tried to get out of Phoenix, I had noticed a small noise from his motorcycle that I didn’t recognize.

We only got another two miles further before it got worse, turning into a loud, grinding noise.

“What’s that?” I gasped.

“Goddammit,” Hunter grunted. “In all that excitement, I forgot about that stupid noise from the other day…”

He pulled us over in a parking lot, and helped me off the back. I stood over him as he got down on his knees and opened his toolbox, poking around the engine and studying his prized bike.

“Scarlett, don’t do this shit to me right now…”

It was late in the afternoon, and the hot sun above was sweltering down on me. I’d had a damned bad day, and it was getting worse by the second.

“I need to sit down,” I grumbled.

Hunter turned his attention away from his work, glancing around. “Looks like there’s a McDonald’s a few buildings down,” he noticed. He dug around in his back pocket for the wallet, pulling out a bill. “Here, head over there and get yourself out of the sun. If you want, grab yourself something to eat and drink. Wait in the air conditioning for me…”

“How long are you going to be here?”

He wiped his brow with his wrist.

“However long it takes, baby.”

I knew better than to bother him further, so I stroked his hair and kissed him before waddling over across the abandoned parking lot. Between the lot with his stalled bike and the McDonald’s was a convenience store, so I took myself a quick breather in their cool, soothing A/C.

After a few minutes, I finished the short trek a sweaty, exhausted beast. My hair matted around my face, and I was afraid of my deodorant’s limits.

I hate the desert.

“Dearie me!” A kind old soul muttered as she held the side door open for me. “A woman in your condition can’t be all running around in the heat like this! And you’ve been crying?”

If this level of discomfort concerned her, then I definitely didn’t have the heart to tell her about that one time, much earlier in my pregnancy, when I’d almost asphyxiated in the back of a lost shipping container… while being held hostage by a lunatic out to blow up a ton of innocent people.

Then there were all those times I’d been shot at, whether on the police force or while butting my way back into Hunter’s hard-and-fast life.

I’d had some fun times.

When this kid finally popped out, after all the crazy adventures we’d already been on together, I halfway expected him to have superpowers.

“Thank you,” I wheezed as the little old lady helped me inside and shooed away the people in the nearest booth. “I’ll be fine, I just… could you get me a little water, please?”

“Certainly, dear!” The kind old woman smiled pitifully at me.

I wasn’t too proud to accept pity.

By the time that the nice little stranger came scampering back, my lungs had stopped behaving like they were a nuclear reactor in the middle of a meltdown crisis. I happily took the small, clear cup of water and downed the thing in an instant.

“What on earth were you doing out there?” She asked, probably about as politely as she could.

I laughed mirthlessly.

“Having the shittiest day ever.”

Her little chest rose in slight indignation.

“Oh… sorry,” I pressed my hand to my head. “My fiancé and I, we came up to meet my Dad to visit. Wanted him to meet the father of my child. It didn’t go so well, and now we’ve got a broken motorcycle out there…”

The elderly woman teetered around the booth and held her hand over her eyes, gazing across the parking lots.

“…Oh! Yes, I think I see him.”

“Hunter and I have a long drive,” I muttered. “We were trying to get out of Phoenix, but with it being the weekend and everything…”

“How far away are you going?”

“El Paso.”

“My word! That’s in Texas!”

I smiled for the first time in a while. I guessed that she wasn’t used to long bike rides…

“We have friends out there who help us keep up our place,” I told her selectively. “In about a month, we’re moving east, down to New Orleans. But before I left the desert, I wanted to try and reconcile with my dad…”

The tears started to well up again.

“Oh, sweetie…” the kindly old woman shook her head in sympathy. “I’m so sorry that it didn’t work out with your father.”

A door swung open nearby, and I glanced up. An elderly man hobbled over towards us, looking from me to my good samaritan.

“Elaine…?” He muttered.

“Oh, what happened to my manners?” She held a hand to her chest, laughing in hearty good nature towards me. “I’m so rude, darling. I forgot to introduce myself! My name’s Elaine.”

I took her hand politely. “Sarah.”

“Elaine?” Her husband asked again, taking his spot by her side. “Did you make a friend?”

“I think I most certainly did!” Elaine chuckled, keeping her eyes on me. “This is my bonehead of a husband, Russell. Russell, meet Sarah.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” I smiled, shaking his hand as he courteously offered it as well.

Elaine placed her delicate little hand on her husband’s shoulder. “Russell, this is the friendly young woman who’s going to stay with us while she and her fiancé figure out their bike troubles.”

In unison, Russell and I blurted out:

“…What?”

* * *

Elaine wouldn’t take no for an answer, and I was at an honest loss for what else to do.

The next thirty minutes were spent having a late lunch together, where the gentile couple told me all about how they’d met in high school sixty years ago, and some of the adventures they’d been on together since.

Well, Elaine did most of the talking.

Russell mostly listened and nodded.

They sounded like such a wonderful couple. I hoped, quietly, that Hunter and I could be half as loving and caring as they had been to each other.

And still are… I corrected myself as I watched how Elaine placed her tiny hand on his.

“I deeply appreciate the offer, but you two don’t have to do this,” I glanced up at them while they smiled tenderly at each other. “Hunter and I can get a motel room and have the bike towed…”

“Oh, those young men around here with the tow-trucks are so cutthroat,” Elaine kindly shook her head. “I won’t have it. You two will stay with us for a few days, and that’s all that there is to it.”

I smiled warmly.

“You’re too kind. Both of you,” I looked over at Russell. He hadn’t needed that much convincing. His wife was the assertive, decisive one out of the two of them, and he trusted her judgment.

If I can just get Hunter to be like that…

Actually, that was a terrible idea.

Considering some of the binds he’d had to rip me out of, both as a kid and a grown ass woman… I was confident that I could take care of myself, but it certainly helped to have one of the most fearless, powerful men in four states at my side.

Then we’ll just have to grow to trust each other, I thought to myself.

The kind old couple simply smiled.

“It’s our pleasure,” Elaine replied. “And it’s no trouble at all to help a young woman like you. Now, let’s grab that man of yours and get going.”

Russell scooted out and tried to help me up, but I was determined that I would pry myself out of that damn booth.

And I succeeded.

Go, me!

After we tossed our trash and left our trays, the couple led me over to their Grand Marquis in the parking lot – a long, ancient looking, sky blue tank of a beast.

Russell helped me into the backseat while Elaine climbed in up front, on the passenger side. Once he was behind the wheel, he switched the car on and fiddled with the dials.

Elaine slapped at his hand.

“Don’t sit here and play with your stations!”

“But… my oldies!”

“Fine,” she tsk-tsked. “Drive. I’ll do it.”

I pointed out where Hunter was. Luckily, the parking lots were all connected, so Russell could drive us straight over to where my furious fiancé looked like he was about to blow a gasket.

As our driver parked the car near him, I couldn’t have possibly guessed what would happen next...

The tired, frustrated biker didn’t seem to notice the vehicle, even when Elaine popped the door and slowly climbed out with her purse. She steadily hobbled over towards him. He stayed bent down near the motorcycle, clearly cursing under his breath…

…And she whacked him with her purse.

Hunter recoiled and glanced up at the little old lady. He looked incredulous.

She whacked him again.

“Your woman is pregnant, and you send her all the way to that McDonald’s under this sun?” She went to whack him again, but he dodged this time, falling onto his back. “You should be ashamed of yourself!”

“Who the hell are you?” He was incredulous. “What the hell’s going on?”

He held his arms up as she went to whack him again. “Language! You awful young men and your dirty, dirty language! Don’t you talk to an old lady like that!”

“Alright! I’m sorry!”

I couldn’t tell which was the funnier sight of today: seeing the indomitable biker president in a frilly pink dress, or watching a frail old woman beat his ass with her purse.

I rolled down the window and leaned out.

“Get in the car!” I laughed.

He glanced over at me. “…Sarah?”

Russell gave the horn two quick beeps with his palm. “C’mon, sonny! We’re losing daylight!”

Elaine lifted her nose up and wandered back to the passenger’s side. The little old lady looked completely proud of herself as she climbed back into the car.

I was in disbelief.

Oh man… I grinned like a fool. If the Devil’s Dragons EVER heard about THIS one…

Hunter had picked himself up off the ground. With the deepest look of confusion I’d ever seen on his face, he wandered to the driver’s side as Russell lowered his window.

“I can’t leave this thing alone out here.”

Elaine reached into her purse and scribbled down something on a notepad, then ripped the page out and handed it to her husband, who in turn gave it to him.

“Here’s our address,” she told him sternly. “We don’t live more than a few blocks away. Have it moved there and hurry on over.”

He looked at her oddly.

Then he glanced through the window at me.

I shrugged.

“Alright,” he shook in head. “I’ll make a call.”

“Good boy,” she noted, and Russell started the engine back up. Within a few seconds, we were pulling away from the lot.

“That was amazing,” I chuckled.

Elaine glanced back smugly.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in over fifty years of marriage, it’s this: a good man needs a feisty woman in his life,” she explained. “Keeps them on their toes. Sometimes you’ve just gotta show your man who’s boss.”