“Grace?” The woman’s voice was melodic, low and soothing when she said her name. “We’re not here to hurt you.”

Grace nearly hit her head on the dash when she jerked up from her search for the keys. And once the woman’s words registered, she snorted loudly, hoping she could be heard at that distance.

Tony looked at her and lifted his eyebrows, a question in his expression. “That’s Anna, the one I hit with the lamp,” she hissed, her face aching from grinding her teeth so hard. Every scathing remark in her head begged to be released, but she refrained. No need to goad murderers.

“Hi, Anna,” Tony called, grimly smiling at Grace when her mouth fell open and indicating for her to continue her search. “Grace told me about you.”

“We know nothing about you, American,” Anna replied smartly.

“Of course not,” he mocked as he lifted his body to peek through the car windows. “And you won’t have a lesson today.”

Anna grinned maliciously, murmuring to her men in Spanish. She returned her gaze to the car where they hid. “The lesson will be yours if you don’t leave the woman behind.”

Grace glanced at Tony, her hand under the driver’s seat. He shook his head at her, his expression daunting even to her. His eyes were like ice, freezing her in his deadly gaze. “Can’t leave her. Getting lots of money to take her back to the U.S.”

She chafed a little at that, but rationally, he had no other reason to be in Mexico rescuing a reporter from New York. Charles was probably paying nearly as much as the ransom, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about it.

“My boss would be more than willing to compensate you,” Anna promised lazily, as if picking up on Grace’s wavelength.

“You’re a fucking idiot.”

Grace lifted her head to look at Anna, who she could tell was seething, even from that distance. “You pissed her off.”

“Good.” His negligent attitude over offending the woman both assuaged her fears and added to them.

Anna’s voice, which had attempted friendliness, was hard when she replied to his insults. “Leave now, asshole, and we’ll forget you were here. Senor de Velazquez doesn’t need to know about you.”

Tony laughed mirthlessly, loudly so she and her men could hear. “Pretty sure de Velazquez already knows Grace didn’t escape alone. If he sent you to get her, he won’t be happy if you don’t bring me with her.”

“So you surrender?” Anna jeered.

“Only cowards who send women to battle for him surrender,” he provoked, his face serious despite the jabs. Grace stared at him, amazed by his daring remarks. If all four of them opened fire, she and her rescuer would probably be killed or wounded. He saw the look on her face and whispered, “They aren’t going to kill us. de Velazquez wants us alive, or they already would have.”

“That’s comforting,” she murmured, her scowl of fear holding tears in her eyes. She blinked rapidly, and when he stretched his neck to look through the window, she did the same. Three men were with Anna, one of them the rat man who had waterboarded her. Glowering, she turned to Tony. “The skinny man with the rat face is one of the men who waterboarded me,” she told him angrily.

“Yeah, I recognized him from the video,” Tony revealed, shocking her.

“You saw it?” she whispered hotly as embarrassment filled her, causing her face to pinken.

“Not the time, Grace,” he rebuked her, a look of irritation on his face.

Because he was right, she dropped it, though her stomach clenched painfully. She felt violated by the idea of people watching that video and wondered how many had seen it. It made sense Tony had seen it, but the feeling of personal violation remained. When Anna spoke in Spanish, she discarded her thoughts because if they didn’t escape, the violation of her person would be much more physical.

“What did she say?”

“Not to kill us, but to shoot us if necessary,” Tony told her calmly, as if she’d said they needed to have lunch on Wednesday.

“Oh shit,” Grace said, lifting her head to look again. She began searching frantically for the keys under the seat, running her hand in every direction. Her fingers brushed over something other than carpet and the metal of the seat track, and she snatched the keys out from under the seat, jiggling them so Tony heard and saw them.

He nodded sternly. “Get in but stay low. Put the keys in the ignition, but do not start the car until I tell you to.”

She slipped into the car and put the keys in the ignition. She lay awkwardly with her ass hanging out the door in Tony’s face. She looked backwards, barely able to see him, and asked, “What are you going to do?”

She caught him looking at her ass when he glanced her way before his eyes roved up to meet hers. “I have no idea, but if we get caught now, we’ll die worse deaths than you’ve ever seen.”

Grace agreed with him and hunkered down, wishing he would mince words a little so she didn’t freak out. She waited for him to give her the order to turn the car on and drive away. He left the driver’s door, swinging it mostly closed before opening the back door. She could no longer see him, so she angled her body so she could look between the two front seats. His pistol was in his hand, and he was digging in his bag. He pulled out a second pistol, which he lay on the seat next to him.

“Be ready,” he told her without looking at her. His eyes were trained on the four people near the jeep.

She nodded and shifted her hand on the keys, ready to turn them at a moment’s notice. Thinking her biggest fear should be the four people on the other side of the jeep with guns pointed in their direction, what she feared more was the car not starting on command. With a quick, silent plea to the gods of the universe, she closed her eyes and waited.

“Grace, I really don’t want to take you back with a gunshot wound,” Anna called, her voice friendly again. “But Senor de Velazquez didn’t say unharmed. Just not dead.”

“Shooting me would ruin his fun, and you know it,” Grace replied after a nod from Tony. “We both know what he wants me for. I won’t let that happen.”

“Oh, Grace, you’re so naïve,” Anna said with a laugh. “You have no choice. He’ll have you, and he’ll do what he wants with you. I’m sure you’ve heard the stories.”

Grace wished she knew if Anna had been close to Esmerelda. She wanted to say something that would shake her, so she attempted with, “Where’s your partner?”

“Dead. Because of you,” she taunted, her voice more mocking than pained. “How does that feel? To know you caused a woman’s death?”

Grace shuddered at the backfired gibe and looked at Tony for reassurance. He whispered, “Don’t let her get to you. De Velazquez killed her, not you.”

She nodded but didn’t speak. Her mind raced with guilt, but it couldn’t be helped at this moment. With a viciousness she hoped she could sustain, she yelled, her voice dripping with sarcasm, “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“Grace, Grace,” Anna chided, tsking loudly against her teeth. “Your sarcasm isn’t helping this situation. Leave your friend at the car and come over here. We’ll just take you. He can run off into the jungle.”

“Fuck you, Anna,” she yelled. “And tell your boss he can fuck off too!”

The rat man yelled in Spanish, and Grace cringed with recognition. She moved so she could see Tony, who had repositioned himself across the seat. He peered through the window, assessing their positions, she assumed, and she wanted to know what his plan was. Instead, she asked, “What did he say?”

“You don’t want to know,” Tony growled.

“Tell me.”

“He’s saving money so your pretty pink pussy can be his,” he repeated furiously.

The green beans she’d eaten wanted to leave her stomach, but she swallowed hard. She shook her head and said, “If they take me back, Tomas will have me. He won’t sell me.” The terror in her voice couldn’t be hidden, and tears tried to flood her eyes again. She blinked, fighting them.

Tony watched her gather her strength and rid herself of the tears, and she was certain she saw real respect in his eyes. “I won’t let that happen, Grace. I’ll kill you myself before I let them take you.”

Her face slackened at his words, but she gritted her teeth and nodded, her nostrils flaring. “I’d rather you kill me.”

The rat man yelled in Spanish again, something far worse if the look of loathing on Tony’s face was any indication. She didn’t ask what the bastard said as she watched Tony lift his gun and aim carefully, warning, “This will be loud.”

Grace, afraid to release the keys in case he wanted to go, covered one ear with her free hand and pressed the other into the seat. The shot reverberated through the car, jarring her bones and hurting her ears despite the fact that she’d covered them. She jerked her head up and looked towards their pursuers. The rat man was gone, and the other three stared at the ground then ducked behind the jeep.

“Direct hit,” Tony murmured. He jerked his head around to look at her briefly before returning his eyes to the jeep. “I’m going to shoot another one. When I do, you start this car and drive through the field behind the house. Don’t stop, don’t slow down. Just drive through any fences and around any obstacles.”

“Okay, okay, okay,” she mumbled, her voice high-pitched due to the fear of this cold-blooded killer in the back seat blocking her words. He’d killed for a damn good reason, but he’d done it so easily.

“Ready?” he asked, gazing at her again.

Her eyes hadn’t left him, and she was certain he could see her fear. He didn’t placate her or try to ease it with pretty words. He expected her to accept this death and the next one because they were necessary for their survival. She swallowed her fear and nodded her head rapidly, shifting in the seat again so she would be able to drive as soon as he told her to. She sent another prayer to the gods, whichever ones would listen, that the car would start instantly.

“I’m ready.”

Before Tony could fire a shot, the three remaining cartel members began firing rapidly at the car. Grace let out a scream and ducked as far down in the seat as she could. Her legs were jammed under the dashboard, her body twisted uncomfortably. The windows of the car exploded, and Grace covered her face with her free hand, her other still on the keys in the ignition. The shooting stopped as suddenly as it began, but she was too afraid to look behind her to see if Tony was all right.

“You okay?” he asked, and she let out a pent-up breath.

“Yes.” She was panting, so close to a panic attack she worried she wouldn’t be able to drive. Three calming breaths, and she didn’t feel much better. Her mind cleared when Tony spoke again.

“They’re trying to scare us into giving up,” Tony told her. “Not one bullet hit the doors, which means they aren’t trying to shoot us.”

“But they’re shooting the windows?” she screeched quietly, looking at the doors, which were unharmed, confirming his theory.

“They know we’ll duck.”

“What if we didn’t?”

He looked at her as if she were dense. “I’m assuming if they kill us, they die.”

“Grace? You alive?” Anna called.

“Don’t answer,” Tony said quickly. She couldn’t see him, so her nodding was useless, but she did it automatically. “Ready to drive? This is going to happen fast.”

Grace closed her eyes for one second and inhaled deeply. On the exhale, she said, “I’m ready.”

She heard him inhale and exhale, then grunt as he jumped up and fired a single shot. From the jeep, she heard a yell of pain before Tony yelled, “Now! Grace, now!”

Grace twisted her body into the seat without exposing her head to the shooters, turning the keys in the ignition at the same time. The car started immediately, and she screamed with triumph as she threw the gear into drive and hit the gas pedal. The vehicle jolted forward with a scream of the engine, and they bounced through a small wooden fence and into the field behind the house. She didn’t look in the rearview mirror as she drove, but she heard the back window explode as Tony fired shot after shot at the jeep, hopefully holding their pursuers in place long enough for them to get far away.

When the gunshots ceased, Tony yelled, “Grace, turn around! Make a big circle around the house and drive close to their car.”

She jerked the wheel to the right, executing a nearly perfect one-eighty, never letting up on the gas. The car shuddered in reaction but continued forward at a rapid speed. Gunshots were fired from the jeep, but Tony began shooting at them again. Grace wondered when he’d reloaded, an insignificant thought as long as he had enough bullets to keep their pursuers at bay.

When she rounded the house and approached their car, Grace chanced a glance towards the shooters just as Tony shot one of them in the face. Jerking her eyes forward again, she fought the panic as it tried to defeat her. She repeated “no, no, no,” without stopping as they passed the car. Tony fired several more times, but at what she didn’t know. She wouldn’t look again.

Finally, the only sound was the car’s engine and the tires on the gravel. Grace’s main concern was putting as much distance between them and de Velazquez’s people. She didn’t slow down until Tony climbed awkwardly into the front seat and told her to.

“We’ll crash on this gravel road, and we don’t have time for that,” he warned as he settled next to her in the passenger seat.

She felt his eyes on her, but she wouldn’t look at him. Her panic would win if he asked her a question or tried to speak soothingly to her. When he inhaled to speak, she held up her hand, palm facing him. “Don’t talk right now. I have to calm down.”

“All right,” he agreed, shifting so he looked forward again.

They rode in silence for several minutes before she spoke again. “Are we going the right way?”

“Yes. We’ll drive another fifteen miles and turn.” He waited a moment before asking, “Are you all right?”

Grace scoffed, a derisive laugh escaping her mouth. “One thing’s for sure,” she commented drily as a single tear slipped down her cheek. “When this is all over, I’m gonna need some serious therapy.”

* * *

Anna screamed curses after running to the car with the one man she still had with her. The other two lay bleeding on the ground, shot and killed by the fucking American who had rescued that puta. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

The car had been shot several times. One tire was blown, and she’d bet money, since the rest of the bullet holes were in the side of the car, the engine was also ruined. The jeep was their only transportation now, and the keys were probably with Grace and the mystery man.

“What the fuck,” she mused, her anger dissipating as she thought about who this man might be. He had to be ex-military or law enforcement or something of the sort. A bounty hunter, maybe, but she discarded that idea quickly. Bounty hunters didn’t rescue damsels in distress; they arrested bad guys and extradited them to their country of origin. So who was this man?

“What now?” Carlos asked as he leaned carelessly against the car, watching her with interest.

“Hot wire that fucking jeep and find them,” Anna answered, turning abruptly to walk back to the jeep.

“I think our time would be better spent returning to the compound to get more men,” Carlos commented off-handedly.

Anna jerked around to stare at him lolling lazily on the damaged car. “I’m dead if I go back without that woman.”

Carlos pushed himself off the car, his calm demeanor infuriating her. “Price you pay for making a mistake.”

“Fuck you,” Anna answered. “Senor de Velazquez put me in charge. Do as I say,” she ordered imperiously, turning her back on him to continue to the jeep.

“Anna.”

His quiet voice was barely audible over the crunching of her boots on the gravel, but she halted and turned to look at him, ready with a quick retort. His gun was aimed at her heart, and before she could react and draw her own, he fired. The searing pain was like nothing she’d ever felt in her life, and when she hit the ground, her breath and blood whooshed out of her body. She stared up into the bright blue sky, her eyes shifting to look into Carlos’ as he stepped closer to her.

“Sorry, Anna. Boss’s orders.” He shrugged and walked towards the jeep, leaving her to die in the middle of nowhere.