Tony and Grace reached the small town around noon, hot, hungry, and thirsty. The town boasted a well, where they lifted a communal bucket and drank. The place was suspiciously empty, and Grace was apprehensive as she downed what felt like a gallon of water before Tony drank his fill. She stared around the empty street, for there was only one, watching for any movement.

“Where is everybody?” she asked in a whisper, afraid to raise her voice or attract attention.

“Not sure,” he answered, glancing in every direction. “I’m hoping that car over there works.”

Grace swiveled her head and looked in the direction he indicated. An indistinctive brown car sat near a dilapidated building that didn’t seem to serve much of a purpose. A couple of mongrel dogs lounged on what used to be the porch, but neither of them so much as lifted their heads when Tony walked to the vehicle. With careful steps, he passed them, Grace directly behind him so she could jump in the car should it work. No keys were in the ignition or anywhere in the car, so Tony jerked the panel under the steering wheel open and began attempting to hotwire the car.

“You know how to hotwire a car?” she asked, awed.

He glanced over his shoulder, smirking. “In my profession, you pick up certain skills that help you get by.”

“Stealing cars is a skill you need for your job?” she asked with sarcastic skepticism.

“Sometimes,” he mumbled as he popped two wires together. Nothing happened, and he cursed before continuing their conversation and his attempt. “I only know how to do it with older cars. The newer ones are computerized.”

“Ah,” she replied doubtfully as his next attempt was also unsuccessful. She looked around, acting as the lookout for what she was sure would get them in a lot of trouble if someone should see them. Possibly even get them killed, considering they were in Mexico. Eerily, though, not one person had stepped out of or around a building, and she heard no sounds that might indicate a person’s presence. The only living things in the village were the apathetic dogs who hadn’t moved.

When the car started with a roar, Grace ducked as if she’d been shot at. Tony laughed at her, and she slapped his bicep playfully, her fingers tingling from the impact. “Shut up, ass.”

“Let’s get going,” he said, and she hurried around the car and hopped in the passenger seat. “We’ve been lucky so far, but somebody has to be around.”

Grace watched every building as they passed quickly through the town. “I still don’t see anybody. It’s weird.”

“Yes, it is.”

A man of few words, she thought with a roll of her eyes. She looked over her shoulder out the back window as they left the town behind them. “Nobody’s following us.”

“Good.” He kept checking the mirror despite her assurance. He saw her watching him and smiled. “Old habit. I have to check for myself.”

“I understand that,” she said, adjusting her position to remove the gun from the waistband of her pants as they put the village behind them. “This is terribly uncomfortable.”

“Better with a holster,” he informed her as he pushed the gas pedal harder.

“I’m sure.”

They lapsed into silence, and with nothing else to do, Grace enjoyed a little replay of their fucking while she stared at the empty landscape around them. As her thoughts continued to arouse her, she squirmed in her seat because her pussy had become wet and warm. She glanced over her shoulder to the back seat and wondered if it was big enough for a fun few minutes, but she chastised herself for thinking like a horny teenager. And as that thought left her brain, another comparison to a stupid teenager came to mind.

He hadn’t worn a condom either time they’d had sex. Her birth control was with her luggage in the hotel in Matamoros, meaning she hadn’t taken it since she’d been kidnapped nearly five days ago. Oh shit, oh shit, she rambled internally, her eyes sliding to him. Before he noticed her freak out, she forced herself to breathe quietly and dropped her hand. Her anger at her own stupidity was mounting, though. She reminded herself that her sister had been off birth control for nearly six months before she got pregnant. Certainly, certainly, she wasn’t more fertile than her sister.

But twice in a twenty-four-hour period, both with full coming inside her body…she’d put herself in a position to get pregnant with a relative stranger because of an adrenaline surge that caused horniness. Furiously, she glared out the window, willing herself to think rationally. If she ended up pregnant, she wouldn’t know for sure until she was home in the States. She couldn’t get a pregnancy test in the middle of nowhere Mexico, though her period should start in the next two or three days.

Absolutely nothing you can do about it right now, she thought, and no need to tell Tony. Best to just let it go for now.

Looking sideways again at Tony, she wondered what he would do should the thought of their carelessness occur to him. He didn’t live a life —or so it seemed— conducive to parenthood. And she didn’t either. She wasn’t even sure she was willing to give up her job as a world-traveling photographer at this point in her life to have a baby. He’d mentioned retiring from his job, but that didn’t mean he wanted to take care of a child while the mother gallivanted across the world.

With a sigh, she sent a silent prayer to the gods that her body wasn’t reproducing as they drove through the barren countryside of Mexico, running from the cartel. Nausea crept into her stomach, and she felt like vomiting. She’d thought this situation couldn’t possibly get worse, but throw a pregnancy into the mix, and the game certainly changed. If she was pregnant, she would fight to live so her baby would. Her life became insignificant, which meant regardless of whether she was sure or not, she had to survive this.

“You okay?” Tony asked suddenly, ending the silence abruptly and jarring her into the present.

“What? Yeah, fine,” she answered quickly, her tone harder than intended. She cleared her throat and said, “Mind if I take a nap? I’m exhausted.”

“Not at all. We’ll be on the road for at least an hour,” he commented, tossing a smile in her direction. “Hopefully we’ll be able to find some food.”

“Yeah, that’d be good,” she murmured, turning so she faced the passenger window. She met her eyes in the reflection and felt like crying. She reevaluated her previous thought. She could one hundred percent stop traveling to dangerous places, whether she was pregnant or not. She didn’t want to have to survive another ordeal.

Her eyes wouldn’t close; sleep eluded her, but she pretended to be asleep so she wouldn’t have to face the reality that she had made multiple mistakes that had put her in this position. She’d do whatever Tony told her to get out of this, but the thought of pregnancy weighed on her.

“This place we’re going, does it have a store?”

“A store?” Tony repeated, looking at her strangely. “Why?”

Grace thought quickly and responded in the best way to make a man stop prying. “I’m probably going to need some tampons…”

“Oh.” Tony looked straight ahead, not looking at her as if he might be embarrassed. She rolled her eyes again as he said, “I bet in Santa Poco there will be something. I was planning to send the message to the pilot and go straight to the airstrip, but we can stop at a store.”

“We need food anyway,” she reminded him, and he nodded. They fell into another silence. She was grateful.

If Santa Poco had a store, they might have pregnancy tests available. If she knew for sure, one way or the other, she could move forward. This is dumb, she griped. It’s not really important if you know right this second if you’re pregnant. But she had to know, and know she would, hopefully that afternoon, assuming a store in small town Mexico would have the quick response kind of test.

* * *

By the time they reached Santa Poco, around three in the afternoon, Grace had somewhat made peace with the idea of being pregnant. She was thirty-two, and she’d given herself until the age of thirty-seven to have a baby or go without. This wasn’t the ideal situation, but she’d figure it out, always had. Her life motto was “I’ll figure it out.”

Santa Poco was more like a small city, with a downtown area, hotels, stores, and lots of businesses, restaurants, and homes. Grace was so grateful to see some type of civilization she nearly sobbed.

Tony drove as if he knew his way around, and Grace asked, “Have you been here before?”

“No.”

“How do you know where to go?”

“Knew we’d end up here, so I memorized the map,” Tony said, turning into the parking lot across the street from a library.

“Do you have a photographic memory?” she asked, astonished. More than once, he’d mentioned he’d memorized something.

“It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty close.”

“Amazing,” she murmured and glanced at the windshield as he turned the car off. “Why are we at a library?”

“Safest place to send a message to the pilot.” He alighted from the car and grabbed his backpack to carry with him. He glanced her way and said, “Tuck the pistol into the back of your pants at the small of your back. Less obvious there.”

Grace nodded and felt like she was the bad ass star in a bad ass movie. She made sure her oversized shirt covered the gun, then wiped her front to rid herself of some of the dirt. “We look awful,” she criticized.

“Probably don’t smell too good, either,” Tony commented. She scowled at him, and he shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll send the message, and we’ll see if we can find a motel that rents by the hour.”

“Food,” Grace reminded him as they hurried across the street.

“Yes.” He reached for and clasped her hand in his as they entered the library, a gesture that surprised her.

The man at the counter in the library looked them up and down, a small look of distaste on his face before he evened his expression. “Americans?”

“Yes,” Tony asked, his voice pitched higher and less threatening. He glanced at a nameplate on the desk. “Senor Garcia, I’m so glad you speak English.”

“I’m also American but returned to my family’s roots to open this library,” the man said proudly.

“That’s amazing,” Tony said, and his voice sounded like he meant it rather than didn’t care, as Grace suspected.

She stared at him. This was a different person holding her hand and speaking to the librarian. Amazed by his acting ability, she made sure she smiled with an exhausted expression as the librarian’s eyes flitted to her.

“Had a rough time?”

“We are college professors doing research and got separated from our group,” Tony lied easily. “A farmer or rancher or someone gave us a ride here, but we don’t know where here is. We have no money, nothing. Can I use your internet to send a message to a friend?”

“How terrible,” the man replied, pressing his lips together in sympathy. “You can use that computer over there. Would you like some water?”

“Oh please!” Grace said, her voice intentionally raspy. “We ran out of water earlier today.”

“Send your message and I’ll be right back,” he offered, sliding a card to Tony. “This is the password to use the internet. Usually, there’s a fee, but I’ll waive it.”

“Thank you so much,” she gushed, relieved to be getting something to drink.

She followed Tony to the carrel where the computer was housed. The thing was probably older than the car they’d stolen, and the internet was dial-up. She hauled a chair over from the closest table and sat down next to him, snickering as he tapped his thigh impatiently, waiting for the thing to boot up so he could send his email.

“Shut up,” he growled, and she giggled again.

“Yes, Mr. Impatient,” she teased. “How quickly will you hear back from your friend?”

“Should be immediately,” he told her as the computer screen flashed to the internet and he began typing. “He was expecting my message yesterday, or even the day before, so he’s probably watching his phone for this email.”

“What if he doesn’t?”

“We’re screwed,” he said without hesitation. Grace swallowed hard and blinked at his harsh pronouncement, and as if he knew he’d been too rough, he placated, “He’ll answer, Grace. He always has.”

“Okay.”

The librarian returned with their water, and Tony paused to gulp half of it while he waited for the computer to catch up. He looked at him, thanked him, and asked, “May we wait here for an answer? It shouldn’t take long.”

“Of course. As you can see, we aren’t being run over by customers,” the man joked with a little smile. Grace felt sorry for him as he slouched away, his dream heavy on his shoulders.

“Poor guy.”

Tony didn’t answer as he typed the email and pressed send. He sat back in the chair to wait for the reply. With a glance her way, he said, “I saw a store down the block. We can run down there and get whatever you need.”

“Oh, good,” she replied, looking anywhere but at him. “We can grab some food there too.”

Tony chuckled and teased, “For a woman your size, you talk about food a lot.”

“Canned veggies only get you so far,” Grace said blandly. “Aren’t you hungry?”

“I am, but I’ve had to go much longer without,” Tony told her. “Another perk of the job.”

“I think your job sounds awful, but I’m glad you do it,” Grace told him, smiling at him when he looked at her.

“Me too,” Tony replied, his eyes on hers. A moment passed, and he reached over and cupped her cheek gently, leaning closer to kiss her lips softly. “I’m glad your boss is my pal.”

Stunned by the so unexpected display of affection, she didn’t respond vocally, just nodded her head and smiled. The computer dinged, interrupting them, and Grace was thankful. They looked together to read the message from his friend.

“Bud White? Is that his real name?” Grace asked after a snort of laughter.

Tony chuckled again. “He says it is.” He sobered quickly as he read. “Damn.”

Bud White couldn’t get them until the next day. Because he’d thought they would be ready earlier, he had scheduled a flight with another group this evening and couldn’t change it. He apologized and offered to send a different pilot, but Tony shook his head when Grace asked why not.

“I only trust Bud for this type of job,” he said. He responded to the email and told him they’d be at the airstrip at the time he’d listed, noon the next day, and signed off. “We’ll have to find somewhere to sleep.”

“Do we have money?”

“I always have money,” Tony said, looking at her like she was crazy. She smirked at him, enjoying his slightly silly side, and he told her, “Let’s go to the store and get what you need. We can ask about a place to stay there.”

“Okay.” Grace felt a shudder trying to overtake her body, but she didn’t let it. She didn’t want him to see and ask.

They thanked the librarian and walked a block down the street to the store, which was like a corner market in any American town. No one paid them much attention, though Grace felt as if everyone was staring at their disheveled appearance. Santa Poco was certainly not a tourist destination, but the town had the amenities one needed to get by, unlike a couple of the places they’d driven through.

“Not to get repetitive,” Grace announced as she pointed to a little restaurant nearby, “but that place has food.”

Tony laughed louder than she’d heard him do so before, and the sound rippled through her and cheered her. “After the store, I promise.”

“Thank you,” she sniffed. “I may buy a snack while we wait.”

“You do what you need to.”

Once in the store, they separated, and Grace realized that she would have to put the pregnancy test on the counter, since he was paying, if they had one that was early detection. She hurried to the woman’s aisle and found the tampons quickly. She grabbed the first box and scampered further down the aisle to look at the pregnancy tests. Several kinds sat on the shelf, but all of them said the same thing: to wait until after she’d missed her period. She stared up at the ceiling as she recalculated, thinking about how many pills she’d had left in the packet. Three, which meant her period should literally start the next day. She was as regular as the sun rising.

Dear God, I hope I need the tampons, she thought. She debated with herself about buying the test. If she was honest with herself, she really wanted to take it this evening, just to see. That would be stupid, she argued as she read the box again, which told her to wait a few more days. She decided she didn’t care. She’d take the test tonight and see what it said. Either way, she’d have to take another one when she returned to the US.

As she wandered to the counter to join Tony, her ploy to get the pregnancy test past him solidified in her mind. As the clerk began ringing up their purchases, she asked, “Do you have Diet Coke?”

“Si,” the woman answered, gesturing to Tony’s left and about ten steps away.

As she’d hoped, Tony said, “I’ll grab it.”

When he walked away, she set the test on the counter and put her finger to her lips, winking at the woman so she’d understand the secret. The woman smiled and rang it up, putting it quickly in the same bag as the tampons and handing it to her. Grace smiled a thank you as Tony returned with her Diet Coke. He paid and they left with a couple of bags. Grace immediately opened the bag of chips he’d bought and they dug in.

“Good Lord, these are the best potato chips I’ve ever had in my life,” Grace said around a mouthful.

The bag rattled as he stuck his hand in for another handful, stuffing them in his mouth and nodding his agreement. They ate as they walked to the café, polishing off the entire bag in the five-minute walk like two teenaged boys after football practice. Once inside, they ordered sandwiches, more chips, and drinks while the woman behind the counter eyed them suspiciously.

As they walked to a table outside, Grace commented, “We might want to do something about our clothes. We are starting to draw attention now.”

“Yeah, and that’s not a good thing,” he said, glancing around. “Hopefully we can find a place to stay and wash them out. I bought a small package of laundry soap.”

Grace giggled around her bite of sandwich. “We do it old school in the tub.”

Tony nodded, his eyes watchful. His stance, the tension in his body, hadn’t changed while they’d been in Santa Poco, while Grace had relaxed significantly, forgetting for a time that they were being hunted by the cartel. Sitting calmly across from him with nothing to focus on, her nerves began to hum again. She glanced around them uncertainly, but she saw no reason for his suspicion.

“Are you okay?”

He glanced at her, swallowed, and nodded. “Until we’re in the States, we aren’t safe.”

She nodded sadly, looking around. “I guess you’re right.”

They finished their meal and wandered around Santa Poco, but there were no rooms to rent. The town had no hotel or motel, nor did it have a boarding house or anything of that nature. Grace didn’t relish the idea of sleeping outside on a bench, and Tony told her they might as well hike out to the airstrip and sleep there.

“This is such a bummer,” she whined, wishing for the millionth time she had become a teacher like she’d planned to when she first graduated from college. Photography had been a hobby, then a terrific job, but this week, she hated it.

“Pardon me,” a man said, causing both Tony and Grace to jerk around. He smiled graciously at them, extending his hands palm up in the universal sign of friendship.

“Yes?” Tony asked roughly, his eyes narrowed at the stranger. The man wore a spotless white button-up with tan trousers and carried a hat that looked like a fedora made of straw rather than felt.

“I am a friend of the librarian’s. Senor Garcia. You and your wife have no place to stay?”

Tony didn’t correct his assumption. “We do not. But it’s only for one night. We’ll be fine.”

“Please, my wife and I live on the outskirts of town and have plenty of room. Senor Garcia said you were lost on a research expedition?”

Grace, who knew she should be distrustful, wanted to throw herself into the man’s arms for offering. He sounded sincere and looked kind. Not everyone in Mexico is a part of the cartel, she thought hopefully. However, whatever choice Tony made, she would defer to it without comment. Tony glanced at her, obviously and practically dubious of the man’s intentions, and she shrugged.

“Thank you, Senor,” Tony answered, taking her hand, “but I think we’ll take our chances. It’s a warm night, and we’ve been sleeping on the ground for weeks on the expedition. Nothing new to us.”

A large car pulled up near them and parked at the curb. An incredibly tall man stepped out of the passenger seat and spoke in rapid Spanish to the man. Grace heard him say Senor Guapo but understood nothing else. Tony had stiffened the minute the car had stopped, and he squeezed her hand. She tensed her body, ready to spring into a sprint if she needed to.

“Mr. Romano, my apologies, but you and Ms. McIntyre need to join me in the car,” Guapo said with a smile.

“We’d prefer not to, thanks,” Tony answered, attempting to turn. While they’d been focused on Guapo and the large man whose gun was in his hand now, three men had appeared behind them. Tony turned back. “You work for de Velazquez?”

“Not really, but he does pay well when he wants something,” Guapo replied good-naturedly. “You will stay at my house, bathe, and accept a change of clothes, and tonight you will be my guests at dinner.”

“And when will de Velazquez arrive?”

“That will depend on you and Ms. McIntyre,” he said secretively, another smile that now seemed sinister on his face. He gestured to the car, but neither of them moved. With a sigh, he pointed out, “I know you’re both armed, as I’m sure you know all of my men are. A gunfight here, with all these innocents around, is not the best tactic for escape.”

Tony looked at Grace, then behind them at the men. She followed his glance; there was no escape at this moment without serious danger to themselves and any people who happened to be around.

As if sensing their capitulation, Guapo ordered politely, “If you’ll hand your backpack and weapons to my men, please. You may keep your shopping bag, Ms. McIntyre.”

Grace wanted to cry as the man behind her took the gun Tony had given her. They’d been so close to escape, to the airstrip and the meeting that would have gotten them home. Tomas de Velazquez had a long reach, and because she’d escaped easily last time, she was certain all routes would be cut off.

Tony took her hand as they climbed into the back seat. Guapo took the passenger seat, and the tall man disappeared into another car with the other three, which pulled behind and followed closely.

“What do we do?” she whispered to Tony, clutching his hand tightly as they turned a corner and left the town behind.

“We wait and hope for a way out,” he said, his voice tight. He glanced down at her, and she saw determination in his eyes. “I won’t let them hurt you, one way or another.”

Understanding his meaning, she nodded as fear snaked through her body. Unless a miracle happened, she would be dead either way in the next twenty-four hours. Involuntarily, her hand touched her belly, and a single tear slipped down her cheek.