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in front of her, she realized that maybe she wasn’t in as good of shape as she thought. He didn’t look like he was even winded, and they had been walking for hours.
    Shadows of what looked like mountain ranges stretched out on either side of the flat, open area they had been traveling through. They were nearing one of them as she saw the glow of lights in the distance and Brent signaled for her to stop. She wondered if he even realized that he was using hand signals to communicate with her despite the fact that she had never been told what they meant. Still, somehow she had adapted, and when the signal came to take cover, she moved silently with him against a large boulder.
    She didn’t even have to watch for the signal to stay, already anticipating that he was about to go exploring once more without her. He slipped off his backpack and set it beside her before moving off into the night. Quietly, she settled down in the sand. Ignoring the tension that was settling in her shoulders, she stretched her feet out in front of her and pulled up on her toes to stretch out the muscles in her calves.
    Already Brent was out of sight, and she wished he had told her exactly where he was going and how long he was going to be. Her next thought was that in his business he probably didn’t know the answers to those kinds of questions. What must it be like, she wondered, to try to have a relationship with someone who could simply vanish right in front of your eyes?
    She pushed away that thought, instead leaning back and looking up at the stars. Without the lights of the city to compete with, they dominated the sky. She couldn’t ever remember seeing so many before, and she thought of those summer nights when she would ride her horse down to the park near her house and camp by the river. It was the only time she could remember just lying on the ground and staring up into the sky. What she wouldn’t give right now to be out for a leisurely ride, galloping through the trees with her hair blowing behind her.
    When Amy heard horses in the distance, she thought perhaps she had imagined it. As the sound grew closer, she stood and settled Brent’s pack on her back. She pressed back against the rock, remembering what Brent had told her about staying still and controlling her breathing. She kept her eyes on the ground and struggled not to gasp when half a dozen horses and their riders passed within five yards of where she was standing.
    A moment later, at least ten more horses pounded over the rise, apparently in pursuit of the first group that had passed. The gunshots didn’t register at first, but the cry in the distance made them reality.
    She was afraid to move, and equally afraid not to. What if Brent had been caught in the crossfire? And what would happen if she was still here when the sun came up? There was no way she could survive the day out in the desert without some sort of shelter. Besides the obvious threat of the armed men nearby, the heat from the desert could be deadly.
    â€œPlease let him be okay,” Amy whispered, praying Brent back to her. She tried to think positive thoughts, wondering what he would look like without his face painted with camouflage. His eyes were dark and serious, and his rugged features made her think he would look just a little dangerous, even if he wasn’t carrying a gun.
    She wondered what he did for fun when he wasn’t flying all over the world rescuing hostages. They had been together for over thirty hours straight, and she realized she knew nothing about him. She didn’t know where he was from or if he had family. Did he have a wife or a girlfriend back home worrying about him the way her family was surely worrying about her? Or would his family even know that there was something to worry about?
    Amy’s mind raced with questions as shots continued to ring out in the distance. Minutes passed slowly, and she finally took a seat once more as silence replaced