Charlie rolled over in the bed and found herself facing Bass' back. Faded red marks ran up and down his back, crisscrossing over each other and making his flesh look like a patchwork quilt. She traced one of the deeper scars with the tip of her finger, feeling the raised and bumpy skin. Those marks were Nunez's not-so-polite 'fuck you' to Bass for even thinking that he might be a part of Conner's life. And now they were planning to go right back in to the same man again.

Bass' slow, deep breaths continued as sheI laid there. Her mind wouldn't let her drift off back to sleep. It was too worried about what might happen if she let Bass go back into the compound.

He may never come back out.

But she had literally just gotten him. After three and a half years of near torture, he had finally admitted that he loved her. She couldn't lose him now.

Decision made, Charlie rose slowly from the bed and dressed quickly by the light of the moon. She grabbed the door handle, but stopped. Slimey, slippery guilt was seeping into her stomach. She took a deep breath and looked back at the man she loved, his face gleaming in the moonlight.

"I'll be back. I promise," she whispered, then slipped out of the bedroom door.

XxX

Maya wasn't hard to find. She and her father lived in the small house next door to the bar. The two building were connected by a short hallway built between the kitchen in the back of the bar and the kitchen in their house. It took several minutes, but Charlie managed to pick the lock on the door and made her way quietly into the other house. She passed by a room on the first floor and heard loud snoring before making her way upstairs. Maya's bedroom door was cracked open with a little bit of light pouring out of it. Charlie slipped inside, finding the other girl sitting at a vanity brushing her hair.

Maya's eyes went wide when she saw her reflection in the mirror and her mouth opened as if to scream, but Charlie rushed over and slapped a hand over her mouth. "I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to help," Charlie said low in her ear.

Maya stared at her for a moment before nodding slowly. Removing her hand from her mouth, Charlie stepped away to give her some space. "We don't have a lot of time," Charlie said quickly. "And I can't tell you everything, but we're not here hunting Conner. We're here to save him."

"You are?" She asked loudly, her smile spreading across her face.

"Shh!" Charlie checked the hallway to make sure it was empty then turned back to Maya. "But I need your help. Your friend Claudia, you said that she could sneak you in to see him. Do you think she can get me in instead?"

Maya's smile slipped. "I suppose she could, but..." She stood up and Charlie noticed what she was wearing. A silk, lavender dress that hung elegantly off of her shoulders and flowed down to her knees. Maya noticed Charlie looking at her and blushed.

"Conner bought this for me as a gift," she said with a sad smile. "He was planning to take me on a real date, but I told him that I'd didn't have anything to wear. The next morning, I found this in a box on the front porch. But I never got to wear it. He deserted Nunez and left before we had the chance to go out."

Pity wracked at Charlie's heart. "You look beautiful, Maya."

"Really? I was worried that he might not like it." She scrutinized her reflection in the mirror and ran a hand through her long hair.

For a moment, Charlie was tempted to tell her that Conner liked anything with legs, but the sincerity radiating from Maya made it impossible. She decided that changing the subject was probably a better way to go.

"In order for me to save him, I have to get into that mansion. Will you and Claudia help me?"

Maya sighed, but locked her jaw and turned towards her determinedly. "Yes, I will help. But both of us can not go. It would be too risky. You will have to meet Claudia yourself and she will lead you in."

"OK, just tell me where to go."

Maya tilted her head and looked her up and down. "You can not go dressed like that, you will need to blend in."

Charlie looked down at her dirty jeans and stained tank top. "This is all I have."

Smiling, Maya motioned for her to sit down in front of the mirror. "Don't worry, I'll figure something out."

XxX

Bass jumped down the stairs two at a time and burst into the downstairs of the bar. The dining room was empty, he must have missed her already. He ran to the front door, flung it open, and looked outside. There wasn't a single person wandering the street. "Crap."

He headed back through the bar towards the back stairs in order to wake up Miles, but was stopped by Maya standing in the kitchen holding a frying pan over her head. When she recognized who he was, she lowered the pan.

"I'm sorry, Señor. I thought someone was trying to break in."

"It's fine, I'm sorry I woke you." Still in a hurry, Bass moved past her towards the stairs again, but stopped short. "Wait a minute, what are you doing over here? I thought you and your dad lived next door. How did you hear me from all the way over there, and how did you get here so fast?"

Maya bit her lip awkwardly. "I am a light sleeper."

"Bullshit. Did you see Char- I mean Sarah. Did you see Sarah down here?" She looked away from him guiltily. "Maya, please. This is important."

Sighing in defeat, Maya slumped down into one of the kitchen chairs. "I'm sorry, but she asked me not to tell anyone. She said that she could save him on her own. She said that she had done it a thousands times, so she didn't need your help."

Bass felt his heart drop into his stomach. "Wait, she went to save Conner by herself?"

Maya nodded mutely.

Oh, boy. Things were about to get really complicated.

Bass ran back up the stairs three at a time with Maya at his heels. "I'm so sorry. I should have stopped her." But he just ignored her and burst through the door of Miles bedroom, freezing completely at the sight that met his eyes.

Miles was fast asleep on his back, one arm dangling off of the side of the bed with Jeremy curled up against his other side like a cat. His head was stuck in Miles' armpit and one of his arms was draped across his bare chest. Behind Bass, Maya started to giggle. Near laughter himself, Bass moved over to the bed and shook Miles' shoulders. His eyes snapped open and he sat straight up, looking down confusedly at the limp arm in his lap. Miles looked from the arm to Jeremy and back to the arm before bodily shoving the other man away from him.

"What the fuck, Jer!"

Jeremy's body hit the floor with a loud thump and he sat up quickly, his blonde hair sticking up in odd directions. He rubbed at his eyes like a child and asked, "wos goin' on?"

Miles jumped out of his bed angrily and stormed towards Jeremy clad only in his threadbare boxers, making Maya laugh even louder. "What are you doing in my bed?"

Jeremy looked around the room at Miles, Bass, and Maya, then shrugged. "I got cold."

Then Bass couldn't help it, he started laughing too. Miles waved his arms around angrily and glared at Jeremy. "Cold? We're in Mexico! It's like a hundred degrees outside!"

Jeremy blinked innocently up at him and mumbled, "I didn't mean too."

Miles growled at his childishness and turned to glare at Bass. "And what the hell do you want, it's the middle of the night." He caught sight of Maya and narrowed his eyes a little. "Bass, where's Charlie?" He asked calmly.

"That's why I woke you up. She's gone."

Jeremy jumped up, revealing his own threadbare tighty whities. "Gone, what do you mean gone?" He narrowed his eyes at Bass suspiciously. "What did you do to her now?"

"I - Nothing! I didn't do anything. Maya said that she's going into Nunez's compound to get Conner out by herself."

Miles sighed and ran a hand through his hair, grabbing his pants to yank them on just as Ricardo came running into the room with and old baseball bat. "What is going on here?" His eyes travelled around the room and landed on his daughter who was currently standing in a room with three strange men, two of which were only in their underwear. "Maya! What do you think you are doing?"

She ran to her father and pulled the bat from his hands in an attempt to stop him from hurting anyone. "Papa, Sarah has gone into Nunez's compound alone to find Conner."

"WHAT! ¿Está loca?"

Jeremy pulled a blanket from the bed and draped it over himself like a toga. "Is Sarah crazy? Why yes, yes she is."

Miles ignored Jeremy and turned to Bass. "We should get moving. The last time Charlie handled something like this on her own she nearly got herself killed during the exit. We need to be ready to help her get out once she's got Conner."

Ricardo looked around the room at the three strange men suspiciously. "What is going on here."

Bass laid a hand on his shoulder and directed his attention at him. "We're here to help you guys, but we can't do it without Conner. Sarah went in to rescue him. You and Maya need to lay low for a while, probably leave town, because once we get him out, Nunez is going to be pissed. You both need to be long gone before he comes looking for anyone that might have helped us."

"No, I will not leave my home like a coward."

"It's not forever," Miles assured him. "It's just until we can come up with a plan to get rid of Nunez for good. Then you can come back and your family can live in peace."

Ricardo looked around at all of them again, his face filled with confusion. "Who are you people?"

Still dressed in his toga, Jeremy patted Ricardo on the shoulder. "Believe it or not, we're the good guys."

XxX

Charlie shifted around in Maya's silk, lavender dress awkwardly. "OK, this definitely seemed like a better idea in my head."

Her guide, Claudia, turned and gave her a questioning look. "¿Qué?"

Rolling her eyes, Charlie muttered, "nevermind."

Maya's friend had seemed more than happy to help, though there was the problem of the language barrier. Claudia didn't speak English, and the only Spanish Charlie knew were the swear words she'd heard Conner mutter under his breath from time to time. Well, she assumed that they were swear words.

They had gone about a mile and a half from town and Charlie was starting to wonder where the hell they were going when Claudia suddenly veered off to the side into a steep ditch. She motioned for Charlie to follow and she did so, though rather reluctantly. Maya seemed so attached to the lavender dress that she would hate to mess it up. That, as well as the fact that heels weren't meant for climbing around in ditches.

"Where are we going?" Charlie whispered, even though she knew it was in vain.

Claudia merely shushed her with her hands and led the way forward towards a large, open tunnel. At the opening, Claudia picked up a lamp and lit it, keeping it mostly covered so they wouldn't draw attention. She pointed into the tunnel and waved for Charlie to follow. Reluctantly, she followed her guide into the unused sewage tunnel. It smelled awful, like twenty year old waste and filth left to rot.

Claudia led her through a maze of smelly tunnels, showing her the arrows that guided the way through on the way. Charlie made a mental note of each arrow, knowing that the return trip would have to be done without Claudia and a mostly likely complaining Conner. Deep down, she hoped for a complaining Conner instead of an injured one.

They climbed a ladder that was gross and sticky with stuff that she didn't want to think about. At the top, Claudia silently lifted a circular metal panel and slid out of the hole with Charlie just behind. They were standing in a three foot wide path with a large house on one side and a twelve foot hight fence on the other. Claudia replaced the metal circle over the hole and then pulled over a strange patch of grass that she covered it up with. Charlie tilted her head at it as the hole disappeared from view. She had never seen grass like that before.

Claudia then turned and went about ten feet along the house, stopping and crouching low by the foundation to pull open a small wooden door. They slid through it easily and dropped down silently onto a crate. They pulled the door shut and Claudia made Charlie help her move the crate away from the wall where the door was. Looking at it, you would never know that there was a door there unless someone showed you.

Claudia jerked her head towards the left and said, "Conner." She motioned for Charlie to follow her, but Charlie stopped her and shook her head. Claudia had already done more than she had the right to ask, Charlie didn't want her to get into trouble because of her.

"You go," Charlie whispered, pointing first at Claudia and then in the opposite direction that she had said Conner was. "I'll go alone." Then she pointed at herself and then towards Conner.

Claudia pursed her lips but nodded and took off down the hallway to the right. Charlie waited until she was out of sight, listening to the sounds of a serious party still going on upstairs. Moving silently, she went down the cramped hallways towards where she hoped Conner was waiting.

The mansion's basement was like a maze. There were hallways that led into other hallways that led to dead ends. Charlie stopped and checked every room that she passed but found no Conner, not even a guard to stop her from looking. Frustrated and a little lost, she made her way towards the noises of the party upstairs. If she couldn't find Conner on her own, she would just have someone take her to him.

XxX

Bass was tying his and Charlie's packs to the saddle on his horse while Miles and Jeremy got their crap together. They came out onto the front porch in a hurry with Ricardo just behind them. The bar owner was packing supplies into the family wagon for himself and his daughter.

"Ricardo, not to rush you or anything, but you and Maya need to get out of here, like right now." Bass told him.

"But I have to get-"

"There's no time. You guys will come back soon, just take the stuff that you can't live without."

Ricardo's shoulders slumped. "How do I know that I can trust you?"

Maya came out onto the porch behind him and boldly stepped up to her father. "You can Papa, because I do."

"Maya, you are just a girl. You know nothing."

"I am twenty, Papa! And I know more than you think."

Ricardo stared at his daughter in shock. "How dare you speak to me like this."

But Maya just shook her head at him. "No, Papa. I am not a child, you can not protect me forever." She turned to Bass. "We will go now. Your friend said that I could trust you."

He smiled. "She did?"

"Yes, she said you are a good man."

"And you believe her?" He couldn't help but ask.

Maya tilted her head and studied his face. "No one believes me when I tell them that Conner is a good man because they only see what is on the outside, but I have seen his heart and I know he is good. Your friend has seen your heart, so if she says you are good, then I believe her."

Ignoring the dumbstruck look on her father's face, Maya climbed into the drivers seat of the wagon. "Come, Papa. We must go."

He climbed silently into the seat beside her and sat down, but before she led the horses away, Maya turned to them again. "You should not go straight to the compound. Claudia will have taken your friend through the tunnels. Go two miles west of here until you come to a deep ditch, then follow it back east. It will take you to your friends."

Bass locked eyes with the young woman and nodded. "Don't worry, Maya. We'll get him back."

XxX

Conner sat back against the wall of his prison cell. If it weren't for the fact that he was going to be beheaded tomorrow, he might have found the situation amusing. He was after all being kept in the exact same cell he'd thrown his dad in two years ago.

In retrospect, that may not have been the smartest thing he'd ever done. Along with running away from the only people that had ever shown any actual interest in him. And taking off with Alejandro. And thinking that Nunez would be happy to see him... And leaving Maya behind.

It had been two years since he'd seen her, but the moment he'd spotted her standing on the bar's porch he had felt that little clench in his chest all over again. Too bad he would never get the chance to make it up to her for never taking her on that date. He hoped that she wasn't too broken up about it.

His internal monologue was broken up by the appearance of one of the guards. He had a woman with long, tan - and incredibly sexy - legs thrown over his shoulder.

"Ah, no! Put me down!" She screeched. But the guard ignored her and unlocked the cell door, throwing her into the room with him before locking it back up again and taking off. The poor girl landed face down with a thud and moaned in pain. Conner approached her warily, his eyes taking in the purple dress she was wearing and her blonde hair tumbling out of the complicated looking knot on her head.

Wait a minute... since when were Mexicans blondes?

And why did those legs seem so familiar?

"Charlie?"

The woman herself sat up and gave him a self satisfied smirk. "Surprised to see me?"

"I... Well... Yeah. I mean, I thought I ditched you guys back in Arizona."

Charlie rose her eyebrows at him. "Oh, my bad. I guess we'll just leave you to it then." She stood up and turned away from him as if to leave him behind.

"No, no, no, wait. Charlie, you have to get me out of here." He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her for emphasis. "Nunez wants to kill me!"

Charlie calmly brushed his hands away. "Yes, I'm aware."

"Then we have to get out of here! Wait, what do you mean 'you're aware'?"

Rolling her eyes, Charlie sat down on the metal cot and gave him an unimpressed look. "Come on, Conner. Even you can't be that stupid. You abandoned Nunez and released two of the most wanted men on the continent from his custody. You didn't honestly think that he would be happy to see you, did you?"

Well, when you put it that way...

Conner puffed out his chest importantly, refusing to let her talk to him like an insolent child. "It doesn't matter why I'm in here, all that matters is that we get the hell out. Now where's my dad, he'll get me out of here." He turned his back on Charlie and looked out into the hallway to await his father, which turned out to be a huge mistake.

Two incredibly strong arms slammed him face first against the metal bars of the cell door and held him there. "Hey, what the hell. Get off me!"

But she merely pushed harder, his face stuck between two metal bars. "You ungrateful, little shit. You ran away because of one little fight and then left with your little buddy without even considering how it would affect Bass."

Conner huffed angrily against the bars. "Like you've got room to talk, my dad's been following you around like a puppy for years and all you do is string him along like your own personal lap dog. You don't even care about him, you just like having someone to tell what to do."

Charlie growled and smacked his forehead against the bars, causing little white lights to pop in his eyes. "That's different. Bass is my friend, you are supposed to be his son, but you treat him like trash."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

She yanked him backwards and turned him, slamming his back against the bars and getting directly in his face. "All I know is that I would do anything - anything - to have my dad back. But that will never happen for me. And you have your dad, right in front of you, and all he wants to do is love you, but you're too stupid and stuck up to let him!"

Charlie snatched her hands away from him like he'd burned her and wiped away the tears trailing down her cheeks. Conner stared at her, stunned by her sudden outburst of emotion. He'd know Charlie for a while now and this was the first time he'd ever seen her cry.

He reached out to her, feeling like he should offer some type of comfort. "Charlie, I-" But she swatted his hands away and went to the cell door, digging her fingers through her hair as she did.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly to her back. "It's just... I'm not like you. I didn't grow up looking up to my dad and having him around all the time. He just showed up one day and I don't know what he even wants from me."

Charlie turned back around shaking her head. "I told you, Bass just wants a family to love. That's all he cares about. That's why we're here. Your dad dragged us across Mexico to rescue your sorry ass because you're his son and he loves you."

"So my dad is here?" He asked hopefully.

She turned back towards the door with pins in her hands and slipped her arms through the bars to try and pick the lock from the outside. "Uh, yeah. Bass is here."

"Great, so what's the plan?"

"Plan? Oh, uh, the plan is we get out of here and meet him and the guys at the bar."

"Wait, so they aren't coming in to get us?"

Charlie's shoulders sagged in defeat. "Actually, the boys don't even know I'm here."

"Please tell me you're joking."

She turned towards him angrily. "How many time have I saved your sorry ass over the last two years? Oh, yeah, that's right, a lot. So quit your whining and just do what I tell you to do, I'll get us out of here."

Conner watched her turn back to the door and start working the lock again. He let her work for about a minute before asking, "how's it going over there?"

Charlie merely growled at him.

"Relax, I'm just saying that we should probably get a move on."

She whipped her head around to look at him. "You know, this is hard enough to do the regular way. But doing it backwards is even harder! A little quiet, please."

Raising his hands in surrender, Conner plopped down onto the metal cot to wait. Another few minutes passed before he chanced speaking up again. "You know, I could give it a try if you-"

"Shut up! What is with you two and think that you're better than me at this?"

Confused, Conner stared at her while she continued to furiously push and pull on the pins in the lock. "Am I missing something here, or..."

"Gah!" She yanked the pins out of the lock and stomped over to him, shoving them into his hands. "Just get us the fuck out of here."

Trying not to laugh, Conner moved to the door and opened it easily. He looked down at his wrist to check his imaginary watch with a smirk. "Would you look at that, a new personal best."

Charlie stormed past him and muttered, "showoff."

Conner followed after her, his eyes glued to the purple fabric swaying around her hips. "Charlie, where did you get that dress?"

She turned back to him with a grin. "I was starting to wonder if you were going to notice or if Maya was just delusional."

"Maya? You talked to her? Is she OK?"

Charlie chuckled as she led Conner through the basement towards the secret door. "Yeah, yeah. Your girlfriend's fine. In fact, she's waiting to see you."

They pulled the crate back over to the wall and Charlie climbed on top and opened the door. She crawled out and helped pull Conner through. He shut the door and looked down at it thoughtfully.

"I lived here for ten years and never even knew this was there. You've been here for all of ten minutes and already know more secret places than I do."

Charlie rolled her eyes and started pulling him towards the tunnel opening. "Yeah, you can tell me all about how awesome I am later. For now, let's just get the hell out of here." But they stopped short as two large men dropped down from the wall above them.

"Or not."

A/N Ah, so close! But you guys know I love cliffhangers. Comment if you've got a minute. :-D