“Told you we picked too soon,” he said in hushed tones. “This little trip is probably going to cost us an arm and a leg. It’s all right,” he added when Ben’s face crumpled with guilt. “We’ll be fine.”

The all-too-familiar sight of the highway receded into the distance as they barreled down one of the exits. There was good reason for the universal stereotype of taxi drivers being demons behind the wheel. They zipped past a small village in the blink of an eye, entering farmland, the road dark and empty except for the illumination from their headlights. The two men in the front seat, who had up to now been chatting rapidly in their native tongue, grew silent. Jace tensed up as the van pulled over to the side of the road. Ben reached over, his hand crawling along the seat in hope of finding Jace’s.

The driver’s brother turned to face them, his brow furrowed angrily. “How much money you have? We need more money to go.”

Jace said something in Italian, causing the other man to look surprised, but he recovered quickly. “You give us money, you have no problem.” He raised a hand and wagged a flat metal object at them. A knife. It was still folded shut, but his meaning was clear enough.

Ben felt cold panic. Had he traveled all this way just to die in some remote Italian field? If all these guys wanted was money, that was fine with him. He shifted to reach for his wallet, but Jace’s left hand stilled him. His right hand was already holding a wallet out. The man took it eagerly and turned forward again to examine its contents. Ben wanted to say something to Jace, comfort him or discuss some sort of cunning plan that would get them both out of this mess, but the driver’s eyes in the rearview mirror were locked onto them both.

“This all?” the brother demanded.

“That’s 200,000 lira!” Jace replied.

“That nothing!” the brother spat back.

“Well, it’s all we have,” Jace said. “Everyone uses credit cards these days.”

The man looked skeptically at Ben, who shook his head in what he hoped was a convincing manner. He did have money on him, and he was more than willing to give it up, but he didn’t want to prove Jace a liar. Who knew how the men would react then?

“Get out,” the driver said.

“Fine.” Jace nodded to him that they should exit, but Ben faltered.

He didn’t like the idea of being abandoned in the middle of nowhere any more than he liked being robbed. The audacity of the suggestion incensed him, causing his panic to recede as he slowly saw red. “You can’t leave us here!”

“Your hotel not far,” the brother said in friendly tones, as if he were performing a public service. “You walk that way. Half hour, you there.”

“You just took all our money,” Ben retorted. “You can at least drive us the rest of the way there!”

“Ben--” Jace tried.

“No! I’m not getting out of the car. Go ahead and cut us up! Stain your upholstery with our blood and go through the hassle of hiding our bodies. I don’t care. Or you can take us to the hotel. You decide!”

Ben could barely breathe by the time he was finished. The two brothers yammered at each other angrily for a few moments before finally reaching a conclusion.

“We take you,” the brother said moodily.

Ben wished he could feel relief, but at this point he could only suspect the worst. Maybe they were being driven to some mafia hideout where the professional cleaners would make short work of them. His muscles remained tense and his pulse throbbed until the neon hotel sign finally came into view. The taxi pulled over before reaching the u-shaped driveway.

“Get out,” the driver ordered a second time.

Ben wanted to, he really really wanted to, but another thought had occurred to him. The second they stepped out of the vehicle, it would drive away, taking their luggage with it. There was something he had worked very hard on in that luggage, and he wasn’t willing to give it up.

“Take our bags out,” he insisted. He wanted to look at Jace, but he didn’t dare take his attention off the two men up front.

The driver’s brother appeared about to snap and carve his initials all over their bodies. The muscles in his jaw tensed as his eyes bored into Ben’s, but the unblinking gaze that he received in return broke him down. He stepped out of the car, slamming the door loudly behind him. He opened the rear hatch of the van and took their luggage out, tossing it carelessly to the side of the street. As soon as it was out, both Ben and Jace followed suit.

“Crazy Americans!” the brother spat, literally this time, at Ben’s feet before reentering the taxi and speeding away.

A cool breeze blew across them as they watched it disappear around a corner.

“You were amazing!” Jace said, grinning and picking up Ben in a hug. “Jesus! You should be a hostage negotiator!”

“Well, that was bullshit,” Ben said, his voice trembling. His braveness had fled along with his adrenaline, returning the fear he had been ignoring. His legs were feeling shaky, too. “Come on. Let’s go,” he said, removing himself from Jace’s embrace and picking up his luggage. He just wanted to get into the hotel where they were safe before the thugs came back to gun them down or something.

Check-in went by in a blur. Ben repeatedly looked out the lobby windows for any sign of trouble. The receptionist barely blinked an eye when Jace explained how his credit cards had been stolen. A couple of calls had to be made to cancel the cards and to secure the reservation. Jace switched to Italian again and must have found some way to work it out because they got their room.

Ben sat down on the bed and tried unsuccessfully to hide his trembling hands. Jace noticed and kneeled before Ben, taking them in his own. “It’s okay,” he soothed. “We’re safe now. We just got into the wrong taxi. I should have known better and been more careful.”

“It’s my fault,” Ben said, refusing to let him take the blame. “No, screw that. It was theirs. That was really fucked up.”

“It was,” Jace agreed. “But you shouldn’t let it ruin our trip.”

How could it not? All Jace’s money had been taken, and relaxing in a country where you could get robbed just by getting inside a taxi didn’t sound possible. “I think I want to go home,” Ben blurted out.

Jace smiled sympathetically and sat next to Ben, wrapping an arm around him. “I know you’re shaken up. You have every right to be, but that was just bad luck. Italy is a wonderful country, and the people are fantastic. We just ran into a couple of bad seeds, something that could happen anywhere. I can’t let you leave now. I won’t let you go home with a bad impression of this place.”

Ben sighed and leaned against him. The idea of the long flight home was almost worse than being robbed. “Okay,” he agreed. He was starting to feel better. Being near Jace always made him feel safe.

“You did great with the luggage.”

“Well, I didn’t want to lose your present.”

“My present?” Jace asked. “Sounds good, but look what else you saved.”

Jace unzipped his bag and dug around until he found a cheap figure of a plastic cat. The toy split in half like a Russian doll revealing a wad of cash inside. “Never put all your eggs in one basket.”

“How much is that?”

“Pretty much the whole vacation budget,” Jace laughed. “I only had enough in my wallet for the taxi and a meal out somewhere.

Ben smiled with relief. He thought he had only been saving their clothes, but now he was especially proud of his actions. Feeling more like himself again, he dug into his own bag and brought out a small cellophane-covered basket. He handed it over to Jace and waited nervously for his reaction.

Jace pulled away the plastic to reveal a basket full of fortune cookies. They were a little misshapen but came in a variety of different colors.

“Wow! These look amazing,” Jace exclaimed. “I love the colors. Look, a blue one! Where did you get them?”