Danger at the Border by Terri Reed

they confiscated his utility belt along with his service weapon. He should have hidden the blade in his boot before they set out. He shoved his hand through his hair. He should have been more prepared for something like this happening.
    “You should save your energy.” Tessa sat against the sidewall, her knees drawn to her chest.
    He paced. “I’m too keyed up to sit.”
    The sound of the lock on the door unlatching sent Jeff’s heart racing. Tessa jumped to her feet, her eyes wide with anxiety. He hurried to a position by the door so he could ambush whoever came in.
    The door opened. A young guy walked in carrying a tray of food. He paused, noting their untied hands. He shrugged. “I’d have to untie you so you could eat, anyhow.”
    Jeff hesitated. No way would they let this unarmed kid come alone.
    “Set the tray down and come out,” a harsh male voice called.
    Jeff peered around the corner of the door. A behemoth of a man stood two feet away with a rifle pointed at the teen’s back. He was too far away for Jeff to disarm him, and if he tackled the kid and used him as leverage, the guy with the rifle wouldn’t think twice about shooting them both.
    The kid set the tray down laden with two sandwiches of indeterminate meat and cheese and two bottles of water.
    Tessa moved close to the young man and whispered, “Please, you have to help us.”
    The guy straightened and backed out, showing no sign of hearing her plea.
    Then the door slammed shut.
    Jeff smashed a fist into the wall. Pain reverberated up his arm.
    “At least they’re feeding us. That has to be a good sign, right?” Tessa asked as she picked up a sandwich.
    “Wait.” He held up a hand. “We don’t know that they haven’t laced this food with poison.”
    She made a questioning face. “Why go to the bother of poisoning us? That’s a murder weapon with no control when they could simply shoot us.”
    “Poison would be a lot harder to trace than a bullet slug.”
    Tessa stared at the sandwich in her hand. “Unfortunately, that makes sense.” Her gaze rose to his. “How strong is your faith?”
    “What?”
    “You pray, so you obviously believe in God. Do you trust Him to keep us alive? To get us out of these circumstances?” There was a note in her tone that was almost pleading, as if she needed his faith to be strong.
    His faith had never been tested like this before. He’d faced gunmen, had had his heart ripped from his chest by a woman and had felt abandoned by his family for most of his childhood, but he’d found comfort in his faith. He’d resented the many camps his parents had sent him to until his thirteenth summer, when he’d given his life to Jesus. That summer had been life changing.
    And now Tessa was asking him to prove the strength of his faith.
    “I do trust Him. God will not abandon us. God would expect me to be smart and take action. To know not to trust them.” He gestured toward the door and the miscreants beyond.
    She set the sandwich down and moved back to her spot against the wall. “Then we won’t eat.”
    Her belief in him touched him deeply. He picked up the bottles of water and inspected them. The seals hadn’t been broken. He moved to her side, slid down to sit next to her and handed her a bottle. “People will be looking for us.”
    “I know. But will they find us?” The despair in her eyes tore at his heart. “We don’t know how far from the lake they’ve taken us.”
    “I was paying attention, counting out the seconds on the drive here. We’re not more than a ten-minute ride from where they found us in the woods.”
    “From what I could see of this place, it’s been here a long time. Undetected.”
    “Because no one knew to look.” He covered her hand with his. “You can’t lose hope.”
    “I never pegged you for an optimist.”
    “And I never pegged you as a pessimist.”
    “Guilty as charged. I guess if you get knocked down enough, you start to expect it.”
    He ached at the hurt in