As soon as he realized the bathroom was open and that Kyle wasn't inside, Gabriel knew he had been tricked. By the time he made it back to the dining room, Ash had already fled outside. He ran out after them, not even bothering to put his shoes on. But as soon as they drove off, he stormed back inside to get his keys and boots so he could chase after her, once again.
"Gabriel, what is going on?" his mother asked, confused.
"You have to trust me mama. I'll explain later."
His mother looked as though she was about to protest, but fortunately his father jumped in. "We do trust you, son."
Gabriel nodded, appreciating his father's faith in him...even if it was misplaced. He bolted out the door and into his car, driving in the direction Ash had gone. It wasn't long before he located her annoyingly blue car - a rookie mistake to choose such a distinctive vehicle - and began to follow her.
As Gabriel followed her, he grew even more frustrated. When she sped off in her rental car, he had hoped for a high-speed pursuit. He hadn't had one in a while, he enjoyed them, and he was rather good at them.
Instead, he got stuck pursuing the driving equivalent of his abuela going to church. Ash was driving under the speed limit, moving along slowly in the right lane as he tailed her from behind. She approached a large semi-truck that was going even slower than she was, and dutifully put on her left blinker to pass.
Gabriel shook his head in disbelief. "Is she seriously using her turn signal?" he asked aloud. He took his phone and called the number Ash had used to reach him before, hoping it would work.
She picked up on the third ring. "What?"
"This is the most pathetic excuse for a car chase I've ever been in," Gabriel complained.
"Well I'm sorry I'm not living up to your standards," she snapped back, putting her right turn signal on and merging back into the right lane.
"You realize that when you use your turn signal, I know exactly where you're going."
"Duh Gabriel. That's the whole point of a turn signal," she said as if he were the ridiculous one. "Improper signaling causes nearly one in five accidents - over two million per year."
"So jumping across buildings you're okay with, but speeding and improper signaling is where you draw the line," Gabriel mocked.
"I'm sorry you find my commitment to safe driving so irritating," she replied angrily.
"There's safe driving and then there's this. You're driving like you're taking a driving test."
"Well I wouldn't know."
"Wait...you never took your driver's test?" Gabriel asked, surprised.
"No Gabriel. I had other things going on in my life. So can you please just shut up and let me focus on driving?"
Gabriel sighed in exasperation. "Just pull over. You're not going to lose me going 55 miles per hour."
"Men. Always so focused on speed. Do you know how many miles per gallon a Toyota Prius gets Gabriel?"
Gabriel felt a smile spread across his face, even though he knew he should be annoyed. He realized immediately what she was getting at. "About 50?" he guessed.
"And how much does your BMW get?"
"About 30," he replied, still smiling
"And I made sure to fill up before I went to your parents' house. So mathematically, all I have to do is keep going. I don't have to outdrive you. I just have to outlast you."
She sounded pretty proud of herself, Gabriel noted. And why wouldn't she be? It was a good plan. There was just one problem.
"That's pretty clever Ashlyn. But it only works if I'm willing to play by your rules. And unfortunately for you, I'm not."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I'm more than comfortable driving you straight off the road. Or cutting in front of you and slamming on my breaks, making you rear end me."
"You could end up seriously injuring yourself doing something like that," Ash warned him.
"True," he said. "It's a risk. That doesn't sound like me, does it? I don't strike you as a risk taker, do I?"
Ash was silent for awhile. "I don't believe you," she said finally.
"Okay," Gabriel replied. He darted into the other lane, cruised alongside her, and began moving towards her car from the side, pushing her off the road.
"Okay, okay!" Ash exclaimed. "I'll get off at the next exit."
Sure enough, Ash took the next exit and pulled over.
"Get out of the car with your hands up," Gabriel told her. Then he hung up the phone and stepped out of his vehicle.
Gabriel pulled his gun and walked towards her vehicle as Ash got out, her hands raised obediently. It was a blustery night, with the black cardigan she was wearing flapping in the wind. She must not have had time to get a coat.
"Turn around," he told her. She did immediately. Was she finally done fighting him? No, Gabriel thought. That would be too easy.
"Where did Kyle run off to?" he asked as he put her hands behind her back and tied them together.
"He's gone," she replied simply.
"Don't worry, I'll find him," Gabriel replied.
"Not if you know what's good for you," Ash snapped.
"You really are a pain in the ass," he said, pushing her to his car. He shoved her in the passenger seat and got in the other side.
"What, you're not going to make me sit in the back?" Ash asked.
"You're harder to keep an eye on that way," Gabriel replied. "And I know you're good with getting out of restraints. I don't doubt you can get out of this, but if you try anything, I'll put a bullet in your head faster than you can blink. I'm done with your games."
"Yes, sir," Ash said sarcastically, sinking back into her seat in annoyance.
Gabriel pulled back onto the highway.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
"You'll find out," Gabriel replied. Now that he finally had her, he wasn't actually sure. When she had taken his parents hostage, he planned to kill her as soon as he got her alone. But not only had she not hurt his parents, they both really liked her. He had only ever brought a few girls home and they had hated all of them.
But now that he was back to not wanting to kill her right away, where should he go? He had a sense to go to Levi...he lived in D.C. which wasn't too far. But Levi would just demand that he kill her.
He decided to go South to Morgantown. West Virginia seemed like a good place to lie low, and he wanted Ash to think he had a plan. In reality, his main focus now was trying to find out more information. Kyle had been useful, but the boy clearly had no knowledge about large pieces of the puzzle.
"Kyle told me about your parents," Gabriel prompted, trying to get her talking.
Ash turned to look at him. "I'm thrilled you had a nice chat," she replied bitterly.
"I'm sorry," he told her.
She looked at him skeptically before looking away. "It was a long time ago."
"Some wounds never really heal, though."
Ash looked back at him, sharply. "I'm sorry about your father," she told him. "What does he have?"
"Stomach cancer," he replied.
Ash closed her eyes as if she were reading a book in her head. "Stomach cancer. Usually not detected until the cancer is advanced due to lack of early symptoms. Five-year survival rate can range from almost 95% for Stage I to under 5% for Stage IV."
"He's getting the best treatment money can buy," Gabriel replied dismissively.
"But it's not enough though, is it?"
Gabriel shot her a glance. "You're not going to get under my skin Ashlyn. I can tell this is an obvious attempt to deflect. You do it when you're uncomfortable. It's not subtle."
"Fine," Ash replied. "Then let me be blunt. I have no idea what you intend to accomplish here, but this whole, 'I care about you' act is so disgustingly insincere it makes me want to vomit all over your absurdly expensive car. If you want to know what I'm thinking and feeling, you have a better shot by cracking my skull open and taking a peek inside. Because I am never, ever, going to talk about my family with some cold-blooded mercenary like you."
"So family is off limits now?" Gabriel asked pointedly. "You didn't seem to have any issues bringing mine into this."
"That's not the same and you know it." Ash argued. "You kidnapped Kyle. I did the only thing I could think of to guarantee he would be safe. I wasn't going to do anything to them. Unlike the damage you were apparently willing to do to Kyle."
"You really do care about him, huh? All I did was break a couple fingers. I did what I had to do to get him to talk and let him know I was serious. He'll be fine."
"I'm not interested in your rationalizations Gabriel. Stop talking or change the subject," Ash demanded.
"Okay," Gabriel said calmly. "I'll change the subject. Why didn't you tell me you were a virgin?"
He looked over to see Ash frozen. It was clear that she hadn't expected him to ask that. "Was it that obvious?" she asked softly after a moment.
"When I found blood on my sheets the next morning, yeah," Gabriel replied. He saw her body relax slightly. Gabriel realized that she wasn't upset he had found out, she just didn't want the reason to be because she had been bad at sex.
"I figured I wouldn't bleed," she explained. "I've been doing gymnastics since I was a kid and before my period stopped because of the birth control, I used tampons."
"So you were never planning on telling me?" Gabriel asked.
"Considering that I had hoped to never see you after I left the island, no, I wasn't planning on ever telling you."
"You didn't think it was something I should know?" Gabriel asked incredulously.
"No," Ash replied. "I didn't think it was relevant. Why? Are you upset I didn't tell you?"
"It's kind of a big deal."
"Not if you don't make it one."
"Most women take their first time pretty seriously," Gabriel told her.
"Do I seem like most women, Gabriel?" she asked.
"Your indifference about this whole thing is unusual."
Ash shrugged. "I care more about my life than my virginity," she replied bluntly.
Gabriel looked at her. "Those two things aren't connected. I never did anything that should have made you believe that having sex with me would save your life."
"I just figured it would make it harder to kill me," Ash shrugged. "And it did put you to sleep, which let me signal for help and get away from you."
Gabriel looked slightly dumbfounded at her answer. "You are the most calculating woman I've ever met."
"Thank you," Ash replied, smiling.
"It wasn't a compliment."
"I don't care, I'm taking it as one."
"Are you some kind of sociopath?"
Ash laughed. "Well, I never went to any of my court-mandated counseling, so who can really say?"
She looked at him carefully. "You are upset that I didn't tell you," she realized slowly.
"I wouldn't have been so rough if I had known," he told her.
Ash shrugged, nonchalantly. "At least I know I know I can handle you at your worst."
Gabriel snorted.
"What?" Ash asked, confused.
"I might have been a little rough, but that wasn't even close to my worst," he told her, amused.
Gabriel smiled as Ash's eyes widened. She recovered quickly though.
"Well, it doesn't really matter either way, because it's not happening again."
"Hmm," Gabriel murmured in amusement.
"It's not happening again," Ashlyn repeated firmly.
"Are you trying to convince me, or yourself?" Gabriel asked, smirking.
Ashlyn rolled her eyes. "I'm trying to get rid of any ideas you might have about where this is going."
"You don't have to worry about that," Gabriel replied. "I'm not interested. You look like a corpse."
It was half-true. Her eyes were sunken, she looked like she hadn't eaten or slept in days, which she probably hadn't. But somehow she still looked beautiful, and somehow he was still interested. There was something about her he couldn't seem to get out of his system. He couldn't help but want her.
"Seriously, when is the last time you slept?" he asked, slightly more gently.
"I took a three hour-long nap while I was waiting for you in Pittsburgh," she told him.
"And before that?"
"The plane to get back to the States," she replied softly.
Gabriel sighed. "Sleep. I'll wake you up when we get to where we're going."
"You expect me to be able to sleep right now?" Ash asked him in disbelief.
Gabriel shrugged. "I have drugs I could use instead, but you wouldn't stop whining the last time I used them on you. I figured I'd let you go to sleep the natural way. Unless you would prefer the sedative."
Ash scowled at him, but rested her head against the window and curled up. Just as her eyes began to close, she opened them again.
"What did you tell him?" she asked.
"Tell who about what?"
"Kyle. About...us."
Gabriel stared at her for a moment. "Nothing," he said finally.
Ash let out a sigh of relief.
"Are you embarrassed about sleeping with me?" Gabriel accused.
Ash shook her head, irritated. "It has literally nothing to do with you Gabriel."
"Really? Not telling Kyle that you lost your virginity to me has nothing to do with me?"
"He thinks he loves me," she said aloud, not acknowledging Gabriel's question.
"He does love you," Gabriel told her.
"No, he loves who he thinks I am. He loves who I made myself be for him. If he knew who I was...what I was...he wouldn't love me."
Gabriel glanced at her. This was the first time he had heard her talk about something real, something that mattered.
"What do you mean what you are?"
"Nothing..." Ash said. Gabriel could see her walls coming up again, so he was relieved when she continued to talk. "I just...I don't want to hurt him Gabriel. He doesn't deserve it. But that's what I do. I hurt people. I don't even think I'm capable of love."
Gabriel looked at her, confused. "You turned yourself in to the person hired to kill you just so Kyle could go free. Why would you do that if you don't love him?"
"Because I understand that his life is more important than mine," Ash replied simply.
There was a moment of silence.
"Why are they after you, Ash?" Gabriel asked, gently this time.
She shook her head. He frowned, but because he had made some progress, he decided not to push it further.
"Get some sleep," he told her instead.
She looked at him with her sweet, honey eyes as if she wanted to say something. Then, seemingly deciding against it, she rested her head against the car's window and quickly dozed off.