Somewhere on a beach in Italy
The small bungalow in which they have been living the past three months welcomes the morning lights and objects flying everywhere because Hope is very, very mad.
Ashlyn jumps out of her bed, as her girlfriend is going out of the bungalow in a hurry, swearing at emptiness. They chose an abandoned part of the beach, usually forbidden, to settle down. The past three months have been calm : no Engen on the way, no soccer team to ruin, no Julie to hunt or something.
But the short-haired knows it is about to change.
"Hope, stop..."
"FUCK" Hope yells, losing her temper.
Even Ash is afraid of her when she is mad : everybody know she can be violent, and for cause she hit Jerramy more times than she actually said his name. So Ash sets back, waiting for Hope to stop breaking things.
Once it is the case, she says :
"Babe, what happened ?"
The dark-haired sits sets her jaw and crosses her arms against her chest, shaking her head energetically.
"My mother died."
"Shit."
"Yeah" Hope lets out, her hands on her head. "That means they are going to search her house because she killed herself, and find my birth certificates and other stuffs."
Ashlyn shakes her head.
"We'll figure it out, babe..."
"There's no 'we', Ashlyn." Hope says, turning on her girlfriend, shaking her head. Her eyes are darker than the usual. "You don't know everything about me, far from that, and what you will discover will make you want to leave in a hurry. Believe me."
"No, I-"
"Ssh" Hope orders, trying to think.
There is a rather long silence, during which Ashlyn is just trying to come up with something clever to say.
"Look, I don't care about your past, or how many people we will have to kill or ruin the lives of to make you safe, but I love you and I am ready for everything. I have contacts, Hope. You need me."
The short-haired made a point ; she knows it by the way Hope is looking at her. The former goalie nods her head.
"Then, it's time to go back to America.
______________
TV reporter
"After Hope Solo escaped the Federal Prison of Los Angeles, where she was for a few months, we have news on her involvement. Her mother, Judy Solo, died last night in her apartment in New Hampshire. The police has rapidly given a cause of death : suicide. With an investigation opened, the police put their hand on some hidden documentation involving Hope Solo's birth and life.
"It appears that the former Stanford goalkeeper, who never finished school because of indecent events occurring with some players from both her team and UCLA, has been lying to everybody, even the authorities : in her birth certificate, it appears that she is 35 years old, and not only 25, as she claimed to be.
"Furthermore, her involvement in Whitney Engen's murder four years ago lead her to a life sentence in prison. But the inmate escaped under very blurry circumstances, as the Federal Prison of Los Angeles is under investigation at the moment. Hope Solo is actively looked for around the world, since it appears that she also was behind Jerramy Stevens and Jealene Hinkle's deaths last year on the Stanford campus, as well as Servando Carrasco's suicide later this same year.
"If you see her or get information, please contact the local police, and if...
Somewhere in the USA
Ashlyn turns the radio off. Hope, who is driving, has a smirk on her face. The short-haired looks at her, confused.
"Why are you so relaxed ? You're the number one criminal in the United States at the moment..." the goalie settles, only to get interrupted by her girlfriend :
"Because they have no idea what's going on... They didn't find the most important part."
The short-haired doesn't say anything. After a few minutes, she finally asks :
"Can I at least know where we are going ?"
Hope smirks.
"In Louisiana." she says in a beyond serious and confident tone. "It's time to get some allies, because this time we can't let them come out alive of this."
"B-but..." Ash starts, half-terrified.
Hope, on the other hand, is not disturbed the slightest : she even has a smirk on her face when she says :
"It's time we find out where my daughter is."