"Do you normally make-out with the people you're hired to kill? It doesn't strike me as very professional."
"Put the gun down," Gabriel panted, not answering her.
"Why on earth would I do that?"
"Because you're not going to shoot me," Gabriel rep...
*This chapter contains violence, including references to physical abuse at the end of the chapter. Reader discretion is advised.*
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Aspirin was close enough to ibuprofen right? Ash had asked for ibuprofen, but the front desk only had aspirin. He thought about going to a 24-hour pharmacy to get exactly what she had asked for, but he didn't want to leave her alone that long while she was stressed and in imminent danger.
"Ash?" he called, as he re-entered their hotel room.
Silence.
His first thought was that they had found her and taken her. But there was no sign of a struggle and her phone wasn't there. Gabriel quickly pieced together that she had left him, probably to go get Carter.
Gabriel felt an overwhelming sensation growing in him, but it wasn't anger this time. It was fear. Was she still alive? Would she be alive when he found her? Would he even find her?
He knew it was foolish given their situation, but he had dreamed of running after Ash in the sand, catching her by the waist and dragging her out into the ocean with him. He thought about picking apples in an orchard, surrounded by crimson and gold leaves. He imagined drinking hot chocolate with her under a cozy fleece blanket after an intense snowball fight.
But maybe they were never meant to experience the seasons together. Maybe these three weeks of spring were all they got.
Even if that was true, he wasn't ready to give up yet.
Ash had said that the company could locate her burner phone through the cell phone towers. Thinking that Rin and Levi could do that too, Gabriel dialed Levi's number.
"Everything alright?" Levi answered.
"She's gone," Gabriel replied.
"Shit," Levi cursed. "She's worse than Waldo."
"Levi, this is really not the time for your jokes," Gabriel snapped.
"Sorry, sorry. Just trying to help with stress."
"Nothing is going to make me less stressed except for finding her. Can we try to track her through the cellphone towers?"
"That'll take too long." Levi told him. "But I can let you know exactly where she is if you give me a minute."
"What? How?"
"I installed a tracker on her phone."
Gabriel's irritation with Levi immediately turned into gratitude. He took in a deep breath, finally able to fill his lungs with oxygen for the first time since he realized she was missing. "When did you do that?"
"The night we spent at my place before Ross came. You told me she had escaped from you before. I figured it was only a matter of time before she did it again."
Gabriel almost wanted to laugh. Levi's complete lack of trust in Ash may be the very thing that ended up saving her life. He was still worried, but a newfound sense of hope filled him.
