"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...
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A black car and black SUV continued tailing him through the streets of D.C. If he sped up, they sped up. If he slowed down, they slowed down.
Finally - finally - after two weeks of chaos, Gabriel got the high-speed chase he had been wanting. He had missed this: the thrill of zig-zagging between vehicles, the rush of acceleration, the challenge of timing everything perfectly.
But a good chase also required complete focus. And that was far easier when he was travelling solo. Not only did he have to worry about keeping Ash safe, he had to deal with her reactions to his aggressive maneuvers.
Based on her unwillingness to engage in a chase with him earlier, he had assumed she was afraid of dangerous driving. He had expected her to panic, scream, cry, maybe even faint while he whipped all over the road.
She had done none of those things.
If anything, she was eerily calm. Maybe even more calm than he was.
Instead, she insisted on pointing out each traffic violation he committed and explaining in detail the risks of Gabriel's driving choices. She was lecturing him as though she were a driver's ed teacher, not a passenger he was helping run away from people trying to kill her.
"You're going 30 miles per hour over the speed limit," Ash remarked as Gabriel continued to weave between cars on the city streets. "Speeding is one of the top reasons for car crash fatalities, especially in D.C. A recent study showed that crashes at 55 miles per hour will likely result in severe neck injuries and leg fractures. At 60 miles per hour, the chance of survival is only-"
"Do you know the number one cause of car crashes?" Gabriel asked, interrupting her.
"Of course. Distracted dri-oh," Ash said, realizing what Gabriel was getting at. "Am I distracting you?"
Gabriel resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he took a tight right turn down a side street. "Hearing about the injuries we'll get if we crash and our chances of survival does make it slightly more difficult to focus, yeah," he answered sarcastically.
"Well I'm sorry," Ash snapped. "I don't know why you decided to engage in a high-speed pursuit in the first place. You are not in your typical, stupid, flashy sportscar Gabriel. You are in a tiny rental Toyota with over 150,000 miles on it. You're not working with the ideal equipment here."
"Would you have preferred going on foot?" Gabriel asked. Swerving wildly, he took a ramp to get on the interstate. "You can barely walk in those shoes."
Ash looked down at her heels and sighed. "Why on earth do they have to make women's footwear so impractical? What is the point of these things?"
Gabriel seamlessly merged into traffic, then immediately crossed over to the far-left lane. "Men find them sexy," he replied.
"Do you find them sexy?"
"You could wear a pair of heels, bunny slippers, or crocs for all I care. I'd still find you sexy. Now - and don't take this the wrong way - could you please shut up?"
