"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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It was silent.
At first the silence was good. It allowed Gabriel to sneak into the kitchen through the back entrance, block the downstairs door so Alexander's men were trapped inside, and slit the chefs' throats before anyone even noticed he was there. He frowned as he looked at the blood-spattered food. Some customers were not going to be very happy tonight.
Taking out a vital part of the restaurant started the clock - it was only a matter of time before they were noticed now. Hopefully Ash had enough time to interrogate Alexander and get the information they needed, because they had to go.
But that's when Gabriel realized the silence wasn't as good as he initially thought. He didn't hear an interrogation. He didn't hear anyone yelling angrily. He didn't hear anything other than the boiling pot of water on the stove next to him.
Sensing something was wrong, he rushed to the pantry where Ash said she would be. Ice flooded his veins as soon as he saw a crimson puddle on the floor. But then he saw her, facing away from him, standing with a blood-stained knife in her hand. He breathed a sigh of relief. It was Alexander's blood - he was the one on the floor, his eyes closed and his breathing ragged. Stomach wound, Gabriel noted. He wouldn't last long.
"What happened?" Gabriel asked, concerned.
"I stabbed him," Ash replied calmly, not turning around. She was probably in shock, Gabriel figured. What had the bastard done to her?
"I see that," he replied as gently as he could. "Why?"
Ash finally turned around, and Gabriel sucked in a sharp breath upon seeing her face. This wasn't shock. She was completely unaffected, casual, as if she had sliced up a vegetable instead of a human being.
"Because I wanted to," she replied. Her tone was cold, maybe even a bit amused.
This was not a normal reaction to killing someone for the first time.
But he could deal with that later.
"Give me the knife," he commanded, resisting the urge to ask where she gotten it or how she had concealed it. She surrendered it to him willingly.
"We have to go," he told Ash. She nodded and followed him out the back entrance obediently. They could hear Alexander's men banging against Gabriel's barricade, but it was clear they weren't getting out of the basement anytime soon.
Gabriel and Ash made it to the car, where Levi was waiting as their getaway driver. Gabriel slid in the back with Ash, then instructed Levi to drive.
"Did you find out who the third man is?" Levi asked as he drove.
"No," Gabriel replied.
Levi glanced at him in the rearview mirror. "Well since our Plan B was to take Alexander hostage, and he's not here, I'm assuming you had to go with Plan C?"
