it had been almost three weeks since love went to visit her cousin, as daniel had believed. he had thought love loss track of time but was starting to get worried.
daniel picked up his phone and the line rang for a couple seconds until a voice echoed on the other end.
"what is it?" zach asked.
"i think love's missing, she told me she was visiting her cousin and has been gone longer than she said she'd be."
"oh, it's fine, i've been watching her these past two weeks."
"what? why didn't you tell me?"
"didn't think it was that important."
"come on, i'm included in this and i want to get paid too."
"we're both still getting paid nonetheless, daniel. now stop worrying, i got my eyes on her now."
zach watched love exit the elevator in the lobby and head towards the front doors, leaving.
"gotta go, she just left."
zach hung up and daniel was relieved. he put his phone down and went back to watching tv.
♤♤♤
love decided not to eat breakfast in the lobby since it was still packed with all the college students that were visiting. she wondered how much longer they'd be visiting.
love entered a small cafe she saw on her walk and decided to eat breakfast there. once she ordered her food, she sat down and ate while reading her book.
zach followed a few feet behind love, not wanting to be seen. he turned the corner and saw she entered a cafe and went inside. he watched as she ordered her food and sat down, zach ordering his too.
as zach was about to sit down and spy on love from a distance, his phone rang. zach looked at the caller ID and immediately picked up. "jonah?"
"zach, how are you doing with this?" jonah asked.
"good, i got eyes on her right now."
"what's she doing?"
"eating breakfast and reading, why?"
"just wanted to know, how close are you to bringing her back?"
"i need to gain get trust first jonah, if i go in while she's still vulnerable it'll throw off my whole plan."
"okay, fine. but you better bring her back soon, i've been waiting for too long. if you don't bring her back in two weeks, you're dead. and that's not a threat."
jonah hung up and zach stood still. his clients were never as harsh as jonah. now that zach had a deadline, he needed to finish the job quicker.
he decided if he wanted to initiate his plan, he'd have to get to know love first. not by some documents, but face to face. he decided to put on an act and approached love.
"hey, love?" zach asked obliviously.
love looked up from her book and closed it. "oh, you're cesar right? the guy from the elevator."
zach almosted corrected himself, before remembering he told love his name was cesar when they met in the elevator.
"yeah, that's me," he smiled.
"here, sit down. i owe you for helping me with my luggage."
zach sat down across from love. "it's no big deal, just being polite."
love smiled. "so, cesar, where are you from?"
"dallas, how about you?"
"los angeles, i know, pretty basic," love laughed causing zach to smile. "what brings you to maryland?"
"just a trip to myself, i needed to leave home for a while. ever get so bored of your hometown and just need some new air? basically, why."
"yeah, i understand. a lot has been going around in l.a. so i decided to just get out for a bit."
you don't say, zach thought.
love went back to eating and reading. zach caught himself watching love. love caught him too and smiled when they made eye contact. zach looked back down and they talked more while they ate.
♤♤♤
christina looked at the picture fram collage that hung on jonah's wall.
there were pictures of jonah and love, when they were in love, pictures of christina with love and jonah, and group pictures or loves jonah, christina, and corbyn together.
jonah appeared from the corner and noticed christina staring at the wall collage and approached her. "you miss her?"
"yeah, i just hope she's okay," christina replied.
"once she's back, everything can be back to normal and we can add more memories to this wall."
christina smiled at jonah and he turned around and walked away. she felt her stomach turn by the way jonah was talking about the future with love. she was scared for love and what would happen once jonah got her back.
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Liked by corbynbesson, zachherron, and 65,351 others jonahmarais you can run, but you can't hide
