Riley's stomach was filled with butterflies. She couldn't believe that Gabriel had done that. Every part of her was tingling. All she wanted was for Gabriel to kiss her. If only his mother hadn't interrupted... Riley shook her head. No, she couldn't afford to fantasize right now. She had a job to do. Everyone gathered into Gabriel's room. Riley didn't trust herself enough to sit anywhere near Gabriel, so she chose a chair in the corner of the room.
"What's your next move?" Mei Chen asked.
"We need a safe house. Somewhere in the woods or abandoned, preferably outside of Angel's Bluff. Wait, 'your'? Are you not coming?"
"No way. You people are crazy." Mei Chen stood and walked to the door. "See you in the cyber renders." She told Gabriel, and then she was gone.
Gabriel swore, then received a slap from his mother. "She's gone off the grid. In fact, she's erased herself completely from every database."
"We'll worry about her later. Maybe Lillian has a safe house for us."
"Tetazoo has access to all of her safe houses. If we contact her, then he'll know exactly where we're going."
Mrs. Vaughn suddenly shook her head. Riley had forgotten she was even there.
"Gabriel, what is going on? How do you know these things?" Mrs. Vaughn asked in disbelief.
Riley tuned him out while he explained everything. She was more focused on where to hide until they could figure out how to save themselves.
"Mrs. Vaughn, do you have any maps that we could use?" Mrs. Vaughn glanced from her to Gabriel, then left to get the maps. When she returned, Riley moved cautiously to the bed so they could lay them out.
"Lillian has several safe houses in the Appalachian mountains." Riley pointed to the spots the houses were located."Each are only a few minutes from a small town but far enough out of the way that any federal movement can be avoided."
"But Tetazoo knows-" Gabriel was cut off.
"But if we don't contact Lillian, he won't know where we are at all." Riley explained.
20 minutes later, Riley and Gabriel were on their way to the Appalachian mountains, posed as a happy couple on their first vacation together. The drive was about 3 hours, farther than Riley would've liked but it was safer than anything they could find close to Angel's Bluff.
Riley hadn't slept in almost two days. She was exhausted, and the now dark sky was lulling her to sleep.
"Riley, why don't you let me drive?" Gabriel suggested, breaking the silence.
"Not a chance." She said through a yawn.
"Then pull over and get some sleep."
"There is no way I'm sleeping in this car." Riley sounded petty, but she didn't care.
"There's a sleeping bag in the trunk." Gabriel reminded her.
"If anyone needs sleep, it's you." Riley kept her eyes fixed on the road and tightened her grip on the wheel.
Gabriel sighed, and suddenly the car came to a stop in the middle of the highway.
"Gabriel! Turn the car back on!" Riley yelled. Cars were honking their horns and zooming into opposite lanes to avoid them.
"Not unless you promise to pull over and get some sleep." Riley growled.
"Fine. Now turn the car back on!" Half a second later, the car was back on and Riley pulled over.
"Happy now?" She snapped. Gabriel gave her a smug grin and they got out of the car and climbed into the trunk. Riley rolled out the sleeping bag and got in.
"I'll keep watch." Gabriel said, and that's the last thing she heard before she fell asleep.