<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">Oliver was quick to comfort, to check and make sure she was okay, but he was even faster to take the blame. It was hard for Genevieve to hear, especially when she suspected it hadn’t been the contents of the flash drive that had sent the men after her. No, the phone call she had made after he left was much more suspicious in her mind, but before she could muster the courage to correct him and take responsibility for the violence against her, Oliver was pulling away from her to congratulate her dog for attacking her attackers. She started to tell him she wasn’t sure if she’d even forget the way the blood looked on the animal’s muzzle when Oliver suddenly sprung back up and pushed her behind him.<br/>
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“Hey—“ she started to protest the jerky movements, but her dark eyes were swiftly drawn toward the direction Oliver’s focus had gone. A van, slowly combing through the neighborhood, not more than half a block away. Her voice drowned in the back of her throat while a newly formed wave of uncertainty overcame her. Genevieve stood in mild bewilderment for a long beat, but it was Oliver’s sudden, harried actions that had her stumbling and nodding while making her way over to the small SUV. “This is absolutely insane,” she found herself saying while climbing into the front seat. She had nothing, had no idea what they wanted, and all she had wanted was for someone to tell her what the phone number she’d called was for. Yet in no time, they were speeding along the main road with the van on their tail, clearly unwilling to give up unless it received the prize in the passenger seat.<br/>
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There was a gun in her lap. There was a man she had a twisted history with in the driver seat. There were men who wanted her that would smash the back end of the Mazda if Oliver so much as brushed his brakes. Dunkin panted patiently in her ear from the backseat. Genevieve felt like if she didn’t keep her wits about her, she could very easily slip into a meltdown and it wouldn’t do her any good. Instead she gingerly lifted the weapon and let her left hand curl around the grip, her index finger refusing to lay to rest upon the trigger for the time being. With it in hand in case of some ridiculous scenario where she’d need to protect them, Gen turned around in her seat so she could look behind them, trying to get a good sense of how far behind the van was and how many people were in it. From what she could see, it appeared to be the two men who had attacked her previously, but she couldn’t be certain.<br/>
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“Everything?” Genevieve parroted bleakly, glancing over at Oliver, then grimacing when she caught the nervous way his hazel eyes looked her way. With her gunless hand, she tried to push back some of the disheveled curls behind her ear, “I guess I should start with the fact I didn’t show you everything I found last night.” She suspected he wouldn’t like hearing that, and was fully prepared for a glare or a groan, or even both, so Gen was quick to continue, not wanting to give Oliver the chance to chastise her, “I found a business card. Just a plain white one, nothing special about it except it had a handwritten phone number on it. So I called it after you left last night. I was hoping maybe whoever it was would know something about Nathan, but no one answered me when I asked who they were.”<br/>
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She thought back on the conversation, her slender eyebrows drawing together in momentary reverie before she frowned over at Oliver, “All whoever it was said when they answered was, ‘The night is short and the sea is shallow.’ Now that I’m thinking about it more, I’m sure that was some kind of code for something. Maybe whoever it was wanted to make sure it was Nathan who called or—“ One of her glances to the back had her focus faltering and her eyes widening when she realized what was being held out the passenger window of the van, “Oliver…Oliver, they’re pointing—“ The bullet shattered the passenger side rearview mirror before Gen could finish and the shriek of surprise that came from her was involuntary, as was the way she jolted away from the passenger window, though the shattered glass only bounced off it before falling to the earth. There was a moment of complete disbelief from Gen as she stared at the broken mirror,“Holy sh—“ Another burst of glass sent her jumping, only this time it was the rear window, and the rushing sounds of the road filled the small space.<br/>
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"I'm sorry!" Genevieve felt obligated to say over all the new noise. His car wouldn't be holy if she hadn't called him after all, "I'll pay for that...I'll pay for both, just get us--" The driver side rearview mirror went next and Genevieve frowned her realization while curling down to try to keep her head and appendages from leaving the outline of her seat. She just prayed Dunkin stayed down, Oliver could get them somewhere safer, and that he wasn't hit because whoever it was was trying to make it damn hard to evade them.</span>