Chapter 4
1291 Words
The city was changed into liquid glass by rain.
The car that Gabriel was driving fishtailed once on the wet asphalt before gaining traction again.
Sitting next him, bare-shouldered and trembling, was Scarlett, as she gazed at the wipers slicing up and down the windshield.
Neither spoke.
When he eventually broke the silence, he spoke in a low tone.
“Anyone flying drones over a private property just declared war."
Scarlett let out a breath that wasn’t quite a laugh.
"Welcome to my life."
"Not anymore."
He gears down, going through a red light.
Henceforth, you no longer step out without my knowing where you are.
The expression was like protection, and she held the control underneath.
Gabriel Dray wasn't comfortable. He contained.
They found themselves in a small service tunnel under the former river bridge.
Gabriel put off the engine and opened a hidden gate.
Beyond it was yet another car — of the same color, untraceable plates.
"Switch," he said. Scarlett, still dripping, got in.
You have safe-houses like chess pieces, she said slowly.
He met her gaze briefly. When you make Empires, you also make plans for collapse.
They remained silent as they moved. In a short while, the city lights faded away.
They were swept away by industrial shadows—waxed rail lines, ashes of silence.
Gabriel drove into an unmarked house and tapped a concealed door.
The freight door swung down behind them and closed the world.
Interior: concrete walls, one couch, small kitchenette, and a wall full of monitors on backup power.
No luxury. Not a single trace of a billionaire image.
"This is where you hide?" Scarlett asked.
"This is where I watch."
He navigated to a console, where he raised feeds—street cameras, corporate satellites, personal security channels.
Scarlett threw a blanket round herself on the couch, and looked at him.
He appeared different — tired and human under the harsh light.
He had sustained a cut on his temple during the boardroom fight, and he did not realize until it was bleeding.
"Let me--" she started.
He waved her off. "I've had worse."
However, he did not prevent her from crossing him when she did.
She went on to touch the edge of the cut with a towel; he stood motionless.
The current that ran through her flesh flickered, once, light and hot.
He sensed it—she had noticed it in the restraining of his jaw.
You are bleeding, you are bleeding, she said gently.
"You're dangerous." He teased her with a mild smile.
Their glances met, too close, too long.
He stepped back first. I need to follow up on that drone signal.
Hours passed.
The rain fell heavily.
Gabriel was sitting on the monitors and Scarlett was sitting close to him half asleep and half listening to the machines.
Occasionally he said numbers, routes, names that she did not know, muttering them under his breath.
And at last, he swore, quick and low.
"They used my own network."
"What do you mean?"
He rotated the screen in her direction.
One of his satellite subsidiaries had a map aglow with the signal which had piggybacked through.
They used one of the DrayCorp channels to find you.
Who could it be, --they are within my system. He thought to himself.
"So, it's one of yours," she said.
His mouth tightened. "Or one of yours using mine."
She stood. "You think I'm part of it?"
“I believe you do not realize your own worth,” he said, staring at her.
The words were suspended there, cold as charge.
At once, the power wavered, and then settled.
Thunder was rolling somewhere in the distance.
Scarlett went to the window slit and looked out of it to the river.
All my life, she said to herself, men have been pursuing what they could not describe. I could outrun them. I was wrong."
Her reflection was next to that of Gabriel in the glass.
"You could stop running now."
She looked at him. And what shall you do when you begin to fall too?
He replied after a heartbeat. "Then we both fall."
There was something in his voice that pained her chest.
This time he was not making fun of her. He sounded resigned.
A sensor on the panel raised an alarm. Gabriel lunged back to the keyboard.
Motion sensors. South entrance."
Scarlett's pulse spiked. "Have they found us again?"
He drew out a gun out of a drawer and handed her a smaller one. "Stay behind me."
She hesitated. "I've never—"
"Point, breathe, pull. No hesitation."
The door banged up once, twice. Gabriel aimed, steady.
Nothing.
Then a knock. Just three quiet taps.
He frowned. "That's not them." He opened a feed. The camera depicted an elderly man with wet clothes and his hands up.
Gabriel muttered, "Leon."
"Who's Leon?"
My chief of security, until he disappeared six months ago.
Gabriel struck the release button. The door swung open; Leon, wet and frightened, stumbled in.
They are in your company, he choked. The top to bottom at DrayCorp is compromised. Somebody is paying your own team to track her.
He stared at Scarlett with eyes wide open. And you are not even aware of what you are.
Gabriel grabbed his collar. "Start talking." Leon thrust a flash drive in the hand of Gabriel.
Everything's on this. Names, transfers, the program they wrote of her pattern.
"What program?" Scarlett demanded.
Leon met her eyes. "Project G."
Her stomach dropped. "G for...?"
"Gravity."
The drive struck once in the hand of Gabriel, and then sparked.
A short flash—then smoke.
Gabriel said grimly, encrypted with a self-burn. Whoever made it did not want it to be opened twice.
Leon swore under his breath. They're already moving it. Offshore servers. It is no longer possible to prevent them within the company.
The composure of Gabriel was pierced.
A flash of pure indignation flashed through his face—restrained, but sincere.
He punched the table with a fist so hard that the monitors shook.
Scarlett stepped forward. "Gabriel--"
His eyes were darker than she had ever seen. My empire was used to hunt you. To weaponize you."
Her throat went dry. "Then destroy it."
For a moment, he said nothing. So that is just what I want to do.
Leon threw himself on the couch, gasping. You'll need allies. People who still owe you favors.
Gabriel didn't answer. He was already at another console and was drawing up satellite routes, files and power grids.
Tomorrow morning, he said, DrayCorp goes dark. I am clearing them of all the evidence. We start clean."
Scarlett was watching him—this man who got through disaster as though he were born in it.
Something within her went askew, admiration, terror, a word she did not want to say.
"Gabriel," she said quietly. “When this is over, what shall become of me?”
He didn't look up. That all depends on whether your curse is real—or somebody built it.
She blinked. "Built it?"
He turned then, eyes burning. "What if it's not magic, Scarlett? What if it's science?"
There was no accusation more damaging than the words.
If what he said was true, then everything — every ruined love, every dear — had been plotted.
The world began to spin around her. Scarlett sank on the couch. "Then find out," she whispered. "And make them pay for it."
Gabriel nodded once.
The sky was torn by lightning.
They were indeed within, the very first line of his self-control blown open to such a degree, she indeed saw the man underneath the empire—furious, determined—and no longer invulnerable to her gravity.
- Writer
