Glided Gravity

Chapter 3

The deal was not even signed when it was hit by the explosion.

One second, Gabriel Dray's boardroom was a glass cathedral of power — polished, quiet, immaculate. At another second, there was a shock-wave in the windows as if it were being shaken somewhere on the bottom. Papers took flight. Coffee spilled on the slick table.

"Stay down!" Gabriel shouted.

Scarlett didn't hesitate. She sank against the long table, heart beating in her throat. The lights flashed once, twice, and then died away. The emergency beacons blinked red across the ceiling.

The five investors stood still—their suits, their money, their composure all meant nothing. The elevator alarms wailed.

Gabriel was already in motion, quick and accurate. "Lock the doors. Nobody leaves."

He turned to Scarlett. "Stay behind me."

She wanted to inquire what was taking place, but the glance in his eyes made her shut her mouth. He had been anticipating something. Maybe not this, but something.

Before security could show up, the boardroom doors burst open. Three black men stepped in — not guards, not random assaulters. Professionals.

Gabriel didn't think. In three steps, he reached and banged the first man on the wall. The second struck him, and Gabriel dodged away, turned his arm, and hit his side with an elbow. Clean, efficient.

Scarlett gazed, half frightened and half fascinated.

The curse stirred — hot, electric, alive. The air that lingered round her throbbed like her heart. One of the assailants glanced at her, with eyes dashing across her face — and then stood still.

That hesitation saved her. The man fell on his back as Gabriel gave him a savage blow to the jaw.

"Who sent you?" Gabriel demanded.

The man did not reply, but only spat blood and grabbed his jacket pocket.

"Gabriel!" Scarlett shouted.

He threw himself behind the table as there was a flash—not a bullet but a smoldering flash of light. Smoke filled the room. The men were gone.

The bang of footsteps and the odor of burned ozone were all that was left.

Silence. After that, Gabriel sat up, with a harsh breath.

It wasn't me they wanted, he said, with a cut of his eyes at her.

Scarlett's pulse hammered. "You don't know that."

"I do." He pointed at the wall. Something like acid was scorched in a message into the glass: YOU CAN'T HIDE HER FOREVER.

Her stomach twisted.

Gabriel swung about and did not reveal his face. You will give me details of who is after you.

I do not know — I do not know, she thought, I really do not know. "There are too many--"

He banged at the table. "Start with the ones who lived."

She flinched but met his gaze. "You think I did this to them? You suppose I make people love me and then what? Kill them when I'm bored?"

His jaw flexed. I think you're dangerous. But I wonder if you are not the only one.

A few minutes later security rushed into the room. Gabriel approached them with snipped precision, and had the whole floor cleared. Scarlett quietly moved out to the hallway in the midst of the commotion. There was residual adrenaline and guilt running through her body.

She couldn't stay. In whatever land she found herself, calamity went on with her.

She had gotten to the elevator and stopped.

A long fellow was standing there waiting, with his hands in his pockets, his smile as serene as that of a person who had just emerged bearing minor wounds.

"Hello, Scarlett," he said. "You don't remember me, do you?"

She didn't. Nevertheless, her blood became cold.

He came near, and spoke in a low tone. Damon Sloane was no coincidence. He tried to sell your secret. Now everyone is ready to have a share of it.

The elevator doors glided behind her before she could do anything.

The voice of Gabriel resounded along the passage: "Scarlett!"

He was there moments later, with his gun in hand — tiny, sleek, businesslike. The stranger held up his hands and grinned.

"Relax, Dray. I'm just the messenger."

Gabriel's tone was ice. Then say your word and take your leave. The man's grin widened. "She already did."

The lights went out again.

On flicking again, the man was not there. Scarlett stood against the wall, shaking. You need not be here, she whispered. You know nothing about what you have stepped into.

Gabriel holstered the gun. "Maybe not. But I'm not leaving until I do."

His voice was low but final — that sort of quietness which is troubling.

Both of them were at the parking level, and there was silence between them. There was a glowing police light outside. The driver of Gabriel opened the car door without saying anything.

"Where are we going?" Scarlett asked. "To ground you," he replied.

"Ground me?"

He looked through the rear-view mirror directly at her eyes. You say you can command gravity, then I will break the place where it commands.

What he said shouldn’t have given her shivers, but they did.

The city's blurred past. Helicopters crashed by. Gabriel talked low into his earpiece — it was coded, hidden assets, it was relocation orders. He was prepared to have a contingency plan of everything, including her.

On the halt of the car, they were not in DrayCorp. They were on the outskirts of the river, on a deserted pier.

"This is your plan?" she asked.

He stepped out first. No cameras. No networks. No interference. Here they can lose the trail in case they are following us.

Scarlett hesitated. The water glowed black under the streetlights, and the air smelled of iron and rain. "And if I'm the signal?"

Gabriel's eyes met hers. Then we shall know what becomes of your gravitas and mine.

Friction of lightning in the distance. Thunder rolled in behind it. Gabriel moved to the tip of the pier and looked about the city-scape, and Scarlett was a few strides behind him.

Her power aroused again — that tug at the veins of her that made people turn, look and desire. Gabriel should've felt it. Everyone did.

But he didn't even flinch. She stepped closer. "Why aren't you affected by me?"

He turned around, and it was beginning to rain. Perhaps because I had lost faith in attraction many years ago.

"That's not possible."

"Neither is what you do."

She almost smiled. "Touch me and find out."

He did not move—but his heart beat quickened. She would read it in the movement of his jaw, which twitched once, then followed by another before it was held back.

Scarlett took another step. The shower increased, and even her hair was stuck to her face. The world was silent for a moment, as they heard no sirens, no footsteps.

Then something broke the darkness — something low and mechanical.

Gabriel turned sharply. "Drone."

Above the water, a red light was seen to come down.

"Move!" he ordered, grabbing her arm. They leaped into a pile of shipping cases as the drone threw out its spray of glass shards that cut like shrapnel into the air.

Gabriel protected her with his body covering her. The drone flew by once, twice, and disappeared behind the clouds.

There was a moment of silence, during which neither of them made any motion.

She could feel his human heart beating against her back — steady, solid, dangerously human.

The voice was raw when he finally spoke. Next time you tell me to touch you, I may not stop.

Scarlett breathed a sigh of relief and gazed at the rain that was accumulating around them. Next time, she said, “I might not want you to."

They were in the debris of silence, wet and gasping too hard.

The attack had been unsuccessful—but the message was clear.

Scarlett Vale was wanted by someone out there, contained, captured or killed.

Gabriel swiped water off his face. Whoever is playing this game knows you are with me now.

Scarlett met his eyes. "Then they've made a mistake."

He tilted his head. "How's that?"

She smiled herself out of the world. “They have given my curse direction."