Page 28 of Silver Fire

They continued walking in silence until they reached the laboratory. A silver flash of light illuminated a huge staging area that was encased in eighteen-inches of compressed glass. The silver flame that engulfed a rock the size of a marble mesmerized Maia. Was this the zefinium? When Sophie removed her protective glasses, she looked over to them, grinned and held up two fingers—two minutes. The blonde scientist scooted over to her computer and entered some numbers while barking out some instructions to her assistants. She exited through the lab’s automatic sliding doors.

“Great to see you, Maia!” Sophie exclaimed and hugged her. They exchanged a bit of small talk before heading into her office. “What can I do for you?”

“Viktor and I are working a certain angle regarding your case and Derek informed me that you had a meeting with Christopher Blackstone,” Maia said.

“I did, but I don’t think he’s responsible for the attack at my house.”

“Maybe not directly.”

Maia told Sophie about Victor’s theory.

“That’s pretty far-fetched but not unreasonable,” Sophie said slowly. “What do you need me to do?”

“Do you have the list of security companies that work for Blackstone?”

“No. But I can ask Beth to send it to you.”

“That’ll be fantastic. Just email it to our datacenter to Tim’s attention.”

The intercom to Sophie’s office beeped.

“Sweetie, there’s a report from Divergent management of a hacking attempt on their computers, they’re advising us to shutdown our research computers,” Stephen said.

Sophie cursed. “Damn, I need to head out to the lab and shut it from there.”

“Braden, you’ve got computer forensic experience, right?” Maia asked.

“Yes, I do.”

“Sophie, can he use your computer to try and trace the hacker?”

“Fantastic idea, I’ll open a secure socket for him.”

Half an hour later,Braden couldn’t detect anything that may have compromised Silver Fire’s research computers. “There’s no malicious breach into their systems. The threat is confined to Divergent Research Zone’s management computers.”

Maia was sitting on the edge of the desk, leaning sideways and looking intently at the screen. Braden was sitting on the chair facing the computer. “What’s that blip over there?” She squinted her eyes and looked closer. She heard Braden’s breathing rhythm change and tilted her head to look at him. “You okay?”

“No.” He whispered and grabbed the back of her neck, pulling her toward him, fastening his lips on hers. Maia fell into his lap. Braden was built like a linebacker and his strong muscular arms held her in place. The palm of one hand keeping her head from pulling away, the other arm keeping her immobile against his body. She was too stunned by what had just happened and Braden kissed her for a beat. She tried shoving him away, but her arms were wedged tightly between them, Braden’s viselike grip almost crushing her. Finally, she turned her head to wrench her lips free. Braden buried his face in her hair, inhaling deeply. His lips trailed down her neck, he was breathing heavily.

“Let me go, Braden,” Maia said icily.

“I love you.”

“Let—Me—Go.”

Braden sighed and loosened his arms. Maia shot out, spun around and punched Braden in the face.

Shaking her hand, Maia glared at him. “What the hell?”

“I just told you. I love you.” Braden’s face was unapologetically stony.

“Are you insane? I’m married! I just got married!”

“Your husband doesn’t deserve you.”

“Don’t make me punch you again, Braden. I may have griped to you about Jack, but that’s what married couples do. We drive each other crazy. I am deeply in love with him.”

Braden’s face darkened, he stood up and tried to pull her to him.

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