Page 9 of Inescapable Gravity

She found herself a member of WITSEC because of her father, plucked out of her life to save it.

And hating every minute of it.

A muscle tensed in her arm, sending the bow skidding across the strings of her violin. The atonal sound screamed into her ears and brought tears to her eyes.

The tears she dashed away and then she stood, laying the violin in its open case, the bow beside it.

Lately, her past was coming back to haunt her.

Threats had been delivered to Blackwood Enterprises and its owner, Bart Blackwood. Threats that had sent her into hiding more than she was normally.

Just that morning, she'd received a call from Bart telling her that he'd hired a guard to protect her.

Her heart constricted in her chest at the thought of someone else in her space.

She was already having trouble playing the violin alone. Even the disguise she wore on stage wouldn't matter if she couldn't play a single piece from beginning to end. She was beginning to think that it would be better if she just disappeared.

Again.

There was just too much pressure on her.

Not enough air.

As she pulled a breath into her starving lungs, someone knocked at the door.

Knock knock.

No.

Knock knock.

She wasn't going to answer the door.

Knock knock.

She wasn't ready.

Knock knock.

She needed more time.

Knock knock.

Time she didn't have, because the lock clicked and the door swung open.

The man standing in her door was a hallucination.

No, a mirage.

There was no way that he was standing in the same room with her.

He was from the past.

Another world entirely.

Her mask.

She needed her mask. It was what kept the secret of her identity from the throngs of fans and members of her constantly growing audience.

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