Inertia (Gravity Series, 3.5) (The Gravity Series) (8 page)

“You never told me how she died.”

Harlow stared vacantly off into the distance. “Accident. Not a big deal.” She shook off the emotion and grinned at Lainey. “I have a good way for you to stop moping.”

“What?”

“How about we go out tonight?”

She produced two id cards from her pocket and handed them to Lainey. One girl was blonde, one was African-American, but that was where the similarities to them ended. Both girls pictured were both in their mid-twenties.

“Seriously? These don’t look anything like us. Who would let us in with these?”

“We put on a pound of makeup and show off cleavage and they’ll never care. There’s a club in Ypsi I’ve gotten into several times with that id. If they don’t take them at face value, just let the bouncers feel you up a little.”

Lainey threw a pillow at her.

They got dressed hurriedly and scooted out to the car. Harlow had some whiskey in her glove compartment to get them started. It didn’t take long to arrive at the club. Lainey was sweating when she showed off the id, but the bouncer barely even glanced at it. He was more interested in her ass as he licked his lips.

On the floor, Harlow and Lainey danced until their feet felt numb, shifting partners who kept bringing them shots. Soon the room was spinning pleasantly, and Lainey had forgotten all about her troubles and her ex-friend.

An older boy with a scruffy beard started grinding on her, rubbing his hands on her hips. It was probably just the beer goggles making him hot, but it didn’t matter. When he started kissing her neck, whispering things in her ear, she surrendered to the sensation. The strobe lights blinked and flashed, and she shut her eyes.

They wound up in the bathroom, his mouth hungrily devouring hers. He pressed her back into one of the stalls, gripping her hips so tightly she thought he’d leave bruises. His tongue was rough and wandering, and he tugged her short skirt up.

She slammed the stall door open, pulling him inside as the music throbbed in her ears. He wanted her and that was all that mattered.

###

The holiday party had been kind of a bore: the champagne was cheap, the decorations were boring, and she felt like she’d gained five pounds on the appetizers alone.

Plus, Ariel Donovan and her mother had been invited. At first, when she’d caught sight of Ariel trying to be attractive in a red dress (and succeeding, she would admit to no one but her secret thoughts), she figured that she was back to her party-crashing ways.

But as she asked around, she found out they had legitimate invitations. She knew Claire had been trying to pledge Thornhill, but she never thought the woman would get far. She tried too hard. Her mother, Deana had told her—gossiping like they were friends instead of mother and daughter—that Claire and Phillip had been in love and had a falling out back at the time of the old ritual.

Harlow and Lainey ended up in the powder room, sitting on a divan and doing coke out of a jeweled ring on Harlow’s finger. Lainey felt heavy and forlorn, sagging down into her itchy dress. Ariel and her wacky mother had made a sad, dramatic exit, but the party continued, with new members celebrating their acceptance.

“Your old boyfriend is back with his fresh squeeze,” Harlow said suddenly.

Of course he was. Like her life didn’t suck enough.
“How do you know that?” Lainey asked numbly.

“Dad told me he saw them together, locked in a tongue duel.” Harlow snickered at her own bad joke, but the sound was humorless.

Lainey stood up, not sure where her legs were taking her.

“Where are you going?” Harlow asked.

“Away.”

Most of the guests were still in the main reception room, so the coat check closet was empty. She went to get her lavender coat and slung it over her shoulders. She just wanted to go home. Too bad her house hadn’t felt that way for a while.

“Did you enjoy yourself?” Phillip asked. Lainey turned sharply and saw him standing in the doorway.

“It was fine.”

“You thought it was a bore,” he declared, stepping inside. He grinned and her heart beat faster. He was an old guy, her father’s age, yet he was very attractive. She’d noticed it the first time they met. He looked remarkably like Henry.

“Yeah, kind of.”

“Too bad you and my son didn’t work out. He has bad taste.”

He was close enough now for her to make out the thin lines around his brown eyes, to smell the faint scent of cigars and leather clinging to his skin.

“Tell me about it. So you know about him and Ariel? Back together again?”

He scoffed. “I’m not too concerned about that gutter trash anymore. She’s a passing phase. Useless.”

That filled her with a delighted, warm blush. He pulled a lock of hair back from her forehead, tucking it gently back in place. “A woman of quality is always something to be worked for and treasured. The easy girls don’t last. He’ll realize that some day. He might just need some persuasion.”

Lainey could almost feel his lips on hers. “Nothing will happen with Ariel in the way.”

“You’re too important to let go.” The way he looked at her now, the passion in his eyes…
he never looked at me that way
. She let her guard down, and his eyes, a clone of Henry’s, were hypnotizing her. “I just need your help to get rid of her.”

###

Phillip’s words and how he’d acted towards her had made her feel special and important like no other man ever had. She’d always worked her hardest, only to be discarded. Not by him. He saw how important she was. He had given her a special mission to prove it.

Ariel and Henry were walking up ahead, caught in the crowd of a late school day. They were trying like hell not to look at each other, but kept casting glances at one another like they just couldn’t help it. Irritation flared, making her teeth clench, but she pushed it away. Their immature flirting didn’t matter. He reached out and caressed her hand before they split off their separate ways.

She forced her mounting anger to be soothed again. Ariel wouldn’t be a problem for too much longer. She only had to bide her time before she struck.

It would hurt much worse a broken nose. She’d make certain of it.

6. DR. BRIGGS

PHILLIP’S OFFICE WAS
a garish eyesore, much like Dr. Milton Briggs had expected. Hideous, pus-yellow curtains, overpriced leather furniture, and a big screen painted with poppies that separated Phillip from the rest of the room—ugly and clashing, but had no doubt cost a pretty penny. If Briggs’ wife was still alive, she would have ripped everything down and told him to start fresh.

Maybe the cancer had advanced far enough to affect Phillip’s judgment of aesthetics.

One could only hope.

Phillip noticed his physician had arrived and waved everyone else out of the room. He’d been keeping his disease a secret from his disciples this entire time, but there was only so long and how much he could hide before it was obvious that there was something wrong with him to the others.

Briggs stepped just inside the doorway as the secretary introduced him. A short, stout man lumbered past him, a tuft of black, curly chest hair displayed by his open shirt collar. He’d been introduced to Cliff Ford before, and it had not left a favorable impression. The man was a pig, and the way he watched both his own daughter and her friends was suspect. He wouldn’t trust Harlow alone in Ford’s house, no matter how smart his daughter was.

He clutched his medical bag and went behind the screen.

“Right on time,” Phillip said. Briggs adjusted his glasses. Despite the thin silver frames, the lenses were quite strong. Without them, he couldn’t make out a word in front of his face. With them he could see just fine. And he had been trained to see too much.

Phillip was starting to look very bad. His skin had a greenish pallor to it that wasn’t due to the poor lighting. A vein in the middle of his forehead stuck out, pulsating gently. Shadows were beginning to settle in beneath his brown eyes. Like a man on death row, waiting for the final walk.

“I don’t like to keep my patients waiting,” Briggs said lightly, pulling out his stethoscope to capture a heartbeat. The man’s ticker was running pretty fast and he could hear a faint murmur. He said nothing about it, just moved on to the lungs. “Most doctors overbook for the insurance. I try not to.”

The blood pressure cuff went on next. Just as Briggs expected, it was a little high. Not too many signs yet—Rhodes could be a man who just exercised or had an extra shot of espresso in his coffee. But they were coming, and they would hit him hard.

“You have to be very careful about any strenuous activity,” Briggs said, tucking the stethoscope away. He knew that a man like Rhodes would never rest unless strapped down.

Phillip scoffed, exactly like Briggs expected. “You need to, or else,” Briggs said. “Rest as much as you can. Take all your medication every day. And if the headaches get worse…”

“The headaches are excruciating as it is,” Phillip said, even though he was talking pretty well for a man who claimed that. “But I only have to live with them for a little while longer. Until the transformation.”

We’ll see about that
, Briggs thought as they wrapped things up. The man wasn’t going to make it to the last ritual. And it would be the golden opportunity for Briggs to step in. And if he was a little impatient…

“We could try exploratory surgery,” Doctor Briggs suggested.

“I’m not letting you cut into my brain. Tumor or not.” Phillip eyed him warily and Briggs backed off. He knew he’d gained the man’s trust when few would, and he didn’t want to jeopardize his standing by being too eager.

“Suit yourself. You might be singing a different tune when the cancer spreads.”

He whistled on his way out of the office, smiling at the attractive secretaries as he went out to restart his day. Espresso sounded good.

###

“Talking about your mother is not going to bring her back, Harlow. And her death is no excuse for reckless behavior.”

It was weeks later, and Dr. Briggs’ daughter was causing him oceans of trouble. She’d seemed to do all right befriending Ford’s daughter, and had acquired his own skill for masking her true feelings. But at home, she’d fallen apart.

“She never had to die in the first place,” Harlow said, his large eyes watering. The same eyes as her mother. “I’ve asked you to explain it to me and you won’t. I watched her die in front of me and you don’t even care.” Those eyes blazed with the emotion she’d been stuffing in since Fiona took her final breath.

Briggs reached out and rested his hand on her cheek, but she shrugged him off, turning away with her arms twisted together.

“I told you, Fiona knew too much. I loved her just as much as you—”

“You’re incapable of loving anyone,” Harlow sneered.

“That’s not true. I love you more than anything. But she found out I was communicating with Thornhill. Don’t you understand what’s going to happen?”

He spun her around forcefully, gripping her arms too hard, his eyes gleaming. “We’re going to be like gods, Harlow!”

“How do you know that it’s true? A bunch of weirdos meeting in a room and getting hypnotized…what if it’s a bunch of garbage and you’re all crazy, have you thought about that?”

“I know more than he does,” Briggs insisted. “Rhodes doesn’t know about Luminos, but I do. He doesn’t realize all the power that lies beyond Dark, more than mere humans like us can fathom. But we could harness that power.”

“Don’t you see? I don’t want any part of it!” Harlow shouted, fresh tears falling from her eyes. She pushed him away and stumbled out of the room.

She would come around. If not by choice, than by force.

###

It took a while for him to get in close. First, he witnessed the Rhodes boy kissing the girl he was forbidden to see. But Phillip already knew about that from his spy, Roger, so it was a disappointing dead end.

When he was at the hospital, the police were sniffing around after Ariel was attacked. They visited her initially while he was standing by, but hours later they arrived again. He groaned when he saw them step into the ER.

“We need to ask her a few more questions,” the detective that had introduced himself as Mike said. “Before her memory gets stale.”

“She’s sleeping right now, gentlemen,” Briggs said calmly. “Come back in a little while. There are donuts and coffee in the break room. I’m sure you’ve had a long shift, help yourselves.”

The police lumbered away, but Briggs knew he was only buying time. They would insist on checking on Ariel themselves, and the frightened little pipsqueak would be only too eager to spill her guts.

It was simple enough to slip in to the pharmacy and take a strong dose of sedative. He chose one with amnesiac qualities to help him along. He almost took enough to kill her, but Phillip seemed wary about doing that yet. So, instead, he’d give her just enough to keep her down so the police would leave for the night. She might even have some good old nightmares. If she really did have the Sight, it might make her crazy.

McPherson had already gone down. It had only been a matter of time. Briggs was the best choice to step up into his place.

Looking blanched and defeated, unlike her usual spunky self, Ariel lay back on the pillow with her hair matted around her thin face. Completely trusting of him despite the fact that he was in allegiance with her enemies. Bedside manner one-oh-one.

“It’s not a big deal. I don’t need sleep.” He knew that her protest was because she was afraid of shutting her eyes.

“Yes, it is a big deal. Sleep will help you recover, help you heal.”
Help you forget the details and think you were dreaming.
“I’m going to get you a sedative, okay?”

He retrieved a needle, stabbed the cap of the medication and took it back in. The night nurse trailed in beside him, one he’d picked due to her being on the tail end of a double shift. He knew she had a sneaky pill habit and didn’t ask questions.

“Do you have to poke me?” Ariel asked. She was so frightened, yet still just so eager to trust someone.

“Nope. Right in the old IV.” He smiled as kindly as he could and watched the anxious lines on her face soften.