"That bad, huh?" Allen, her secretary, smiled when he saw her walking towards his beat-up Chevy Impala.
"It's manageable," Gabby said as she made herself comfortable in the passenger seat. "At least I survived."
"You mean 'they' survived?"
Gabby chuckled at that.
"Your sister is… sadly, I can't even find the right word to describe her. To think she would actually come to your house and make sure you knew she was pregnant,. Does she think being with a cheater is a catch?" Allen snorted before changing the topic. "How is Elena?"
"Good," Gabby looked outside the window. It took her a long time to convince her grandmother that she needed to leave as there was an emergency in the company. The older woman insisted that she stay for Christmas. However, Gabby had to leave. "You said something happened on the stone?" she quickly remembered why she left.
Talking about her personal life is not as interesting as the current stone that she was studying. Found in the depths of Egypt, no one was able to identify the stone that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. It was a disc-shaped black stone, and she highly believed it might be from space.
"Yes. I was having dinner with Roman when I received a notification. It seems that it reacted to something."
Gabby could not hide the excitement in her eyes. She smiled as she hoped this could be the breakthrough that they had been waiting for. She had a feeling that this was going to give her ample things to research.
"Right, I also received an email from Dr. Gomez. Sadly it's encrypted, again. So it's clearly for you."
Gabby chuckled. Dr. Gomez was her mentor, and the latter liked sending encrypted emails that only Gabby could crack. The old man found the stone and had been studying it with her, and the two had been exchanging information about the matter via encrypted emails.
"Do you think he is planning to spend New Year in Brazil?" she asked. The old Doctor is currently exploring Brazil with a few of his research colleagues. Gabby had wanted to come with him, but he insisted that this was going to be a very boring trip with older people. So, he asked her to stay and guard the stone. In the end, she agreed.
"He probably—"
BANG
Allen was unable to finish her words as a loud bang echoed through the air. The sudden impact catapulted Gabby forward, her body thrown against the seatbelt, leaving her feeling dizzy and disoriented. In that brief moment, it seemed like time slowed down.
Through the haze, she thought she saw Allen being thrown out of the car. Panic gripped her.
Gabby's hands shook as she fumbled to unbuckle her seatbelt, then she desperately tried to open the car door. The acrid scent of burning rubber and the distant sounds of commotion outside filled the air as she stumbled out into the cold Chicago night.
She quickly steadied herself and turned around only to see two other cars stopped not too far away from her. She tried to make sense of the chaos that followed, but everything happened so fast that her brain seemed to have frozen and was unable to catch up.
The next thing Gabby knew, she was already in the arms of a stranger, his strong grip guiding her to the ground. The cold night air bit at her skin as she crouched down, her eyes wide with fear.
"Get down!" he hissed, his voice ringing against her ears as if there were loud bells. However, what followed next was something even more confusing.
She thought she heard gunshots!
Gunshots?
Was someone firing at her?
The distant sounds of gunshots rang through the air, making her heart race even faster.
The stranger shielded her from the unseen danger, his body positioned protectively over hers. "Don't move!" the stranger said.
Gabby's mind raced, her heart thumped loudly against her chest as she tried to make sense of the danger that had abruptly intruded into her already chaotic night. Why would someone be shooting at her?
The stranger swiftly shifted from shielding Gabby to firing back at the unseen threat. The sharp retort of his weapon mingled with the chaotic sounds around them. Gabby's eyes widened with confusion.
However, this was not the best time to ask questions. She used both of her trembling hands to cover her ears.
The stranger's moves were quick and decisive as he abruptly pulled Gabby to her feet, his strong arms scooping her up and cradling her against his chest. The cold air rushed past as he carried her away from the scene.
"Allen!" she called out when she saw Allen's body lying nearby.
"The police are coming…" the man said, his voice husky. The distant wailing sirens and the sporadic echoes of gunshots seemed to wake her up as she tried to struggle.
"What are you doing? Let me go! Allen is—"
"Shut up!" he hissed before shoving her into the passenger seat of a nearby car. The stranger swiftly hopped into the car and started the engine. "Seatbelt."
It took her a second to realize what was happening, but before she could even put her seatbelt on, the car already started moving.
The cold leather of the passenger seat met Gabby as she tried to catch her breath. Was she… being kidnapped?
The moment she realized this, her expression immediately changed.
"What are you doing?" she asked, her eyes landing on his side profile. The stranger's eyes were focused on the road ahead, despite this, she thought she saw what looked like gray steely eyes. "Allen was in—"
"He is alive. Unconscious but alive."
She pursed her lips. She was mature enough not to grab the steering wheel while he was driving 100 miles per hour.
Instead, she put her seatbelt on. Her head was still groggy yet she knew that this man was not trying to kill her. If he was, he would have already used the gun on her instead of protecting her.
"Who are you and what do you want?" she asked as she tried her best to maintain a calm facade. She cannot panic now. No… not when she was in the company of a dangerous stranger whose eyes strangely reminded her of the stone that she was studying.