The Galilee Falls Trilogy (Book 3): Fall of Heroes (22 page)

He actually smiles, which brings one to my face too. Hesitantly, he reaches up, hand lingering a centimeter above my cheek a second before he touches me. I place my hand over his. “I
have
to kiss you right now, okay?” he whispers. “It doesn’t have to go beyond—”

I silence his words with the needed kiss. Sweet and tender quickly growing savage. Primal. The type of kiss that only a nightmare night can spur. When you’ve gone to hell and back and need to remind yourself that pleasure is still possible. We fuck the pain, the loneliness, the rage at life away until when we come crashing back to earth we can continue on another day. And as I fall asleep in my friend’s arms, I don’t dread the sun rising or the fresh hell the new day will bring. For tonight good enough might actually be enough.

At least until the dawn comes.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Because It Matters

Oh, there is nothing like waking up well and truly fucked.

Sore in the right places, limp in all others. Scorched earth where no tension can take root. I don’t even care that the clock reads 11:12. I’m beyond late for work on a day I haven’t that luxury. My give a damn’s busted. I stretch like a cat and sigh contentedly. Boy, I needed that. But now I need to pee and brush the cat box out of my mouth. Fuck you reality. I throw off the covers, snatch a shirt from Bennett’s dresser, and pad to the bathroom. Coffee right after.

“No, goddamn it, you’re not listening,” Bennett says behind a closed door down the hall. “Doc, I don’t care about the cost. After all I’ve put into this, two hundred million is pocket change. I am just asking if it’s medically possible to move the timetable up.
If
we’re ready for roll out.”

Shop talk. Coffee’s more important than eavesdropping right now. He’s left me half a pot waiting in the small kitchen. Taking in the shiny counters and appliances he is definitely the type who has never turned on the oven in the corner. Okay, now I have my coffee, it’s time to snoop. Bennett’s muffled voice continues as I meander through his penthouse, starting at the entrance hallway, specifically the photos on the table. Bennett, wearing a ski suit holding up a pole as a blizzard storms around him. Bennett in church cradling a baby in a christening gown as Graham and CeCe flank him. Bennett waving on a wall cliff, suspended by ropes probably a thousand feet off the ground. Shaking hands with the President. Him as a teenager with a younger girl in his arms. Has to be Molly. Same smile, same large brown eyes. She would have been a beauty. Goddamn waste.

The living room’s next. Like my penthouse, shit
former
penthouse, an entire wall is glass and for good reason. The expanse of Independence is laid out before me. The National Monument’s gray arch, the Great Garden Park, President Huddleston’s memorial coliseum, all there. Must be breathtaking at night.

The wall behind me proves no less interesting. Books, books, and more books, some leather-bound and others the more modern paper. You can tell a lot about a person by their choice of entertainment. The old tomes are standard classics that appear never opened. The paperbacks are far more eclectic. Seems Bennett and Jem have similar taste in reading material. Spy novels, biographies, non-fiction about the Black Plague, Spanish flu, several on the uber-gene. Hell, he even has one written my Jem’s “father,” the psycho fucking fuck Dr. Christian Ambrose. Dr. Frankenstein more like. His monster turned on his maker too.

I pluck that book from the shelf and flip through it. All medical mumbo jumbo. I turn it over to the author photo and find myself staring at an older version of Jem straight down to the horn-rimmed glasses. So. This is the madman who genetically engineered then tortured the love of my life. There were nine failures: Adam and Aaron, Benjamin and Bernard all the way until Jonathan and Jordan came into the world, perfect in every way medically possible. Maybe if old Christian had let them be boys instead of lab rats their minds could have been perfect too. If he’d given them love. Support. Kindness. Not lab tests and vivisection. It’s a damn miracle Jem turned out as wonderful as he did. Kind, caring, strong, a man who strives to always do the right thing. Who devotes his life to helping others, usually to his detriment. Who…shit. My eyes are suddenly wet. Guess last night’s ice thawed.

China. He’s going to China. They do have better facilities. Probably more funding. Greater freedom. Work. All that matters is the work. Changing the world for the better. That’s why we made such good partners. We understood and fueled that part of each other. But I’m never going to see him again. Never. He’s moving halfway around the world. He…
shit.
I close my eyes and force the tears down. I’m not crying over him again.
I’m not.
He—

I sense his body heat a moment before one hand snakes down over my hip while the other glides under the shirt to my bare breast. I gasp as his fingers begin toying with me, playing my body like a guitar. I don’t open my eyes. I just let the sensations overwhelm the negativity. He does what he wants, and I let him. Anything to push Jem out of my mind. I don’t open my eyes again until my breathing regulates. Bennett smiles down at me, playing with my hair. I manage a smile back. “Thank you. I needed that.”

“Thank you right back. I did too,” he replies, grin growing. “So…?”

“So…?” I chuckle. “Everything okay at work? I heard you reaming someone a new one on the phone. Problems with the Society or—”

“No. Just a speed bump on another project.”

“Anything I can do to help?” I ask.

“Believe me, Miss Fallon,” he says, hand sliding up my thigh again, “you have helped enough.”

I stop his advance. “Enough of that, playboy.” I extract myself from his sweaty body and snatch up my shirt beside that damn book. “I am already late for work.” Bennett flips on his side as I stand. “I have a trillion loose ends to tie up before I leave.”

“Still plan on going back to Galilee tomorrow?”

“I have an appointment with my realtor to look at office space tomorrow, and my cousin’s birthday party at night, so I kind of have to. Can I borrow some clothes?”

“Take whatever you want.”

“Thanks,” I say as I walk to the hallway.

I think he was gearing up for a serious conversation which I am in no mood for. I find a set of sweatpants and hoodie in his dresser. My beautiful dress lies on the ground torn along with my pantyhose. At least my panties remain intact. Bennett, wearing nothing but jeans and a smile, walks in as I dress. “You know, I’ll probably be in Galilee in the next few days.”

“Oh. Good. Hopefully I’ll have a space to show you. We might even be to the local hiring phase.”

“Fantastic,” he says with little enthusiasm.

Okay, I am seriously out of practice with the whole getting away clean the morning after thing. I’m not sure what to say or do except leave. I slip on my heels. “I’ll e-mail you photos of the offices I like.”

“That’s okay. I trust your judgment. I’ll be busy with other things anyway.”

“The pet project? Care to share?”

“A guy’s gotta have his secrets to keep the mystery alive,” he says with that boyish smile.

Cue mine. “Well, you have my number if you need help. Or a sounding board. Or—”

“A blowjob?” he asks, eyebrow raised. “You do owe me one after the living room, us being equal partners and all.”

That’s better. Banter I can handle. With a sly grin, I saunter over to him. “I am all about equality.” I kiss him. Twice. “See you in a few days, playboy.”

“I’m counting the moments already.”

He swats my ass as I walk past. Getaway complete.

It’s still freezing but sunny as I begin my walk of shame. The doorman leaves his seat to hail me a cab. I need to get back to the hotel, shower, and change. I’ll be up all night with my loose ends so I can make the flight and appointments tomorrow. A cab pulls up before I begin shivering. I thank the doorman and climb in. The stop and go of city traffic does nothing to help my sense of urgency. So damn much to do. I’d walk but in these heels—

We barely get around the corner when the taxi door opens. My eyes whip right just as Justin slides in. “Jesus, it’s cold,” he mutters.

“The fuck?”

The driver starts talking in a foreign language, but I hold up my hands, smile and say, “It’s okay. It’s okay.” Justin smiles at the man as well. Shaking his head, the driver turns back around, placated. I’m not. “What the hell? How did you know where I was?”

“GPS on your cell. Why the hell weren’t your bodyguards there?”

“No one knew where I was. I was perfectly safe.”

“
I
found you,” he points out.

“Then you win,” I say, rolling my eyes. We stop and go in silence for a few seconds. Out of the corner of my eye, I assess him. No bruises, cuts, weeping knife wounds, or any evidence of last night’s epic beat down. Un-fucking fair. “Are you okay? After last night? I heard you caught him.”

“I did. Thank God.” Justin pauses, his jaw clenching. “He’s only nineteen years old.
Nineteen
, Jo. Just some kid from the suburbs who thought it’d be cool to become a supervillain instead of going to college.”

“Jesus,” I say.

“They went to his house, well his parents’ house, and found a file on his tablet filled with stories about Emperor Cain, Alkaline, Dr. Avatar with notes on what they did right and wrong. He even posted something called fan-fic about how he was Cain’s son and about them taking over the world. Another about him raping Lady Liberty. And there are millions of stories like that on these sites.”

“Well at least you got one pervert off the streets. How are you physically?”

“A little stiff and sore.” His lips purse in disapproval. “Waiting outside for you in sub-zero temps while you were literally screwing up your life didn’t help matters.”

“Excuse me?”

“You spent the night with Bennett Stone, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. So?”

“And you intend to continue the relationship with him?” he asks, close to sneering at the prospect.

“I…don’t know. Maybe.”

“What about Jem?”

“What about him? We’re broken up. He-He’s moving to fucking
China
.”

“You don’t…” Justin groans in frustration and looks away out of his window. “I see you walking off a cliff
you
don’t even want to walk off, but damned if you don’t keep taking those steps. To spite yourself. To spite him. And you’re so close to falling, to reaching the point of no return, and losing everything.”

“Excuse me. I already lost everything because of you, and because of a choice
he
made.”

“Like you’ve never made a mistake,” he spits out. “Like you’ve never made a hard, morally gray choice for the right reasons. Look, I don’t know if what we did was right or wrong, but the choice was made with the best of intentions. To save your ungrateful life. Even after all this, I would make the same choice. Because look at what’s happened since I came back. You’re lost. You’re cruel. You’re pushing away the best damn thing that ever happened to you. A man who has proven he will fight to the death for you. Would Bennett Stone do that?”

“Jesus Christ, I’m not marrying the fucking guy! We’re friends. We had a shitty night and had sex. Nothing more.”

“It’ll mean something more to Jem,” Justin says, voice hard. “You keep this up, you keep pushing and pushing, and he
will
go. And you’ll be alone with the knowledge
that
one, that one you can only blame on yourself.”

The truth of those words drops a rock in my stomach, but I’ll be damned if I’ll let him know that. He’s not winning this battle. “You know I find it really fucking hypocritical
you
of all people are lecturing me on acting without thinking of others’ well-being. Do you know the real reason I spent last night with Bennett Stone? Because neither of us wanted to be alone after we watched a teenage girl
you
left to die bleed out in front of us.”

His face falls. “What?”

“The movie theater you demolished last night. We were there. You left a crumbling building, one of many, to capture a single man. Dozens are in the hospital. One died that I’m aware of because
I
was there. Bennett and I watched her take her last breath. We stayed with her, a sixteen-year-old girl named Ariana, buried in the rubble you helped create.
We
were there for her while you were acting the supposed damn hero. So don’t you fucking dare lecture me on right and wrong. On hurting people.
Your
decisions killed a little girl last night. Say what you want about Bennett Stone, but he was there. He’s been there for me. It’s easy with him. Simple. And I can use some simple in my life. Complicated hasn’t served me very well. I’m tired of living on a damn roller coaster. I could use a break on a merry-go-round.”

“If you were anyone else, I’d agree. But you’re not. You don’t do half measures. And shallow will kill your fucking soul.” He leans in so we’re nose to nose. “It hurts because it matters, Jo. Never forget that.
Never
.”

“Get out of my fucking cab,” I growl, “before I scream.”

He stares into my sub-zero eyes, trying to keep his the same temperature, but can’t even come close. He looks away first and climbs out of the taxi where it’s a hell of a lot warmer than in here. Good. I gaze out my window and sigh. Goddamn it. I sigh again in an attempt to expel the rage. But not at the rage for him. No, I’m pissed because he’s right. When it matters, when it’s important…all or nothing. That’s me. It used to be what I loved about myself. My loyalty. My fierceness. Now it just makes me sad. Exhausted. Angry I can’t coast through with blinders on. Worse, I
know
I can’t. Fuck you, Justin, for that. Fuck you for knowing me so well even now. My goddamn soul mate.

Makes me wish I was born without a soul.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

When It Rains

Party time.
I’m
certainly in the mood. Okay, I’d so much rather be at my depressing apartment lying in bed watching TV or just sleeping as my new bodyguards stand vigil for a threat that’s never coming. They were waiting for me at the airfield when I landed early this morning, and the poor men haven’t had a break since. Driving me to my apartment, then all around town looking at offices, picking up V’s present, more office properties, and finally ending the day at V’s favorite pub for her surprise party. We rented the whole place out, well my Uncle Ray and Aunt Leslie did. I’m just the bankroll. They did an excellent job. Several of V’s friends from college, from the paper, from the neighborhood are here along with my three handsome cousins R.J., Bobby, and Eamon. Each gave me a bear hug when they saw me. I am a shitty, shitty niece and cousin. I haven’t seen my family in three months when Jem and I went over for Sunday supper. They adored him. The moment I introduced them all it was as if he’d been in the family forever. He just fit. Hell, I think they liked him more than they do me. Not without cause.