The Galilee Falls Trilogy (Book 2): Galilee Rising

by Harlow, Jennifer

  "Then why not just kill me? Blow up my car or shoot me in the head like the coward you are?"

  "Haven't you been listening? Because you were no threat, bitch! As is illustrated by your current predicament. The only reason he went along with your absurd farce is out of some misplaced sense of loyalty for drawing attention to you. And I will admit, I was entertained by your little soap opera. Absolutely riveting. Four stars. And spending millions to have the press braying for Lord Nightingale's blood was masterful." He holds out his arms, gesturing to the entire ship. "But I still win. You overplayed your hand. So a bullet? A bomb? Dead is fucking dead."

  "So you just spared me until now because I'm a good actress and you wanted to gloat? Show me you have the bigger dick?" I shake my head. "If that's what you need to believe, then knock yourself out. Please."

  Jordan wryly chuckles, and I'm sure would say something pithy back but Danny Watkins, his lover/bomb expert hustling out from the corridor with something in his hands. "Jordan, it's all set up. The detonators are rigged to this controller."

  "Wonderful. Thank you, love." He pecks Danny's lips.

  "Oh, so you're allowed to have a significant other, but not your brother? That's fair." I catch Danny's eyes. "Just so you know, my boyfriend is gonna kick your boyfriend's ass. Run while you can."

  "Ignore her," Jordan says as he examines the detonator.

  "Actually, attention everyone on the boat," I shout. "The megalomanical maniac was just handed a detonator to blow up the entire boat! If you have any sense of self-preservation, you will abandon ship! Now!"

  Jordan raises an eyebrow. "Done? Good. Trent, punch her in the face, please."

  Uzi's fist makes contact with my right cheek hard enough I see spots. It hurts like a mother, instantly bringing tears to my eyes. Fucking hell.

  "Looks good," Jordan says to Danny. "Oh, did you send the video about the bombs in the subway trains?"

  "Went out just when she reached the dock," Danny says. "Every available officer is en route now."

  Jordan's attention returns to me. "Don't worry, that one was a lie. It was just in case your police friends were enlisted as back-up. Best we keep this in the family, so to speak."

  If I wasn't so focused on the throbbing pain in my head, I'd probably be concerned.

  "And don't worry your vacant little head, Joanna. My brother should see through that ruse. I've used it once before." He stares up at the sky through the open ceiling. "Yes, I think we've covered everything. Now we just have to wait. Place a bag over her head, please."

  Trent places tape over my mouth then a bag over my head. Wonderful.

  "Positions, gentlemen!" Jordan shouts. "We don't want to make it too easy for him. Injure, but not fatally. He's mine. And close the deck."

  Footsteps against metal recede as the men run off. The deck partition above my head must close as I hear machinery whirring and gears spinning, then what little light I can see through the burlap vanishes. Then I'm alone. Alone with a bomb. All I can do is wait. My jaw throbs in time to my racing heart. Well, I'm still alive. That's oddly surprising. I haven't been raped or tortured. Putting that in the win column. Handcuffed to a bomb? Not so much. I'm putting my odds at surviving 1,000 to 1. No, no bad thoughts. Faith. Trust.

  How much time passes is hard to gage, but awhile as my arms go from pins and needles to numb. All that keeps me company are my hopes and plans. I'm going to take some time off from crime fighting, maybe a month or so. Jem too. We'll take the boat out. Sail for a week or two. Just us and the open water. Making love on deck, exploring exotic locales, talking for hours. And maybe I'll get an apartment in town. I don't want to live in that mausoleum anymore. It's just not me. If I get out of this, I'll make a lot of changes. I swear it. Please just let me survive this, and I will. Don't take us from each other. But if I'm meant to die here today so be it. Just give him the strength to find someone else to love and who loves him as much as I do. Let him find peace. And love. Above all, love. He deserves--

  Automatic gunfire above my head jerks me out of prayer. It last two seconds, followed by a hollow thump as I assume a body hits metal. One bad guy down. Poor minions. I did warn them. It happens again, this time there are two bursts of gunfire and the clinking of bullet against steel aft. This time I faintly hear a man groan in pain. He's inside the ship. Running footsteps, four pistol shots, a thump, silence. Closer. Again. Shots, groans of pain, silence. I struggle against the handcuffs, but like the previous dozen times it fails to work. Fuck! Two loud thuds against the walls, then a man howls in pain. Silence.

  "Joanna!" Jem shouts, voice echoing through the ship.

  A metal door shuts just as more continuous automatic weapon fire begins, bullets hitting metal, ricocheting as a man roars in anger. It lasts five seconds of hell. "Come out, you fucker!" a man shouts. Another thud as he must kick open the door as it hits the wall a millisecond later. More gunfire. Two men screaming, then another thud as someone slams against the wall. Silence. And more silence. It's fucking deafening. Nothing. I don't hear a damn thing beyond my own heavy breathing. He's hurt. If he was hit multiple times, he could bleed out before his body repairs itself. Jordan--

  Wind whips behind me then someone lands on the platform beside me. He rips the bag off. Jem. He's a little worse for the wear with an oozing gunshot to the arm and a trickle of blood smeared on his exposed chin. He's still the most glorious sight I've ever viewed in my life. I spot the worst hovering in a dark corner of the ceiling in full red and black villain uniform pointing a rifle at us. Oh fuck! I signal with my eyes, but Jem's too busy ripping the tape from my mouth. "Are you--?"

  "Four o'clock!"

  Just as Jem pivots, Jordan fires. There's an almost deafening pop. Before I even blink, Jem is knocked off the platform by what looks like a harpoon to his shoulder. I shriek as he's impaled to the floor. The large metal rod has to be four feet long with a ball on top. That is it. This is over. I press the transmitter to summon back-up.

  "Sorry about that, brother," Jordan says as he glides toward us. "I know it hurts."

  "You fucking bastard!" I shout.

  He ignores me and lands beside the still stunned Jem. "I really don't want to fight you. It's not necessary. We're above that, don't you th--"

  Jem sweeps his brother's feet from underneath him. The moment the villain flattens, Jem brings the heel of his foot down on Jordan's stomach, knocking the wind out of him. As Jordan's dazed, with a guttural roar, Jem yanks the harpoon from his shoulder. I feel his pain down to my soul. Jem manages to rise and with his good arm, raises the rod over his brother's chest like a vengeful Poseidon. Just as it's about to make contact, Jordan rolls aside. The rod sticks in the floor. As Jem realizes what happened, Jordan removes another gun from his belt, firing almost point blank into Jem's chest. Jem's knocked onto his stomach, holding onto his chest with his arm underneath. He doesn't move. He doesn't draw breath. Oh. God.

  "No!" I cry

  Jordan moves toward his brother to check him. "Jem?" Jordan asks. He nudges his brother's body. "Jem?"

  Like lightning, Jem flings his arm from under his chest and jabs a knife into his brother's foot. Jordan shrieks in pain as the blood pours under his heels, and Jem uses his momentary shock to rise. Not quick enough. The moment he's up, Jordan backhands his brother with all his super might, sending the stunned hero flying backwards into a nearby wall, head first. Jem crumples to the floor like a string-less puppet. Jordan yanks the knife from his foot, stares at it with fury, and tosses it to the floor. Jem slowly sits up. "I don't want to fucking hurt you!" Jordan bellows at the top of his lungs. "And you don't want to hurt me!"

  Though still dazed and hobbling, Jem rises to his feet for the next bloody round. He charges his brother with a roar, but the head wound must be grave because he's slow. Too slow. As they make contact, Jordan knees him in the stomach. With a groan, Jem folds at the waist, giving Jordan the opening to elbow the hero in the back of the neck. He lands jaw first on the metal floor, a
sickening crack echoing through the arena. I cringe. "Why are you doing this? Stop it!" Though in the fetal position and panting in pain, we both see him reaching into his belt for another weapon. "Stop it!" Jordan says as he kicks him in the forehead. Jem collapses onto his back.

  "N-No," Jem whimpers. "Y-You have to die."

  "What?"

  "You have to die. I see that now."

  Jordan stares at his brother, dumbfounded. "You-You came here to kill me?"

  "You're a monster," he gasps through the agony. "You're insane. I can't save you. I never could."

  "No!" Jordan explodes. "You-You love me!"

  "No. No," Jem says sadly. "Any love I ever felt for you, you destroyed years ago. I detest you. I hate you to my very core."

  Jordan vibrates with anger as those words sink in. "No. Take it back."

  "Never."

  "Take it back!" he shrieks. In a blink, Jordan has picked up the rod and hovers over his brother. "You're lying!"

  "I'm not."

  He plunges the rod into Jem's chest. "Stop lying!" Out it rises from my love's damaged body, spatters of blood raining all over, until the monster plunges it in again. "Why are you lying to me?" In again, this time right near the heart. He's going to kill him. "Why are you making me hurt you like this? I love you! Why are you making me do this?"

  "Because of me!" I blurt out. "It's me! It's all my fault."

  Jordan turns, and his mouth drops open almost surprised I'm still here. "Shut up, bitch! This has nothing to do with you."

  "No matter how much you don't want that to be true, deep down you know it is. Because no matter how much you think you love your brother, it doesn't hold a fucking candle to how much he and I love each other. Think about it. We planned this whole thing together, including me unmasking him. That wasn't my idea, Jordan. Unlike you I'd rather die than hurt your brother, but he convinced me to. He was willing to sacrifice his entire life, his career, just to keep me safe from you."

  "Stop it, Joanna," Jem says.

  "Shut up!" Jordan yells with a punch to Jem's already tender face. "You're lying."

  "I'm not. And you know I'm not. Because you stopped me yesterday. And you may have told yourself it was because you loved him, that you wanted to save him. But really? You knew what it meant. That he would do anything to save me. Just like I knew what coming here would mean. That even if I die here today it's worth it because I die knowing I gave him a chance to be free of you. Because that's what love is. Love is crawling down into the pits of hell, fighting tooth and bone and nail to drag his ass out no matter the cost. This," I say, gesturing to the bomb and Jem on the floor. "Us…" I meet the love of my life's tear filled eyes so full of love, and the world fades. "Is true, pure, once in a lifetime love. It's everything. And you can't fucking touch it."

  It's so quiet for a few seconds we can hear the blood dripping. I'm vaguely aware that Jordan glances from Jem, to me, then back at Jem, but I don't take my eyes from my hero nor him me. And for a moment all is right in the world because it's just us. As it should be. Until Jordan punches him in the face again. "Her?!?" He bashes again. "Her?"

  Jem's head lolls to the side as Jordan stalks toward me, picking up the knife Jem lost on the way. "She's nothing!" The knife wielding maniac leaps onto the platform. "This bitch?!" he bellows as he slices my cheek with the blade. White hot pain brings tears. Jordan spins around so we're both facing the terrified Jem. He attempts to pull out the rod but after all the damage, his strength has left him. There's so much pooled blood that still pours from his chest a normal man would be dead already.

  "Leave her alone," Jem says.

  "Leave her alone?" He grabs my right ring finger, snapping it back with a crack. I can't stop the howl of pain. "Leave her alone?" He snaps the pinky, and I almost vomit in agony. "She can never love you as much as I do!" He punches me in my slashed cheek. For a moment everything goes from black to fuzzy. "Me!" he says, sounding far away. "I'm the one who protected you! Who loved you when no one else would?" He socks me in the chest, the sound of cracking ribs hurting almost as much as the physical sensation. "I am the only one who understands you!" He hits my face again, cracking my nose. Blood spews down. "We have the same soul! We're the same person. We are all we have in the world. I love you. Tell me you love me." Jem doesn't say a word. I'm still seeing spots, but I know Jordan leans beside me, wraps his arm around me, and presses a knife to my throat. "TELL ME YOU LOVE ME!"

  Jem glances at me for confirmation. We both know no matter what he says, I'm dead. I slowly blink. No more games. If I die, I die from the truth. He owes me that. Jem glances behind me, his mouth twitching before meeting his brother's eyes. "I don't love you. How could I? You took advantage of me. You destroyed everything and everyone I ever loved. Including the brother I looked up to. Who kept me sane. Who was my best friend. You obliterated him, even from my memory. He ceased to exist in the one place he ever really lived: my imagination. You are dead to me. I will never love you. I loathe you. And it has nothing to do with her, or Uma, or Tempest, or anyone else. It's you. You're wrong. A mistake. An abomination. I wish you'd never been born. And death is preferable to spending another moment on this earth with you."

  The knife trembles against my throat. I glance up at Jordan. Tears stream down his mask as his lip twitches. If he had a heart, I'd swear it was breaking. "Well. Then. I live to serve you, brother." He reaches into his belt and pulls out the detonator. "Nothing left to do then, is there? We came into this world together, we'll leave the same way." The monster's gaze moves down to me. "You first, though cunt."

  "Now!" Jem shouts.

  We both glance up at the ceiling as the machinery whirrs to open the panels. What…? The whoosh of air behind us draws our attention again. I turn and see a yellow flash zooming mid-air toward us. There isn't time to react. Liberty, force field glowing around her, grabs the arm holding the detonator, twisting it to almost a hundred eighty degrees as tendons and bone crack like kindling. The detonator drops. Before it completes its descent, she kicks Jordan in the crotch, grabs his shoulders to bend him down, and knees him in the jaw. He collapses on his back right beside me. Fuck.

  Before he even opens his eyes, she seizes the villain by the wrists and takes off like a rocket into the air. Twirling as fast as she can, she spins and spins Jordan by the wrists to gain momentum before releasing him. He hits a nearby wall head first, even leaving a dent in the metal. Momentarily unconscious, he plummets down to earth. Good--

  She's behind me, breaking the cuffs at the middle, when he lands. I don't even have time to process that before she yanks me to my feet. Holding me around the waist we lift off, my neck snapping backwards and my stomach following a few seconds behind. The spots return. I'm vaguely aware of passing through open space and everything being blue. The sky. Then down we drop toward the dark churning water. About a second later, her arms vanish. Wind whips around me as I plummet to earth. The last thing I see before the water overtakes me is Liberty gliding toward the ship. Crash.

  The water's freezing, shockingly so. In my dazed state, it takes me a moment to realize why I'm so cold and why my lungs don't like what I'm breathing in. I'm in water. Fuck. Oh shit. Which way is up? When I try to expel the water already in my lungs, more enters. I open my eyes and notice the light. Up. That way. A few kicks and I surface, coughing all the water out along with the crackers I ate earlier. What the…? I stare at the open water. There's movement. Something white. Oh, a boat. It's coming. Not my boat. Where's my boat? I need… The spots become full darkness for a few seconds. What's--

  BOOM!

  I spin around just as an orange and black fireball shoots up and sideways from the carrier a hundred feet away. The noise reaches me first. Then the massive, oppressive heat and rocketing fire coming right for me. Even in my wretched state, instinct knows the score. I plunge underwater as the flames turn the light above red. The water ripples like an earthquake, churning me every which way, but I keep my eyes on the light to find my w
ay back. When the red's vanished, I surface again. The sound of cracking, twisting metal is almost deafening. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. The ship folds in the middle as smoke and flames rise to the sky. Wow. Planks of metal and other debris rain down all around me. I just watch it burn and sink until a minute later the darkness can't be kept at bay a moment longer. I let it transport me from this hell. I've earned that.

  *

  What the…?

  I force my eye open, but the florescent lights sting as if I were inches from the sun. The other won't open. I close it again.

  Shouting brings me back this time. I unglue my eye and turn toward the commotion. There's a flashing light through a window, and Cam shoving someone out the door. I close my eye again.

  Pain. Ungodly, intense agony. My chest. My hand. My face. Once again only one eye opens. The pain won't allow me to pass out this time. I glance around. A hospital. Tubes in my arm and other unnatural places. My fingers are splinted. The cut in my arm from the tracker is bandaged. There's something wrapped tight around my chest, an ACE bandage I think. I touch my face with my good hand. I think the cut is bandaged too, but my cheek, nose, and eye are swollen to fuck. Even lightly touching them sends pain through my head. I reach for the call button. All considerations about sobriety are swallowed by the agony. About ten seconds later, a nurse walks in.

  "Oh, good, you're awake. We were starting to worry."

  "Pain," I croak.

  She prepares a syringe. "Right on time too." She injects my IV. "Quite the ordeal you went through."

  "How long have I been here?"