The Galilee Falls Trilogy (Book 3): Fall of Heroes Read Online Free PDF Page B

born with their powers. Most don’t even like having them.”
    “I just don’t think they should be held to a lower standard than us mere mortals,” Bennett says. “Their actions should have consequences. And they sure as hell shouldn’t be worshiped as gods. I just read about a new cult in town. The Fellowship of the Triumvirate. It’s just so fucking pathetic.” Jem and Lexie will get a kick out of that, being worshiped as gods. “Sorry,” Bennett continues. “I know you worked with them. Of course they also almost got you killed so…” He shrugs. “But regardless, as a citizen of Independence, I personally thank you for bringing down that psycho Cain. I was at two events he decided to crash. My ex-girlfriend still has respiratory problems from the gas he released. She actually had to have a lung transplant.”
    “Jesus.”
    “Well, I’m sure you have worse super war stories than even I. If you’re unlucky maybe you can add another one before you leave town. I hear The Nothing Man is still gunning for White Knight. They took a chunk of out my building last week.”
    “I actually had an encounter with the Knight a few months ago. I helped him stop a bank robber.”
    “Maybe you should put on a costume and mask yourself. Make it official.”
    “Hell no. No one wants to see me in spandex.”
    “I wouldn’t mind,” he says with that boyish smile. “I’d prefer you in nothing at all though.”
    I just hold up my ring again. “Still engaged.”
    “Still gonna try.”
    We chuckle in unison. “Well, you best be careful there. Mr. Stone. You keep making me laugh, I might begin to think of you as a friend. And considering what’s happened to a lot of my old ones, that is a dangerous thing to be, even for a thrill seeker such as yourself.”
    “Think you might be worth it, Ms. Fallon,” he says with a seductive smile. It brings one to my own lips. “You might be worth it.”
    *
     
    Bennett was kind enough to arrange a town car to take me to Lucy’s house. I’m still enjoying the buzz from lunch, so there’s really no better time to see her. I’d forgotten how much fun a little harmless flirting, the playful back and forth of a mental tennis match, could be. Jem, for his billions of excellent qualities, never learned the fine art of flirting. He’s gotten better under my tutelage, but going up against a master like Bennett Stone is damn invigorating. And I’m now completely confident the deal will go through without a hitch. Guess me coming here did serve a purpose after all.
    The car turns down Lucy’s idyllic street, lined on both sides with tall, skinny townhouses literally right next to each other with trees popping out of planters inside the cobblestone sidewalks. Children dressed in school uniforms play in their small patches of grass as foreign nannies watch. My driver finds a spot between a Mercedes and Porsche across from Lucy’s red brick abode. The curtains to her living room are open so I can see the woman herself talking on the phone. I’ve known Lucy Helms since I was twelve, over twenty years, and I cannot say for sure she’s aged a day in all that time. Her short hair is more gray than black now, and I think she has crow’s feet, but beyond that she’s still the same Lucy. Slim, graceful, severe and on extremely rare occasions, almost pretty at least when she smiles. Not happening now. She sets down the phone and shouts something to a person inside the house.
    Bad mood or not, I’m here. I’ll make the bitch smile if it kills me. I climb out of the car, with instructions to wait in case she’s having a real bad day, and cross the street. Two muffled voices reverberate from the house, a man and a woman’s, on the other side of the front door I knock on.
    “About damn time,” the woman, I think Lucy, shouts. “Don’t give him a tip, Joe!”
    “It’s not his fault,” the man replies.
    That voice. I know…
    “Sorry about—”
    The door opens, and my life cracks