Page 58 of Scarred Sunrise

“You died.”

John moved closer, slowly as if he were approaching a wounded animal. “No, Jo, I had to go. Things were getting crazy, and you wouldn’t listen.”

Rhea cocked her head, her brow furrowing. “But this was our plan.”

“No, we planned to take the greatest of the gifted and enhance them, so we’d end up with an army of elite humans.”

Smithy felt the chuckle bubble up his throat. “You wanted to create real-life Avengers and ended up with fucking Thanos.” His laughter at the crazy fucked up situation these two had created was beyond the realms of reality.

“You laugh, son, but this world has threats nobody knows about, and we’re not equipped to deal with them.”

“Don’t fucking son me. I’m not your son. I’m not your anything. We have enough threats we do know about, and the biggest of them all is the woman you married and broke like a cheap toy. Now give me the fucking case.” He was finished with this conversation, with this crazy bullshit; he just wanted to go home.

“You’re right, I did mess up, I hurt Jo, I abandoned you and your mother, and I have so much blood on my hands, I can’t seem to clean it off.”

Rhea moved slowly towards the case at her feet.

“Don’t move.” Smithy pointed the gun at her head.

“Why didn’t you ask me to stop, John? I’d have left it all for you.”

“No, baby, you wouldn’t have. You had Meg, and even that sweet girl didn’t heal the broken part of your heart where our daughter lived.”

“She didn’t look like you. Meg wasn’t Clara, she could never be. I carried Clara in my body, nurtured her, and she died, John.”

Tears were pouring from her eyes as John moved closer to her, pain in his own eyes that tore at Smithy. Grief evident at the loss of a child, a sister he’d never know.

“I know, baby. I missed her too, I still do every day.”

“You left me,” she accused again.

John moved again, and in a blink, he had Rhea cuffed to the railing on the console behind her.

She looked up in shock and outrage. “No,” she screamed as she shook the cuff wildly.

“You won’t ever stop, Jo. It’s a sickness inside you.”

“You did this.”

“I know, and I’m so damn sorry. I love you, Jo, I always have. Just give Smithy the cases, and let’s end this.”

Smithy saw her look of panic as he moved closer. “It’s too late.” She pointed to a timer which was wired to the underside of the console. “The well is rigged to explode.”

John looked at him a pained expression on his face as he moved to Rhea and held her close to his body, and she leaned into him, suddenly small and frightened. “Take the cases and leave.”

“Tell me where the bomb is, and I can disarm it.”

John shook his head. “No, this ends now.”

Smithy had no clue if he was reading this right. “I can save you.” He’d never see John as a father to him because he hadn’t been one, but he’d been a mentor, and while it ended badly, in the beginning they’d been almost friends.

“You already did. You showed me what it was to be strong. I saw your struggle. I saw what you went through and nothing broke you. I was never a good man, and I was a useless father, so let me do this now. Let me set you free.”

Smithy looked at the timer and knew he was out of time. With one more look at his father and the woman who’d almost broken him as they slid to the ground, John’s arms around her as he gazed at Rhea with absolute adoration and love, he turned and left. Leaving them to die in each other’s arms seemed fitting somehow.

With two minutes on the clock, he ran as fast as he could to the boat, both cases in his hand, he passed the place where the soldier had been cuffed and saw the empty space and breathed a sigh of relief. That was one more death he wouldn’t have on his conscience. As he approached where Zack was waiting and saw he was alone, Smithy had no idea how the man had gotten away, nor did he care in that moment. All that mattered was him and Zack getting safety away before the rig blew.

Zack looked at him as he jumped into the boat. “It done?”