Insurgents (Harmony Book 1) by Margaret Ball

Author:Margaret Ball [Ball, Margaret]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Galway Publishing
Published: 2017-09-03T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

Somebody was shouting. Had to be Jesse. Sounded far away because her ears were under the water.

A brilliant beam of light, round and tiny like a pen, lit up the water in front of her. How odd. He missed? A new sound, like a sack full of sludge falling onto the rock. A hand in front of her, reaching blindly, poking her face.

She bit it and heard a most satisfying cry of pain. If that’s the last sound I hear before I die… Could be worse.

She didn’t see the grabbing hand this time, it came from behind her and the first thing she knew was that her collar was stretching, somebody was trying to twist it and the smartcloth was reacting by changing shape.

“Stupid smartcloth!” That wasn’t Jesse’s voice, she was hallucinating.

The hand let go her collar, grasped her elbow and dragged her out of the water an inch at a time.

“I know you’re not really here,” Isovel said to Gabrel’s pale face, “but it’s a really good hallucination. Could you bear to stay that way until you kill me? Because I’d rather you did it than Jesse.”

“Isovel. Stop babbling.”

“The voice is good too.” How had she come from standing on the rock to sitting on the ground with her head leaning against somebody’s chest? The icy water dripped off her clothes; the smartcloth was working overtime to shed it and warm her up. She tilted her head up and looked at Gabrel, and he wasn’t a hallucination. He was an exhausted man who, for once, looked his age. Or more.

“Jesse?”

“Dead.”

She thought that over for a while. “I thought I’d missed him.”

“You missed,” said Gabrel tersely. “I didn’t.” He started to do something very like babbling. For him. “I heard the last few minutes, when he was threatening you. I thought he was disturbed. I hadn’t realized that he was criminally insane and had to be put down. And he kept moving and swinging you around and it was a minor eternity before I could get a clear shot.”

He’d had to kill one of his own men to save her from the consequences of her inept escape attempt. He must really hate and despise me now. Isovel leaned back against him. If this was her last chance to be in his arms, she intended to make the most of it.

“Do you think you can walk? We really need to get moving.”

Isovel frowned. She didn’t feel any need to move. And from what she could hear in this position, Gabrel had no business pushing himself immediately. “We should wait until you catch your breath.”

“What an assumption. I am not out of breath.”

But he was breathing rapidly, and… “That’s not what your pulse says. I can feel your heartbeats and they’re much too fast.”

Gabrel flinched away from her, stood, took her hand and pulled her upright, dropped her hand. “Oh, that? That’s not from over-exertion. It’s just what happens whenever I’m around you. Don’t worry. I do not plan to follow killing my own man with raping a hostage.

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