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Matt
Unlike the rest of his partners who had private cabins on the property, Matt lived in an annex to the main building. The area that had once been his family’s private living quarters was mostly destroyed by the fire, and during the rebuilding process, it had become part of the public area of Sanctuary.
He had reserved a place for himself, however. The wing where he now lived alone was a smaller space, equivalent to that of a modest condo unit. While connected and accessible to the rest of the facility, it remained separate with a private entrance and access to the underground chambers.
Matt only used a fraction of the space and then only to sleep and shower. He preferred to spend most of his time in the main building. That was where his office was, the war room, the decompression chamber, the dining room.
It was to his private annex that he took Hayley. He could have given her one of the renovated suites, but he wanted her in his space.
“This is where you live, huh? It’s nice. It suits you.”
He could see her taking it all in, probably using those fancy degrees of hers to psychoanalyze his choices. He didn’t mind. All she had to do was ask. He’d tell her anything she wanted to know.
“Are you hungry? I don’t have much here, but I could get us something from the kitchen.”
“You don’t have to wait on me, Matt.”
“No,” he agreed. “But I’m going to do it anyway, so you might as well roll with it.”
“Thank you.” She cupped his face with her hand and gave him a soft smile, one that said more than words ever could.
What she didn’t seem to realize was, there was nothing he wouldn’t do for her. Nothing he wouldn’t do to protect her. He’d underestimated the threat against her, but he wouldn’t be making that mistake again.
“Before I do anything, I need to get a shower,” she told him.
“What about your stitches?”
“They said to wait twelve hours. It’s been sixteen.”
“Want some help?”
Her eyes flashed briefly with heat as they ran up and down the length of his body, but it faded quickly. She was sore and hurting, and there was no way he was going to take advantage of her.
“Not like that,” he clarified.
“Bummer,” she teased, sighing. “It’s just as well. What’s that saying? The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. I’ll be fine. You’ve got a handheld, right?”
“Right.”
Actually, his shower included a rain head on the ceiling, side jets, and a handheld flexible sprayer with multiple programmable functions. He was a simple man with simple tastes, except when it came to his shower and his bed. Both were items he’d refused to scrimp on.
As much as he would have liked to demonstrate those luxury features personally, it was better to let her discover and experience the joys on her own until she had a chance to recover.
“I wouldn’t say no to one of your shirts though.”
“You got it.” He grinned and grabbed a soft, lightweight cotton button-down and handed it to her.
“I should have asked you to pick up some things when I asked you to get my laptop.”
“We would have, if they were there. Someone took your things before we could get in there.”
She frowned.
Hayley was smart enough to know that the reclamation of her laptop had been a covert endeavor, done under the cover of darkness. Neither Daryl nor Jerry would have willingly let anyone near the house.
“I asked Lenny to pick up some things for me when he stopped by the hospital earlier. He said he would. He already had them, didn’t he?”
Matt said nothing. He hadn’t been fully briefed yet, but that was his suspicion as well.
“But you have my laptop, right?”
“Yes.”
She exhaled, visibly relieved. “Good. I’ll have to get my stuff from him. He’s not going to be happy when I tell him where I am.”
“Do you care?” he asked.
“At the moment? No, not really. I’ll deal with him later—after I’ve had a long, hot shower and a chance to eat something.”
“Take your time. You’re not going anywhere tonight.” Without giving her a chance to respond, he pressed a kiss to her forehead and went to the kitchen in search of food, thumbing out a text to Cage on the way.
“How is she?” Kate asked, looking up as he entered the kitchen.
Matt gave her a quick update.
“Good. I’m glad she agreed to come back with you. She’ll be safer here.”
He agreed wholeheartedly.
“And maybe, just maybe,” Kate added with a twinkle in her eye, “she’ll decide to stay.”
He didn’t know about that. She had a career and a life elsewhere. All he knew was, he wanted to be a part of it. His future was with Hayley, whether it be in the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania or the DC suburbs. He said none of that though, not yet.
“Go on. I’ve got this,” Kate said, making a shooing motion with her hand. “The guys are in the war room, waiting for you.”
“Thanks, Kate.”
Not for the first time, Matt was glad Kate was part of their Sanctuary family. And not just Kate, but Sam, Sandy, Bree, and Tina, too. Each one added another dimension. Made it more of a home, not just a place to stay.
Unsurprisingly, discussion halted the moment he walked into the war room.
“How’s Hayley?” asked Mad Dog.
“Sore and tired but safe. You’ve got her laptop?”
“Right here.” Cage handed it over. “Got a few minutes?”
Hayley should have discovered the pulsing massage jets by now, so he had some time. “Yeah. What have we got?”
“Plenty,” said Cage, “but we’ll stick to the highlights, so you can get back to Hayley.”
Matt nodded, appreciating their understanding.
“Daryl and Jerry are claiming the explosion was an accident. They’ve had the gas company out there all day,” Mad Dog said.
“I know. Lenny came by the hospital and told Hayley it was a gas leak.”
Smoke snorted. “Gas leak, my ass. It was a homemade device. A camp fuel canister with a rudimentary detonator is my guess. Any idiot can make one. You can find the specs on the internet, for fuck’s sake.”
“That’d leave evidence though, wouldn’t it?”
“We believe it did,” Doc said somberly. “While Daryl and Jerry put on their dog and pony show for onlookers, Lenny was in the house, and Joe Eisenheiser was searching in the bushes.”
Cage tapped a few keys and brought up an image on one of the mounted screens. It clearly showed Lenny rooting around Hayley’s room on the second floor while Eisenheiser shuffled among the remains of Martha’s landscaped beds, as if looking for something. Several times, they could be seen crouching down and then rising again and moving on.
“How did you get that footage?” Matt asked.
“New zoom scope,” Heff said unapologetically. “Nice, right? Sends digital footage right to our secure hub.”
Cage paused the video and enlarged the image, zeroing in on Eisenheiser’s hand going into his pocket. The device he held looked like a timer of some sort.
Matt’s blood boiled. “Fucking hell. Why?”
“We think whoever planted the bomb meant it as a warning, not as a blatant attack,” Cage said. “The box was placed off to the side, where it wouldn’t be easily seen, and the timer suggests it was set to go off at a certain time. Unfortunately, Martha and Hayley just happened to step out at exactly the wrong moment.”
“The question we’re asking is, who sent the warning?” said Doc. “Daryl? Or someone else?”
Matt’s gaze snapped to Doc, his eyes narrowing. “Explain.”
“No one except us and a select few at the DOJ is privy to Hayley’s true purpose here, or at least that’s what we thought. But this suggests otherwise. We’ve gone over the footage a dozen times,” Cage said, advancing the video and zeroing in closely on Daryl’s face. “He looks rattled. Is that because things didn’t go as planned or because it wasn’t him behind it?”
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!” Matt said, his fist meeting the wall in an uncharacteristic loss of control.
“If Daryl didn’t have suspicions about Hayley’s sudden visit, he does now,” said Mad Dog.
“Cage, call Ian and ask him to come up. I think it’s time everyone met.”