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Hayley
Hayley looked up and tried to catch her breath. She felt as if she’d been catapulted out of a slingshot. One minute, she’d been hauling ass, terrified Matt would lose sight of the flashlight she’d strapped to her back. The next, she’d been yanked up and tossed out.
At that moment, she was trying to suck air and roll over, praying she’d see Matt when she did.
“Nice.” Heff smirked, pulling the flashlight from the back of her bra.
Removing her shirt and tucking the torch into the strap had been a spur-of-the-moment decision on her part. She needed both hands to keep Luther moving, and she needed Matt to be able to follow.
Thankfully, she’d chosen a full-coverage sports bra, so it held the flashlight firmly against her back the whole way. Hadn’t felt so good when she landed on her back and had the wind knocked out of her though. She was going to have one hell of a bruise to go along with the numerous recent cuts and puckered bullet wounds.
“Matt!” she called out, pushing against the ground.
“Here.”
It was the sweetest sound she’d ever heard. She scrabbled over to where he lay, sprawled out a few feet beside her, and crawled on top of him, peppering his face with kisses.
“You okay?” she asked.
“I’m okay,” he confirmed, wrapping his arms around her. “You?”
“I’m good.”
“Aw, that’s cute,” Heff drawled. “But what do you say we put a pin in that, so Smoke can do his thing, yeah?”
Hayley pulled away from Matt long enough to take stock of the situation.
Smoke was crouching by a hole, presumably the hole they’d just been hauled out of, with a block of C-4 in his hands.
“I need to collapse the tunnel,” Smoke said matter-of-factly. “If I don’t, the whirlpool is going to suck a good portion of the lake into the mines.”
She blinked. She had so many questions.
Matt was on his feet, hauling her up to his chest. “Let’s go.”
She looked over to where Heff and Mad Dog were shoving Luther and Lenny into separate vehicles. Matt led her to his SUV. Heff was already behind the wheel. Luther was in the back with Doc. Hayley climbed in while Matt stopped to talk to David Yocum. The two men shook hands before Matt turned and jogged back to the vehicle.
“He’s not coming with us?” Hayley asked when Matt got into the SUV.
“No.”
David waved, then grinned widely and offered a campy, over-the-top salute, making Heff, Doc, and Matt laugh. Feeling as if she’d missed something, she turned around as they began to pull away, seeing Smoke hoofing it toward a Wrangler already in motion with Mad Dog in the driver’s seat. The Wrangler lurched forward before Smoke was fully inside. The look of joy on Smoke’s face was something she would remember for a long time.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him smile before,” she said, turning back to face forward again.
Heff laughed. “He does like blowing shit up.”
The sound of the explosion was barely audible, more like the rumble of distant thunder than the huge boom she’d expected. The ground rumbled beneath them. Trees swayed.
Rocks tumbled down from the slope to the left onto the road, forcing Heff to swerve quickly and let out a booming “Hooyah!”
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Hayley murmured, but she was smiling, too.
Doc laughed from the backseat. “Are you kidding? This is the most fun we’ve had in ages.”
* * *
Sherman was waiting for them when they got back to Sanctuary. He and Ian Callaghan were in the war room with Cage.
Introductions were made. Hayley didn’t miss the way Sherman and Matt eyed each other. She didn’t need mind-reading ability to know they were trying to figure out exactly where the other fit into her life. If they’d bothered to ask, she would have told them. They hadn’t, so she didn’t feel compelled to enlighten them.
“Where are they?” Sherman asked.
“Safe and secure,” Matt said simply.
“We felt it would be prudent to provide a comprehensive status without them being present,” Hayley added when Sherman’s brows pulled together like two bushy caterpillars.
Sherman nodded. “All right.”
“Luther Renninger and Leonard Petraski are in custody and currently receiving medical attention,” Hayley said.
“What kind of medical attention?”
“Renninger is emaciated and in desperate need of a shower but otherwise appears unharmed.”
“Our resident medic is checking him out,” Matt added.
“And Petraski?”
Hayley looked to Matt to answer that one.
“Sustained non-life-threatening injuries during the evac. Our medic will see to him, too, as soon as he’s finished with Renninger.”
“Joseph Eisenheiser was down there as well,” Hayley added, her voice professional and detached. “He didn’t make it out. We were forced to leave him behind when the shaft was breached.”
“Have you spoken with either Renninger or Petraski about their options?”
“No,” Hayley said. “There wasn’t time, though I believe the man responsible for keeping Renninger out of sight did.”
Sherman’s eyes narrowed. “What man?”
“Enough,” Matt said, moving to Hayley’s side. “We can discuss this later. Marshal, please make yourself at home while we tend to our immediate needs.”
Matt guided Hayley from the war room, leading her to his private quarters. The moment Matt kicked the door behind him, he pressed Hayley against it and kissed her as if he needed her to breathe.
“You were fucking amazing today, but don’t ever make me go through that again. Get in the shower. Now. I need to check every inch of you and make sure you’re okay.”
Hayley didn’t even think of refusing.
She was deeply, irrevocably in love with Matt Winston. Had been for a long time. The connection between them was rare and precious. She’d known that all along, but she’d also known that they each had things to do. That they had to take separate paths if they ever hoped for a happy ending.
It was with that same certainty that she knew Matt needed this personal, intimate time with her to convince himself everything was okay. He was a man on the edge, and that wasn’t a place he was used to being. He was always so calm and in control, except where she was concerned. That alone told her how much she meant to him.
The water was hot, but the way he touched her was hotter. The pulse of the jets against her skin felt amazing, but they were nothing compared to the feel of him pulsing inside her. By the time they donned fresh, clean clothes and returned to the others, she was glowing inside and out.
For the next hour, they sat in the war room and filled the marshal in on the relevant details. Surprisingly enough, Sherman didn’t ask a lot of questions about how they’d managed to do what they did, as Hayley had feared he would. She suspected Ian Callaghan had something to do with that. Given the glances shared between Sherman and Ian throughout the meeting, it wasn’t the first time the two men had worked together.
“All that’s left is to get Luther to sign on the dotted line,” Sherman said when they wrapped things up.
“What about Lenny?” Hayley asked. “Are you going to offer him a deal?”
Sherman turned his eyes her way. “What do you think?”
“I think we’d have a tighter case against Daryl if we had someone corroborating Luther’s testimony, but his first reaction is going to be to say no.”
“Perhaps you’d like the opportunity to explain his options?”
Hayley didn’t have to think about it. She’d played this scenario out in her head many times, knowing it would come to this. “Yes, I would. Alone.”
Both Sherman and Matt frowned at that.
“I want Lenny to have all the facts before he makes a decision. He needs to know what kind of people he’s been protecting all these years.”