Steve chided him by the second to leave the blindfold on, that it was payback for the surprise wedding, but he did say that this was a wedding gift, one that he’d hoped to give him on their wedding day, but it was better late than never.
“Besides, the delay gave me a little more time to set some things up that I wouldn’t have had back then.”
“How were you going to surprise me at our wedding? You didn’t know about it.”
“Okay, so it was going to be a welcome home gift when you got out of The Center. Just be still, we’re almost there.” He warned, “It’s not a bunch of roses. It may be more solemn and serious than anything you may like, but I did speak to Tom and he said it may be just what you need.”
“Now I’m really confused.”
When the car stopped, he heard Steve get out, then felt his door open and the warm breeze blowing his hair. Steve took his hand, helping him from the car, and immediately, he heard a familiar voice. “Why you got him trussed up like a Thankgivin’ turkey?”
Steve simply laughed as Matt asked, “Mac? Is that you?”
Mac was the one to pull the blindfold off his head. “Sure is. Look what yer man did for ya.”
It was the compound. They were at the compound, the deserted compound, and in front of it, a bulldozer sat idling.
It took him a few minutes to understand, but when he did, he saw the wall, the tumbleweeds collecting on one side and the wide-open gate showing the abandoned homes, he knew. “You…Steve, oh, God.”
“I didn’t do this to make you sad, baby. I want you to see what you did. You closed this. All the evil that happened behind that fucking wall, it’s over, and you did that. You and Dean, and Aaron and Helen, you all did that.”
He felt tears but didn’t allow them to shed, trying to latch onto one of the hundreds of emotions roiling inside him. He took a shaky step, then another, mentally batting away the memories invading him.
The hum of the bulldozer kept him from diving into an abyss. There were no armed men around the place anymore, ready to kill him. His father was not lording over anyone. The place was already rundown and falling apart, not that it had been great to begin with. The only house worth a damn was theirs, the prophet’s house, the rest merely shacks.
Still, he’d lived there, grown there, and there were parts of the place he’d always miss. When he got far enough, he touched the stone wall that surrounded almost the entire compound. The rock was cold to the touch, fitting. Taller than him by four feet, thick, it wasn’t there to keep things out, to protect them. It was there to keep people inside, like cattle. One stray wasn’t missed, perhaps, but the more people, the more money, the more power. Being worshipped like a God was only part of it for the prophet. There was so much more to be enjoyed.
“Tear it down,” he said to himself first, then yelled it. “Tear it down!”
He backed away as the bulldozer came in, and Steve held him, Mac and Leo standing close. Stacy was on the phone with them, seeing it all happen from her place with her babies crying in the background. She let them have their tears, as she shed her own.
Mac nodded as the first bit went down, the big wheels of the bulldozer rolling over some as the heavy steel basket pushed more and more over. Matt thought he heard it, the collective sigh of those the place had hurt. The oppression and degradation of the place being put to peace at last.
When it was all over, it was a catharsis. He was cleaned of a lot, and those around him seemed to feel it too. One less evil in the world.
That night, when they were safely back home in San Antonio, Matt lay his head on Steve’s lap, having his hair brushed from his forehead. “I hope you don’t mind that we didn’t stay. We both spent enough of our lives back there.”
“I don’t mind. I like our home.”
Steve had bought the place with their future lives in mind. A simple home on a suburban street, with a lawn and extra bedroom that would one day house their child, they hoped. A park down the block was always filled with the sounds of children, and their neighbors were the kind that waved as they walked by.
A fireplace sat large in the living room, a line of pictures over the mantle of their friends and family.
The phone rang, and Steve wasn’t going to pick up until he saw it was Stacy. When he answered, she had him put it on speaker. “Hey, guys, Leo just called, and he’s got a problem. We may have a job.”
They sat up, Matt feeling the tension in his stomach. He was so new to their agency that any job meant he had more to learn and he feared he’d never match their expectations. “What is it?”
“His cousin, Denny, he’s in college and his best friend, who is also his roommate, is missing. The police think he’s just off partying, but Denny said it could be possible, but he left his phone and he wouldn’t do that, or take off for so long without telling Denny. He wants us to look into it.”
Matt nodded to Steve, who confirmed with her, “Matt and I have this, honey. You just look after those girls.”
“Not much choice. Breastfeeding doesn’t leave me much choice of anything, including caffeinated coffee! Good luck, you two, and if you need anything, you have all the right numbers.”
Matt, for once, didn’t have that knot in his stomach. When he mentioned it to Steve as they packed, Steve gave him a simple answer for it. “You are doing this for someone you care about. Leo is with your cousin, who is the reason you are here still, and you’re with me, and pretty much all of it, so you want to get out there and help him.”
It was so simple, and yet he knew it was true. “I like being able to help anyone, really, but I do owe them. I owe them everything.”
Steve packed a bag for each of them, and then held him close and kissed him. “So do I. What would I do without my heart?”
The End
For more great stories by Rain Carrington, go to raincarrington.com and hit the links!
The Principle (Legacy Book 2) Page 30