God, this can’t be good.
Instead, Matthias planted his feet and said, “Can we help you?”
Maria’s head came up, and almost at the same time she stood. Her body shifted like she wanted to move to him, but held herself back for some reason.
“Matthias.” Her voice came out high-pitched. She cleared her throat. “Father Wilson came to talk about what happened with Tom and Antonia. He heard about it.”
Matthias half expected the man to shrug off the ruse that had gained him entry. He could picture Wilson jolt into action, like a flash of prophetic knowledge, pulling a gun from his jacket and shooting them all. But there were no guns in Sanctuary that weren’t accounted for, given it was impossible to sneak one in when all the mail was screened. Whatever this was, there was no way it was going to end peaceably. Even with John on his way. God, let him be close.
Matthias lifted his chin, trying to reassure Maria just by being confident even if he was shaking inside. “I’m sure his words will be very soothing, but Father Wilson isn’t going to have the chance to perform his pastoral duties today.”
Wilson unfolded himself from the couch, his gaze pinning Matthias to the spot. Before the man could say anything, Matthias said, “Why are you here?”
“I would have thought that was obvious, Mr. Hernandez.”
“Enlighten me.” Matthias only had to get him to talk long enough for John to get there. He wasn’t in any condition to restrain the man, though Wilson didn’t know that. “Considering you’ve recently murdered my boss and best friend, I’m all ears. What exactly do you have to say to justify yourself for trying to poison the whole town?”
“Yes.” He almost grinned. “That was brilliant. It’s a shame no one who deserved to die has actually done so yet.”
“Except Bolton.”
“Mr. Farrera deserved the judgment for the crimes he has committed.”
“The crime of doing the honorable thing?” Regardless of how messed up their pasts were, everyone in town was here for testifying—doing the right thing. Some of the people here were former criminals, sure. But Bolton wasn’t like that. “Be that as it may—”
“How dare you.” Frannie stood just inside the living room. His mom was behind her, and when their eyes locked, Mama mouthed, sorry.
Matthias shook his head. It was better they had all the exits covered than Wilson had another chance to get away. “None of us are interested in hearing this. Why are you really here?”
Wilson grinned then, the sneer of an evil person convinced he’d succeeded in doing exactly what he’d planned. “My genius plan to poison the town didn’t work, as well you know. I had to come up with a new plan.”
Given his background, Matthias’s mind raced through the options of what Wilson could have done.
“There was really only one way to dispose of all the terminal and unstable patients at once. Ms. Hernandez here—” He motioned to Maria. “—will have to accept my apologies for not including her. Your arrival tonight interrupted that plan.”
“Get to the point.”
Matthias agreed with Frannie. They needed to know what they were dealing with.
Wilson shot her a disgruntled look and flicked out his wrist to check his watch. “You have ten minutes.”
John strode past Matthias to Wilson. He said nothing, but his face plainly stated he was not in the mood to be messed around with. He handcuffed the minister’s hands behind his back while Wilson sneered at them. “Ten minutes?”
Matthias said, “Ten minutes until you do something to the medical center?”
Wilson nodded, starting to laugh.
John said, “So either you planned to be there to participate, or it’s on a timer.” Matthias shot John a questioning look to which he replied, “I was in the hall for the last five minutes.”
Wilson didn’t say anything, his low chuckle audible now.
Matthias strode over to stand eye-to-eye with a man he’d respected for a lot of years. A man who had only been lying to all of them when he pretended to be upright and righteous. “You planted a bomb at the medical center.”
The women gasped. Frannie paled, but Matthias couldn’t go to her. As much as he wanted to.
“Where is it?”
Wilson’s body shook with amusement. “Tick. Tick. Tick. Boom.”
Matthias hit the front door at a run.
**
Nadia Marie didn’t much like being out of the loop. So here she was walking the streets of Sanctuary after eleven at night, on a Wednesday, trying to convince herself she was just exercising the dog.
Dauntless strained against his leash, eager to be moving around. The dog always wanted to be somewhere else, permanently on a mission to do something…or he was sleeping. That was it, just those two modes: work and unconscious.
Nadia Marie let Dauntless lead her to the medical center. She’d probably have to tie him up outside if she wanted to go in. Not that she should be looking for Bolton when he was supposed to be dead. Everyone in town likely expected her to be distraught, so if they were going to pull this off she should probably act her part.
Still, she wasn’t about to leave Dauntless outside by himself.
It no longer bothered her the town knew. Not the depth of her feelings for the mysterious rancher—they couldn’t know that. But it was expected for her to be grief-stricken at Bolton’s death. Even though by some silent agreement they’d barely spoken. Something was holding Bolton back from pursuing her. That was all she could figure. She wasn’t happy about it, but it wasn’t like they didn’t have forever ahead of them.
The closer she got to the medical center the more Dauntless strained against his leash. At the front door he ducked his nose to the ground and turned right, making his way around the building to a side door that was a fire exit. He sat. Barked once.
Nadia Marie looked at him. “Was that a question, or a statement?”
Dauntless cocked his head to the side.
“Fine.” She tried the door, and it swung out. No alarm sounded. Had someone disabled the bar on the door that triggered the warning noise whenever someone used it?
Dauntless rushed in, nose to the floor.
“Whoa.” Nadia Marie was dragged along behind him. “Dauntless, stop.” She tried to remember what she was supposed to say. “Uh… Fuss. Dauntless, fuss.” But the command to heel didn’t mean much when he was determined to find what he was looking for.
He dragged her around the corner, and Bolton stepped into the hall at the far end.
“Nadia. The sheriff said Wilson is at Maria’s house.” His eyes flicked to the dog, who had sped up. “What are you…”
She and Dauntless got all the way to the door of the storage closet. Dauntless sat and barked once.
“Oh, no.” Bolton ripped open the door to the closet.
Before she even got the chance to look inside, he was pushing her. “There’s no time. Oh, God. All these people.”
Nadia stumbled. Bolton grabbed her around the waist and lifted her, running and bearing her weight. She looked over his shoulder. “Dauntless! Hier!”
The dog raced after them.
They were almost to the end when all the air was sucked out of the hall, pulling Nadia’s hair across her face. The fire started at the closet, rushing out toward them like an action-movie bomb exploding in slow motion.
They were going to die.
Chapter 25
Frannie gripped the dash as Matthias sped down Main Street, her eyes on the column of black smoke trailing up to the sky. She’d heard the boom and so had everyone else, judging by the amount of people running after the truck.
When the medical center came into view, all she could do was stare. The windows had been blown out. Glass littered the sidewalk out front while smoke and flames poured from the windows. Fire was bad under normal circumstances. Fire in Sanctuary was ten times worse. Their fire department—which consisted of volunteers—were among the crowd, and she saw Maria’s husband Tom a
lready yelling orders to his team as they sprinted up.
Xander ran out the front door, his white shirt blackened from smoke, carrying an older woman wearing a hospital gown in his arms. Both of them were coughing, and Xander had a cut on his forehead trailing blood down the right side of his face.
Matthias pulled up and jumped out. “I have a blanket. Put her in the back.” He lowered the tailgate and spread the blanket so Xander could lay the woman down. She didn’t look good.
Frannie looked at the building. “Where’s the doctor?”
Xander shook his head, his eyes glassy. “I don’t know.”
Matthias grabbed the big man’s arms. “Stay here.”
Frannie ran after Matthias, not about to let him go in there alone. Tom and another guy yelled after them, but Frannie just ran. People were stuck in there, people who might not be able to get themselves out.
Flames licked the furniture in the waiting area. Smoke laced the air with black clouds that smelled like tar. Frannie lifted her shirt collar to cover her mouth and held it there. She followed Matthias, one hand on his shoulder, over to the single hallway that led to the rooms. They reached the reception desk, and she looked behind it.
Doctor Fenton lay on the floor, blood pooling from the back of his head. Frannie’s knees hit the tile beside him, and she pressed two fingers to his throat.
Nothing.
She swallowed. “I think he’s dead.”
Matthias put his hand on her shoulder. “Go back out and get help. We’ll need to take him outside anyway.”
**
Matthias watched her disappear into the smoke and then turned back to search for Bolton. Visibility was so bad his eyes blurred and watered, stinging from the toxic air.
His foot hit a solid object that grabbed him. Matthias crouched, finding his boss on the floor. Bolton’s eyes flew open. “Nadia…”
Matthias surveyed him, trying not to think about any number of injuries he’d sustained that couldn’t be seen. Bolton’s face was blackened, there was a knot on the side of his forehead and his lip was split.
“Nadia.”
“I’ll have someone go find her for you, but first we have to get you out of here. Can you walk?”
Bolton grabbed his arm, squeezing Matthias with more strength than anyone should have when they’d just been blown up. “Nadia’s...here.”
Ice settled in Matthias’s stomach. He crawled past Bolton, the direction his boss indicated, and found her clutching the German Shepherd. Why was she at the medical center? How many other people were here and no one even knew?
Bolton slid across the floor, dragging his lower body behind him. He leaned close, wincing, and studied both Nadia and Dauntless. Apparently satisfied, Bolton lay back with his eyes closed. “Get them out of here.”
Matthias didn’t like the sound of that. “I’ll be back for you A-SAP.”
He didn’t know how he was going to get both the woman and the animal out, but his only regret was he couldn’t take Bolton, too. Where was someone to help him? There’d been a crowd of people outside. Apparently no one had followed them in.
Matthias coughed into his sleeve. The air was getting bad. “Can you walk?”
Bolton shook his head. “Tell whoever comes in they’ll need a backboard, or a stretcher.”
He rolled fractionally onto his side and lifted the back of his shirt. The skin there was red and warped, gnarled by scars that covered his entire lower back. Matthias sucked in a breath. Bolton rolled to his back and looked at Matthias, daring him to show pity.
“Ouch.”
Bolton’s lips twitched. “You have no idea.”
Matthias had a million questions about what his boss had gone through in his old life, and why he’d chosen to share now, but it was totally not the time. “I’ll get them out of here and be back myself.”
Bolton nodded. “I’ll be here. Praying the building doesn’t fall down on me.”
Matthias lifted Nadia and the dog. He gritted his teeth and blocked out the weight of them, the strain on his arms and shoulders. He kept walking until he tasted fresh air.
Andra gasped and ran over. “John went inside with Frannie to look for Bolton.”
“Where’s Wilson?”
People were everywhere. Their volunteer firefighters—who included his brother-in-law Tom—had hooked up hoses to the water supply and were starting to spray down the building.
“John left him in the jail cell.” Andra shifted to avoid the spray from the hoses. “Don’t get the water in your mouth.”
“I have to get back to Bolton.” Matthias looked at Nadia, being assessed by a man and a woman who were both former military. He glanced back at Andra and shook his head.
She leaned close, yelling over the crowd and the noise. “Don’t get the water in your mouth.”
“The Einetine?”
She nodded. “If your hands get wet, don’t rub your face. The water’s tainted but they have to put the fire out.”
Matthias nodded, turned and ran back toward the building. He had no idea where Frannie was, but prayed she knew to be careful of the water. Rising smoke would get trapped in the air above the basin Sanctuary sat in. With the height of the ring of mountains, it took a significant weather system to clear out any cloud cover. Inversions were something they dealt with regularly, and smoke would be way worse.
**
Frannie knelt beside John. “What can we do?”
Bolton gritted his teeth. “Whatever it is, do it fast. I can’t go anywhere. You’ll have to carry me, and my spine has to stay completely straight.”
Frannie bit her lip. It probably took the big rancher a lot to admit he was basically helpless. She wracked her brain, trying to remember where stuff was kept in here and how to get to it.
How could Wilson have blown up the medical center? He had no consideration for the people who would get hurt while he was killing, or those who needed treatment and now had no medical center—or doctor.
John looked up from Bolton and shook his head. “We need a backboard.”
Frannie jumped up and ran for the supply closet. Two people exited a room, slamming into her. They didn’t slow down, just kept moving for the front door. She didn’t blame them given the circumstances, but still. “Be careful! Bolton Farrera’s on the floor!”
Frannie felt her way past the worst of the building’s damage to the closet. Cans and bottles had tipped off the shelves and left a toxic smell. She grabbed a backboard that wasn’t warped from heat damage and prayed it was strong enough to hold the big rancher’s weight. Had he fallen? She didn’t even know why he couldn’t walk.
They rolled Bolton together, very carefully, and then Frannie lifted her end of the board. John led the way outside, where firefighters moved their spray angle to allow them to pass. Still, the mist of water hit them anyway. Frannie held one hand over Bolton’s nose and mouth while the muscles on her other arm screamed in protest.
Matthias grabbed a hold of the backboard, taking the weight from her. “Are you okay?”
Frannie nodded. “Nadia?”
“Dazed, but she seems good. Dauntless, too. He won’t back up long enough for Nadia to be examined.”
“Who’s the doctor?”
“Remy apparently has a medical degree.”
The woman in question ran up, latex gloves on her hands. She was wearing cargo shorts and a drab T-shirt with bright red suspenders. On her feet were ugly sandals, and her eyes were wild behind her red-rimmed glasses matching her shoulder-length frizzy hair.
John and Matthias slid the backboard onto the back of Bolton’s truck, parked farther up from Matthias’s. Nadia Marie looked up from her spot to watch, while Dauntless didn’t take his attention off her. Remy climbed up. All her usual awkwardness dissipated as she got close to Bolton’s face and they had a low conversation.
After a quick minute, Remy removed Bolton’s shoes and ran her knuckles up and down the soles of his bare feet. Matthias stepped in Frannie’s l
ine of vision, his face fierce as he stared down at her.
She frowned. Was he okay? “Are you—”
His wrapped her up in a hug that lifted her feet off the floor. Frannie sucked in a breath, and her throat clogged with tears.
“Matthias.”
He leaned back. “We’re okay. Wilson’s in custody, and your mom is going to leave town.”
“What about Bolton? People died tonight. Why are you happy?”
“I don’t know what’s wrong, but I know he’s going to be okay. He has to be.”
Frannie put her hand on his cheek then. “How can you be optimistic after everything that’s happened?”
His arms tightened for a second. “This is why.”
Before she could register what was happening his head descended and his warm lips touched hers. Things were far from over, but if this was an indication of what was to come, Frannie would hardly be in a position to complain.
He stilled the kiss, waiting beat after beat while their lips touched but neither of them moved. She could feel his breath on her cheeks—long, cleansing exhales that relaxed her. Frannie wasn’t going to ask what he was doing. It would break a moment so sweet she wanted to cry.
Finally he eased back, his lips curled in a slight smile. Frannie studied his face and the steadfast love she saw there.
“You never doubted, did you?”
Matthias shook his head. “It was hard at times, but no. Not once.”
“I think that’s why I love you.”
He bent his knees, lifted her and spun her around, his face buried in the hair at her neck. Someone whistled, but Frannie didn’t look to see who’d done it. Matthias set her on her feet and released her to touch the sides of her face. “I love you, too.”
Frannie grinned. “I’ve waited a long time for you to say that to me.”
“It won’t be the last time. Not by far.”
Frannie looked around then. She saw Nadia Marie stroking Dauntless, her eyes on Matthias and Frannie, grinning wide before she turned to maintain her watch on Bolton. Andra had climbed up onto the truck bed beside her, with John’s son Pat and Aaron, the special young man who delivered the mail and had a room at John’s house.
Sanctuary Buried WITSEC Town Series Book 2 Page 29