Matthias walked her to her house. The door was locked and the lights off. His mom had probably taken the boys somewhere for dinner to give their parents time to sort things out. “Will you be okay?”
Maria looked up at him. The look in her eyes worried him. More than just grief and guilt over what had happened, there was something else he couldn’t identify.
“You’ve always been the strong one, Matthias. When I needed it most, you did what I couldn’t. Now it’s time for me to be strong.”
Matthias hugged her. “You are. Even if you don’t know it.”
There was a lot in his sister that he also saw in Frannie. He could help them. He could defend them, but they both had so much courage. Courage he didn’t even know how they possessed. It humbled him to realize how much they didn’t need him.
**
Frannie looked the same, lying in the bed connected again to machines by wires and tubes. The light in the room was dim, just the lamp above the sink to cast shadows where there should be none. In the chair pulled up to the bedside was Beth.
Matthias didn’t like how un-lifelike Frannie looked. It brought a lump up in his throat which threatened to choke the breath from him. Where was the medicine?
The nurse in the corner looked up from her magazine, but at the machine’s readings. Not at him.
He perched on the edge of the bed, the day wearing heavy on his shoulders. Frannie’s hand was warm, but he missed her fingers curling around his as she squeezed his hand. He missed that smile she always shot him—full of happiness, like she couldn’t believe they were really together.
He held her hand and looked at Beth. Long blonde hair framed her face, making her eyes big and dark. The president and Susan’s daughter looked gray and drawn out as though fifty years of life had passed since her mother left. Only days ago.
She smiled a sad smile.
“How are you doing?” Matthias wondered if she was even going to answer. Maybe he shouldn’t have disturbed her.
Finally, she broke the silence. “The heartbeat is good. I’m concentrating on that right now. I spoke with Grant, and he’s getting a lot of pressure to reveal my whereabouts so I can be ‘made safe.’” One side of her mouth crept up. “I can’t even go to the funeral. The vice president has been sworn in, but Grant is refusing to read him in on Sanctuary. He told me he doesn’t care how much flack he gets, he’s not breaching security. He’s making excuses right now, delaying them.”
“Do you need anything?”
She shook her head. “This town is incredible. People I don’t even know keep showing up at all hours of the day to ask me that. The military is flying in a special delivery early tomorrow morning with Frannie’s medicine and my mother-in-law.” A smile curled the corner of her mouth for a second before she continued, “There was a delay of a few hours because Grant had to wait for something else. I don’t know what it is.”
She sighed. “Grant wanted to come himself, but he thinks he’s being monitored. He has his whole family and the next of kin of everyone in Sanctuary under guard because he doesn’t want what happened to my parents to happen to anyone else.” Her voice broke then.
Matthias squeezed her shoulder. He had no family outside of Sanctuary, and was suddenly grateful for that fact even though it was selfish.
“The one thing I really need, no one can give me.”
Matthias knew her husband was out of contact. Was that who she was talking about? He didn’t know what he was supposed to say, so he just let her talk.
“Sam and I… He didn’t leave under the best circumstances. I tried to contact him as soon as I found out about the baby. It’s the kind of mission where it could be weeks before he surfaces somewhere that actually has a secure phone. Grant promised me his brother will find Sam. Apparently he might be able to do that, even when no one else can.”
She sniffed. “But it’s too late. I needed him weeks ago. What if, by the time he gets here, I don’t need him anymore? What if I find the strength to do this without him? What if I don’t? What if Sam doesn’t even want to come?”
Tears rolled down her cheeks. Matthias drew her to her feet and wrapped his arms around her. He would question how anyone who’d married Beth could ever choose not to be with her, but he didn’t think it would help to say that. He just smoothed his hand across her shoulders and let her cry.
To his consternation, tears filled his eyes. Why did he feel such unity with a woman who had lost everything? Matthias had made a choice at ten years old to save his sister, to do everything in his power to rid their family of the cancer attacking them from within.
He didn’t regret it, not even on the rare occasions he slept, when he dreamed of that night and woke with the memory of watching the life fade from his father’s eyes. Maria had lived her life with her head in the past, where Matthias had done everything he could to pretend the story his mother told was the real truth. Frannie could never know. If she ever found out the truth of how much like his father—and hers—he was, Matthias would never forgive himself.
Beth stepped back, wiping her face. “It feels like the whole world has fallen apart, but I’m still just sitting here. Everything is different, and I’m just…the same.”
Matthias looked again at Frannie.
“She’ll wake up. The medicine will make sure she isn’t harmed any more by the chemical.”
“Your mother-in-law is a good woman?”
“She’ll help take care of us.”
Matthias looked at her. “He’s a fool if he chooses to miss even a second of this.”
She sobered then. “Thank you for that.”
“It’s the truth.”
“Yes, I’ve noticed that about you, Matthias.”
It was hard to lie about anything else when he’d had such a huge secret. Now it was out some of the tightness which always seemed to band around his chest had loosened. John and Bolton both knew the truth, no thanks to his freak out. It didn’t seem to bother them what he’d been capable of doing as a child. Matthias wasn’t naïve enough to believe they wouldn’t be watching him now. He would keep an eye on him, too, if he was them. No one needed someone with homicidal tendencies running loose around town.
At least not any more than there already were.
Beth squeezed his arm and walked gingerly from the room, like she was purposely trying to be gentle with herself. Matthias watched from the door while she made her way down the hall. The security guard—Xander—strolled past, moving around the waiting area. Matthias’s sleeping bag was rolled up on a chair in the hallway, his pillow on top, but he wasn’t the least bit tired. He could still watch the room, though.
Stella and Frannie were resting, not that either could wake if they wanted to. Elma and May were keeping the bakery open during the day, but they weren’t Frannie. Bolton, Diego and Sean were covering the ranch. Matthias wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be doing; he was used to more action than being on guard duty.
The power went out.
Matthias spun back to Frannie’s bed, but the monitors were still on, switched to battery backup during an outage. Frannie’s heartbeat was steady. The rest of the building was dark, but the patients should remain undisturbed. He stepped into the hallway, ears peeled.
Matthias heard the nurse move behind him. The door swung shut, the motion pushing air toward him. The lock turned. Apparently she’d been briefed on the killer targeting the women she was caring for.
“Matthias?” Beth’s voice betrayed an edge of nervousness, coming from down the hall to his left.
“Yeah, I’m still here. I think the power went out.”
“Doesn’t the whole town use geo-thermal—”
He pressed his lips together in the dark. “Yes. We’ve never had an outage that I can remember. It’s not supposed to happen.” And it meant the power had been cut.
“Matthias?” Farther to his left, down the hall, was Xander.
“Yeah?”
“My flashlight isn’t on my b
elt. I don’t know where it is. I had it—”
There was a dull thud, Xander’s words cut off followed by a tumble as the big man hit the ground.
“Xander?” Beth called to him.
“Get back in your room, Beth. Shut the door.”
“But—”
“Do it. Now.”
There was a muffled thud.
“Matthias!” Beth screamed from behind her door. It sounded like she was struggling.
He ran in her direction, full speed to where her door was. Who knew what he was going to meet when the tackle came, but too much was at stake to worry about it. The person was shorter than him. Matthias hit a shoulder, taking the man down.
He grabbed for a hand, or arm, but his fingers glanced off the tile floor. He grasped a jacket and tried to get a grip to subdue the attacker. A boot slammed into the outside of his thigh. He gritted his teeth and finally found the man’s head. Left hand on the side of his face, Matthias punched his attacker’s cheek with his right.
A needle punctured the outside of his arm. He moved, but his attacker pushed the plunger on whatever was in there. Matthias grasped the man’s hand and pushed the needle out. Dread swamped him and he was pushed aside. Matthias rolled. In the dark, he found a syringe on the floor.
His attacker got up, and took one step before Matthias kicked up his leg, tripping the man. He needed to see who it was. He couldn’t let the guy leave.
Matthias tried to get up. He had to...needed to...
His head hit the floor. Pain reverberated through his skull and footsteps pounded the floor. The sound made Matthias grip the sides of his head. He groaned as the room spun under him even as he lay there on the tile floor.
“Matthias.” His name was a whisper.
“Frannie.”
She rushed over. “It’s Beth.” He felt her settle beside him, her hands moving over his shoulders and then his face. “I need help!”
“I’m not opening this door,” the nurse yelled. “No one’s getting in here.”
“Xander and Matthias are hurt!”
“Until the doctor gets here, this door doesn’t open.”
“The phone won’t work. I tried it, it’s not working.” Beth turned back to him. “I have to go get help. It’s so dark in here. Can you move?”
“Frannie.”
Beth whimpered. “Please don’t be bleeding out or something, okay? I’ll be back soon.” Her hands pressed on his chest on last time, like she was reassuring herself he’d stay there. “I’ll be quick.”
Her steps retreated. That was good. Matthias squeezed his eyes shut. Full dark wasn’t good. It reminded him of all the things he didn’t want to remember.
He sucked in a breath, trying not to panic. How was he going to react to the drug? Was it the same thing Frannie had been dosed with, or something worse? But he’d done his job. Frannie was okay. He’d kept her safe. He’d kept Beth safe. Surely Xander would be fine, just a lump on his head.
The burning in his arm was getting worse. So was the spinning. Matthias laid his palms flat on the floor. He was going to be fine. Right?
Chapter 19
Just after five in the morning Sheriff John Mason stood with his thumbs in his belt. Mostly just because that was what Idaho sheriffs did. Not that he’d ever actually met any, but he was one. For half an hour before the helicopter set down on the square stretch of concrete at the ranch house just after eight-thirty, John stood waiting...and praying.
Whoever had broken into the medical center the night before had cut the power, incapacitated Xander and first tried to enter Beth’s room. Only after Matthias rushed him had the assailant gone after Matthias.
The substance injected into Matthias had been a powerful paralyzing agent. Thankfully his friend hadn’t received too much of a dose. He’d been woozy and disoriented, but that was all.
John had kept to himself his suspicion the attacker intended to abduct Beth, for some reason, and not Frannie.
Wind whipped at the collar of John’s jacket. He bent forward and moved to the helicopter’s door so the stylish, late-sixties woman could exit. Her light blue pants and white blouse were covered in black and brown dog hair. One hand in his, she stepped out with her purse on her shoulder. Her eyes met his, even while her lip curled.
“Abigail Myerson?”
A German Shepherd hopped out behind her.
Abigail handed him a medical bag no bigger than an insulated lunch box. “Sheriff Mason, I presume.”
“John is fine, ma’am.”
One more person to protect.
The weight of each of their lives, and the lives of every family member they had outside Sanctuary, rested on his and Grant’s shoulders. It wasn’t something he took lightly.
If the president and Susan had given up the location of Sanctuary, it was only a matter of time before there was a physical breach of security. Until then, the military was watching the airspace and the NSA was tracking all movement on the ground. John wasn’t going to rule out the possibility someone could get past their safeguards. It would be foolish to think that. But a full-scale attack was unlikely. This was targeted.
Any attack on Sanctuary had to be targeted.
But Grant—as always—had an ace up his sleeve. One that meant John was in a holding pattern until an indication they were under some kind of attack presented itself. Watching and waiting weren’t something John truly appreciated, but covering it all in prayer was helping.
Abigail Myerson shook his hand, and then John crouched to meet the dog. It sniffed him in a hopeful way and then barked once and sat. John didn’t know if that meant he was disappointed or not.
John rubbed the German Shepherd’s flanks. “Dauntless.”
The dog barked and jumped to set his paws on John’s thighs and make his greeting face-to-face. John chuckled. “Platz.”
Dauntless pushed off and stood tall. He barked again.
Abigail laughed. “I suppose that means hello.”
John looked at her as she flipped her blonde hair back over her shoulder and straightened. She reminded him a lot of his mother. “Shall we?” He motioned to his Jeep.
“Lead the way.”
John walked beside her while the dog trotted after them, apparently content after the long trip and the relief he’d had on the side of the heli-pad. Bolton would probably object to the mess left behind, but John hadn’t remembered to bring a plastic bag.
They drove straight to the medical center while Abigail asked about Beth’s well-being, and John did his best to not betray the grieving woman’s confidence. Whatever she chose to tell Abigail had to come from her, not John’s concern.
“I just hope they find Samuel quickly.” Abigail sighed. “My son is headstrong, and he hasn’t always made the right choices in the past. But he’ll want to be here for his wife and child. I’m sure of it.”
Matthias was in the waiting area when they got there.
John waved at him. “Don’t get up.”
Matthias looked relieved, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt where John had half expected him in a gown. “Did you get it?” He didn’t even spare Abigail a glance.
John nodded. He handed the medical bag to the doctor, who whisked it away, and then said to Matthias, “This is Beth’s mother-in-law, Abigail Myerson. Abigail, this is Matthias Hernandez.”
Matthias nodded. “Ma’am.”
“Abigail?” Beth was back in that gray sweater John thought was ugly, the sleeves pulled down over her hands.
Abigail rushed to her and the two embraced, albeit awkwardly. Abigail leaned back. “It’s nice to finally meet the woman my son spoke so highly of.”
The timeline between the wedding certificate, Sam Myerson’s mission and Beth’s arrival in Sanctuary was less than two months. Until now John hadn’t believed it could have been an elopement. Who did that anymore?
The dog barked once and then sat.
Everyone looked.
Matthias said, “Who is that?”
&nb
sp; John motioned to the door. “I have to go talk to Nadia Marie. Are you waiting for Frannie to wake up?”
Matthias shook his head. “Not if you need me to come. The doctor said he’d have to take it slow letting her off the medication. I’d like to check in at the bakery.”
He got up slowly. John wanted to rush over and help his friend, but what he’d learned about Matthias in the last few days told him the young man was eminently capable of taking care of business. If Matthias needed help, he only had to ask.
John was learning how to lean on other people. It was easier with his brothers, but being in Sanctuary he’d also learned to rely on the people here—especially to help raise his son. These people prayed with him, studied the Word with him, encouraged him, challenged him and stuck by his side. They were also planning the biggest event Sanctuary had ever seen, because Christmas Eve John was getting married.
Nadia Marie was due to meet him at the bakery in ten minutes. She had no idea why he wanted to see her. John had asked Andra to come, too. Nadia was going to need all the support they could give her when he told her the news.
He glanced at his friend in the passenger seat, trying not to look like he felt awful. “Who’s on duty right now?”
“Frannie’s friends are watching her. Sonny, Louis and Michael are old, but I figured there’s strength in numbers.”
John nodded. “Plus the fact that between them they’ve likely killed upwards of a dozen people means they’re prepared to defend her if necessary.”
“I’m glad they consider her one of them. It’s safer than being on their bad side.”
“For sure,” John said. “Did you know all of them are ex-mafia?”
“Is there ever an “ex” when it’s mafia?” Matthias’s question made John wonder if the guy knew his girlfriend was mafia, too. Not by choice, but by birth—though no one would take one look at sweet little Frannie Peters and think, “La Cosa Nostra.” She seemed to have successfully left that life behind, even if Sonny, Louis and Michael might not have.
Sanctuary Buried WITSEC Town Series Book 2 Page 22
