Page 3 of Deliverance

“Eve!” a familiar voice called my name. Matt and Jerome, two of Danny’s guys, jogged towards me. “I heard what happened on the scanner,” Matt said as they approached. Matt was a volunteer firefighter. “What happened? Is anyone hurt?”

“No one’s hurt,” I said. “Maya was in the building but made it out in time. They’re at the hospital now.” I left out how Maya survived the explosion in the safe room. “Publicly, a gas explosion.”

“And privately?” Jerome crossed his arms, frowning as he scanned the rubble.

“Not sure yet,” I said.

Until we knew more, I needed to shelter the Archers from all of this. The organization couldn’t afford any more hits. People needed our help, and we couldn’t do that if we were fighting a war on all sides. I had to shield the Archers as best I could from the Kingfisher until this was over. The guys and I could handle the Kingfisher, but no one else needed to get hurt on my watch.

“We can stay and help supervise cleanup if you need to go to the hospital,” Matt offered.

I scanned the scene. There was nothing else to find here. I needed to find out from Maya what happened before theexplosion. I doubted whoever did this was going to come back tonight, so it should be fine if Matt and Jerome took over.

“You don’t mind?” I questioned them.

“Of course not,” Jerome said firmly. “Go, handle what you need to. Let us know if you need anything.”

“Thanks, guys,” I said. Exhaustion tugged at my steps, but my night wasn’t over yet.

CHAPTER 2

EVELYN

For the second time this month, I was walking into Memorial Hospital to find out how a member of my family was doing. Like last time, Marcus and Adrian were parking the car while Alexander and Sebastian flanked me. But this time, Dominic also joined us. We still needed to finish debriefing, and he also needed to get checked out by a doctor.

“Maya Patel?” I asked the grey-haired volunteer at the desk. “They were just brought in by ambulance?”

“Evelyn.” Izzy waved at me down the hall. Déjà vu washed over me as I hurried towards her.

Izzy pulled me into a tight hug, and that’s how I knew she was rattled. Izzy wasn’t a hugger. I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed her back.

“Maya, okay?” I asked as I pulled back.

She nodded. “Detective Patel just arrived, so they’re getting an earful from him, but they’re fine otherwise.”

I sagged slightly, and Sebastian squeezed my hip.

“Liam filled me in on some of it.” Izzy frowned. “Is it really gone?”

I nodded. “Whoever did it was good. Professional. They levelled the building quickly, and the fire took care of the rest. Everything’s gone, the computers, the equipment…”

“We’ll replace it,” Izzy said. “Liam is verifying everything is backed up, but you know he keeps backups to his backups, so we’ll be fine there. We’ll replace everything else.”

Izzy meant well, but I couldn’t help thinking about how much work had just blown up. Literally. It would take us months to get back to fully operational. And who knows how much damage the Kingfisher or any number of people would do in the meantime?

“Come on.” Alexander placed a hand on my back. “Let’s go see Maya, then you need to get some rest.”

I hummed but didn’t agree, and Sebastian smirked. I was exhausted, yes, but my whole organization had just blown up. Sleep wasn’t in the cards for me yet.

The strident voice of Detective Patel reached us first as we followed Izzy into the emergency ward. I winced. Detective Patel was going to want answers. Answers I didn’t have or didn’t want to risk giving him. The last thing I needed in this situation was an overprotective father trying to take on the Kingfisher alone.

Marcus and Adrian joined us as we reached the room, and Izzy and Dominic stepped aside to speak with them. I knocked on the door before pushing it open.

Maya lay on the hospital bed, dressed in a hospital gown. Their purple hair was still sooty, but the blood and soot had been wiped off their face. Liam sat at the foot of their hospital bed while Detective Patel stood at the side of the bed. His suit jacket was discarded on the chair, and his sleeves were rolled up, hair wild like he had been running his hands through it.

“Hey,” I said, looking at Maya. “How are you feeling?”

“Good,” Maya said. “The doctor said I likely blew out my right eardrum and damaged the left one, but all things considered, I’m fine.”