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.”
“You are not fine. You were in an explosion!” Detective Patel half-shouted. He whirled on me, and I ignored the way Alexander and Sebatian stiffened. He wouldn’t hurt me, and he had every right to be angry. “What happened? Who did this?”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “We know there was a gas explosion, but that’s it.”
He huffed. “I’ll be opening an investigation into this.”
“No, you won’t,” I said firmly, not wavering when he glared at me. “It was a gas explosion.”
“Like hell it was!”
I understood his frustration, but an official police investigation wasn’t going to help us.
“It was a gas explosion,” I repeated, my voice steady.
“Maya is safe now. They’re safe because it was a gas explosion.
” Staring him down, I willed him to understand.
Detective Patel knew the Archers existed.
He knew the work we did. But he didn’t know the inner workings, and it was safer for him not to know. He needed to let this go.
“Dad,” Maya said. “It’s fine. It was a gas explosion.” They touched his arm, and his stance softened. “The doctor said I could be discharged tonight. Could you go see how quickly that could happen? I just want to be home in my own bed.”
Detective Patel sighed. He ran his hands through his hair again, then picked up his suit jacket and shrugged it on.
“Fine,” he said. “But you will keep me updated on this gas explosion in case there are any more in the city.” It wasn’t a question, and honestly, I would take what I could get right now.
I nodded. “I will.”
He huffed again and strode past us. “I’ll be back in twenty minutes,” he called over his shoulder.
Izzy, Adrian, Dominic, and Marcus joined us in the room.
“We have twenty minutes before he comes back,” I told Izzy. “Let’s debrief quickly.”
“I can go first,” Maya said. “I was watching the mission on the cameras at HQ when the front alarm sensor tripped. A blacked-out SUV entered the alley, and four men dressed in all-black with face coverings got out. They took out the exterior camera and started working on the door. They looked like they had done this before, so I initiated a system wipe on the computers. They made it through the first door and were working on the second, so I was rushing to finish the wipe. The wipe finished, and I headed to the bunker but left my phone behind. That’s why I didn’t call you,” they said to Liam. “I watched through the bunker cameras.”
“The bunker had cameras?” Alexander asked.
“Just two,” I said. “The exterior one, which was taken out.” I looked at Maya to confirm, and they nodded. “And an interior one that looks into the main room.”
“That’s the one I watched,” Maya said. “One of them sat down at the computer and started typing. But then another one got a phone call. There’s no audio on that camera,” Maya explained to the guys.
“So I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but after he hung up, two of them went back outside and came back in with gas cans and a box.
They doused everything with gasoline and then set the bomb up under the back wall. ”
“Fuck!” I cursed, pacing in front of the bed.
“What is it?” Adrian asked.
“The back wall is the load-bearing wall. Which they would only have known…”
“If they had the blueprints,” Izzy finished, eyes widening as she came to the same realization. “Someone went to a lot of trouble to make sure the building was destroyed.”
“That’s why they used a bomb instead of just setting it on fire,” Marcus said. “They wanted maximum damage.”
“How did they find out the building was ours, though?” I asked. “We buried that purchase beneath layers and layers of security.”
“Do all the Archers know where it is?” Adrian asked.
I shook my head. “No. Me, my lieutenants, and their seconds, and that’s it. We kept it small for a reason.”
“Could someone have tracked you to the building? Like followed you there?” Dominic asked.
“Nothing’s impossible,” Izzy said, “but it’s very unlikely. There are no working traffic cameras in that area, and we rarely park in the alley. Someone could have followed us on foot, but it would have been easy to spot them on our cameras.”
“Can you double check?” I asked Liam. “And see if they were able to access anything?”
Liam nodded. “I have my laptop in the van. Jerome is going to store the van for us and drop my laptop off here in a few minutes.”
“You’re welcome to use my computer setup at SDS,” Sebastian offered. “I’ll help too.”
“I get to see your lair?” Liam smiled. “Deal.”
“We’ll prioritize getting you back up and running soon,” I promised. “I’m sorry. I know you spent a lot of time on your setup.”
“Not your fault, Boss Lady,” Liam said. “I can rebuild it. I might even steal some of your boyfriend’s ideas to rebuild mini-Liam 2.0.”
“Mini-Liam 2.0?” Marcus questioned.
Liam was ranked second to Danny in naming things, and not every name made sense.
“Don’t ask,” Izzy said as Liam’s eyes lit up. “I’ll put together an inventory list based on my last quarterly report,” she said to me. “I’ll prioritize Liam’s equipment, the security systems, and a second bunker.”
Maya laughed. “Yeah, I already told her that I’m never going to tease her again for insisting we have a safe room.”
“I don’t think any of us will,” Izzy agreed.
“If you need any security systems,” Alexander said, “let us know. We have several in stock we can give you.”
“We can pay for them,” I protested.
Alexander ignored me. “We’ll donate them to the cause.”
Izzy smirked, ignoring me. “Got it.”
I was definitely going to pay them back.
“Okay, so we have a plan,” I said. “Izzy will put together a list of equipment. I’ll work with you to prioritize and shift stuff around as needed.
Liam will check out our system tomorrow.
” I checked my watch. It was 3 a.m. “Okay, well, later today. Detective Patel will be back soon. Maya, you’re off for the next twenty-four hours. ”
“Boss, no. I won’t survive twenty-four hours of getting smothered by Dad,” Maya complained.
Liam hopped up next to them and wrapped his arm around them. “Your dad and me,” he corrected. “I’m definitely going to smother you too.”
Maya’s eyes widened, and they looked at me with wide, pleading eyes.
“Sorry,” I said. “But smothering is required after near-death experiences.”
“Oh, is it?” Adrian asked, pointedly looking at me.
I ignored him. I was the leader. The rules didn’t apply to me. He and Alexander exchanged a long look that didn’t bode well for me.
“It is,” Izzy said.
I glared at her, and she just smiled serenely at me. “Outside of Liam checking nothing was accessed, nothing has to happen in the next twenty-four hours. We all need the rest.”
“Jerome is twenty minutes away, so I’ll check on our way back to the Patel house. I can’t find any evidence they accessed anything on my phone, but my laptop will be better,” Liam said.
I relaxed slightly at Liam’s words. The last thing we needed was a data breach right now.
“So we’re going home now?” Alexander prompted.
“Almost,” I said. “I’ve got one more stop.”