Chapter 54 The Meeting
THE MEETING
ZEKE
After dropping Maggie off at Marla’s, I drove straight over to the sheriff’s station.
I only met Sheriff Hillsborough the one time, but he seemed like the kind of man who had a lot of respect for someone in uniform.
Spencer’s reputation in the community aside, I figured I could get the sheriff to at least listen to what I had to say.
“What can I do for you, boy?” Hillsborough said when I entered his office.
I held out my hand for a firm handshake. Men like him thrived on respect. “It’s Sergeant Hayes, sir. We met several months ago when Marla Doyle had that rock thrown in her shop window.”
Hillsborough returned the gesture. “Oh, yeah. Nice to see you again, son. What can I do ya for?” He sat back down behind his desk and waved me towards one of the seats across from him.
“Do you know anyone in town by the name of Spencer? He’s young, around twenty years old.”
The sheriff nodded. “Sure, Spencer Church. Been a thorn in my side his whole damn life. Why do you ask?”
“Well, sir, I’m pretty sure he’s the one who damaged Marla’s window. He’s been threatening my wife and Marla for several months now.” Small towns usually cared about violence against women, right? The sheriff had to take something like this seriously.
“Who’s your wife?”
“Oh, Maggie Hayes—well, I guess you know her as Maggie Eaton.” Saying her old name was akin to saying a slur.
It left a nasty taste in my mouth that I immediately wanted to rinse out with strong mouth wash.
What if Maggie decided to go back to her old name after this?
It would be like our time together never happened.
“Yeah, I definitely know Maggie!” Sheriff Hillsborough sounded surprised by my wife’s name. “Never thought I’d see the day that she got hitched. And to a decent fella, too! Didn’t you say ‘sergeant?’”
I frowned at his commentary. “I’m not sure how to take your statement, Sheriff.”
He shrugged as if what he meant was harmless. I considered it anything but. “Only that Maggie had a bit of a reputation herself around here. Just like her mother. Wouldn’t imagine either one of ‘em sticking with one guy very long. It’s not their way.”
“You’re wrong!” I fired back, much louder than I intended.
“My wife is nothing like Diana. She is loyal, and sweet, and everything good in this world, so I highly suggest you talk about her as such. She’s also being threatened by this Spencer guy.
So I’m asking you, man to man, uniform to uniform, what are you gonna do about it?
Because I’ll serve you Spencer’s head on a plate before I’ll let him hurt a hair on her head! ”
Both of us sat in shock at my sudden outburst for a moment. Hillsborough looked dumbstruck. Maybe nobody ever talked to him like that before, or maybe I truly overstepped my bounds, but desperation made the speech for me. I needed to know Maggie was safe.
“Alright. Tell me exactly what’s going on,” Hillsborough finally said. He grabbed a pen and a fresh sheet of paper, pausing for my answer.
“I’ll do you one better, sir,” I offered. “Do you know the old canning factory?”
For the next thirty minutes, the sheriff listened to my story before he pulled out the old blueprints of the building.
We established the best places for cover and high ground and then dispatched units.
Maggie texted me somewhere over the course of the meeting that Spencer agreed to the time and place.
I held out my hand again when we finished. “Pleasure doing business with you, sir.”
“I’ll see you soon, Sergeant,” he agreed.
Once I returned to Fort Stewart, there would be no going back.
I understood now why Maggie had been too afraid to tell me what happened with Spencer.
And while I still didn’t know exactly why she went to his house to sleep with him, I knew the actual details didn’t matter when I loved her as much as I did.
That was why I still had to do everything in my power to protect her.
Could I give that up? Could I walk away from the love of my life because she didn’t love me back?
Barb once told us during a couple’s session that love isn’t a feeling, it’s a verb. It requires constant action and reiteration. We had to make the choice to love one another every day or our marriage would never work.
I always chose Maggie. Across all sense of time and space, I’d choose Maggie. But if she didn’t make the same choice, we were dead in the water.
At least when I left, she would be safe. That could be my final gift to her.
Marla and Celeste both sat next to Maggie on the couch when I returned to Marla’s apartment.
All three women were teary-eyed, clutching one another and catching up on everything that happened during their time apart.
Although her friends both greeted me when I arrived, Maggie kept her eyes trained on me as I continued down the hall to change in the bathroom.
Even through the walls I felt her gaze waiting for me to emerge.
After quickly donning plain jeans and a slightly rumpled blue t-shirt, I returned to the living room where the ladies still cried as they swapped stories from the past five months. If Maggie mentioned that we were splitting up, none of them showed it.
“Hayes, you’re a sight for sore eyes!” Marla said. She broke away from their huddle to stand up and give me fierce hug. I stiffened, surprised by the contact, though it wasn’t altogether unpleasant.
“Yeah, thanks for bringing our girl back looking so pretty and new,” Celeste chimed in from the couch.
Maggie leaned her head on the woman’s shoulder in thanks.
“I just can’t get over how much I love your new hair!
And there’s definitely something different about you, Maggie.
What’s the secret? Some fancy Korean lotion?
” She chuckled lightly over her own joke.
Maggie glanced at me before replying, “A happily married life will do that to ya, I guess!”
“She’s eating again,” I cut in.
All three women turned to me. Marla and Celeste appeared startled while Maggie shot bolts of lightning from her eyes.
Marla snorted. “Sounds like you’re implying that Maggie here doesn’t know how to put food away! This child packs in more sugar than sweet tea!”
So she hadn’t told them yet. About her eating disorder, the way I found her in the bathroom that night, or all the hard work that came after. An entire portion of her life and only I knew it existed.
Maggie pleaded with her eyes for me to stop talking.
“Yeah, well, it’s normal for people to struggle when they move overseas. They don’t make food there like they do at The Comfy Cushion,” I offered instead.
She mouthed the words “thank you” that neither of them caught. Celeste and Marla both seem to accept that answer because they immediately started chattering about something else instead.
I turned to leave so I could meet up with Sheriff Hillsborough, but a hand stopped me.
“Are you going to meet Spencer?” Maggie asked in a hushed whisper.
I didn’t say anything. The silence spoke for itself.
“Zeke, no! He’ll hurt you! Maybe even kill you!” She blanched at the thought.
She definitely didn’t expect me to snort in response. “Maggie, I hate to break it to you, but I signed my life away on a dotted line when I enlisted. My sole purpose on this planet is to keep people like you safe. I’m just doing my job.”
“Then I’m coming with you!” she insisted. The hand wrapped around my wrist tightened in challenge. Maggie wouldn’t let me break that hold.
There came all the fire and sass Maggie always had. It wouldn’t do me any good to argue with her.
“Fine, but you’ll have to stay by my side, with a hand on my belt loop the entire time. If you see a weapon, you get behind me immediately, understand?”
“You…care?” It came out as the ghost of a whimper.
By now we had Marla and Celeste’s attention. They eyed us curiously over Maggie’s shoulder. If they didn’t know where things stood with Maggie and me yet, I wasn’t going to enlighten them.
That faint flicker of longing grew stronger, no matter how much I tried to ignore it. Even with her standing right in front of me, I missed my wife and wanted things to be different.
“I never stopped caring, Trouble. All you have to do is say what you feel and things can be different.”
Maggie visibly deflated.
“I thought so. Let’s go.”