18. Margo
CHAPTER 18
Margo
“ I ’m going to grab some more beers for dinner, who wants?” Fish asks, walking to the kitchen. I ignore the question because I’m pissed that Tommy asked that question—heartsick he brought up an insecurity I didn’t know I had until now. I’m in love with him so fully that my past does make me insecure. The pride I had in it before was because I didn’t know any better.
“That’s a side of him I’ve never seen before. Oh, god, Jeannie, did I rush into this?” I squeal, fingering my ring in between my thumb and forefinger. One sentence is enough to cause doubt. “It was a mistake to say yes, wasn’t it? Tell me.”
Jeannie puts her hands on both my shoulders and blows her bangs out of her face. “We’ve all had too much to drink,” she slurs a little. “It’s just a game. Now, if there were other indicators he was a douche, I’d be on your side.” She looks up to the side. “Like if he was mean to his parents, or rude to the waiter, or if he had normative male alexithymia, or even if he was a misogynist, or if he practiced misandry.” Her eyes cut to the other side of the ceiling. “But he’s none of those. He just made a joke about factual happenings.” Now she looks at me. “Ok?”
I exhale a pent-up breath. “Ok,” I agree.
She taps me on the shoulders once. “Excellent. I have to go to the bathroom. Think up a good never have I ever zinger to get him back. Maybe a 40-year-old virgin joke or something witty.”
“He isn’t forty, Jeannie,” I deadpan.
“Might as well be,” she zings over her shoulder heading to her room.
Sliding back, I lay down on the floor and stare at the ceiling. “Ugh,” I moan. She’s right even drunk. I need to be more like her when I grow up. It’s then, through the crack of the door, I hear a sound that flips my stomach and makes my skin crawl. Sitting up, I turn toward the sound of the hacking cough. The shiver zips up my spine. Hollis when he’s on drugs. The night he broke my arm, he coughed incessantly. The first time he came home from fucking a prostitute, and I didn’t know, he coughed all night. He told me he was coming down with a cold.
“Hollis,” I say, loud enough for Fish to hear in the kitchen. “That’s him. I hear him in the hallway. With Tommy.”
It wasn’t the takeout. It’s not dinner. It’s Hollis because he knows I’m here, and there aren’t gates and security cameras here. The sobriety was all a farce, a small moment in time to give the illusion of safety. I scream, a blood-curdling wail as I leap toward the door and stumble. Standing, I open the door at the same time Tommy falls down the stairs.
I cover my mouth when I see Hollis watching him fall, his limbs awkward as they beat against the narrow stairs. Ron Steelchase, wearing a suit, is following Tommy down. He looms over his body. I don’t dare take a step out of the doorway though. Hollis has spotted me, and he looks raving mad. Tears prick my eyes as I connect the dots of this mess. I’ve been thinking about this since I spoke with my mom today. This all-important thing Tommy stole was Dani’s virginity. In his mind, that was something that belonged to Ron. Because women are stealthy like this, when we left Texas, I googled Ron. I googled everyone else, too, but it was Ron’s disingenuous persona when we met that sent up red flags. He is a liar. He is a cheat. He belongs to a church under scrutiny for bad business practices, and as the CFO, he was to blame. The case is still pending, but one look at him tells me all I need to know.
“Please, Margo. I had to,” Hollis says. “It was a lot of money. It’s over now. Ron has what he wants.”
“Why didn’t you tell me it was Ron?” I yell. I can’t even understand myself through the drunk haze and the heightened emotions. “Stay the fuck away from me.”
Fish is behind me pushing me back into the door. He has a gun in his hand. “Goddamn it, this is going to be messy,” he growls. “You ruined my dinner!”
“It was Ron! Fish, it was Ron who pushed Tommy down the stairs! Not Hollis.”
“Fine, but this motherfucker needs a lesson,” Fish says, firing the gun at Hollis’s leg. It hits him in the calf, and he goes down, holding his leg and rocking. I doubt he even felt it he’s so high. “And this mother fucker needs something more than a lesson.” He aims the gun at Ron, at the base of the stairs, leering at Tommy, and fires. I can’t see from my vantage point, but I hear Ron fall. “Call 9-1-1,” he says, tone calm and collected.
I do as I’m told and am enraged when I barely get the address out without sobbing. Fish uses zip ties on Hollis to keep him from running and goes down the stairs to check on Tommy. The operator asks how many people are hurt, but I’m standing at the top of the stairs looking at Tommy’s mangled legs and arms, and my brain scrambles. She asks twice more before I answer her. She assures me ambulances are on the way.
Jeannie comes out the door, eyes wide, staring at the scene like she can’t believe it’s real. “Margo,” she says quietly. It’s an apology. She’s looking at me with her arm around my shoulder. Hollis is screaming, foaming at the mouth, feral, behind us.
Fish sees me walking down the stairs, holding onto the metal railing with both hands. “Margo,” he says, putting out a hand. It’s an order and an apology. “Stay there. You don’t want to see this.”
I’m afraid if I don’t see it up close, I won’t believe it. “Shut the fuck up, Hollis,” Jeannie hisses behind me. “You piece of filthy garbage. You prove time and time again that you are unworthy of the oxygen you steal from this planet.” Hollis closes his mouth, and I’m thankful because his voice makes my heart rate skyrocket. Calmness comes next.
“He’s…he’s…dead?” I ask, swallowing hard. The word is almost too final to say.
Fish shakes his head, but he’s checking vitals, his fingers on his neck, while he looks at his watch. “How long did the ambulance say?”
We hear the sirens in the next second. “Soon,” I say. Stooping next to Tommy.
“Broken leg for sure. Wrist, too.” His foot and knee are turned in the wrong direction. His breathing is a scant rasp. “He has to have internal injuries,” Fish says, moving his hands over his body, in a skilled precise manner, ripping his T-shirt off. It’s only in this second that I see Fish in a different light. He’s an operator, trained to assess damage in combat. This isn’t a hot dessert. This is a nice apartment complex in San Diego. The juxtaposition seems too wild to be true. I cup Tommy’s check and look at the lifeless body of Ron Steelchase behind Tommy.
“I knew it was that guy. I knew it. Tommy,” Fish says, pitching his tone higher and louder. “You hang in there. We’re getting you to the hospital. You’re going to be fine. Margo is here.”
“I’m here,” I sob. “I’m here. I’m not leaving you.” The last exchange could be me being upset with him. Panic streaks across my heart like a disease. “I’m here.” It’s a flailing confession I will him to hear. “Don’t leave me. Please, God, don’t leave me. Stay.”
The ambulance immediately homes in on Tommy, and after talking to Fish, they load him carefully.
“I want to come. I’m his fiancée,” I say, but my breathing is rapid, and I’m hiccupping. “Please let me come.”
The medics agree, and Jeannie and Fish stay behind to talk to the cops. Blood trickles from Tommy’s mouth and nose, and it’s terrifying to know he’s probably broken inside, too.
“Help him,” I say, wiping at the blood in vain.
It just comes faster. They put oxygen on his nose and mouth, and I try to stay calm. It’s the only reason they allowed me to ride with him, but it gets harder every second. His skin gets paler, and his breathing slows and gets raspier.
This isn’t just a ride to the hospital, I granted myself a front-row seat for his death.
I let my mind leave for a second to remain in control. How are people so crazy? Why would Ron do something so rash? Killing a man over virginity. I see the irony. The way I was before Tommy. There wasn’t any value assigned to those conquests, so it’s hard for me to comprehend someone going to these lengths to punish for something that is trivial to me. Does Dani know what an absolute psychopath she fell for? Or was she coerced into the relationship by a narcissistic gaslighter? I wipe at my eyes with my sleeve, and mascara comes away on the white material.
The EMT next to his head says something, but it doesn’t register until the crash cart comes out. The pads look small on Tommy’s huge chest. “Clear,” a male voice booms.
His body jerks, then falls limply against the board. The sirens pierce my skull, the whirring an absolute horror of background noise. I cry so hard my abs hurt as they try to revive him. I hold his hand when they are done and apologize over and over. If there wasn’t Hollis, there wouldn’t be a direct link to Tommy.
“Ma’am, you need to exit the ambulance,” the EMT with kind eyes says, urging me forward. “Go to the waiting room. You’ll get updates there.” He looks down at Tommy’s body. “It’s not looking good.”
All I can do is nod. They rush Tommy into the emergency department through sliding doors, and I can’t keep up with how quickly they’re running, so I walk through slowly, my mind in an absolute haze of confusion. I don’t have my phone. Or shoes.
A nurse with perfect pitch and bright blue eyes, takes pity on me when I finally find the waiting room. “Darling, here are some slide sandals. Do you need me to call anyone for you?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know who I’d call,” I say. I don’t have his parents’ number memorized.
She gives me a sympathetic look. “If you think of anyone, just let me know. I’m the charge nurse tonight, my name is Grace. Do you think you can fill out some paperwork on him?” She eyes my ring and lets her gaze flick back up to my face. “Just some basics so we have something.”
I nod, sniffling. “Not sure how helpful I’ll be though.” She returns with a clipboard, pen, and a box of tissues. I thank her. My hand is shaking but I get through the basic information about Tommy, grateful for a distraction. Tommy’s body jerking with the jolts of electricity. His leg bent at an unnatural angle. The blood. His shaky breaths; the death rattle. All the images pop in without my consent.
I hand the clipboard to Grace and begin pacing the hallway. I check my watch and have no idea if it’s been minutes or hours. Jeannie and Fish race through the turnstile door, nearly tripping over each other because it’s spinning so slowly. “How is he?” Fish grates, turning gazes from the nurse’s station with the boom of his tone.
I shake my head. “I don’t know. He wasn’t breathing the last time I saw him, but if he were gone, surely they would have told me by now.” Police officers enter and head my way, stony looks on their faces.
Jeannie folds me into her arms, and my jagged sobbing begins again. She’s a safe place. She grabs my head and pulls me to her. “I’m not going to say it’s fine because tonight has been anything but fine, but it’s over, Margo.” Pulling away, she hands me my phone. “I called his parents from this and let them know what happened. I also have his phone,” Jeannie lowers her voice, extending the phone in front of our bodies. “Dani’s number is still in there if you want to give her the other news.” Jeannie bites her lip. “Or I can. I didn’t want to overstep boundaries.”
Whimpering, I shake my head. “I’ll call her.”
“Hollis is at the hospital, a different hospital, and will go straight to jail after he’s treated.” She clears her throat. “He recorded all the conversations with Ron. He also had a voice memo recording going before the incident at my apartment, so the police know it was self-defense. Fish has been cleared.” I hadn’t thought of that angle. “He did one thing right, and that asshole was high out of his mind. He recorded the conversation of Ron telling him he was trying to kill Tommy and why. I think he was planning to use it as blackmail, but it benefited us.” Guiding us to chairs, she sits me down and takes the seat next to me. “Tommy’s parents are getting on the next flight out.”
Closing my eyes against the onslaught of emotions, I thank Hollis silently. But it’s the Hollis from my past. Even high out of his mind, he’s trying to do right by me. I’m done making excuses for him, though. Jeannie is right. It’s over. In all ways.
I unlock Tommy’s phone, but I’m interrupted by an officer. “Ms. Reiz, we need to ask you a few questions for our records.”
I swallow and shrug. I follow them to a silent section of the waiting room—in a corner. The only part they wanted to confirm was what I saw when I opened the apartment door. I tell them in wild detail because it’s so fresh, forgetting for a moment it’s all real. That Tommy is dying in a room close by because of Chinese takeout and Dani’s virginity. The officer looks concerned when I finish, but he continues taking notes while his partner listens intently. “He was bad news, and he was in cahoots with my colleague,” I go on, telling them about Ron paying off Nathaniel to break protocol. “Which is a huge deal due to the clearance we have to hold to work on the base.” They haven’t heard this bit of information, and I want it all out in the open so I don’t have to worry. I spell his last name out for them.
“That will be it for now,” he states. “Thank you for your help. This guy sounds like bad news.” He is the worst.
I know what I have to do next. As soon as they walk away to speak with Fish once more, I unlock Tommy’s phone and find her name. It says “Daniella” without a last name. Some women would be jealous of their man having their ex saved, but right now I’m thankful because she deserves to hear this woman to woman. If I were stronger, I’d wait to hear Tommy’s prognosis, but I can’t help myself. I know it’s bad enough.
I hit Call quickly. She picks up on the first ring. She thinks it’s Tommy. “Tom-Tom,” she whispers, voice sleepy. “Is everything okay?”
“It’s Margo,” I say, losing my breath as I envision her right now. Excited that he called her, wondering if he wants her back. “I have some bad news.”
“Okay,” she replies, suddenly sounding more awake. “Is he okay? He’s back from deployment. I saw on the news about his teammates, and his mama talked to mine. He made it home okay. She told me.”
There’s only one way to deliver news like this. It’s a swift, all at once, kind of thing. I blow out a lungful of air. “Ron tried to kill Tommy tonight, Dani. Before he could deliver the final blow, Tommy’s friend shot and killed Ron.” I pause, but she stays silent. “Ron has been stalking me for months while Tommy was deployed. I had to move apartments. Prior to that, he paid someone to break into Tommy’s apartment and steal things. All so he could get more info on Tommy.”
A croak escapes her throat. “Why?”
“I don’t know for sure, but from what we’ve pieced together, it’s because Tommy took something that belonged to Ron.” Let her stew on that how she will. She’s a smart girl.
“There’s no way,” she says. “Is he okay?”
“Ron is dead,” I deadpan, not even feeling an ounce of remorse.
“No,” she corrects, crying beginning. “Tommy. Is Tom-Tom okay?”
Of course, that’s what she wants to know. “No. He’s not. I don’t know if he’s going to make it yet. Dani, I have to ask. Did you know what kind of man you were marrying? One search on him turned up a thousand reasons why you should have walked away.”
“I had to,” she says, voice low. “I had to get over Tommy, and he promised me the life I always wanted. It was that simple. I’m a simple girl.”
“You knew,” I accuse.
“Of course I didn’t know he was capable of murder! I’m not crazy! I knew he’d gotten into some financial trouble in the past. He’s a lawyer. People are always mad at lawyers. He said he couldn’t control that aspect.” She exhales. “I’m sorry, Margo. I’m so sorry he did that to you and Tommy. I wasn’t going to marry him, though. I broke it off with him a couple of days ago. It’s why I had no clue where he was. He turned his location off a lot. I assumed he was cheating on me. I didn’t think he was stalking you or plotting this.”
Unfortunately, I believe her. A doctor rounds the corner. “I have to go. The doctor is here.”
“Wait, wait, please, Margo, just let me stay on the line. I have to know if he’s going to be okay. This is why I couldn’t stay with Tommy, you know?” Tears spring to my eyes. “The not knowing if he was going to live or die. The feeling we have right now, but I would have had it all the time, knowing he could deploy somewhere dangerous.” She chokes on the last word. “I didn’t break up with him because he took my virginity. I never told him it was because I couldn’t live with his career choice. That would make me selfish.” Dani sniffles. “Please just let me hear. I have to know.” I’m a girl’s girl, right?
Tommy would want her to know, I think. “All right,” I reply, and keep the phone on speaker by my side. “Are you the fiancée of Thomas Towne?”
I nod.
His grim face makes me lose my breath. “We removed a kidney that was destroyed by a broken rib. He’s in surgery now to get his leg into a stable position so we can transfer him to a specialty hospital. He sustained a lot of trauma with the fall. There aren’t any guarantees, but for now, we’ve stopped the internal bleeding.” He looks to Fish and Jeannie lingering nearby. “Do you have people to stay with you?”
“Yes. Is he going to make it?”
The uninviting face continues. He tightens the strings on his hat behind his head. “There’s no way of telling at this point. Miraculously, the scans of his brain look normal. But he’s unconscious, and we’re keeping him that way so his body can heal. The next day or so will be important.”
“Please help him. Fix him,” I cry. “He can’t live through a combat deployment that took two of his friends to leave the world this way.” He deserves more. “Please,” I choke out.
Jeannie grabs my free hand. “Let’s go, Margo. We’ll stay at your apartment. They’ll call you when he arrives at the specialty hospital, and we can go see him there in the morning.”
“That’s a great idea,” the doctor chimes in. The bags under his eyes are blue and swollen. “We’ll do everything we can for him.”
Fish asks a question while Jeannie drags me toward the door. “Margo, he’s alive, and his brain isn’t damaged. His body needs to heal. He’s going to be okay. I know it.”
“How can you know that?”
She guides me to her in the parking lot where she’s parked illegally. “Because his life is just starting, Margo. He has too much to live for. You guys found each other. It was meant to be.”
I should trust her. I look down to see Dani still on the line on Tommy’s phone. I touch the red button to end the call, angry about what she brought into our lives.