Chapter 41
Ian
Pacing the waiting room, I take in the scene around me.
Jack and Nate are talking quietly in the corner.
Ella’s curled up in one of the chairs, eyes red and puffy, staring at the wall.
Pamela’s sitting next to her, doing something on her phone and intermittently talking to Tyler, who’s sitting on the other side of her.
Pamela’s appearance was something I didn’t realize I needed until it happened.
She walked me outside and tried to push me into talking about my terrifying and jumbled feelings.
Even with me explaining that I can’t do that right now for fear of losing my tight grip on not losing it, she simply gave me a hug, told me she wasn’t leaving, and that she’d be there when I was ready.
It’s comforting to have someone who knows all my baggage here to support me.
Nate took the fact that I’ve been seeing his sister professionally better than I thought.
He said he was happy that I’d started seeing someone and that I’d picked the best with his sister.
He, of course, took the opportunity to give his sister a hard time for kind of breaking the rules.
She continued to stress it was just two friends talking.
His teasing was a nice levity from the constant misery of this situation.
The clicking of the door has all of us springing to attention. My muscles tense as Franklin steps inside.
When we lock eyes, he inclines his chin in greeting. “Let’s go talk.” Without waiting for me to agree, he spins and walks back into the hall.
I peer at the rest of the people surrounding me. They’re eyeing me curiously. “I’ll be back. Call me if the doctor comes out with an update.”
As I step into the hall, I find Franklin talking to a nurse. He thanks her and turns toward me.
“There’s a room down here we can use.”
Following him down the hall, it feels like I’m walking toward the gallows. There’s something in the air that tells me his showing up here like this means I’m not going to like what he’s going to tell me.
We enter a small room with a loveseat, two chairs, and a small table. We each take a seat.
“How’s she doing?”
I shake my head. “I haven’t gotten an update in a few hours. Last I heard, she was in her second emergency surgery of the morning.”
“Fuck,” he spits out, rubbing his hand across his lips.
“What the fuck is going on, Franklin? One of the last things she said to me was that it was Reese. Why the fuck is he out of jail?”
“There have been some…developments.”
When he doesn’t elaborate further, frustration builds. “And those would be?”
“The conviction was thrown out. Jury misconduct.”
I run my hand over my hair. “Goddamnit.”
“Yeah, but it gets worse. Reese was let out due to an administrative error.”
“What?” I roar, jumping out of my seat.
Franklin holds up his hand to calm me. “Sit down. I’m not done.”
When I do as he says, albeit reluctantly, he continues. “We believe his friend, David, who confronted Maggie outside the courtroom, may have contributed to jury misconduct, but we can’t prove it. But it seems that Reese also had some help from inside the marshal’s office.”
I already know who he’s talking about before he even says it.
It’s not a question when I provide, “Jenson.” Surprise registers in his features, and I explain, “His behavior makes a lot more sense. Pushing me and Maggie apart so she was an easier target alone, the disregard he had for her concerns, especially when it came to David calling her.”
Franklin rears back. “I’m sorry. Did you just say David contacted Maggie? Prior to the day at the courthouse?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure Jenson told Maggie he talked to you, and you weren’t concerned either.”
Before I even finish my sentence, Franklin is shaking his head adamantly. “Absolutely not. That’s something I would never not be concerned about.”
I roll my head around my tense shoulders. This whole situation is so much worse than I thought.
Franklin sits back, processing everything before saying, “I would bet my left nut I know exactly who gave David Maggie’s number. And who’s responsible for the administrative error.”
I grind my teeth. “Tell me you’ve arrested Jenson and Reese.”
He winces. “Not exactly.” Looking extremely uncomfortable, he clears his throat. “Jenson and Reese are both MIA. We have no idea where either of them is.”
Closing my eyes, I pinch the bridge of my nose. I thought I felt helpless and out of control before, but now my nervous system is on fire, trying to regulate what’s happening inside my body.
My phone vibrates against my thigh. I shift in my seat to pull it out of my pocket.
Jack: You need to get back here now.
Swallowing hard, I stand. “I have to go. Keep me posted.”
Franklin nods. “You do the same. I hope Maggie pulls through.”
Dread threatens to suffocate me. The thought of the alternative is still too real.
“She’s stable.”
Sounds of relief and excitement fill the waiting room until the doctor holds up her hand.
“For now. She’s not in the clear, but she’s lucky. While the stab wounds did massive amounts of damage and she lost a lot of blood, they were clean and relatively easy to repair. But the road ahead of us is long, and we don’t know what the destination will look like.”
I suck in a breath and release it through pursed lips, trying to dispel some of the chaotic energy flaring through me. “Can I see her?”
The doctor nods slowly. “You can. I’d prefer to keep it at just two visitors for now. And unfortunately, you can’t stay long. Hopefully, later today, we can move her to the ICU, and visitation will be a little more open.”
As I turn to find Ella, her fingers are pressed to her quivering lips, tears flowing down her cheeks in shiny rivers. “I know she’d want you to be there with her, Ella.”
She sniffs. “Thank you, Ian.”
Ella and I follow the doctor to a dim room filled with only the sounds of the machines keeping half of my soul alive.
“Oh my god,” Ella cries out under her breath.
Maggie’s skin is ashy. She looks so fragile under the sheet in the harsh light. Her stillness has me fighting nausea. Images of her covered in blood and the sound of her confessing her love for me with what she feared were her last breaths play on loop in my mind.
We cautiously approach the bed, each taking a side.
Ella grips Maggie’s hand. She sniffs back her emotions. “Maggie, I’m so, so sorry this happened to you. Please pull through. We need you here. Please.”
I stand back, observing. For a reason I don’t think I could explain if I tried, I’m scared to touch her. Scared to get too close. Even with every cell in my body screaming that by Maggie’s side is where I belong.
Ella continues to say comforting and encouraging words to Maggie before turning toward me. “I want you to have some time with her by yourself. Unless you need me to stay with you.”
I force a smile. “I’m okay. You can go back.”
She circles the bed and pats my arm. With her hand still on my arm, she peeks back over her shoulder to the love of my life lying lifeless in the sterile hospital bed. Ella looks back at me. “She’s going to be fine.”
I focus back on Maggie. “I need that to be true. I can’t do this now that I know what life is like with her in it.”
Another sniffle comes from beside me. “You’re a good man, Ian. Go to her. She needs you, too.”
With that, I’m alone with Maggie. I drag the chair across the floor and get it as close to the bed as I can. My chest aches as I clasp Maggie’s hand in mine. My stomach flips when her cool, clammy skin touches mine. I trace a circle on the back of her hand with my thumb.
“I don’t really know how to do this. But, I guess, first, I want to apologize. I failed you. I had two jobs. To love you and to keep you safe. I’m not sure I was successful at either of them, certainly not the second.”
My eyes move from her hand to her face. Even with the paleness, she’s breathtaking. She appears peaceful. Like she wasn’t violently attacked and almost killed less than twelve hours ago.
“If I do nothing else for you, Maggie, I swear on my life, I’ll make these fucking pieces of scum pay for what they did to you.
” I close my eyes and inhale before standing.
With my hand still on hers, I bend over and smooth the hair back from her face as I confess, “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.
Even when we weren’t together, you managed to make me a better man.
I love you so much and will love you until I take my last breath. ”
As I press my lips to her forehead, my tears drip onto her skin.
I jolt when the faintest pressure is put on my hand.
I search her face, looking for any signs that she may be awake, knowing how unlikely that is since they have her in a medically induced coma to allow her body time to heal.
Her eyelids twitch, but that’s the only movement.
Warring inside me is despair that she didn’t wake up and relief that she didn’t because I don’t want her to feel the inevitable pain when that time comes.
Giving her one last kiss, I tell her, “I love you so much, Maggie. Please come back to me.”
I wait, hoping to feel her again, but when I don’t, and I force myself to leave her.
I stalk out of the room and back to the main hallway. Pulling out my phone once again, I scroll through my contacts until I find the one I need. I connect the call, each ring further ratcheting up my resolve of what I have to do.
“Well, I’ll be fucking damned. I didn’t know if I’d ever hear from your punk ass again.”
“Beckett, you still a skip tracer with questionable morals?” Beckett and I were in the army together and have only kept in touch sporadically throughout the years since his job keeps him on the road constantly, so he’s rarely in the same place for long.
But if anyone can help me right now, it’s him.
Beckett scoffs. “Does a bear shit in the woods?”
A humorless smile pulls up the corners of my lips. “I was hoping that’d be your answer.”