Chapter 56 The Emergency
THE EMERGENCY
MAGGIE
All the things you see and hear about death usually talk about when you know you’re going to die.
Sometimes after watching a slasher flick or reading about a freak accident, you might stop to consider your own death, but most people I knew didn’t openly contemplate their last moments.
And those who did only worried about the ones they’d leave behind.
Nobody ever talked to me about what it might be like to see the person you love die right in front of you.
Even with all the time I spent consoling Celeste, I secretly thanked whoever was upstairs that she didn’t actually have to witness Mr. Hendricks leaving this world.
The last thing I ever thought I would do is watch my husband die right in front of me from a gunshot wound directly into his heart.
My scream probably woke the living and the dead in the tri-state area. Heart flatlining, eyes bulging, I lunged forward only to…
Watch Zeke sneer at Spencer in disgust. With a move worthy of James Bond himself, Zeke broke Spencer’s hold on the handgun and spun it around so that he held it firmly in the palm of his own hand.
“And next time you wanna kill someone, genius, make sure you put the gun together with ammo inside.” In two swift hand motions, Zeke had the handgun in three separate pieces on the ground. The echo of the metal clanked loudly in my ears.
“Oh, by the way, I never properly introduced myself. I’m Sergeant Ezekiel Hayes, weapons expert in the United States Army, and husband to the unforgettable Maggie Hayes.
I suggest you remember both of those names as you rot away in prison.
” His fist reared back before clocking Spencer square in the nose.
The crunch of the cartilage breaking echoed through the night, and blood spurted everywhere.
Sheriff Hillsborough and the other sheriff deputies slowly approached with their guns drawn.
Spencer sighed before holding his hands up above his head, letting the blood run down his face.
Zeke backed towards me, keeping his eyes trained on Spencer until the sheriffs had him in handcuffs, before turning to kiss my forehead.
This was beyond anything a forehead kiss could solve.
“Zeke Hayes, as I live and breathe, I will NEVER forgive you for scaring me like that, and if I have to come back and haunt you as a ghost for the rest of your life just to remind you of what you put me through, then I’ll do it!
I will!” Great ugly sobs broke free as I clung to him, letting his strong arms wrap around me like a security blanket.
“I’m sorry, Trouble, but I had to give Spencer enough rope to hang himself. Think of how much longer he’ll be locked up now that they can charge him with attempted murder.” Zeke swiped his thumbs across my cheeks to dry the tears.
“THAT IS NOT A REASON!” I shouted.
Zeke’s response was cut short when Sheriff Hillsborough joined us. “You’re either the dumbest kid I’ve ever met or the luckiest son of a bitch to ever cross the Mason-Dixon Line. How the hell did you know the gun would misfire?”
My husband snorted. “There was no magazine and he had the chamber open. I took a wild guess that he hadn’t thought to load that up either.”
The sheriff shook his head. “Yep, one lucky son of a bitch alright! I’ll be in touch. Y’all go home now.”
Neither of us could tell if I laughed or cried when Zeke turned around to look at me again. Probably a mixture of both. All the adrenaline-infused emotions flooding my system made me a tad bit batty.
A cruiser pulled away with Spencer in the back before Zeke led me back to his rental truck.
“I’m sorry if I scared you,” he said, “but I’m not sorry that I made you safe. Spencer’s gonna go away for a long time. You never have to worry about him again.”
Crying won out over laughter now. “I shouldn’t have to worry about him because I should be with you wherever the Army sends us.”
Zeke put the truck back in park so he could turn to face me. I knew what he meant to ask even before he opened his mouth.
“Do you love me?”
That goddamn question!
“I can’t live without you,” I replied tearfully. And truthfully.
“That’s not the same thing, Trouble, and you know it.” Zeke sighed before putting the truck back in drive and heading back into River’s Run. Silent tears streamed down my face the entire ride. I made no effort to stop them. Let him get a good, hard look at the misery he created.
He pulled up in front of Marla’s apartment, but didn’t park the truck to signify he would come in with me. “Tell Marla I said good night. I’ll be in touch.”
“When?” I demanded.
Rather than answer, Zeke got out and came around to open the passenger door for me. Reluctantly, I accepted his hand to climb down. Even with the threat of Spencer gone, Zeke walked me to the door. Only now he kept at least three feet of distance between us the entire way.
“Good night, Maggie.”
I watched him walk away until he reached the door of his truck.
“Zeke!” I called out.
He paused, watching me warily.
“You’re not a burden either. Not to me. You’ve been the greatest gift a girl like me could ever have.”
Before he could reject me again, I raced up the stairs to Marla’s apartment.
Celeste had to get home to Iris and Marla needed to wake up early so a contractor could come in to install the marble countertops for the front part of the bakery, meaning both were already gone or in bed by the time I got back.
There were only a few more final touches and then Marla’s Sweets would be open for business.
Thankfully, that meant I didn’t have to answer a million questions when I walked inside because the adrenaline crash made me start shaking.
It would take me a hundred sessions with Barb to process what just happened.
I tossed and turned for hours. I loved Zeke.
Who he was, everything he did for me, the way he made me feel.
My life had done a total one eighty since we met, and when I reflected back on that infamous night where I stepped on the scale and lost myself…
Zeke was the only reason I picked myself back up.
I was no longer the same person, thanks to him.
My clothes fit differently now. I no longer spent hours a day putting on makeup. It was kind of hard to put any on without a mirror to see the finished effect. After I finally took the plunge and chopped off all my hair, my morning routine took me only a quarter of the time it used to.
But I also received compliments far more than I ever had.
Marla and Celeste both accused me of “glowing” when I first walked through the door.
Even a haggard day of travel halfway around the world hadn’t dimmed it.
Barb frequently commented on how healthier I looked.
I even had people stop me on the street in Seoul to tell me they liked my hair or how pretty my eyes were.
People noticed me for entirely different reasons now.
It wasn’t just the outward appearance, though.
I felt better. The days when I managed to eat some of the food on my plate for all three meals made Zeke burst with pride, making me grin from ear to ear.
I carried myself differently, with my shoulders back and my head held high, and Barb’s lessons in the background to remind me that I had everything I needed to overcome my eating disorder.
Strength didn’t come from taking the road with every obstacle. Strength came from recognizing your own limits and adjusting your course. Zeke was my navigator from the beginning. I got stronger because of him.
I loved him. He deserved to hear that from me. He deserved to know. Barb, of course, had been right about everything. Love really was a verb, action constantly in motion. And I had to act fast if I wanted to keep the man I loved before he did something crazy like divorce me.
Nope, we were in it for the long haul now, poor guy. He’d have to deal with my sassiness for a good long while.
“I love him,” I said aloud to the room. Just to prove I could. Visualizing Zeke’s face, I tried again. “I love you.”
Righting wrongs needed to start at the source, I realized. Zeke needed to hear the words out loud because the one person who should have said them to him never did.
By the time I finished getting ready, streaks of an orange sunrise peaked over the horizon.
I selected an outfit that I bought recently from a street vendor in a Seoul marketplace.
They had a small “changing room” that was really a narrow tent, but the way Zeke’s eyes lit up when he saw me still sent a thrill of pleasure to my belly.
It was a simple shift dress that flared out a bit right before it hit my knees.
The rich plum-like color somehow made a perfect backdrop to all the colors in my hair.
I liked an outfit that let my looks do the talking for me.
I needed that kind of confidence boost for what I was about to do.
I hoped Marla wouldn’t mind if I borrowed her car, but since I didn’t hear her stirring yet, I didn’t want to wake her if I didn’t have to. Silently slipping the keys from the hook by the door, I headed out.
Thankfully by now I was an old pro at using military gates. I stopped next to the military policeman with my Army dependent ID already in hand.
“Do you know where I can find General Leggett’s office, by any chance?” I smiled in a way that I hoped conveyed coy innocence.
The MP smiled back. “Why yes, ma’am. You’re going to head down this main road here for a few miles until it curves around a bend. Take a left before you hit the commissary.”
If Zeke hadn’t explained what things on post looked like, those directions would have been worthless.
Navigating the roads carefully because of the soldiers running in physical training formations, I managed to find what I assumed were the General’s offices fifteen minutes later.
There were already several cars in the parking lot. That was a good sign.