Chapter 56 The Emergency #2
A young female soldier sat at a secretary’s desk and greeted me when I entered.
“I need to see General Leggett,” I demanded.
“Do you have an appointment, miss?”
“No, but I need to see him anyway.”
The girl blinked a few times as though she questioned my mental faculties. “I’m sorry, miss, but that’s not how things are done. What is the nature of your business and I’ll see if I can set you up with an appointment.”
I shook my head. “Sorry, toots, but that’s not gonna work for me!” I swept past her and entered the first door to my right, which turned out to be a utility closet. “This will go a lot faster if you just tell me where I’m going!”
“Ma’am, I’m gonna have to call security! You can’t just—”
“I NEED TO SEE GENERAL LEGGETT!” I screamed at her.
A door to the left burst open and an officer with the coldest eyes I’d ever seen stomped out. The patch on his chest read LEGGETT. Bingo!
“Sir, I’m so sorry, I have no idea who this woman is, and she—” the young soldier started to sputter. Leggett held up a hand to stop her.
“It’s alright, Malkin, I’ll see her in my office now.” The general turned a reproachful look on me. “This way.”
I followed him into a large office. An oversized desk, sans computer, sat on the far side of the room.
A large world map had been tacked onto the wall to my left and a bunch of pins stuck out of various places.
There were no photographs anywhere, nothing that made the space personal in any way.
It was just as cold as the man who moved to sit behind the desk.
“What can I do for you, ma’am?” Leggett stared me down as I stood awkwardly near the door.
“Well, for starters, you can apologize to your son, Zeke!” My hands fisted on my hips as I let the full Southern girl out.
Leggett scowled, leaning back further in the desk chair so he could fold his hands over his abdomen. “All right, you have my attention, Miss…?”
“It’s ‘missus,’ actually!” I snapped. “And let me just tell you something, I know exactly the kind of man you are! You’re a coward! A cold-blooded coward!”
“Listen here, I don’t know who you think you are, but I don’t generally let people storm into my office and accuse me of nonsense that is none of their concern.”
I bristled like a mama bear catching a hunter with her cub. “This is ALL of my concern! You abused Zeke! Hit him! Hated him! Made him think he’s worthless!”
“So you’re the wife.” Leggett cut me off before I could say another word. “You’re the reason he can’t follow orders anymore.”
“He doesn’t need to follow your orders!” I seethed. “My Zeke is kind, and sweet, and loving. God, he’s so damn loving! No thanks to you.”
The general shook his head with a smirk. Like the whole thing amused him. “You can leave now. I don’t have to listen to this.”
Rippling anger seared through my chest at his callousness. Leggett truly didn’t care. He didn’t know how.
As much as I hated letting him see the weakness, a single tear trailed down my cheek. “You’re not even worth it. Zeke is so much better off without you.”
“Hayes only matters if he is significant on the battlefield!” General Leggett barked. “I have no time for sissy men who might get everyone around them killed! If Hayes is going to be the weak link now, he has no business being in my Army!”
“Zeke matters to me! I don’t give a flying fart in Finland about your Army! How can you be like this about your son?”
The general leaned back in his office chair, a cold, calculating look on his face. “That boy is no son of mine. Now leave my office.”
More tears leaked out, but I jutted out my chin defiantly.
I pitied this man who would never know more than the sterile walls of this office.
“That man,” I growled, “is my husband and the only real family I have. We have no use for you in our lives anymore. If that means Zeke has to get out of the military, then so be it. As long as we’re together we’ll be just fine. ”
“Hayes isn’t equipped to do anything other than be a soldier,” Leggett sneered.
“Yep. No thanks to you. But that’s not what makes a house a home. Zeke and I will figure it out. And we’ll do it together because you stand by the people you love.”
I didn’t bother wiping the tears from my cheeks as I slowly backed towards the door. Only two steps in, I hit something solid and two familiar hands grabbed my biceps to keep me from falling.
“Maggie?” Zeke croaked over my shoulder.
Spinning on my heel, I found his warm blue eyes swimming with hope. Zeke barely moved as his very being waited for an explanation. All the air in the room seemed to still.
“Hayes, I suggest you get a leash on this woman until I can push through the annulment paperwork,” Leggett called out angrily. “Get her out of my sight!”
“No.” Zeke didn’t so much as blink as he kept his gaze trained on me. A small smile tugged at my lips, eliciting a tiny smirk from him. “My wife and I will be leaving now, and I will not be reporting to your office again.”
General Leggett shot to his feet, making the desk rattle and my trance end as I jumped in alarm. “Are you gonna throw your career away for a piece of ass, boy?!”
Zeke straightened to his full height, pulling me behind him to shield me from any more of Leggett’s vitriol. “I’m gonna go find my own version of a happy ever after…with my wife, Maggie. Anything less than that just won’t cut it.”
He whirled around and grabbed my hand, leading us out together as the general continued to shout threats of ending Zeke’s military career at our backs. We made it all the way to the parking lot before he stopped abruptly to face me.
“Can he really kick you out of the Army?” I asked. I didn’t want to be the reason Zeke got a dishonorable discharge.
Shrugging, Zeke replied, “It’s not against the military code of conduct to have a wife.
I’ll probably get the ass chewing of my life when I report to my new unit because I mouthed off to a general, but I have a feeling I can take it.
” He chuckled before sobering. “Thank you for defending me back there, Maggie. You didn’t have to do that. ”
“Yes, I did. He’s so out of line, treating you that way and acting like he gets to call the shots on our marriage! I couldn’t let him drive a wedge between us, and—”
“Maggie?” interrupted Zeke. “Do you love me?”
A slow, wide smile crept across my face.
Golden light from the early morning sun highlighted the angular set of his jaw, a shiver trailing through his body as I wrapped my hands around his neck and pressed my body against his.
Whether it was a reflex or happiness, Zeke’s arms entwined around my waist to hold me close, Army regulations be damned.
He looked so handsome in his uniform, a knowing twinkle in his eye.
“Zeke Hayes, I love you more than life itself.”