Page 29 of Protecting Maggie
CHAPTER SEVEN
Glancing around the room, Preacher scowled. Usually he loved hanging out with his friends, but tonight they’d been hogging Maggie, and he was a little annoyed. He’d been looking forward to seeing her talk, laugh, come out of her shell a little more.
And she was doing all that and more—except it wasn’thimbringing it out of her. It was his friends.
A hand clapped his shoulder as he was standing by the pool table, waiting for his turn to shoot. Glancing over, Preacher saw Dude standing beside him. He was a retired SEAL who’d gotten close to Preacher and the rest of his team. Wolf, Abe, Benny, Cookie, and even Julie’s husband, that team’s former commander, was there tonight. Along with their wives. It was a full house, and the building overflowed with happiness and friendship.
“It’s hard, isn’t it?”
For a horrified moment, Preacher thought Dude was commenting on the state of his dick. He’d been half erect all night, ever since that amazing kiss he’d shared with Maggie on her couch.
Dude chuckled as if he knewexactlywhat Preacher was thinking. “It’s difficult letting everyone commandeer her.”
Inwardly sagging in relief, he nodded.
“She needs this,” Dude continued.
He didn’t need his friend to tell him that. He’d noticed it for himself. Maggie had come alive at Aces. Smiling, laughing, acting as if she’d known the other women all her life. She’d been nervous at first, but it hadn’t taken her long to loosen up. And it hadn’t escaped Preacher’s notice that it didn’t take any alcohol either.
She’d politely declined any drinks, instead asking Jessyka, who was helping behind the bar, for a glass of sparkling water with a lime. She’d been sipping on that single drink all evening, and when Preacher had taken her aside to check in with her a while ago, make sure she was good, he’d commented on it. She’d sheepishly told him that if she carried something that looked like an alcoholic drink, no one gave her a hard time. Then added that it was against her probation to drink alcohol or use drugs, admitting that she was drug tested on a regular basis.
Preacher understood…and he kicked himself for not thinking about that. When all the important people in his life had glommed on to his date, he should’ve changed the venue to somewhere other than a bar. He wasn’t much of a drinker himself, and he often used the same trick as Maggie, finding that if he nursed a bottle of beer all night, people were less likely to press more alcohol on him.
“Preacher?”
Turning to Dude, he realized he’d zoned out. “Sorry. I know. She’s outgoing.”
“Everything okay with her? The situation with her ex?”
Preacher wasn’t surprised Dude knew about Maggie. The SEAL community was tight…and gossip typically spread like wildfire through the ranks as well. It didn’t matter that Dude and the other men from his team were retired. They were still obviously very much in the know.
“Honestly? I don’t think so,” Preacher told his friend. “He’s been calling her. She hasn’t told me what he’s saying, or even who he is, but I know it’s eating at her. She’s stressed that if she’s caught doing anything wrong, she could go right back to prison.”
“And since her ex got her in trouble in the first place, he could plant more drugs on her or do something else that would cause her probation to be revoked.”
“Exactly,” he said with a nod.
“You need to find out who her ex is.”
Preacher huffed out a frustrated breath. “Do you think I don’t know that? It’s not as easy as just asking, Dude. We talked about it tonight, and she’s terrified of him. Like, she broke down eventhinkingabout talking about him. I promised that I’d give her some time. Time to realize that I’m really on her side. To trust me. I also let her know that my friends and I would do what we could to look into the situation that put her in jail in the first place, and ifthere’s a way to get her conviction overturned, we’d find it.”
“She was caught with a pretty large amount of drugs in her car. Even if they weren’t hers, there’s no doubt that she was driving and the car belonged to her,” Dude said.
“I know.”
“And it’s likely the only reason she got as short a sentence as she did was because she had no criminal history whatsoever.”
“I know that too,” Preacher said. “But if we can prove that her boyfriend was involved in drug trafficking, and find out who his connection might have been in Los Angeles, it could go a long way toward proving her innocence.” He wasn’t so sure about that, because Dude was right. There was no denying that the drugs had been in Maggie’s car. But he hoped there might be video from the officer’s body camera showing her genuine surprise, and that, along with anything else Tex or one of his computer friends could dig up, might just help her case.
“I think the more pressing issue is making sure the asshole leaves her alone,” Dude said.
He wasn’t wrong.
“Yeah,” Preacher agreed.
Both men were silent for a moment, then Dude said, “You need anything, you call me. Not Wolf. Not Kevlar.Me. I’ll take care of it for you. Whatever it is. It enrages me when men abuse women. Especially the ones important to us. And since Maggie’s important to you, she’s important to me. Our women should be protected at all costs.Not because they’re weak or can’t look after themselves, but because they’re the most precious things in our lives.
“My team and I have been where you are. Where it seems bad things keep happening to the ones we love. It’s frustrating and infuriating. You’ve all been through enough. With Howler, Remi, Blink, Josie, Wren,everyone. So I’m taking what happened to your woman personally. It’s bad enough that someone lied and caused her to have to spend two years behind bars, but to continue harassing her after she’s out, to be causing her so much worry when all she should be thinking about is getting back on her feet…it’swrong. Offensive.”
