Page 93 of Protecting Maggie
MacGyver joined his teammates on her other side, and Maggie felt Blink’s hand on her shoulder as he stood behind her. She was completely surrounded by the men. They’d closed ranks, and she had no doubt that she was protected…and loved. These men had become her family, and she couldn’t help but tear up again.
“He’s dead,” Kevlar said, dragging Roman’s body out of the water and onto the sand.
“Shit,” Flash swore. Then he looked at Maggie. “Not that I’m upset he’s dead, just that this is going to be hard to explain.”
Her mind spun. She was a convicted felon. Being anywhere near a dead body wasn’t going to look good for her. She knew how the world worked. The first thing the cops did was check everyone’s records. And the fact that she’d blamed Roman for planting the drugs during her criminal investigation gave her a very good reason to want him dead.
Before anyone could say anything else, Kevlar’s phonerang. It was a strange sound in the middle of the chaotic scene.
“Kevlar here. Uh-huh. Yes. Right…No shit? Damn, Tex, you’re amazing! Oh, it wasn’t? Well, I’m going to want to meet this chick and thank her personally.” He chuckled a bit. “New Mexico. Right. We can do that. Yeah, I’ll let them know. We’ll talk soon.”
The second Kevlar clicked off the connection, he turned to the group. “That was Tex. He said that a computer chick in New Mexico hacked into the government’s spy satellites and recorded everything that happened here. Video’s grainy, but it clearly shows Maggie and Robertson fighting along the road, before he brought her to the water and held her under until you showed up, Preacher.”
Maggie frowned in confusion. A videotape from space? It sounded too crazy to be true.
“Seriously? Good. No,great!” MacGyver said.
“I’m calling NCIS,” Smiley said. He’d pulled Roman’s body farther away from the water, and Maggie hadn’t missed how he’d “accidentally” kicked the man in the side while doing so.
NCIS…She tensed. The authorities had to be contacted, Maggie knew that, but the ramifications could be bad for her.
“I’m sure Tex is transferring the video to them right now,” Shawn told her gently. “It’ll be okay. I’m more worried about you. Your chin is bleeding, and he had yourhead underwater. How much water did you inhale? I need to get you to the hospital.”
But Maggie shook her head. Her chin was throbbing where she’d hit it on the asphalt, and her side ached from that asshole’s knife…but amazingly, she felt good, all things considered. “You got here in time. I didn’t swallow any water.”
“Thank fuck,” Shawn breathed.
“How did you find me so fast?” she couldn’t help but ask.
“I put a tracker in your purse,” Shawn told her sheepishly. “Are you mad?”
“Mad?” Maggie asked. “No. Why would I be? You saved my life.” And with that, she burst into tears once more. All the emotions she’d felt in the last ten minutes had her feeling shaky and definitely unstable. She’d almostdied. Her tormentor was dead, and Shawn was safe from whatever nefarious schemes Roman had planned for his future.
Even though she was physically okay for the most part, Maggie couldn’t stop crying. After the police, NCIS, and the paramedics showed up, she was borderline hysterical. Eventually, the medics gave her a shot to calm her down, and Shawn insisted she be transported to the hospital to get checked out.
It wasn’t until hours later, after getting two stitches in her chin, the knicks on her side cleaned by the doctor—they weren’t deep enough for stitches—talking with the NCIS detectives, speaking with her probation officer—who’d been frantic after finding out that she’d been lured to her office, and apparently kidnapped as a result—and after reassuring Wren, Josie, Remi, Caroline, and all the other women who’d shown up at the hospital when they’d heard what happened, that Maggie was finally able to fully relax.
Shawn had brought her back to his place, and she’d met Jane Hillman, his landlady, who’d insisted on bringing two huge bowls of Shepard’s pie she’d made earlier that evening to their room. Finding she was starving, the comfort food really hit the spot. Then she and Shawn had taken a shower to wash off the salt from the seawater that had dried on their skin, and climbed under his covers.
Shawn held her tightly against him, almost desperately.
Neither spoke, but at that moment, it wasn’t needed. They both knew how close they’d come to losing one another. Maggie had literally been seconds from dying. Roman had almost succeeded in his evil plan to get rid of her once and for all. If it hadn’t been for Shawn’s quick thinking at her PO’s office, and putting his tracker in her purse, he never would’ve made it to her in time.
To her surprise, she heard Shawn’s breath hitch. Looking up, she saw tears soaking into the hair at his temple.
Without a word, knowing exactly how he felt, Maggie lay her head on his chest and tightened her arm around him. Tomorrow would be soon enough to talk about everything that happened, to work through it all.
For now, all she wanted to do was hold the man she loved, and be held in return.
EPILOGUE
Maggie stood in Aces Bar and Grill a week later and marveled at all the people who were there. She had a huge circle of friends now, and it still felt almost surreal.
The investigation into Roman was ongoing, and would be for years, considering how many special forces missions the rear admiral was involved in, and every afternoon when Shawn came home, he had another instance to share of how her ex had fucked with someone. SEAL teams, other Navy personnel, former girlfriends…his reign of terror wasn’t limited to just her. Which made Maggie a little sad.
Tex’s computer genius friend—whose name was Ryleigh, and she lived at what sounded like a kickass resort in New Mexico called The Refuge, for people who suffered from PTSD—had finally found Roman’s wife. She’d combed through NamUs, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, and used her skills to narrowdown the possibilities to five bodies. She was identified as being found in West Virginia. A hunter had come across her body years ago, but her hands had been cut off, and with no tattoos or other distinguishing features, she hadn’t been able to be identified…until now.
She’d been murdered. Strangled. While Maggie wasn’t happy in the least that the poor woman had ended up dead, she was relieved she’d finally been identified and could be returned to her family.
