Independence (33 page)

"It was for Maggie," he corrected as if he could hear my thoughts. "I wasn't about to watch her live without you.
That kind of agony…I just couldn't do it.
"

"Thank you, regardless of why you did it."

"I'm so sorry about Marcus. I distanced myself from the family." He leaned back harshly. "If I hadn't done that I might have known what he was up to."

"Don’t apologize for trying to make things right. That bastard made his own decisions."

He nodded. "Yeah, he did. So tomorrow is Maggie's birthday." I didn't say anything. He knew that I knew that. "She'll be eighteen. Eighteen years that I missed."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

I spoke slowly. "What did you see in Maggie's mom? You and Jim both…I've met her and I just don't see the appeal. I mean Jim practically went catatonic when she left. I don't see what was so hard to stay away from."

He seemed surprised. "Well, she used to come into the shop and order flowers once a week. Every week she talked more than the week before. She was so sweet and then when she started telling me about how mean and horrible her husband was…honestly, it was as if I was trying to stick it to the guy. I took her word for it, but she was a great actress. I thought I was in love with her, and with the imprints gone, I thought maybe I could still be happy even without it. So I planned to take Sarah away from him, run away with her one day and never look back. But the one time I brought it up she told me she had no intentions of leaving him. That she was just looking for some fun on the side. By then, I was in too deep and honestly thought that she'd eventually come around to love me the way I loved her. But she didn’t. And then she just dumped me one day out of the blue and told me she never wanted to see me again. I know now that it was because she was pregnant."

I thought on that.
"I guess I can see that. She puts on a good show."

"I hated Jim. But I see now that everything she told me was a lie. He was…a great father to Maggie.
That girl is just…amazing.
"

Before I could reply, the big, heavy white door opened with a creak and the police officer unlocked the door. "You're free to go now."

"What took so long?" I asked. "We didn't do anything wrong."

"Well, some things didn’t add up in your story, like why you never called nine one one, and the fact that your girlfriend was covered in blood."

"Wife," I corrected and glared at him.

He shrugged. "Anyway. Everything checked out. Let's go."

They opened several doors that were blocked off in sections before finally reaching the last door. Bish and Jen were asleep in the chair and my Maggie was worrying like a pro
fessional
. She stopped as soon as she saw me and then sprinted to me. I caught her as she crashed into me.

"She's been here all night," the man said and lifted a disapproving brow, "even after she was told to go home."

"He is my home," she said.

The officer rolled his eyes and left.

I held her tight, loving the feel of her calm and warmth seeping into my skin. So
,
everything really was back to normal.

"Yes," she whispered in my ear and kissed my neck under my ear. "Yes."

I pulled back and took her lips. Those lips that I thought I'd never ki
ss again. She growled - growled
- causing me to laugh into our kiss. She smiled in embarrassment. "Sorry."

"Don’t ever be sorry for that." I licked my lips. They tasted like her. "What are those knuckleheads doing here?"I nodded my head toward Bish and Jen.

"They drove me here, but wouldn't leave me.
Bish said you'd kill him if he left me here alone."

"He was right." I'd forgotten all about Haddock. I looked back at him. He smiled wryly.

Maggie walked quickly to him and he enveloped her in his arms. "What are you doing here?" she asked and then laughed. "Not that I'm complaining."

"Jim called me," he said and explained the same thing to her as he had to me. "So here I am."

"I should have known he'd know something was wrong," she mused.

"I'm just thankful that I made it in time," Haddock said, emotion evident in his voice and on his face.

She gazed at him in a new way. In her mind she was finally starting to see why he'd wanted to get to know her. Why he was so interested and invested in her. He cared for her, that was easy to see, but it was more than that.

"Me, too," she said softly. She reached up on her tip toes to kiss his cheek. "Thank you."

He looked stunned in the best way. "Of course."
So we signed our release papers and Bish took us back to our cottage to pack our things. Haddock stuck around, still not comfortable with us being so far away from everyone after what just happened. That was OK. I understood.

Kyle and Lynne had slept through the whole Marcus ordeal. They had just run up the beach when they woke to the last gun shots. I was thankful. That had been two less people to worry about when everything went down.

We got home to Dad's and everyone was in an uproar about why we hadn't called the
m
sooner on the way home, why hadn't we come home even though it would have put everyone else in danger. Why, why, why? I explained that I was the Champion. That I handled things the way that I saw fit best to protect my family in the best way for the situation. Mom cried, Gran smirked, Dad
patted my back and told me he was proud of me.

I couldn't believe it.

So we called everyone. Maggie called Beck and told her the coast was clear. She still wouldn't speak to her and hung up right after. So Maggie called her dad and told him everything that had happened. He was pretty pissed and said he was hopping the first flight home.

That night, we all watched the news as Beck and her parents were reunited on national television. Beck said they had gotten lost and were just now able to get back home. There was some speculation that they ran away to elope and chickened out, but nonetheless, it was all over the news since they'd had such a large search party for them.

The council called a meeting, saying Maggie and I were exposing ourselves to humans too often and easily, and we needed to understand the ramifications of our actions.
They threatened to revoke my status as Champion, too.
They had heard of Beck through the Ace gossip vines and weren't too happy that we had now only shown our abilities to a human, but then hid that human from Marcus. They set a date of two months away and said, Visionary or no Visionary, we all had to be held accountable for our actions. And they were even thinking of reinstating the rule about the council members living at the palace again. They said it gave everyone a sense of order that couldn't be achieved when there was no uniform government.

So…things hadn't changed as much as we had previously thought. The vision Maggie had of us fighting when we were older, the one where we stood together against the masses; it looked like that was something we still had to look forward to. But that was OK. As long as we were together, we'd fight for the changes that our race needed.

The next morning, Jen and Maggie said they needed to go shopping for a few personal things, so
I bit my tongue as
they left
,
along with Mom
,
and I stayed and packed up the rest of my room. I was married and this room
wasn't mine anymore, though Mom had something to say about that. She wasn't thrilled that I was taking all my stuff, but said she'd fix it up as a guest room and we were welcome to it anytime.

Later that afternoon, Bish finally got to take Jen
to their new home. We didn’t go with them. I wanted them to experience that all by themselves
,
even though he invited us to come.
It
was
Maggie's birthday and all I wanted to do was take her home. She wasn't interested in some party, so my parents and family gave her little
things before we left, and then we left with our things packed, and Bella in the passenger seat
next to Maggie
, for my apartment.

That little place held a different meaning for me now. I was taking
my wife
there.

So I got out and ran to her side. Bella hopped out and Maggie giggled as I took her in my arms, carried her all the way up the stairs and worked with the key to get the door opened. Maggie eventually just turned the lock from the inside with her mind and we went in. Maggie must not have been paying attention, because when I carried her over the threshold, we were greeted by a chorus of, "Surprise!"

I jolted in surprise and then chuckled as I saw Vic on the forefront.

"Surprise, my man!" he said laughing. "And since when do you get married and not tell me?"

"Since we eloped," I told him and put Maggie to her feet.
"Who told you?"

He smirked. "Did you really think Ashley was going to keep that little tidbit to herself?"

"Oh…right.
Well, how did you know when we were coming?
"

"Kyle," he said and laughed at my face. "He said he'd text me once you were on your way."

I shook my head and looked around. T
here were five watermelons lined
up on my counter.
I rolled my eyes, but went with it. They gave us tons of gifts and we ordered about twenty pizzas to feed everyone. They had strung streamers and balloons from the ceiling fan to the lamps. It was kind of hilarious. Maggie got to know all the people that I wound up hanging out with during the school year. The entire swim team was there, and the rest were just sprinkles of random people
that
I knew.

Before we knew it, they had pulled up YouTube and were showing her swim meets.
I groaned and moaned as they all whooped and laughed at my misery.
And then a few hours had passed and I sent everyone home. Vic was the last to leave, and he pulled me out the door, told me he thought I was completely nuts for getting married, asked if she was pregnant. I said no and it took some convincing, but he thought Maggie was adorable and sweet. He was happy for me
and that was all that mattered to me at the end of the day.

When I went back inside, Maggie was cleaning up. Bella was eating someone's pizza that had been left on the stool. She looked up guiltily before slowly lowering her head back down to finish it. I laughed at her. Then I took Maggie's arm and pulled her away from the trash bag. "What are you-"

"That can wait," I told her, my voice low and dangerous. I tried to breath
e
, but I was going to go crazy if I didn't get Maggie alone. And we were definitely alone now.

She smiled as I took h
er to the bathroom and pulled my
shirt off over my head before helping her with hers.
I turned the water hot, to soothe and relax her. She'd been through so much, knocking on death's door just yesterday. When I ran my hands over her sides I felt the raised scar where the bullet had tried to take her from me. I fell to my knees and kissed it. She put her hand on my head and waited. When I was satisfied that I was awake and this wasn't a dream
,
I stood and
kissed her mouth like there was nothing else in the world I wanted to do.

She ran her thumb over the scar on my own stomach and closed her eyes tighter to the memories attached to it.
I kneaded my knuckles into the
flesh of her ba
ck and shoulders, hoping she'd
see that even weapons and death couldn't keep her from me. She made a little noise as she turned to putty, relaxed and leaned on me, b
ut then she groaned into my mouth and completely changed the game.

Her
back hit the tile
of the shower
. I felt her nudge inside my mind. I all
owed her, in fact, I rolled out the welcome mat
. When the shower door started to rattle I opened my eyes to find us surrounded by ribbons and my bathroom was about to explode like the one in California had. She bit her lip guiltily, but I just laughed.

"Come on." I pulled her from the shower and wrapped a
towel around her as I whispered,
"We'll work on that."

She smiled and giggled when I
picked her up and took her to the bed. For
the first time
I didn't press her arms to the bed above her head
as I entered her mind
. I
let her touch me and begged her to
. S
he plundered my mind happily as
we were joined together in every way.
And the rumors were right; making love and mutualizing together was a magic all its own.
It was unlike anything else, indescribable, but the best thing was how free and
calm
we were. The place could have gone up in flames, we'd never have known.
Consumed
, happy, married and together. This was it, what it was like to be real significants.