Page 88 of Sirens
“Ch-Charlie?” she stammered, her voice betraying the shock that coursed through her body.
“Hey, baby doll—long time no see,” he drawled, his arms crossed over a chest that he’d added some muscle to withoutmanaging to rid himself of the former quarterback flab. “And”—the toothpick rolled from one side to the other—“it’s Chazz now.”
Just when she thought he couldn’t get any more repellent.
“What are you doing here?” Maggie asked, her mind racing to comprehend the sudden shift in her reality.
“Can’t a guy visit his lovely wife?” Chazz replied, eyes widening in feigned innocence.
McGarvey tensed beside her, but Maggie couldn’t bring herself to turn to him, afraid of what she might see.
“Chazz,” she said, trying to load the name with the full measure of annoyance she felt. “The only reason I’m still legally your wife is because you refused to sign the divorce papers I served you with four years ago.”
“And I’ve been thinking of you every minute of that four years,” he said, his hand drifting to his chest for emphasis.
“That’s funny, because I’ve been doing everything I can to forget you exist,” she shot back, her words dripping with venom.
“How’s that working out for you?” he asked, his smug smile making the toothpick point toward his bushy brow.
Maggie threaded her fingers with McGarvey’s. “Before you decided to invade my privacy, it was working fucking great.”
She felt a stab of vicious pleasure when his smile wilted.
“That hurts, Shortcake,” he said, shaking his head. “That hurts real bad.”
“Look, Chazz,” she said, trying to regain her composure, “I don’t know what you want, but I assure you, I am not interested. It’s over.”
“You say that,” he said, a wicked gleam in his eye as he took a step closer to them, “but you and I know there’s still something between us.”
Maggie’s chest tightened at the suggestion of his words.
“There’s about to be a restraining order between us if you don’t leave now.”
“Aw, baby, you don’t got to be so cold,” Chazz replied with a smirk. “You know, I think it’s pretty romantic that I found you all the way out here in Townsend Harbor. Shows dedication, doesn’t it?”
“Romantic?” she scoffed, rolling her eyes. “More like completely delusional and downright fucking frightening.”
“Your wit is still as sharp as ever.” He grinned, seemingly unfazed by her sarcasm. “But really, Mags, I came all this way because I love you. You’re the only thing that kept me going while I was in prison.”
The bottom dropped out of her stomach as a numb silence muffled the nearby festivities.
“Prison?” Hearing this word asked quietly in McGarvey’s voice made Maggie feel like someone had dropped a brick on her chest.
Now, Chazz’s smirk stretched into a shit-eating grin. “Oh, she didn’t tell you that, eh, pal?” When McGarvey said nothing, Chazz strutted another step toward them. “Well, if that’s the case, I’m willing to bet there’s all kinds of things my little Shortcake ain’t told you. Like how she’s the reason I ended up behind bars.”
In her peripheral vision, Maggie saw McGarvey turn to her, and knew she could be a coward no longer. Without relinquishing her grip on his hand, she turned to face him. His shock was palpable, his face tight, as he met her gaze.
“What he means is, I testified for the Feds,” she admitted.
“Turned state’s evidence, you mean,” Chazz drawled. “To avoid charges of her own.”
The cold air seemed to thicken around them, freezing them both in place, refusing to fill her lungs.
“Is that true?” McGarvey asked.
“Yes,” Maggie admitted.
The look he gave her then—not of anger but of disappointment—cut deeper than anything she’d ever felt before.
