Page 4 of Needing Your Love
Jimmy scurried inside, shut the door behind him, and I didn’t turn away until I heard the lock click into place.
Once back in my car, I radioed Babs to update her fully, then sat silent, staring at the Riley house.
Jimmy needed help, and maybe DHHS could give him that since legally my hands were tied.
But I feared, from experience, that this was only the beginning.
Chapter 2
Sutton
9 Years Ago
“Thank fuck,” I muttered to myself after sealing the final envelope that would get me out of debt. I tossed the mail atop the pile on my right, eyeing the evidence of hard work and dedication toward rebuilding my bank account and reputation.
Of course, if Darla hadn’t seriously fucked me over two years ago, I wouldn’t be feeling this satisfaction over getting my life back in order.
Shaking my head, I shoved up from the kitchen table, ready to shower and hit the sack. I’d spent the day at the station, dealing with one headache after another paperwork-wise. At least the officer patrols around town had been quiet.
But having to make apologies to investors, bankers, and contributors for fundraisers and attempting to right all the wrongs Darla had done had been tougher than anything I’d faced in law enforcement.
I’d known Darla was a liar from the day she’d gotten me drunk and suggested I take her virginity out beneath the stars that summer night between our junior and senior years of high school.
We’d been each other’s firsts experience with intimacy of any sort, and although Darla had lied to me, manipulated me intogetting her out of her dad’s clutches through pregnancy, she’d gifted me the best thing in my life—my son Jamie. I’d set aside dreams of playing football in college and had taken care of my family as any good man would have done.
Our marriage hadn’t been the greatest, but it was peaceful at least.
Until she’d gotten caught siphoning off town fundraisers she’d headed up as the chief’s wife, ruined my credit, and accumulated various accounts of bank fraud. She’d hightailed it out of town like her ass was on fire.
But being the caring bastard I was, I hadn’t gone after her for damages. Sure, she could have been sitting in a jail cell, but the hurt she’d endured throughout her childhood, the trauma she’d carried into our marriage, had been enough.
“You’re soft.” I snorted at myself in the bathroom mirror, eyes tired, beard in need of a trim. Should have pressed charges and let her pay the consequences of her actions.
But I feared fucking up our son in the process and figured letting her simply disappear from our lives would be less painful. He would be sixteen this spring, and I’d decided it was time to sit him down and tell him the truth of why she’d abandoned us.
He’d been livid. Pissed at me for not throwing her in the slammer.
A smirk curled my lips.
My boy intended to play in the NFL someday, but he would have made one hell of a cop with his preference for truthful communication and doing the right thing. At least he’d gotten that part of me rather than his mother’s lack of ethics.
Hot water beat on my shoulders a short while later, and I heaved a sigh, my shoulders sagging.
I was officially debt free.
The shit of my existence that had been Darla was officially gone, and for the first time in I couldn’t remember how long, Ihad the house all to myself since Jamie was spending the night over at his best friend’s.
Quietness hovered over the house, and I couldn’t wait to crash face-first into my pillow instead of staring in the darkness long into the early morning hours over financial crises.
Rubbing a weary hand over my face, I set my thoughts on scrubbing so I could maybe catch up on the sleep I’d lost over the too-long months since she’d left.
Only two people had managed to thoroughly manipulate me, and I wasn’t unhappy the first no longer looked to me for support of any sort. Darla’s lying ass could stay gone forever as far as I was concerned.
The other?
A grimace marred my face even though I chuckled while sudsing my underarms.
Jimmy Riley rarely accepted help even though almost every single one of his actions screamed of desperation to be seen, heard, and comforted. He’d done all sorts of scheming over the years, and even though he was still a bit of a runt, his power of persuasion and getting his way when it came to Pippen Creek’s Chief of Police was often snickered over by the townsfolk.
