Chapter 28
RILEY
“A re you okay?” Harriet stands in front of me with that stupid, blank look on her face.
“I’m fine! Why are you always asking me that?” I bite back at her. Truth is, I’m just as irritable and frustrated as I was yesterday, and the day before that.
“Boss, why don’t you let us take care of this?” Hayden intervenes when he sees how close I am to losing my shit. “It’ll just be stupid kids messing around.”
I can tell from the unnerved look Harriet gives him, that she doesn’t agree and as I stare at spray-painted words on the side of my patroller that say QUIT BITCH, I hate having to admit that I’m getting scared.
First the photograph, and now this, it’s all a clear threat, and it would be so easy to take this to Sawyer and ask for his help, but I can’t keep giving him mixed messages.
“Why don’t you go grab us a coffee, and I’ll get this cleaned up?” Hayden suggests. Instead of arguing back, I give him and Harriet a break and head across the street to Jean’s.
I was already having a shitty morning before I stepped out the front door and saw the car. These past few weeks have been challenging; my sickness has disappeared, but my hormones have kicked in with a raging force. I’m either mad, sad or helplessly horny and after a whole hour of trying to get myself off this morning before work, a vandalised car was the last thing I needed.
“Three coffees,” I bark at Jean when she comes to the counter. Sensing my mood, she holds off on the small talk and gets straight to work. I look out the window, and when I see that Sawyer’s truck isn’t parked where it usually is, I immediately push all thoughts of him out of my mind. He does nothing at all to help with the helplessly horny thing and if being pregnant has taught me one thing, it’s that it makes me act far too rashly. My saying one thing and doing another isn’t something he should have to tolerate.
My phone vibrates, and when I pull it out of my pocket and see a text from him, a warm, fuzzy feeling in my tummy has me feeling a little less irritated.
My place tonight? Pizza with extra anchovies
I smile at the message before putting my phone away and leaving it on read. I need to think about my answer before I reply. The lower half of my body wants to say yes. Sawyer did say that if I needed anything, I could go to him. This could be classed as a need. It feels desperate enough.
He’s kept his distance but still managed to show me that he cares. I know the six tins of anchovies I found stacked on my doorstep when I got home from work last night were from him. No one else knows that they’ve all I’ve been wanting to eat, except for maybe the Walkers who run the grocery store.
“There we go,” Jean interrupts my thoughts, placing the coffees on the counter, and I hand her some bills before making my way back over to the station. Hayden has already gotten to work, scrubbing the side of my patroller with a sponge and dipping it into a bucket of foamy water. Despite the effort he’s putting in, the paint doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.
“I’ll leave this here for you.” I place his coffee on the wall. “Sorry if I got a little snappy,” I tell him, offering him no explanation as I head inside to give Harriet hers. I make an apology to her too, before moving on to hide out in my office. Sitting and staring at my computer screen, I let my coffee go cold because I can’t drink it. I refuse to ask for decaf in case it makes Jean suspicious. My pants are already starting to get tight around my waist, and my time of this baby being a secret is running out. I can already predict the questions that it’s gonna raise. People in this town already think I’m incompetent because I’m a woman. Being a pregnant woman is going to convince them even more that I’m not cut out for the job.
Pizza with Sawyer is the distraction I need from all the things swirling in my head. It’ll beat being at home, alone, angry, and sexually frustrated.
7 pm?
I message back before I realize it’s a stupid idea and change my mind. I’m sure I can manage to find some self-control for a few hours.
I leave my cold coffee on the desk and head back out to offer Hayden some help. I shouldn’t let it, but the thought of seeing Sawyer later has me excited. He’s always so touchy and tentative, and I don’t like to admit it, but it feels like what I need right now.
“You want me to help with that?” I stand beside Hayden, impressed at the progress he’s made, now the words read IT BITCH which I guess is an improvement.
“Nah, I’m finding this quite satisfying.” He looks up at me with a cheeky grin. Things between me and my deputy have become a lot more relaxed since I spoke to Jace on the night of his wedding and proved I wasn’t his enemy. I played him the video that was on Billy McGee’s phone, and I also let him know that I’m here to take down the Gendrys. How much of that he’s told Sawyer and the others, I’m unsure of, but I definitely get the vibe that Hayden’s been told he can stand down when it comes to me.
I look back up the street when I hear the sound of Sawyer’s truck, and I’m confused when I see Beth Delaney get out of his passenger seat. A stab of jealousy slices straight through my chest, and it keeps on attacking when I see Sawyer smile and reach his arms around her. He pulls her close, and it scares me how much it hurts. She’s walking away in the direction of Cade’s garage when he says something to her that I can't quite hear. Whatever it is, it makes her laugh, and suddenly the thought of the two of them together puts a rage inside me that I can’t control.
“Excuse me a minute.” I step away from Hayden and start walking up the street. Sawyer doesn’t notice me, he’s too busy looking at his phone, and while he steps inside the bar, I head straight past him, into Eamon’s hardware store.
“Morning, Sheriff,” he greets me cheerily, but I’m on autopilot now. My anger has taken over, emotion is drowning out all my rationality, and seeing them together has just reminded me who Sawyer Anderson really is and how stupid I’ve been to believe his lies.
“I need a knife, and one of those.” I point to the crowbar that's hanging up on the wall behind his counter.
“What kinda knife are you looking for?” He pulls out a drawer from the glass cabinet and places it in front of me. I pick up the sharpest one by the handle and examine it closely.
“This one will do,” I tell him.
“You want me to put that on an account?” he asks, and I ignore him, slamming my credit card on the counter and picking up the crowbar he’s laid out on top of it by the drawer.
I walk back out onto the street and head for Sawyer's truck, ignoring Eamon again when he calls out to ask if I’m alright.
How dare Sawyer tell me that I’m the only girl he wants. I’ve spent weeks feeling guilty for the fact that I’ve hurt him, and he’s already moved on with her. Is that why he was inviting me over for pizza tonight, to tell me all about his new little girlfriend?
“Sheriff, your card,” Eamon calls out to me from the shop door, as I grip the knife tight in my fist and jab it deep into the rear right tyre of Sawyer's truck. The hiss it makes as it starts to deflate takes a little of the anger from my blood, and I scrape the tip of the blade along the paintwork as I make my way toward the front one.
“Riley, what's going on?” Hayden calls out to me from the station as I slash another hole in Sawyer's big, expensive tires; dropping the knife to the ground when I’m done, I take the crowbar in both my hands, make a huge swing, and smash it through the lying bastard's windshield
“ Whoah! ” Sawyer rushes out of the bar and stands on the sidewalk looking at me as if I’m crazy. I guess I am because I smile at him as I smash out his driver's seat window.
“Darlin’, what the fuck ya doin?” He races around the hood, and takes hold of my arm, dragging the crowbar from my hand and dropping it to the ground, then wrapping me up in those strong arms that never fail to make me feel secure, he holds me tight against him.
“Get off me!” I fight him off, throwing my fists and realizing that I’m crying when I see how wet the shoulder of his shirt is. Suddenly, I don’t feel mad anymore. I feel betrayed, and really fucking stupid for believing all the words that came out of this lying bastard’s mouth.
“Riley, sweetheart, I need ya to calm down.” He continues to hold me against him, not letting me get away. “Think of the baby,” he whispers through his teeth into my ear, as his hand soothes through my hair, and I start to wind down.
“You lied to me,” I whisper against his chest, feeling my legs go weak. “You lied to me, Sawyer.” I shake my head when I realize how much it hurts.
“Baby, I don’t know what you're talking about.” He pulls back a little and laughs. I’ve just trashed his truck, and he’s tucking my hair behind my ear and stroking my cheek. “Come on, let's get ya inside.” He looks sideways, and when I see the small crowd that’s formed around us, I drop my head into my hands and sob.
“Riley?” I hear Hayden call out again.
“She’s fine, I got her,” Sawyer tells him as he starts leading me toward the bar door. “She’s gonna be just fine.” He speaks quietly under his breath as he ushers me inside and closes the door.