33. Sutton
Sutton
I ’d gotten caught up in memories of holding Jimmy all night long, how he’d come apart for me countless times before I’d given him the dicking down he’d been begging for since I’d reddened his ass.
I burned the bacon while lost in my head.
Forgot to put the pot under the coffee machine and made a mess before I realized the mistake.
It wasn’t until the scrambled eggs began to cook in the pan that I remembered I hadn’t added any seasoning to the fluffy yellow bits Jimmy preferred for breakfast..
Chuckling to myself, I salted the eggs a little too late, poured two mugs of coffee, and hoped he didn’t mind the bacon crunchier than I’d learned he preferred.
I expected he would still be too blissed out from last night to notice, and if so, I could always make him sit on my dick while eating. That would preoccupy his brain from my first kitchen fail.
The doorbell rang, and grinning, I opened the door.
My lungs deflated, my lips flatlining at the sight before me that I never in a million years would have expected. “Darla?” I blinked, sure my eyes played tricks on me. I hadn’t lain eyes on her in over a decade.
“Sutton.” She whispered my name like a prayer, like I was her only hope. Her blue eyes were hazy with tears, despondent. A bruise shadowed her hollow cheek, clear into her hair. The sweatshirt she wore draped over her thinned frame—the woman was no more than skin and bones.
My brow furrowed on instinct. “What the fuck happened to you?” As if I hadn’t already known. She’d been leaving me messages at work for weeks.
“C-Can I come in?” She attempted a smile that wavered and didn’t reach her eyes.
I stepped back without thought, allowing her into the home we used to share. Where we’d raised our only son. Where she’d lied and manipulated me out of every cent I’d had.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, keeping my tone low.
The shower had shut off upstairs, and while Jimmy usually took an hour-plus to get ready for the day, we’d planned to stay holed up inside.
I couldn’t decide if I wanted him to flounce down the stairs in nothing but lace panties or stay locked up in the bathroom while primping for me.
How the fuck would I explain letting this woman into our private bubble of happiness?
“I’m in a bad place,” Darla said, and I shut the door behind her, unable to deny my instincts, the need to keep her safe, now that she stood before me.
Ignoring calls had been easy, but seeing her broken urged me to be the caretaker I couldn’t help but be down to my bones.
Even after all she’d done to me, I held no bitterness like our son did. If I could offer her some sort of protection, I had to give it.
Tears streamed over Darla’s cheeks as she hugged herself, and empathy trickled in as it always did for someone hurting.
“Come here,” I murmured, and she fell into me, hands grasping at my shirt.
Thank fuck I’d put the damned thing on because of splattering bacon grease, otherwise she’d be pressing against and touching my skin.
A shiver rippled through me—not the pleasant kind—while holding her close.
I closed my eyes, fighting the desire to shove her back outside into the cold, and took shallow breaths so the stench of her unwashed body didn’t flood my nose.
A silent sob caused her to shudder her against me, and I clasped her tenderly, not sure where else she might be bruised and hurting.
What the fuck had happened?
Even worse, why the fuck did my brain care when my body was repulsed by her presence?
Needing space, I pushed her at arm’s length, trying to smile. “Let’s sit in the living room. You can tell me what’s going on, and we’ll see if we can get you some help, okay?”
She nodded, sniffling and shuffling where I’d motioned.
I kept a foot between us while sitting and ignored the hand she reached out in hopes I would take.
Darla might need an anchor right now, but I couldn’t give her any further piece of me, no matter my natural inclinations pushed me to lay down my life as I would for any person inside my town’s limits.
“I’m sorry for showing up like this, but you never returned my calls,” she whispered.
And she knew me well enough to trust I wouldn’t turn her away if she showed up looking like she did.
Manipulation at its finest.
Heat curled in my guts, but I couldn’t be anyone other than the caretaker of everyone who walked inside my town’s limits.
“Tell me what happened,” I muttered, ready to move this shit along so I could get on with my day with the only person I wanted in my personal space.
A shiver raised the hairs on the back of my neck, and I rubbed at them, giving Darla my full focus until I no longer could. We might have five minutes—forty. Who knew with Jimmy. But what a shit show awaited if his emotions got the best of him before I could explain her presence in the house.
“I’ve gotten in too deep with an abusive man,” she whispered, swiping a forearm across her wet cheeks.
No news there. Her voicemail woes had been confirmed the second I’d laid eyes on her face.
The front door slammed inward, smashing against the wall.
“Dad!” Jamie hollered, and I cursed, my eyes shutting for a brief second as his footsteps stomped toward us.
“Dad—” He pulled up alongside the couch, dark blue eyes blazing as they landed on his mom.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” He spun on me.
“And why the fuck would you let her inside this house and send Jimmy packing? That boy is head over heels in love with you, and you’d give him up for…
her ?” The questions spewed in a low, hissed voice, his shoulders tensed, hands fisted at his sides.
“Jimmy…” I glanced over my shoulder toward the hallway and stairs beyond.
“I just saw him outside. He took off like his ass was on fire, Dad—what the actual fuck!” Jamie trembled in his anger, and I did the same but for a whole different reason.
I shot to my feet to go after my sweet boy, a swell of emotion threatening to choke the air from my lungs. My heartbeat raced, causing pain to lance through my chest. Had to find him. Hold him. Assure him I would never?—
Jamie grabbed my shoulder, keeping me in place. “Don’t bother. He’s already gone.”
My entire body stalled out, muscles sagging. “W-What?”
“Gone. Sped off in his car.”
I swayed on my feet. What the fuck had I done? Outside my son, Jimmy was the only one that mattered. My old instincts had betrayed me, allowed a viper over the threshold of my safe place, the house that I hoped Jimmy would call home.
Jamie glared at Darla, and she hunkered in on herself further, eyes downcast. “Dad finally has shit going his way, and you come crawling back with your filthy tail between your legs?” He huffed, and had we been outside, I didn’t doubt he’d have spat on the ground.
“Babs called me because she saw you driving downtown and knew she’d go to the most gracious man in this town.
Babs tried your cell too, Dad, but I’m guessing you didn’t get the warning. ”
Jimmy and I had both shut our phones off for the day since neither of us wanted our privacy to be intruded upon. And I’d opened the goddamned door without looking out the window. Had my sweet boy seen us hugging? Sitting on the couch together?
Jamie continued to hold me up, and I didn’t pull away.
A whine built low in my gut, and I swallowed hard as my eyes began to sting. I couldn’t break down and lose my shit. Right now, I needed to be the oak everyone saw me as—for myself. Then Jimmy. One fucking step at a time to set this shit straight.
“Darla, go upstairs and shower in the guest bathroom,” I ordered, trying but failing to use my chief’s voice. “I’ll find something for you to wear.” I grimaced at the truth that only Jimmy’s clothes would come close to fitting her small form.
“Sutton—”
“Darla!” Jamie hissed. “For once in your goddamned life, do what he tells you without arguing. And you’d better pray like fuck he’s planning to be more gracious than I am, because if shit went my way, you’d be out the door on your ass right this second, just as awful looking as you showed up—un-fucking-invited! ”
She swallowed hard, glanced at me, and nodded. Pushing to her feet, she muttered an apology, but neither Jamie or I acknowledged her words.
“What. The. Fuck?” Jamie muttered the second she disappeared up the stairs, his hand finally dropping from my forearm to grip his hips.
“Jimmy was in our bedroom getting dressed—I-I didn’t check before opening the door.”
Jamie glared at me. “You’d have let her in even if you knew it was her knocking.”
I rubbed a hand over my face, hating yet appreciating he called me out. “Yeah.”
“Fuck, Dad.” Jamie shook his head, lips pursed. “You didn’t fail her in any way. She needs to own her stupid choices—not you.” He poked my chest. “You can’t be responsible for every fucking person who enters this town!”
“I know?—”
“You don’t ! Jesus.” Jamie stalked toward the door and spun again, clearly not having given me enough of his mind.
He pointed at me again. “That boy is everything you told me you wanted. He all but dropped into your lap, needy as could be, put a smile on your face I don’t remember ever seeing, and now he’s gone. ”
“I didn’t?—”
“You gotta to make this shit right before it’s too late, Dad.
He was running like he didn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
You’ve got your work cut out for you, I can promise you that.
He looked hell-bent on escaping this town without a backward glance.
Better pack a bag and head to Boston because that’s the only other place he has to go. ”
My mind grasped for ways to stop Jimmy from leaving town, but he was probably already long gone.
“As for that…woman,” Jamie nearly spat again, “she manipulates you so goddamned easily. It’s time for me to have your back—and I won’t bend for that bitch.
Don’t give a flying fuck what she’s going through or how she’s hurting.
She gave up the rights to our empathy and love years ago when she walked away without an ounce of concern for the mess she’d made of our lives. ”
I closed my eyes, head hanging. He was right and hadn’t pulled any punches. Running my hands through my hair, I muttered a few curses beneath my breath over my ability to be truthful with everyone but myself. “Who’s on patrol?”
“Davidson.”
I nodded and straightened, filling my lungs to help steady my nerves. “Call him—tell him to keep an eye out for Jimmy in case he hasn’t left town yet. I gotta go get my cell.”
Jamie’s phone rang before he pulled it from his back pocket. “Babs?” he answered, and I couldn’t make out her words even though her shrill tone reached my ears.
I paused from heading upstairs, body tensed as Jamie’s gaze slammed into mine. His face went pale, eyes widening.
“Shit,” he whispered and hung up. “Kurt is holding Stefen at gunpoint—and Sarah and Jimmy are in the shop with them.”
Time stilled. Everything went to fuzz in my ears like I’d dived underwater.
My heart thumped and went silent for what felt like an hour.
Lungs denied oxygen lay flat inside my chest.
I’d never seen a live crime scene that involved death, but my mind envisioned the shattering of my heart, the loss of someone I had loved for years and wanted more than anything.
“Dad!” Jamie’s holler merely buzzed between my ears as I held Jimmy’s limp body in my arms. Sobs tore from my mouth, agony ripping me from the inside out.
I wouldn’t survive?—
Jamie slapped me across the face, and a rush of air and sound slammed reality into my brain.
Couldn’t lose him.
Wouldn’t.
“Call Davidson,” I rasped, focusing on the sting in my cheek rather than the panicked ache in my chest. “Jones too. Hurry.” I sprinted up the stairs on shaking legs and threw open the bathroom door.
Darla stood in the shower, thinner than I’d thought and bruised from head to toes.
“Finish and get the fuck out,” I hissed, adrenaline crashing through my system, my voice unsteady. “If I find one thing missing from inside these walls you no longer belong in, I’ll hunt you down and make you pay for every goddamned cent you took from me a decade ago. We clear?”
“Sutton—”
“Don’t! Fucking don’t , Darla.” I shook my head, disgusted with myself and my choices over the last fifteen minutes. “I’ll leave some gas money on the table for you, but I want you gone. And don’t ever come back. There’s nothing left here for you. Call me again, and I’ll get a restraining order.”
She’d already stolen and ruined more than enough in my life, and I was done .
I spun and rushed to my room to grab my cell and Glock, praying like fuck I wouldn’t be too late to save the man I loved.