Letting Go (Thatch 1)

I lowered Grey onto the bed, shrugged slowly, and crawled in after her, taking her shirt off once I was kneeling over her body. “All you need to know is that your dad is fine, and that he threatened me if you came back starving, and that I’m going to love you forever.”

She smiled just before I could press my mouth to hers, and she pushed against my chest so she could slowly inch my shirt up over my head. “Well then, you better let me eat.”

“I will, as soon as I get done showing you how much I love you.”

Chapter 13

Grey

August 16, 2014

I CALLED OUT a good-bye to everyone at work and headed out to my car. I was pulling my phone out of my purse to call Jagger to see what he wanted for dinner when I stopped short at the sight of the woman who was standing next to my car. My eyebrows pulled together as I looked closer at the sobbing woman and took another few steps toward her.

“Mrs. Easton?”

She whirled around and wiped quickly at her cheeks when she saw me. “Oh, Grey, I’m so sorry—”

“Did something happen to Jagger?” I asked in a rush, my heart pounding at the thought of losing him.

“No! No, God no. He’s fine, it’s me.”

I took calming breaths as I closed the distance between us and wrapped my arms around her. “I’m sorry, I just—sorry. How are you, and what’s going on that has you crying?”

She wiped at her wet cheeks again when I released her and tried to laugh, but it sounded forced. “I feel so stupid coming to you for this. I need to ask you a huge favor.”

“Of course, anything.”

“But you can’t tell Jagger.”

I paused for a second, and she noticed my hesitation.

“Please, Grey, it would kill him if he knew. He would try to do everything to make it better, and I just can’t do that to my son.”

“Okay,” I said warily. “What is it?”

Taking a large breath, she held it for a few seconds and blinked rapidly, like she was trying to stop more tears from coming on. “I need money. I got laid off, and Mike took everything and bailed on me.”

My head jerked back. “What? Oh my God. I’m so sorry. I didn’t even know you had a—wait, who’s Mike?”

She waved her hand dismissively. “He’s gone, it doesn’t matter. But Jagger told me not to date him, he begged me not to. He said Mike would do something like this to me, but I didn’t listen to him. I didn’t believe Mike would leave me, and now I have nothing. No money, no car, nothing. I’m going to lose my house . . . I can’t even afford to buy Keith’s food,” she sobbed.

“Mrs. Easton, I’m sorry. I don’t even know what else to say.”

“And I know Jagger. He’ll go after Mike. Mike threatened him every time Jagger stopped by the house, and the last time Jagger was there, he told Mike he’d kill him if he did anything to me. I can’t let my son go to jail because I was too stupid, and I know he’ll go to extremes to make sure I’m okay. He’ll give me everything he has, that’s just how he is. I can’t do this to him.”

I stood there in shock. I wanted to know why Jagger hadn’t told me about Mike, but knew that he would do anything to keep me from anything painful. “That’s why Jagger was mad at you,” I mumbled.

Mrs. Easton’s eyes widened. “What?”

“That day we were moving Jagger into the warehouse and you came by, that’s why he was mad. Because of Mike . . . right?”

“Oh, sweet girl. I’m so sorry you had to see that. He was just trying to protect me.”

Of course he was. Because that’s what Jagger did. Protect people. “How much do you need?”

“Two thousand. That will cover the bills until I can find another job.”

“Two thousand?” My jaw dropped, and I scrambled for something to say. “I don’t—I don’t have that kind of money. I just started working and I’m trying to pay off student loans as fast as possible.”