But, for another month, she was still the chief of police. And while she was in law enforcement, she wouldn’t let Gary get away with breaking the law. His incarceration would be her parting gift to the town.
She was about to turn onto Roadrunner Way when her cell phone vibrated in her pocket. She’d set it to silent when they’d entered the feed store.
Assuming it would be Rod, she answered without checking caller ID. “Hello?”
“Sophie?”
Rafe. She recognized his voice immediately, even though he sounded too dejected to be the kid she knew and loved. “What’s up, buddy? You back from camp?”
“Yeah. Got back today.”
“What’s the matter? You seem upset.” She glanced at the clock on the dash and silently cursed Starkey for letting Rafe stay up so late. It was after one.
“I’m not upset. I’m fine.”
He didn’t sound “fine.” She was about to question him further but he spoke before she could frame the question in a way that he might actually answer it.
“Where are you? I stopped by the station, but it was locked up. You’re not at home, either.”
Slowing, she pulled onto the shoulder. There wasn’t another car as far as the eye could see, but she didn’t want to continue to Charlie’s ranch if Rafe needed her. “How do you know that, Rafe? Where are you?”
“In your front room.”
She’d shown him where she kept the hide-a-key, told him he could use it whenever he needed. She’d wanted him to understand that he always had a safe place to go. “Where’s your father?”
The answer, when it came, was as sulky as any she’d ever heard. “At a stupid party.”
“Does he know you’re at my house?”
“No.”
“You didn’t tell him?”
“He doesn’t care, anyway. I was gone for a week, and now he can’t even stay home for one freakin’ night. All he cares about is getting high or drunk and acting like an idiot.”
Sophia could’ve chastised him for speaking so disrespectfully about his father. She almost did. But it seemed pointless. Starkey deserved the criticism. “So…you got home and he took you with him to a party?”
“Yeah.”
“Where they were serving alcohol and doing drugs?”
“What else? He acts like that’s all there is in life.”
“Is that why you decided to leave?”
“No. Shoot, every party has that stuff.”
Sophia hated the thought of what he’d witnessed in his young life. “So what happened?” No answer.
“Rafe?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Starkey had done something worse than usual.
“He just… He doesn’t love me,” Rafe confided at last.
Wincing at the heartbreak in those words, Sophia remembered when she’d first started losing Starkey. They hadn’t been together long before the lure of belonging to “the brotherhood” overcame his love for her, for Rafe, even his own self-preservation. The Angels provided a forum in which he could be accepted, admired. And for years that had meant more to him than anything, despite his occasional twinges of conscience. Now she knew it was alcoholism and habit that kept him bouncing between his conscience and his friends. She wasn’t sure he’d ever win the tug-of-war, not until bad health or something else forced a change. It was one thing to want a better life and another to make the sacrifices necessary to obtain it.
Grateful to be out of the situation, Sophia wished she could get Rafe out, too. “That’s not true, babe,” she said. “I think he does care about you.”
“No, he doesn’t. And he doesn’t love you, either. He says he does. He talks like he wishes we could all be a family. But…” When his words fell away, Sophia suspected he was fighting back tears.
Resting her forehead on the steering wheel, she let her breath go in a long exhalation. For the past few years, she’d been contemplating trying to effect a change where Rafe was concerned. But was this the best time? She was losing her job….
Regardless, she’d had enough. Suddenly, she seemed willing to take a lot of risks she’d avoided in the past. “Do you think your father would ever let you come and live with me?” she asked.
“You’d want me to?”
The excitement in his voice made her regret not offering sooner. She would have. But she’d never really believed Starkey would give Rafe up. Now…she wasn’t so sure. There was a chance he would, if she made it clear that he could visit whenever he wanted. Why not let her take care of Rafe? He had to know she’d do a better job, and he certainly didn’t want the responsibility. True, she wouldn’t be happy with Starkey intruding on her life as often as he would if Rafe lived with her; that was part of the reason she’d always hesitated before. But she had to do it. For Rafe. “I’d like that very much.”
“Then it doesn’t matter what he says. If I told half the shit—”
“Stuff,” she inserted.
“—stuff that I’ve seen, I’d be put in foster care, anyway.”
“But would you really want to sacrifice your entire relationship with your dad, Rafe?”
This question met with silence. As she’d thought, Rafe was upset but he didn’t want to lose his father completely.
“I love him. It’s just…I don’t know what to do. If he doesn’t quit, he’ll end up in prison someday. Or dead.”
“What’s he doing?”
“I can’t tell you. But…it’s not right.”
She had enough to worry about tonight without pressing Rafe to list the laws Starkey had broken most recently, so she moved on. “I’ll talk to him. See what we can work out.”
“All I know is that I don’t want to go back,” he said.
That was a huge admission. Rafe had never arrived at this point before. “What’s changed?”
“I want a different life. I want to be normal, like Chase.”
Apparently, Chase wasn’t as bad an influence as she’d feared. “We’ll see what your father says,” she promised.
“Where are you?”
Putting the gearshift in Drive, she pulled a U-turn and headed back. “I’m coming home.”
“Will you bring me something to eat? I haven’t had dinner. Unless you count the pretzels they had at the party. They never buy food. They only care about beer.”