Page 37 of Frank's Felon
Hell, he hated when she closed her eyes. It made it too damn easy for her to shut him out, to push him away. “Open your eyes, Del. I need to see you.”
She opened her eyes and swallowed hard. Even now she was struggling to maintain eye contact. Someday, somehow, he’d help her regain her confidence—if she let him. She was fresh out of prison, and those first few months were the hardest. Right now, it felt as if he was losing her.
“I hope you won’t despise me,” she said.
“I could never despise you.”
“You may think otherwise when you hear the truth about me.”
“I’ve heard the truth about you. Even as a kid, you took the right steps to protect your family. I wish you could see the smart, loving shifter that I see. The one that is all heart and never gives up.”
For the first time since that day in the office, he saw Delilah’s eyes fill with tears.
“It’s not that I don’t want to stay with you, Frank. I would like to get to know you better, but I was in prison because. . .” Her eyes looked upward for a moment before focusing on him again. “When I returned home, my house had yellow crime scene tape around it. All the houses of my pack did. When I found out what happened, I lost it, Frank. Totally lost it. My Tessie, my dad. Dead. Others in the pack, good shifters, not just our asshole alpha. . . all dead. I broke into the local police station—”
“Hell, Delilah, why would you take such a risk?” he said with a growl he hadn’t meant to let escape, but the very idea of her endangering herself put him and his wolf on edge.
“Dead, Frank. Everyone wasdead. There was nothing to lose at that point!”
He wasn’t sure how he would have reacted in the same situation, but breaking into a police station. . . ballsy and very dangerous. “I’m not judging you, Delilah.” And he wasn’t. He needed to be clear about that. She was trusting him a bit more each day, and he had to be careful with that trust, with her. “What did you find in their files?”
“They had evidence that the WSSO had killed the pack.” She buried her head against his chest.
His hands sifted through her hair, stroking the silky strands as he kissed the top of her head. “Whatever you did, Delilah, it will be okay. We’ll figure it out, together.”
“You’ll walk away from me.”
“Nothing could make me walk away from you.”
She lifted her head at last, and green eyes clouded with tears. “I broke into the WSSO’s headquarters and killed two of their top people, the ones who ordered the murder of my family and pack. That’s who I am Frank. A cold-hearted murderer.”
* * *
DELILAH
Delilah let go of Frank’s arms and took one last look at those soulful eyes of his, ones that often said more than his words. She had shocked him for sure and repulsed him too. At least the truth was out. Now he knew the entirety of who Delilah Anne Matthews was. Hell, even her damn initials were like a cruel joke the universe played on her.
Frank stood near the edge of the rockface, his back to her while he stared out over the lake. He was so quiet that it unnerved her.
As Delilah turned to walk away, Frank said, “Don’t leave.”
“You can’t still want me.”
“I can, and I do.”
“Are you sure you want to associate with a shifter who can kill in cold blood?”
Frank scrubbed his face with one large hand, trying to calm himself. “I have no problem with you killing those bastards, Del, but I don’t like how you put yourself in danger. You had no backup, no plan, or any regard to your own safety.”
“I didn’t care what happened to me.”
“That’s another problem,” he said with hard eyes that refused to release her. “I care about you, but I can’t make you care about yourself. Every time something goes wrong, will I have to worry that you’re going to charge in against an enemy without any regard to your life?” He finally broke eye contact, his hand massaging the back of his neck. “That’s what happened with the white wolves, isn’t it? You knew you were entering an area filled with wolves and you didn’t care what happened to you. I can’t live like that, Del. I’ve seen a lot of good shifters die over the years for behavior less foolish than yours and each one affected me. If something were to happen to you. . .” He swallowed hard, threaded his hand through his short hair and backed away, shaking his head.
Delilah stared at him, awed by the worry on his face. He really cared about her. . .
“I. . . I want a life, Frank. But I don’t know who I am anymore. I want to be me again, but I don’t know how.”
“You’ll never be who you were before prison. Before murdering those assholes who deserved what they got. If you try to be that person again, Del, I guarantee you’ll never feel whole. You need to discover who you are now and where you belong.”
