Page 80 of Frank's Felon
“I want to see either of you two brave shifters squeeze a boulder through a one inch tube.”
“She’s exaggerating,” Mason said. “The baby’s not that big.”
“Oh, yes he is,” Takara called from the other room.
“Can I help you with anything,” Delilah called in to Takara, not wanting to enter the back bedroom in case she was getting dressed. It was only five in the evening, but she didn’t even know if the shifter was confined to bed or allowed visitors. They hadn’t exactly been invited, but she wanted to say goodbye before Agent Sloan arrived tomorrow.
“You have experience changing diapers?”
“No?”
“Then send Frank in.”
“Me?” Frank said, looking terrified.
Frankie grabbed his hand. “Come on. Just pinch your nose if it’s a stinky one.”
Frank shot a look at Delilah, more of a plea, actually. Delilah covered her mouth again, to keep from laughing as Frankie dragged a helpless Frank away.
“I think he’d rather jump off a cliff than change a diaper,” Delilah said. “But Frankie has him wrapped around her little finger.”
Mason was stretched out lengthwise on the sofa, with a blanket over him and pillows behind him. He looked tired, but otherwise healthy. “Frankie does, indeed. As do you,” he said.
“Did he talk to you? Ask you to guilt me into staying or something?”
“Not Frank’s style.”
No, it wasn’t. Frank rarely asked anyone for help. He’d never asked her for help, at least not directly. Then again, Frank had everything he needed here with this pack. And yet, Mason’s words struck home. For as much as Frank was loved by everyone in his pack, he didn’t connect to any of them on a deep level. Except Frankie. And her. And she was leaving him behind. She didn’t want to, but there wasn’t a choice. She was done with running. It was time to take control of her destiny.
“He’s angry,” she said, not sure why, except this was Mason, the man who was there when Frank was arrested, the one who Frank helped escape along with Takara and another shifter that had been killed recently.
“Frank’s been angry for a while, though I don’t think he realizes it.”
“But you do?”
“Me. Takara. Blade. Hayden. Callen.”
“I noticed you didn’t list Damien or Tess.”
“He knows. Tess, maybe not so much. She didn’t know Frank before he went to prison.”
“Prison changes a person.” It certainly had changed her. She’d lost a part of herself. Her confidence, her sense of worth. “Why hasn’t anyone talked to Frank?”
“Talk to Frank? You’re funny.”
“Frank doesn’t have any family. I see the way he looks at and talks to you and your family.You’rehis family, Mason. Someone should have tried talking to him.”
“Meaning me? What makes you think I haven’t tried? There’s only one shifter he’ll listen to, Delilah.” Mason raised a brow as his bright blue eyes bore through her.
Damn, the shifter was good. Now she saw where Frankie got her insight, though Mason was more subtle than his daughter.
Frank entered with a sleeping baby swaddled in a blue blanket in his arms. “It’s a boy,” he announced, grinning, like he was the father.
Damn, he looked good holding that baby. He’d be a great dad one day.
Delilah’s stomach knotted. She wanted him carrying her child one day, not that of another female who wouldn’t know him like she did, who wouldn’t love him like he needed to be loved.
“We already knew it was a boy, Frank,” she said, no longer trying to hide her smile.
