Page 93 of Frank's Felon
“Just what I thought. You didn’t even know that part. Del doesn’t open up easily, and yet you expect she’ll trust some other agent? I work alongside several shifters, Agent Sloan. When the trust isn’t there, shifters die. Maybe you’ve been in the position yourself. If you can’t trust the person to guard your back, you fail.”
“I want you, Frank,” Delilah said. “It’s what Agent Sloan hasn’t told you, because he’s waiting for me to say something. It’s why we’re here.”
“You’ll be our man. . . excuse me, our agent, on the inside,” Sloan said.
“Me?” Frank asked, shocked.
“That was your alpha’s idea.”
“Damien?” Frank said, looking to his alpha.
“Sloan approached me a few days after Delilah left. I refused to sign the treaty until he came clean with me and told me what was going on. I wasn’t thrilled with Delilah going in any more than you are, but it was her decision. That’s when I suggested sending you in as backup.”
“I said no to that part,” Delilah added. “But Damien said it should be your choice, not mine.”
“Damn right it should be. And why the hell would you say no to me going in as your backup? Don’t you trust me to protect you?”
“That’s not it, Frank,” she said, squirming in the chair. Her lips thinned, and she was rubbing her palms against her jeans. His girl was nervous about having him there to watch her back.
“She’s going in whether you accept this or not, Mr. Connelly. After your offer last week, I thought you’d be amenable. You’re a guard here with the right training and stamina to go undercover, but more importantly, you’ve been inside. You know the system, probably better than any prison guard. No one will be checking your background, but if they do, we’ll have a backstory for you, including notations about you being in debt, so when you ask for overtime, it will look legit. We’ll assign you to her cell-block. You’ll be her backup and you’ll have a full set of keys and codes to every system in the place. I’ll be upfront about this. There will be some off shifts, so it’s not perfect. We can’t find a way to justify you being there 24-7. There will be times when she doesn’t have backup nearby, but we’ll try to minimize those.”
Delilah rose. “I can’t do this. I mean I’ll stick to my part of the deal and go undercover, but Frank’s not going to be a part of this. I’ll go in alone or you’ll find another agent. Shifter or human, I don’t care, so long as it’s not Frank.” Delilah rushed out the door, leaving Frank with Sloan and Damien.
“I’ll do it,” Frank said. “No one will watch her like I will.”
“She has to agree,” Sloan said. “As you said, this won’t work unless she trusts whoever goes in with her.”
* * *
DELILAH
Delilah leaned against the backside of Damien’s house, staring up at the window and the nearby tree branch she had climbed down a week ago to disappear without Frank and Sloan knowing it.
Frank walked over next to her and followed her eyes to see where she was looking. “You climbed down from the second story, over that thin branch? It could have snapped, even under your slight weight. You take too many risks, Del, especially for someone who doesn’t like heights.”
“I’m working on conquering my fears.”
“And your fear of me?”
“My fear oflosingyou,” she said, lowering her gaze to look directly at him.
“You’ll never lose me.”
“Things happen to good shifters.”
“Sure, all the time. Which is why we have to grab hold of happiness when we can. I need you, Del, more than I’ve needed anything or anyone in my entire life. I don’t care what I have to give up or do to be with you, as long as I’m with you.”
“Including going back inside again? I need to do this, but you don’t. I love you for offering, Frank, I really do, but it’s asking a lot. . . too much of you.”
“Why did you ask at all? Why not just tell Sloan you didn’t want me on this op before you came here? And don’t hide from me on this, Del. Give me the truth.”
“I need backup and you’re the only one I trust.”
“But then when you got here, you ran from me. You didn’t want to give me the chance to protect you?”
“I didn’t want to put you in the position where you felt you had to. You were stuck inside forfiveyears. I was a mess after only one year. I know your experiences and mine were different, and you still haven’t told me much about your time inside, but when I was running in the wind, unrestricted by prison walls or guards with guns, I realized I was wrong to come here, to ask this of you. You deserve your freedom. You earned it. Hell. . . you never should have lost it, unlike me. I’m a criminal. You’re not.”
Frank blew out a deep breath. “That’s what this is about? You want to know about my time inside? There’s nothing much to tell.”
