Love Hurts (8 page)

“
Maybe you’re better off taking some time to think, Delaney.” She offered. “Give it a few days.”

Delaney nodded. She had no other ideas, so she wasn’t willing to pass up someone else’s. If things were meant to work out they would on their own.

“
I wish I was more like you,” she blurted, staring at Rose. Rose shied away from the admiring comment. She ran her fingertips through her wavy blonde hair.

“
More like me?”

“
Yes.” Delaney nodded, a smile returning to her face. “You’re such a strong person. You were brutally attacked in the diner and you’re still so upbeat and not frightened about life. I don’t think I could do that.”

Rose looked away.

“
Weren’t you afraid? How did you get over such a thing? I remember the day I came and seen you at the hospital,” Delaney said, drifting back to the image of Rose in the hospital bed, her face puffy and unrecognizable. She looked more like a swollen mummy wrapped in gauze with a ton of tubes and machines connected to every part of her. Delaney had always been so astounded her friend survived and went on with her life not phased—or at least it appeared that way.

“
Yeah. Of course I was afraid. It’s just something you do I suppose. You move on,” Rose told her. “Let’s talk about something else. How is school?”

“
School is fine. Only a couple more semesters and I’m finished.” She heard the words coming out, but her mind was totally stuck on Vance. Rose picked up on this quickly.

“
What do you like about him?” Rose asked swiftly.

Delaney smiled at the mention of him. “He’s sweet. But not in the vomit kind of way.” She laughed. “He’s a man in all sense of the word. I feel protected and safe whenever I’m with him. And he’s gentle. I know he would never want to hurt me. It’s hard to explain, but he is the most genuine person I have ever met. I feel loved when I’m with Vance.”

Rose felt a bit envious of Delaney’s description of love. She had been with Tad for six years and she couldn’t even begin to feel that way about him. She didn’t understand how Sam, someone she thought of as such a horrible person could be described so magnificently. That anyone could shed tears for him and not fear him. Then this made her question herself. Why was Delaney capable of making this man feel love and affection? And she produced such a cruel fury that made him want to kill her. It made no sense.

***

Frankie strolled up the sidewalk of the nasty apartment complex his brother had called him from. It was more a fraternity rat hole then a place of residence. And he wouldn’t have set foot in it on any other occasion. But Sam called in a panic, saying he needed clothes so he could get out of there.

Frankie looked down at the scrap of paper he scrawled the address on. He yanked open the door, passing two hung-over girls doing the walk of shame to their car. They gave him
“the eye”
but he simply ignored it, taking the stairs two at a time.

At the top he wrapped on the first door on the left before letting himself in. He immediately turned up his nose to the rank smell of cat urine and stale cigarettes. “Frankie to the rescue,” he said.

Sam’s expression looked relieved to see him for once. “Tell me you brought me something practical to wear.”

Frankie raised an eyebrow, a tad insulted by Sam’s complaining. “This is the thanks I get.” He chucked the bag at his brother, upsetting the cat on the floor at his feet. It let out a trill hiss jumping through all the clutter to get away from the two of them.

“
Thank you
. If it wasn’t for you I probably wouldn’t be here right now. So forgive me for not being more appreciative.” Sam tugged on the jeans that were not his fit. And drug the shirt over his head.

Frankie loomed over the now dead girl on the floor, studying her pathetic corpse. “You really did a number on her.” He picked up her cat by the back of the neck, letting it fight and thrash about before he looked it in the eye and relaxed it. He had it purring in no time.

“
I don’t remember anything,” Sam muttered, sifting through the blankets for his cell phone. It had to be there somewhere. Frankie watched amused. Digging into his pocket and dialing Sam’s number on his own. A loud chirp and vibration rattled on top of the television that sat covered in dust in the corner of the room.

“
Oh, you must remember that lovely dinner,” he said sarcastically, “or Blanca.”

“
I suggest you get out of my sight. Because I have to find a way to patch up everything you managed to obliterate in an hour visit.” He swallowed down his anger, heading out the door.

Frankie tossed the cat, following on Sam’s heels, his black boots pounding the rickety staircase to maintain speed with Sam. “I helped you. You are not allowed to be pissed at me.”

Sam scanned the parking lot in hopes of locating his car. Not that it mattered because he had no keys. Frankie chirped his own car alarm, dangling the keys in front of his face. “Do you need a ride to? Or should I stay far away and let you walk home?”

Frankie could tell his brother was upset. That was clear. But he had no emotions. So to him it was nothing more than absurd and a tad comical. He didn’t know how to deal with feelings and nonsense like Sam. “Did you decide what you’re going to do?”

Sam ignored Frankie’s question, countering with one of his own. “How did our mother manage to survive an incubus when she was human?”

Frankie tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. “You would have to ask her that one. I don’t talk to the bitch.”

Sam rolled his eyes. Tired of hearing about the abhorrence Frankie housed for their mother. Frankie hated everyone.

“
She didn’t die. She had kids with our father. How do I give Delaney what she wants without killing her?” Sam said this more out loud then to Frankie.

“
You don’t. Or you do.” Frankie shrugged. “You can’t have it both ways. You either give her what she wants and end her, or just tell her to hit the road. Seems like a giant headache if you ask me.”

Sam stared out his window. There had to be an answer.

Making up

Sam climbed out of his brother’s sports car. He scanned the parking lot for his car. It was still nowhere to be found.

“
You’re really going to need to get a handle on the drinking and feeding,” Frankie said, pocketing his keys.

“
Do you ever let up?” Sam asked, jiggling the handle, hoping a door was left open for him to get back in. Frankie watched his brother, amused with his antics. For a guy that claimed he had it together so well he was failing miserably at the basics.

“
I have managed to survive for a lot of years doing what I do.” He was lying. He
almost
made it a few years. And he was depressed the whole time. Depriving himself of sex was like not eating, or eating just a measly cracker once a week. It coated your palette but it did nothing for your body. It only made you angrier.

“
So explain this to me again,” Frankie said, running his hand against the window pane. He effortlessly slid the window open. Sam grumbled some obscenities about his cat burglar ways and then climbed in. “You have been living off the girl you want to marry. The one you can’t sleep with because you don’t want to kill her.”

Sam shut the window hiding his frustration.

This only caused the doorbell to ring out unremittingly.

“
And how nourishing is foreplay?” Frankie smirked, taking a seat in his brother’s living room once he let him in. “You can’t even kiss a chick without wanting to rip her head off. Man, I got to give it to you.”

Sam dropped down on the sofa. His head was pounding. He was starved and he was sure he needed about a day’s worth of sleep to come back from his latest hangover. “If you are being serious, yes, it’s hard. But I care about her and I’m willing to go through with it.”

As much as Sam despised Frankie, he also kind of enjoyed having him around to go back and forth with. Frankie was the only person who understood where he was coming from. And at one time he did truly care about his brother. It was his father that turned Frankie into such a complete glutton for woman. It was also their father who turned Frankie against their mother.

“
Aren’t you afraid you’ll accidentally kill her over time?” Frankie asked. This time he was serious. “The more contact you have of any sexual nature drains the victim. They want more, you deny them and it all ends up the same way.”

“
It’s been a year. She’s fine,” Sam insisted.

Frankie sat up. Suddenly he had an idea. “Did you ever think about just telling her?”

The look on Sam’s face told him all he needed to know.

“
If you want to marry this girl that would mean you think she accepts you and loves you. I mean, that’s what I gather from all the cornballs running around here tying the knot. So, if you think she is amazing enough to marry, why not be honest with her?”

Frankie sighed when his theory fell dead as a doornail before him. Sam wasn’t willing to budge. “This is why I stick to being an evil son of a bitch. I don’t have to worry about anyone else’s feelings, just my own.”

Sam ignored Frankie’s brash words. He needed a shower before Delaney showed back up. He wanted to talk to her. To figure out if there was anything he could do to patch up what was left of their relationship.

“
You got to go,” he said, heading over to the door with his brother. “I need to clean up. Thanks for everything.”

Frankie looked past his brother’s cold stare into his soul. He knew better than anyone when he was trying to hide behind blankness. Frankie knew Sam thought with a small amount of exertion and enough blocking the world out he would get what he wanted. And that was solitude. Maybe he was a lot more like his brother then he realized.

“
What do you think you’re going to do?” Frankie asked, planting his feet firmly where he stood, refusing to just leave upon request. This produced a callous puff of air from Sam.

“
I’m going to take a shower. Then I am going to wait for her to come home so we can talk this out.” Sam ticked off.

“
It’s not going to work. She doesn’t seem
that
stupid.” Frankie interjected, searching for his brother’s brains somewhere around the room. He seemed to have misplaced them.

“
I got to try. What good does it do me to just walk away?”

“
It saves all this,” Frankie said, thrusting his hand out and into his brother’s chest. He was disturbed with the amount of energy his brother was pouring into one simple human, one, that no matter what he could not have.

Sam tilted his head to the side, drawing his shoulders up in a manner of saying it doesn’t matter. Frankie was lost for words, his usual bad mood unable to come out and make a mockery of the situation. Just as he was about to say something else there Delaney stood on the doorstep. Sam was surprised to see her so soon.