Deadly Devotion (Soulscape #4)

Chapter 21

"Did you have a good time with the Sheriff?" Alec was dressed and sat in the porch chair beside Frank.

Frank sighed and squeezed Alec's hand as images of his evening with Dennis drifted to the surface. His body instantly reacted to the memory. "Yeah," he whispered. "I did."

"You didn't fuck him."

"No."

"But you did other stuff with him." Alec stared at Frank, untouched emotionally by the fact that Frank had gotten intimate with another man. Not just "any" man—the Sheriff.

Frank cleared his throat and nodded. "Yeah. Some stuff."

"Did you like it?" Alec asked. "Doing stuff with him?"

Exhaling deeply, Frank stood up and moved to the porch rail. He stared down at the lake, the night blanketing the water and turning it ink black. "Alec," he murmured. "We need to talk."

"About what?"

Frank turned around and rested against the rail. "The Sheriff."

"What about him?"

"Maybe..." Frank stared at the porch floor. "Maybe it this isn't a good idea. Us...and Dennis."

Alec frowned. "Why not? We like him. He likes us."

Returning to his seat, Frank took the boy's hand again. "Alec, what we have..." he licked his lips and gazed at the young man. "It's a very...unique relationship. I don't know if it's a good idea bringing someone else into it. I think it might be best if we just kept it between us."

"But you like the Sheriff."

"I do," Frank whispered, a soft ache pinching his heart. "I like him a lot. He's a wonderful man. A good man. But..." he released a slow breath and shook his head. "Maybe it's too much of a risk, taking him into our lives so...intimately."

"Why is it a risk?"

Ducking his head, Frank closed his eyes a moment then looked up. "This darkness inside you," Frank whispered. "I don't know what it is, and I'm not sure you do, either. But I know what it's capable of."

Alec studied his face. "You think I will hurt the Sheriff?"

Swallowing thickly, Frank murmured, "I don't know."

"Why would I hurt him? I like him."

"I know you do," Frank said. "I know that this conscious part of you, right here and now, would not hurt him. But this force inside you...how can we predict what it will do? What if it begins to view Dennis as an intruder? A threat?"

"Doc..." Alec stared at him. "It isn't a separate force. It's just me."

Frank looked away, his chest squeezing. No. Don't say that.

"I think you need to believe it's something infecting me because it gives you hope that I can be saved from it." He gripped Frank's hand. "It's what you've always tried to believe...from the start." He shook his head. "But it's me, Doc. It's what I am."

His brow pinching, Frank looked at him, vision swimming. "And what is that, Alec? To this day, I still need to understand what it is."

Alec shrugged. "I don't know."

"You said you went to hell when you were executed," Frank said thickly. "How do you know it was hell?"

"It was hell, Doc."

"Maybe..." Frank swallowed, grasping for straws. "Maybe it was some other dark place...but not hell."

Alec looked down at Frank's hand. "It doesn't matter. It was a bad place. An evil place." He raised his eyes. "And I knew I was part of it."