Hawkeye’s chest ached.That someone so young felt she had to protect herself this way.He wished he could have been there earlier, to keep her from having gone through whatever made her this way, but then, if he’d been there when she was thirteen, he wouldn’t have her on his lap now and he liked having her there, more even than the satisfaction he’d felt when she’d been on the back of his bike.
“You grew up in Jericho, didn’t you Delilah?”Raven asked, his voice gentle, as if he knew that loud and aggressive wasn’t the way to approach her.
She looked at him for a moment then turned back to Hawkeye.
“You can tell him.You’re safe here.”Hawkeye rubbed the thumb of the hand holding hers back and forth over the back of her hand.He hoped she would take it for the soothing gesture he meant it to be, and not as him trying to seduce her.That would come later.How much later, he didn’t know.He wouldn’t add himself to the list of her abusers that already held her father and fuckwad.
After a moment, Delilah dropped her gaze to her lap and nodded.
“Good girl,” Hawkeye whispered.“See?It didn’t even hurt.”
She glanced up at him and he might have been mistaken but he thought the ghost of a smile curved her lips.Now he just had to figure out what part of that she’d liked.
Chapter Fourteen
Delilah sat stifflyin Hawkeye’s lap.She didn’t know why he insisted she sit there.It wasn’t like there weren’t other chairs, empty chairs, just a few feet away.He had assured her several times that no one was going to hurt her, but Warren had said the same thing when they’d first been married.In more recent years, it seemed like he’d looked for ways to hurt her.Never big things, at least not physically, but he’d also done his best to destroy her self-esteem, her sense of worth and probably her life.
It seemed like he was looking for ways to get her to kill herself, to remove herself from being his problem.As if she hadn’t been raised to believe that suicide was a sin.Then again, she’d also been told marriage was sacred and for life.In the time she’d been away from Jericho, Deliliah had discovered a lot of things she had been taught weren’t true.At first she’d believed that the person telling her was wrong.Then when faced with the facts in front of her, she’d decided her father, her husband, the elders, must have misunderstood or were mistaken.The longer she was away from Jericho, the more she learned about the outside world, the more she came to realize that they hadn’t been mistaken.They deliberately taught things that weren’t true.
That knowledge made her question everything they’d ever said.Still, there were parts she’d had trouble shaking.Like not looking men in the face.She didn’t know how long that particular fear would last, because at random times she found herself remembering to drop her gaze so she didn’t get slapped, or worse.Hawkeye didn’t like it when she wouldn’t look at him.
She looked at him a moment, wondering what he was going to do with her.Was he going to find a way to get rid of her like her father and her husband had?Well, not husband but she didn’t know what else to call him.
“Stop thinking so hard, little dove,” Hawkeye’s voice was soft.“You said Delilah is your real name, but how about a last name?”
She shook her head.She didn’t want to bring trouble on these men.They had done nothing but help her.
“I’m going to get it out of you eventually, baby.Just make it easy and tell me.”
“Why?”She lifted her gaze to his face, hoping that he wasn’t as temperamental as Warren.That was what she would call him.By his name.Because now that she was sure there was no legal tie between them, she no longer had to claim any relationship.The revelation that her situation wasn’t all bad made her feel lighter, even if it was all in her head.
“I need to make sure no one’s coming looking for you.I need to make sure you’re safe,” Hawkeye said watching her face.His gaze flicked past her to his president then back to her.“I need to ask you a lot of things, things you probably aren’t going to want to tell me.But we need to know.We want to stop things like what happened to you from happening to anyone else.Did you have any friends when you were in Jericho?”
Delilah nodded.“But I can’t ever see them again.I was cast out.I’ll never see or talk to my friends or sisters again.”She couldn’t help the way tears pooled in her eyes.She dropped her gaze and blinked rapidly hoping to keep even one tear from falling.
“You have sisters?Would you like to see your friends and your sisters again?”
