Preacher - Madison Faye Page 0,51
I hiss to myself as I storm back out. I frown and walk around the side of the Winnebago, until suddenly, I spot him. Gabriel’s out a ways into the back field behind his little set-up, standing in jeans and a t-shirt with his back to me, looking up at the setting sun.
“Gabriel!” I yell as I start to run towards him. He turns, and he grins before he sees the stormy, cold look on my face, and his smile fades into a frown.
“Delilah—”
“Are you working with my brother?!” I snap, jabbing him in the chest before he wraps his arms around me.
He frowns. “What?”
“Are you or aren’t you?!” I yell. “Do you know what his plans are?!”
His frown deepens. “Delilah…”
“Do you or don’t you, Gabriel?!” I half-sob in anguish.
He swallows, and his jaw clenches. “Yes,” he growls. “I do.”
The tears flow, and I turn, shaking my head. I feel him move towards me, but I whirl around and shake my head at him, backing away.
“No,” I gasp. “Gabriel, I can’t—”
“I just found out, Delilah,” he growls. “This afternoon. I’m not ‘working with’ him, if you’re implying what I think you are.” He glares at me. “Yeah, your darling brother is trying to rip off your whole damn town.”
“And when exactly where you planning on sharing this?”
He growls. “When I was done standing out here, like I’ve been for fucking hours, trying to figure out how to tell you that your own brother is a scamming piece of shit trying to bleed your hometown dry with a shell game con! When I figured out how to tell you in a way that would break your heart the least,” he snaps. “That’s when!”
I simmer, my chest heaving as we stare at each other, three feet apart.
“Are you in on it?”
“What?” he grunts. “No, Jesus Christ—”
“Tell me what happened in Lockton,” I spit.
He frowns. “What?”
“Or Worthington?” I sneer. “Or how about Jessup, hmm?” I hiss.
Clarity spreads horribly over his face, and he leans back on his heels, nodding slowly with a grim look on his face. “So, I guess Paul went ahead and planted those seeds in your head, huh?”
“Well?!” I bellow.
“What do you want me to say, Delilah?!” he roars back. “That I was a fucking monk? A saint, before I met you? Well, I wasn’t, sorry. I’m six years older than you, and I’ve been scrounging my way through the world with no parents, no fucking parachute, no loving, wholesome town, and no blind faith my entire fucking life! But those places? You want to know about Lockton?”
I start to cry as I look away. “No, I don’t.”
“Well, I’m telling you anyways. Wanna know why they kicked me out?”
“Gabriel—”
“Because the ministers wife took a little fancy to me, tried to get me to sleep with her, and when I said no, she didn’t take it too kindly. So she told the whole town I took advantage of her, and I almost got my ass shot off getting out of there! Worthington? You wanna hear about Minnesota?”
“Damnit, Gabriel—!”
“A mayor’s daughter with a crush, Delilah. That was it. She wrote a fictional story about us in a fucking diary, and her mom read it.” He swears under his breath., “For Christ’s sake, Delilah, she was sixteen.”
“Well I’m eighteen!” I snap.
“Look at me.”
I shake my head.
“Fine, let’s keep going,” he snaps. “West Virginia? I caught a couple of shitheads beating up on an older black guy and spewing racist shit, so I kicked the fuck out of them. Turns out one of them was a city councilman’s son, and that racist little shithole of a town decided to claim I was ‘preaching sin’ and again, I almost got my ass shot off.”
He sighs. “Goddamnit, Delilah, look at me.”
I shiver, and I feel him step closer to me. I close my eyes and breathe, and slowly, I turn to look at him. And the very second I do, the anger floods out of me. The rage and the jealousy melts away, until it’s just him and I.
“But you know the real reason all those places went sour?” he grunts quietly. “Because I am the sinner you thought I was when you first met me,” he growls. “I am a con man, Delilah. I’m a grifter, and a thief, and a cheat, and a liar, and I’ve been pretty goddamn happy being every one of those things until the very second I laid eyes on you.”
I blink, and the world stills.
“What?” I breath quietly.
“I’m a