Unspoken: Shadow Falls: After Dark (33 page)

“And now Steve doesn’t scare you,” Kylie said, but still looked unsure.

“Right.” Della inhaled.

“I’m still lost,” Miranda said.

Kylie held a hand out to Miranda. “I think I’m figuring it out.”

*   *   *

Chase walked out. He saw two vampire guards standing on the side of the porch, and he walked past them. Part of him wished they’d try something; a good fight would suit him right now.

A fight. But he wouldn’t kill them. He wasn’t a killer. He went down the stairs.

“Chase?” Kirk shot in front of him. “I know this is hard.”

Chase stared at him. “Hard is knowing you’ve deceived Eddie all these years. Which means you deceived me.”

“I was protecting Eddie, Chase,” Kirk’s eyes grew bright with anger at the accusation. “What do you think would happen to him if the FRU found out he killed one of their own? You’ve preached your justice talk for years, Chase. But where is the justice in Eddie being put to death? And that’s what they will do. You know that.” Kirk shook his head. “Eddie killed the man who murdered the woman he loved. Can you fault him for that?”

Chase stared out at the water. His chest hurt. “Maybe there is no justice in this world.”

“Don’t do it for the council. Do it for Eddie. Word is that the FRU are after Stone. We can’t get any of our guys to go after him for fear they’ll get tangled up in this. You could do it.”

He handed Chase a piece of paper. “Here’s all of Powell’s son’s hangouts. A list of all his friends. Take care of this.”

Chase curled his fist around the paper and stared at the man he no longer respected. “If I kill Stone without handing him over to the FRU Della’s father will get tried for murder. And—”

“And you would choose him over Eddie?” Kirk spouted out.

The love and devotion Chase carried for Eddie rose in his chest until the point of pain.

Chase scowled at Kirk. “Don’t you get it? Eddie told me his plans. If it appears his twin brother will go down for this murder, he’s going to come forward and confess to a killing he didn’t do. Either way, I lose Eddie!”

“No, you won’t,” Kirk said. “I’ll talk to Eddie. I can talk him out of it. Besides, you don’t even know they will convict her father. The lawyers can get him off. We know the FRU are on it. You take care of Stone. I’ll take care of Eddie.”

Chase stood there and wondered how the man he had once respected so much could ask him to do this.

“Promise me, Chase,” Kirk said. “Promise you’ll take care of this.”

Without saying a word, Chase got in his car and drove off.

*   *   *

Why had Della tried to explain this? She couldn’t.

“Yup, I think I got it,” Kylie said and looked back at Della. “Steve doesn’t scare you, but Chase does, right?”

Della took a deep breath. She didn’t want to admit that, not because it wasn’t true, but because admitting it seemed awful close to admitting something else. But she couldn’t lie to her friends.

“Right.” Della dropped her head back down.

“I thought so,” Kylie said.

“Thought what?” Miranda asked.

“Della’s afraid of falling in love. And Steve doesn’t scare her because she’s not falling. She’s falling—or has fallen—for Chase. So she’s in love with—”

“Don’t say it,” Della said. “Please. Just don’t say it.”

Right then Della’s phone rang. She nearly jumped out of her skin. She snatched it up.

“Is it Chase?” Miranda asked. “Just tell him you love him.”

Della looked at the number. “No.” Della stood up. She wouldn’t. Couldn’t tell Chase she loved him. Because she still didn’t trust love. “It’s not Chase. It’s Steve. I need to talk to him … in private.” She started to her bedroom, but remembering her door wouldn’t close all the way, she took off outside.

“I don’t get it,” Della heard Miranda say. “She thinks she’s in love with Chase, but Steve calls, and she bolts out because she needs privacy. That girl is missing a few of her marbles, if you ask me.”

*   *   *

Worried Miranda might eavesdrop, Della took off for a long stroll in the woods. She’d just hung up with Steve. He had spoken with his mom. She was going to be at the office in St. Mary’s tomorrow. Steve was going to skip his morning class and was going to visit his mom. Before he left, he planned on transforming himself into something small so he could sneak around and find where the old files were kept. If he found them, he’d leave a window open so Della could get in and read the files for herself.

At first Della considered going to Burnett, but what if Burnett refused to let her do it? She couldn’t let him stop her.

But she trusted Chase to understand. The realization hit, and hit hard. She trusted him. He would help her.

He would if he were still alive. Why the hell hadn’t he texted her or called her?

She texted him again.
Where are you?

Then she tucked her phone into her pocket and started walking back to her cabin. She cleared the woods, and had just gotten on the trail when she heard someone walking down the path. She turned. Listened to the footfalls. Raised her nose in the air. And then took off.

“Where have you been?” she asked him.

“I was just texting you,” Chase said.

“But I texted you like five times.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, but he didn’t sound all that apologetic. “Crazy day.”

She looked at him, noting something different. “What happened?”

“What do you mean?” Chase asked.

“I mean what happened? Burnett said you were going to confront Kirk. Did you?”

“Yeah,” he said.

“And?” she asked impatiently.

He ran a hand through his hair. “And Douglas Stone is Powell’s son.”

“Shit,” Della said. “Did my uncle know this? Was he protecting—”

“No!” Chase snapped. “He doesn’t know. The council deceived him.”

“So they’ve been protecting Stone all these years?”

“He left the country. They couldn’t find him.”

“But he’s here now. Are they’re hiding him?”

“No. Even his father knows he’s bad. He wants him stopped too.”

Della tried to understand. “But then why did Powell not look into the lead about Stone at the prison? Are you sure his father doesn’t know where he is?”

“I don’t think he’s lying,” he said. “They’ve agreed to help us find him. They want him stopped too.”

“Did you tell Burnett?”

“Yes. I just left his office and if you don’t believe me you go ask him.”

“I didn’t mean…” Della kept looking at him. Something wasn’t right. Then it hit her. He wasn’t smiling. He almost always smiled.

“Did something else happen?” she asked.

“No,” he said.

She moved in and got right in his face. “Don’t lie to me.”

He frowned. Then suddenly, he lifted his face and his eyes went from green to a bright neon green.

“How about you don’t lie to me?” he growled.

“I haven’t,” she said, unsure what the hell was happening.

“Okay, tell me, Della. Why is it that I smell a certain shape-shifter all over you?” He leaned in. “Your hair.” He leaned lower. “Your chest?” He turned around and ran his nose over her shoulders. “Your back. You were in his arms, weren’t you?”

She swung around and stood there, not sure what she could or should tell him. But not appreciating him sniffing her like she was some dirty slut.

“You know what?” he seethed. “I’ve had a pretty miserable day and I’m done. Screw it.” He took off.

Della started to fly after him, but then stopped. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Yeah, she’d hugged Steve, but not like a hug-hug. Oh, and she’d told him she loved him, but as she’d finally admitted to Miranda and Kylie, she didn’t really love Steve. She was … this close to admitting she loved Chase.

And if Chase had asked her in a reasonable way about Steve’s scent, she would have told him. Hell, she’d been planning on telling Chase about Steve’s plan, and getting him to go with her.

But if he was going get all pissy about Steve, he’d probably find a reason she shouldn’t go get her father’s files.

She turned and stormed back into her cabin.

Miranda and Della were still at the kitchen table. “Forget what I said,” she snapped. “Chase doesn’t scare me anymore. He just downright pisses me off!”

She took off for her bedroom and slammed the door, forgetting it didn’t shut. The last sound she heard before she landed facefirst on the bed was the door falling and hitting the floor.

Chapter Thirty-eight

As angry as Della was, she left her phone on her bedside table so she would hear it when Chase texted or called with his apology.

It was almost three before she fell asleep. Not that it had been just him on her mind. He wasn’t even in the top five. Or maybe he was.

Her phone never rang, never dinged with a text. But she still checked it first thing when she woke up.

Nothing.

That hurt, damn it. Where did he get off being such a jerk?

She got ready for school early, thinking he might come by before he went to work. Wrong again.

Jerk!

At lunch, Steve texted and said his plan had worked. He found a room on the tenth floor where all the old files were boxed up. He’d even left a window open for her.

She texted him back and asked if he would go with her tonight.

And just as she knew he would, he said yes.

When she got out of school, she walked by Chase’s cabin, but he wasn’t there. So she took off to the front of the school, to see if Chase’s car was there. It wasn’t. But Burnett’s was.

“In here,” Burnett said as she moved inside the office.

Della stepped into Holiday’s office, not really sure what she planned on saying. Then she remembered she needed to let him know that she and Steve were going out.

“You back from work?” she asked, not wanting to blurt it out first thing.

“Yeah,” he said, looking up from his laptop. “You okay?”

“Not really,” she said. “Tell me we got a new judge on my dad’s case and I’ll be better.”

He frowned. “I haven’t heard anything yet.”

“So no luck finding Stone?”

“No. Chase did get a few more addresses from someone on the council to check. But—”

“Is that where he is now?” she asked.

“No, he covered that this morning. He didn’t find anything.” Burnett looked back at his computer.

“So is he working the Chi case now?”

Burnett looked up as if almost confused. “No, we did that earlier too.”

She didn’t want to ask, but it just leaked out. “So where’s Chase now?”

Burnett hesitated. “I’m assuming he’s at his cabin.”

“No, I went there, and his car’s gone.”

Burnett frowned. “I didn’t mean here, I meant at his cabin.” He sat up. “Did he not tell you he was moving back?”

She recalled Chase’s words:
I’m out of here. Screw it
. “Yeah, he kind of did,” she said, hurting.

“Is something up between you two?” Burnett asked.

“I wouldn’t have a clue what’s up with him,” she said to keep from lying. And it was true. She didn’t know what had gotten into Chase. Sure, he’d been jealous of Steve before, but never so … so crazy.

“He wasn’t himself today,” Burnett said.

Della almost tossed out that she and Steve were thinking of going out, but it just seemed too weird after talking about Chase. “Well, I’ve got homework.”

Not that she planned on doing it.

She took off, and almost as if wanting—hoping—to prove Burnett wrong, she went to cabin fourteen.

She stepped in. Looked around. She went to his bedroom. It was empty.

She looked at the bed where she’d stayed with him when she didn’t know if he was going to live or die. Her next intake of air brought on his scent. He wasn’t here, but his scent lingered.

Her heart almost broke then.

He’d done it to her again. Stormed into her life, made her start believing his talk about loving her, and then disappeared.

Her chest filled with a deep kind of pain and it just curled up and joined all the other pains and regrets she had.

Would she ever learn to stop letting herself care about boys?

*   *   *

“Where are you going?” Miranda asked Della that evening when she walked out of the bathroom with her jeans and black button-down on.

“Out.” She had her phone in her hands. She planned to text Holiday and tell her she was going out for coffee with Steve, right before she walked out of the gate. She’d rather ask for forgiveness than permission. And who’d said that to her? A certain vampire who’d skipped out on her!

“You seeing Chase?” Miranda asked and Kylie looked up from the computer.

“Did he apologize?” Kylie asked.

Della had confessed to them last night about Chase’s little tantrum. But she hadn’t mentioned his moving out. Who wanted to admit you were an idiot? And that’s what she’d been. Believing in Chase. Believing he really loved her.

“No.” He didn’t apologize. Della felt bad, or at least a little bad, about hiding her excursion tonight, but she knew Kylie was one of those non–rule breakers and she’d try to talk her out of going. Or at least try to convince her to tell Burnett.

Della didn’t want to chance that he would have a problem with it. Nope. She knew it wasn’t exactly legal. But this was to help her father.

“No, I’m going with Steve to grab some coffee.” And it wasn’t a lie, because she’d told Steve they had to so that she wouldn’t have to lie.

Della heard both her friends’ little gasps of surprise.

“With Steve?” Miranda asked.

“See ya.” Della started out.

“Not so fast,” Kylie said, after having shot across the room and blocked the front door. “What’s going on?”

“We’re going for coffee, that’s what’s going on.”

“Is she lying?” Miranda asked Kylie. “Get your vamp on and find out.”

Frowning at the witch, Della said, “Bye, guys. I won’t be late.” She gently picked up Kylie by her shoulders and set her away from the door.

Then suddenly sentimental, she was tempted to blurt out,
I love you,
or
thank you for being here
. But she couldn’t find the words. So she just left.

*   *   *

Della followed Steve into the coffee shop, right around the corner of St. Mary’s hospital. She was instantly hit by the smell of freshly ground coffee beans. How could something smell so good, but taste so bad? She moved with Steve up to the empty counter and tried to decide if she wanted to “fake drink” something, or if she really had to with Steve. He knew she hated coffee.