Lordy! What had inspired her to do this?
Find Natasha.
Oh, yeah, that was what. The voice. The ghost.
Stiffening her spine, remembering Natasha and Liam’s lives were on the line, then cramming any sign of insecurity deep inside, she opened the door.
Remembering how Burnett’s presence had filled the room, she stepped inside. She didn’t immediately look at the vamp.
“They sent you in?” he asked in a condescending voice.
She crossed her arms and finally looked at him. “It’s because of what I know.”
“What do you know?” he asked, his brown eyes not showing the same fear as they did with Burnett.
She swallowed a lump of doubt. She considered picking him up and slamming him against a wall. But she suspected Burnett wouldn’t respect that.
“Cat got your tongue?” he asked, almost smiling.
Failure loomed right ahead, but she wasn’t going down without a fight.
She pulled out the chair across from him, letting it screech across the tile floor, and dropped down into the seat. “I know that you were about to vague up the truth when answering the agent.”
“You know that, huh?” He smirked.
She wanted to smack him. “Yeah, you weren’t planning on telling him about the weres.”
The look in his brown eyes told Della she was going to be able to walk out of here with her head held high.
“You don’t understand…” He paused, then added, “Shit!”
“Give me the names now and you’ll be placed in the best facility.”
He actually seemed to cringe. “I think I’d rather take my chances at the bad prison.”
“Really?” She leaned in, purposely getting into his space, hoping to push him to talk. “’Cause I’m imagining about half the convicts in Parkrow are werewolves. And from gangs,” she added, hoping like hell the weres he feared were wrapped up in a gang. “And you know we’re going to find answers and they’ll assume you were the snitch.”
He jumped up, grabbed the chair with his chained hands, and tossed it against the wall. It clattered against the floor a few inches from where she stood. It wasn’t so much an attack on her, as an expression of fury.
Della held out one hand to the wall where she knew Burnett and Chase watched, hoping they’d realize she was asking them not to come in. Getting the rogue angry was part of her plan.
She went over, carefully picked up his chair, and dropped it back down by the table. “Sit down!” she ordered, and when she stared him in the eyes, she was reminded how young he was. Being young didn’t excuse his behavior, but she again felt fortunate that she’d had her cousin to help her through the turn, then Shadow Falls to keep her grounded. Had this guy had anyone?
When he didn’t immediately respond, she tried another tactic. “Look, I know you’re pissed. And you’re probably scared. But tell us what we need to know, and I’m thinking the FRU will make sure you stay alive long enough to make something out of your life.”
He practically flung himself into the chair. His pride looked chipped, he looked … desperate. She knew that feeling too well.
“I … don’t know much. I saw a group of weres with that kid. I think his name was Liam. Marco was going to try to recruit him when we spotted the weres with him. He backed away really quick like. He said the weres were bad ass, said they collected fresh turns and it wasn’t worth fighting for him.”
“What’s the name of the gang?” Della asked.
When he didn’t answer, Della banged her hand on the table.
“I don’t know. He didn’t say the name of the gang. I’m not even sure they are a gang.” He paused a minute. “He said the name of one of the weres though. A Damian Baker, or maybe Bryan, a B name. That’s all I know.”
Della believed him. She started to leave, but then remembered getting the familiar trace of a were at the restaurant.
“Does Damian or one of his friends hang out at Buck’s Burgers?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I guess they could.”
“What did the weres look like?”
“Like all weres—dirty dogs.”
Without warning, she got this empty-pit feeling in her stomach. Hunger to the point of pain, and she knew it came from Natasha.
“I’m going to need more than that!” she said, and her hollow-feeling gut said she was going to need it quick if she was going to find Natasha and Liam alive.
* * *
Burnett interrogated the other rogues using the info Della had gotten from Jason Von. He ended up getting more info. The name of the were seen kidnapping Liam was Damian Bond. Burnett was going to run the name through the FRU’s computer database to see if they came up with anything.
Before they left the FRU office, Burnett called her aside and told her how well she’d done in the interrogation. Yet even now, still whirling in the feeling that Natasha and Liam were running out of time, Della couldn’t bask in the compliment.
In spite of Burnett’s orders to go straight home, she and Chase had gone by Uck’s Burgers. At almost one in the morning, it was closed, most of the businesses were, and they sat in the parking lot, top down. No weres were in the area that they could smell. It was quiet, and they shifted their seats back just bit, comfortable in the night and the silence, and just watched the stars.
“I see the little dipper,” Chase said.
“Yeah. I just spotted it.”
“My mom was a stargazer,” Chase said. “Sometimes, at night, she’d bring our sleeping bags out, and we’d just lay out there and stare up at the sky.”
“That sounds nice,” Della said, and glanced at him. “Do you still miss them?”
“Yeah, but it’s not as bad as it was.”
After another ten minutes, with thoughts of pissing off Burnett, she told him they should go.
When Chase pulled into the Shadow Falls parking lot, she snagged the diary, offered a quick “later,” and leapt out of his car without even opening the door. She had the craziest feeling that if she didn’t get away he might try to kiss her.
As she moved from his car, she felt him looking at her.
“See you tomorrow,” he said and got out.
She didn’t look back, but damn it if a part of her didn’t feel as if she was walking away from something important. A part of her wanted to turn around and fall against him, to ask him to reassure her that they would find Natasha and Liam.
“I’ll miss you,” he called out just as she passed through the gate.
Me, too. The thought ran through her mind, but she refused to say it. Then she remembered something and turned around. Before she spoke, she turned her head slightly to hear if anyone was around. No one.
“Make sure you look into me meeting the council.”
She watched him wave and get into his car. She stayed there and watched his taillights disappear down the street. Funny how her request sent him driving off, when before he’d seemed happy to linger. Was there something to that?
Chapter Twenty-eight
It was almost two in the morning when she walked into her bedroom. The cabin was silent. Only the soft sounds of Miranda and Kylie sleeping in their beds filled the space. Della stripped off her clothes, donned PJs, crawled into bed, and hugged her pillow. Her mind spun, too hyped up to sleep.
Now, in bed, feeling a slight unnatural chill, thoughts of Chase faded and became replaced with thoughts of …
She looked around the room for any sign of a ghost. She didn’t see shit, but it didn’t mean shit wasn’t there. “Are you my aunt?” Her words seemed to rise up and hang above her in a small cloud of mist.
Della pulled the covers up to her neck, then spotted the diary beside her and picked it up to read. She found the spot she’d stopped reading earlier. Some of the dates didn’t have the year, but Della could tell the inscriptions were written several years back when Natasha was still in high school.
Wanting to know if there was anything about bein
g turned, she flipped to the back of the book to see the date. Written on the last page were the words: Good-bye, diary. But the date on top was October thirteenth of last year.
Which would mean that reading her diary wasn’t going to offer any help, it was just an invasion of privacy. Boring privacy, but an invasion all the same. She closed the book and went to put it away, but it suddenly flipped open.
Looking around, still feeling the chill, she closed the book again. This time, when it popped open, Della got the feeling she was supposed to read. Just like she’d been supposed to find the picture in Chan’s casket.
“Fine. But how is this going to help find her? It’s normal everyday stuff.” Which Della had just referred to as boring, but truthfully, normal sounded nice. What would it feel like if your biggest problem was that the guy you liked didn’t know you existed? She used to have that life, Della thought. And so did Natasha, she realized. Her life had gone to hell, too.
Della looked down at the page dated January 10. She started to read.
Mom called me into her room today. I knew what she was going to tell me. I felt it coming. She’s going to marry Tom.
Della let go of a sigh. So Natasha’s life wasn’t so perfect. Della recalled the picture of the part-Asian man on Natasha’s bedside table. That must have been her real dad. Had he died, or had her parents divorced? Then she recalled the man standing outside looking up at the window. That must have been Tom.
She went back to reading.
I did the right thing. I told her I was happy for her. But it was hard. It’s also hard to realize how selfish I am. I want her to myself. I don’t want to share her. But I don’t plan to live at home forever. I’ll graduate in less than a year. And then she’ll be alone. She doesn’t deserve that.
It’s not as if I don’t like Tom. Well, maybe I don’t like him, but I don’t dislike him. And I don’t think he’s bad. I can tell he loves my mom. And he’s nice to me. But he’s not my dad. And I feel as if he’s trying to fill his shoes. I don’t want Tom as a dad.
And having him around reminds me that I lost the one I did have. It’s insane how you can miss someone after all these years. Miss them like crazy, but time also makes you forget. Like his voice. I used to think I would always remember it. The way he would call me honeybun—but it’s faded away. But it has been seven years since he died. I still look at his picture almost every night and try to see me in him. And I do a little, but not enough. I wish I had his nose.
Della stared at the page and realized how much she had in common with Natasha. How many times had she looked in the mirror and wondered why she didn’t look more like her dad, more like his family and the culture he was so proud of? Maybe being of mixed race just sent you down that path—a path where you felt as if you didn’t belong to one group or the other.
Della read on, but the diary went back to mundane stuff. An argument she had with Tom, picking out her prom dress. She read them all, and was a few pages from the end. This entry was longer than the others.
One week until I turn eighteen. Today, Mom asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I knew she’d ask, she always does. She’s good like that, wants to get you what you want and not just something she likes. But this year, I looked her right in the eye and decided not to lie. I want the truth, I told her. Her expression almost made me cry. It reminded me of how she looked when the police showed up at our door and told her that my father had died in the plant explosion. I think she’s afraid she’ll lose me. She won’t lose me, but I am going to be angry if what I believe is true. She should have told me years ago.
Curious, Della turned the page to read on, but there wasn’t more. What was Natasha talking about? What lie had her mother told her? Della closed the book, her feelings toward her father’s lies stinging while she felt Natasha’s pain.
Della put the diary down on her bedside table and watched it fly off and hit the wall. And the cold in the room grew more intense.
“Why are you unhappy?” Della looked up and saw white crystals of ice cascading from the ceiling. It was freaking snowing in her bedroom.
“Enough of the cold crap,” she said and sat up. “Why can’t we just talk? Tell me where Natasha is and I’ll save her. Tell me how you two are connected.”
Her words caused more wisps of steam to billow up. It hung a few inches from her lips. “Tell me … tell me who killed you. And I swear to God, if you say my father, I’ll know you’re a liar.”
Della held her breath. Her heart took her back to the father-daughter time she’d spent with her dad in his office. The laughter they’d shared. The love they’d shared. Her father might not have died like Natasha’s, but she missed him just the same.
“Talk to me,” she said again. No answer came. And that pissed Della off. “Fine! If you’re not going to talk, then get your icy ass out of here.” She dropped back onto her pillow.
Footsteps sounded in the cabin. Her door swung open. Kylie stood there. “You okay?”
“I have no patience for ghosts,” Della said with a tight voice and batted a snowflake from her lashes.
“Want me to sleep with you?”
“I’m not scared, just pissed.” Her heart did an abnormal jolt. If Kylie was in vamp mode she would have heard it. Della didn’t check. She was too tired to lift her head.
Kylie crawled into bed with her. Even tired, Della found the strength to tell Kylie about her day. From the vision in the closet, Chase taking the diary, to the fight at the park behind the pond. Her frustration that time was running out for Natasha and Liam.
“You can only do so much,” Kylie said, but in her voice Della heard it. She, like Holiday, still held doubts that Natasha and Liam were really alive. Della refused to believe it.
Eventually, the room’s temperature went back to normal. With a protector at her side, Della pulled her covers up to her chin—not to hide from the cold, but to keep away thoughts of murder, ghosts, and two people trapped somewhere and running out of time.
Della was almost asleep when Kylie asked one last question. “Did you do what Miranda told you to?”
“What?” Della murmured.
“Did you open your heart enough to Chase to know if he was a prince or a toad?”
“I think he’s both,” Della said, and she recalled how his hands had felt on her breasts when she’d come out of the vision. How it felt to touch him. She suddenly felt too warm and wished the ghost would come back and make it snow again.
* * *
Wednesday morning, the ring of her phone jarred Della awake. She sat up and recalled hearing Kylie getting out of her bed and listening to her and Miranda getting dressed for school. Glancing at the window, she saw the sun pouring in.
“Crap!” She must have fallen back to sleep. If she started sleeping in and missing school, Burnett would probably start curtailing her time working.
She grabbed her phone. Her heart did a jolt when she considered it might be Steve. Looking at the number, she closed her eyes, dropped back on the bed, and berated herself for even wanting it to be Steve.
Then she begrudgingly answered the call. “What do you want?”
“Good morning, sunshine.”
“Go to hell.”
Chase laughed.
His laugh went through her like warm syrup. Damn him! That’s when she remembered what she’d told Kylie. Both prince and toad.
She heard him shift, almost as if he was still in bed himself. “You know, the only thing better than hearing your raspy morning voice, would be waking up beside you. Your hair kind of messy, the sunshine streaming into the window shining off your soft skin. I’ll bet you’re sexy as hell.”
She ran a hand through her hair and looked down and realized she was wearing her Smurf PJs.
“You’d lose that bet.”
“Don’t tell me. You’re wearing the Smurf pajamas, aren’t you?”
She bit her lip to keep from giving him directions to hell. She refrained, not because she wasn’t aggravated, but b
ecause he’d know he was right.
“Do you have matching underwear?” he asked, no doubt baiting her.
“You really are a panty perv!” she said.
“A what?”
“A panty pervert!”
He laughed. “Nah, I’m just a Della perv,” he said and sounded sincere. “You okay?”
“Of course I am. Why?”
“You’re sleeping late. Did you stay awake thinking about me?”
She started to say a big hell no, but it would have come off as a lie. “The ghost came to see me,” she said the truth, instead of answering his question. “What’s your excuse?” Had he been thinking about her? No wait, she didn’t want to know.
“My excuse for what?” he asked.
She couldn’t find a way to blow off the question, so she just put it out there. “It sounds like you’re still in bed, too. Or wasn’t that the mattress I heard sigh?”
“I am. Do you want to know what I’m wearing?”
“No!” But an image formed in her mind. Her face heated and she remembered being in that closet and fondling his butt.
“I was up working on the case until almost four.” He paused. “And maybe thinking about you.” She heard him roll over again.
She closed her eyes and didn’t know what to say to that. So she didn’t say anything.
“What did she say?” he asked.
“What did who say?” she countered, her mind racing, her face still warm.
“The ghost?” he asked.
Good, she needed a change of subject. “That’s the problem, she didn’t say anything. Just made it snow.”
“Snow?”
“Yes and in my bedroom!”
He paused. “Do you know who she is?”
“I’m not completely sure,” she answered.
“Who do you think she is?” he asked.
Maybe this subject wasn’t any better than the last. “What time is it?” she asked, hoping to derail the conversation.
“Eight thirty.”
“If I hurry, I can still make my first class. I should go.”
“So you don’t want to know what I found out about our guy Damian Bond?”