Unspoken (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3)(113)

“I can’t promise that,” Eddie said.

“Try.”

Eddie hung up.

Chase texted Burnett’s number, then went back to watching the ceiling fan.

*

Somewhere around three that morning Chase finally fell asleep. At five thirty his alarm rang. He sat up, hoping that big knot of pain in his chest had released.

It hadn’t.

His phone dinged with a text. His heart leapt, thinking it would be Della.

It was Burnett. Be there in thirty.

Chase texted back one word. Della?

His cell dinged back with two. Not talking.

Tossing his phone down, feeling helpless, he went to shower.

By eight, the shoe imprint had come in that matched the half were’s shoe. Chase got to give him the news. That felt good and he wished he could be there when Della’s father got the news that they’d caught the murderers.

At nine Burnett had Chase doing some filing. Filing? When that was done, Burnett had him fetching breakfast for Sam, Perry’s cousin, who was still being held in a temporary cell. Chase was beginning to feel like Burnett’s secretary.

When Chase returned, Burnett met him at the entrance. He handed the bag of food off to the receptionist—delivering the orders—and motioned for Chase to follow.

“We got something?”

“A cleaning lady just entered the house on Vermont Street,” Burnett said. “When she leaves we’re going to snatch her up and see what she knows.”

Burnett stopped at a white van parked out front. “Here.” He handed Chase a cup he’d been holding. “It’s for you. My personal breakfast blend. O negative with some B positive.”

Chase got in. “I’m not really hungry.”

“Drink.” Burnett cut his eyes to Chase. “Eddie says you can be an ass if you don’t feed a little in the morning.”

Chase looked up. “He called?”

“Yeah.”

“And?”

“I have a plan.” He started the engine.

“And you aren’t going to share it with me?” he countered.

“First we need to catch Stone.”

Frustrated, Chase stared out the window. Then realized he was being an ass. Burnett was helping him. “Thank you.”

“It’s not a favor. It’s what’s right.”

Silence filled the van, and then Burnett spoke up. “This agency does a lot of good, but I don’t always agree with their policies.”

It was the thing he respected about Burnett the most. The man valued rules but bent them when needed. “How do you know when to do it?” Chase asked “Do what?”

“When to break policy? I mean, do you ask, ‘What would Jesus do?’ or what?”

“Everyone has a moral compass,” Burnett said.

“But not everyone’s is pointing in the same direction.”

“You only worry about your own direction.” He exhaled. “I ask myself, if my ass gets caught, will it be worth it. If the answer is yes, I do it.” He glanced at Chase. “And don’t for a minute think they won’t fire you.”

Chase stared out the window at the blurred landscape: trees, buildings, cars, people. The world hadn’t stopped, so why did it feel as if his had? A vision of a dark-haired spitfire filled his mind.

He hated to ask, but his concern outweighed his pride.

“Any news on Della?”

Burnett didn’t look at him, but his jaw tightened. “Holiday said she still hasn’t come out of her room. Miranda and Kylie are planning an intervention if she doesn’t surface soon. Is she not answering your calls or texts?”

Chase swallowed. “She … asked me to stay away.”

“Sometimes women say shit they don’t mean,” Burnett said.

“Yeah,” Chase said, but she’d sure as hell sounded like she meant it.

*

The sun poured through Della’s window, proof that while she felt dead inside, life went on.

It was late. She’d actually slept. Well, some. At least visions of bloody knives hadn’t kept her awake. Not that she hadn’t thought about death. Just not about Bao Yu’s.

Had her aunt accepted the truth that Della’s father hadn’t killed her? Della didn’t know, but she had done her own accepting.

She knew what she had to do.

Getting out of bed, she tilted her head to make sure Kylie or Miranda wasn’t out there waiting to pounce. As much as she loved them and knew they only wanted to help, she didn’t need the hold-hands-andsing-“Kumbaya” kind of help.

There was only one kind of help she needed.

No noises echoed from the cabin, so Della went to shower. She reached into a drawer and pulled out clean underwear. Written across the front of her high-top panties was the word: “Tuesday.” She recalled Chase seeing her in Monday panties and laughing that she’d had the days of the week wrong.

She remembered telling him it was over.

Not now. Not now.

She finished dressing, and headed to the office to start putting her decision in motion.

*

“I do nothing wrong. I clean houses,” the young Hispanic woman said, looking at Chase and Burnett sitting across from them at the hamburger joint they’d followed her to.