Unspoken (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3)(17)

“He’s going to defend his own kind,” Della snapped.

Burnett frowned. “Let him answer.”

“But he’s already told me. He doesn’t think they—”

Burnett cleared his throat. Della realized he was right. It wasn’t Lucas she needed to aim her fury at.

“Sorry,” she said to the were. “I just…” That damn knot appeared again.

“It’s okay.” Lucas leaned in. “It hurts … to lose people we care about.”

Della recalled that Lucas had lost his grandmother not too long ago.

Burnett settled back in his chair. “So what did you get?” he asked Lucas again.

“I picked up six different traces. Three were weak, like half-breeds.”

“Six?” Della asked. She realized what she’d missed. Something important. “The traces I got at the jewelry store, they didn’t … ring familiar. I don’t know if they belonged to the same guys I saw earlier.”

“You saw them?” Burnett asked.

“It was around seven-thirty. I went out … for a bit. I picked up their scent and dropped down. They were walking about half a block from the store.”

“When you got their trace, did it include blood?”

“No,” Della said. Had she even seen the killers? She needed to quit making assumptions.

“How good of a look did you get?” Burnett asked.

“Pretty good. They were around my age, maybe a little older.”

“Were they in gang attire?”

“No,” Della said. “They looked like some young weres out on a Saturday night.”

“That may have been exactly what they were,” Burnett said. “But even if they are innocent, they might have seen something. Do you think you could describe them?”

“Yeah,” Della said.

He had her describe their facial features and typed her answers into his phone.

Pocketing his phone, he turned the cup in his hands as if hesitating to broach another subject. “Did the spirit give you anything?”

“No. She was confused.” Then Della remembered her cat. “Her cat was with her and then wasn’t. I heard someone say the cat was still alive and for someone to get it to a vet.” Della swallowed another lump. “We know weres and felines don’t mix.”

“And the fact that it had any life in it at all could mean it wasn’t weres,” Lucas added.

Della couldn’t argue.

Burnett sighed. “We’ll know more when the autopsies are in.”

“Has the family been notified?” Della remembered that their daughter lived in California.

Burnett looked down at his cup. “The police are taking care of it.”

Della got a vision of Mrs. Chi holding her red tabby. She’d loved Chester. “Can you find out where they took the cat?”

Burnett nodded.

Silence filled the diner. Only a few forks clicked against plates. “I want to work the case,” Della said.

Burnett raised one eyebrow. “You’re already working one.”

“You work two or three cases at a time,” Della countered.

“I’m not seventeen.” He frowned.

“I’ll be eighteen next month!”

Burnett glanced at Lucas. “Why don’t you head back? I’ll see Della home.”

Della rolled her eyes. She didn’t need to be seen home!

Lucas reached for the bill. “I got it,” Burnett said and moved into Lucas’s chair.

Della watched Lucas leave, then faced Burnett. “Your male chauvinist pig is showing again. You might want to suck it in a little bit.”

Burnett’s brows pinched. “What?”

She shook her head. “Lucas has a longer walk to get back to his car than I do to get back to my house. Why didn’t you see him to his car?”

Burnett blinked. “I wanted to talk to you … alone.”

“So that comment about seeing me home was just a ruse? Is that what you’re saying?”

He opened his mouth to answer, then shut it. And she knew why. She heard his accelerated heart rate.

“I thought so.”

“Friggin’ hell. Fine! Kick my ass for wanting to make sure you’re safe.”

“No, kick your ass for thinking I can’t take care of myself. And don’t say it’s because you care. Because you care about him, too. It’s because I’m a girl.”

He raked a palm over his face. “Okay, I’ll admit it. I might be a little more protective of the girls in my life than the guys. Does that make me a male chauvinist pig? I don’t think so. But I can hear Holiday in my head saying it does.”

She smiled in victory. “You should listen to your wife more often.”

His eyes brightened a hue. “I give you permission to call me on it each and every time, but you might as well get used to it. I’m not going to be able to change because I’m not going to stop caring. No more than you or Chase will stop being pains in my ass.”

Della leaned back, respecting his acceptance that she wouldn’t give in. Because hell, yeah, she’d keep … “You’ve seen Chase?” she asked.

Burnett didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to.