Unspoken (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3)(33)

He exhaled. “Then I guess I’ll have to win back your trust.”

“The likelihood of that happening is slim to none.” She tilted up her chin. Never let him say she didn’t give him fair warning.

He stood there, just staring. “Why are you still fighting what you feel?”

“Because I get to choose my destiny, not anyone else.” The moment Della said it, she realized how true it was.

“Who else would be choosing your destiny?”

“You. This bond. You did it knowing what would happen.”

“So you would have really preferred to die than to care about me?” He looked hurt, and while he deserved to feel that, too, she couldn’t deny that hurting him … hurt her.

“I would have liked the choice!” she seethed.

“Life isn’t always about choices, Della! Did you choose to be vampire?”

“No, and I hate that, too!” She swallowed the tears that threatened.

“So you hate caring about me?”

The question hung out there and she didn’t know how to answer, so she simply didn’t.

Eventually, he looked up. “It doesn’t always happen like this.”

“What?” she asked.

“The bond. Not everyone ends up together. You still have a choice.” Honesty and hurt thickened his voice. “But I’m going to do everything in my power to prove to you that I’m the right choice.”

“By lying to me?”

“I’m not—”

“You did.”

“Look,” he said, sounding frustrated. “The day Burnett gave you those photographs, I was going to tell you.”

“Sure you were.”

“I was. If you’ll remember, I told you that we needed to talk. I called you early that morning and asked you to meet me earlier because … I wanted to come clean.”

Feeling vulnerable, she tightened her fist. “Why don’t you just leave?”

He shook his head. “Eddie had never told me about your aunt. I questioned him about it and that’s when he told me. Then when I heard about your father being arrested, I was shocked. I went back to Eddie and that’s when he told me what really happened. And all I’ve done since is look for that guy to get your dad off.”

“There.” She held up a finger. “You finally said something that I care to hear about. What does my uncle say happened? Not that I’m sure I’ll believe him.” She walked to the chair and dropped down.

“Why would he lie about that?” he asked.

“Because he’s guilty of murder.”

“He didn’t do it.”

“Yeah, well, I trust him about as much as I do you.” She leaned back and her whole body melted into the chair cushion. Instantly, she felt the lack of sleep making her eyelids heavy.

He moved to the sofa and sat down. “He was at a party one night with his girlfriend. They were leaving and some guy was hitting on her.”

“I want to know about the murder, not my uncle’s love life.”

“I’m getting to that,” he said. “Eddie stood up to him and they fought. The guy was vampire. When he got sick later, his parents took him to the hospital. A young nurse there was fae. She told him what was happening and even gave him some blood.”

Della sat there, fighting the compassion that stirred for her uncle. His story was so close to her own that her chest ached. She was so darn tired.

Then she felt Baxter’s soft snout rest on her leg.

“The fae told him about a funeral home that would help him fake his death. They also offered him a few names of gangs he could join. He didn’t want to go that way, so he went on his own, but he couldn’t do it. He wound up joining a gang.”

Chase folded his hands together. “It wasn’t one of the good ones. The initiation demanded he kill someone for blood. He couldn’t do it. They offered him one more chance. Told him if he didn’t do it, they would kill someone he loved. He didn’t think they knew anything about him.”

Chase’s voice deepened and Della could tell just by his tone how much he cared about Eddie, that it hurt him to recount the man’s story.

Silence and emotion hung in the air, then Chase continued, “Eddie went to tell the gang leader he couldn’t do it, and that he was leaving, but the guy laughed. Told him that the punishment was already set in motion. At first Eddie wasn’t worried; he countered that there wasn’t anyone he loved. But as he walked out, the guy called him by his real name.”

“Realizing they knew, Eddie took off as fast as he could. When he got to the house, Bao Yu was already dead. One of the gang members, a Douglas Stone, was still in the house.”

Della’s heart gripped. “My dad? Did he see it?”

Chase shrugged. “Eddie said when he got there your father was unconscious. Eddie and Douglas went at it. But Douglas was a lot stronger. They were still fighting when the cops, sirens blaring, pulled up in front of the house. Eddie was in bad shape, but he managed to get out before they got upstairs. Unfortunately, so did Douglas Stone. He got away.”

He paused. “As soon as Eddie was able, he went looking for Douglas Stone. But the gang had broken up. They’d all gone their own ways. A few months later, he found out about the Vampire Council. He went and appealed to them to help him catch the guy. They looked, but never found him. He’s still on their most-wanted list.”