Unspoken (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3)(70)

Della was so surprised, she ate it. And it wasn’t half bad. Then Chase ran his finger over her lip.

Della felt the blush hit her cheeks, and she realized Liam and Natasha were watching and smiling. Didn’t Chase know she could feed herself?

“Aren’t you going to move back in?” Natasha asked.

“Not for a while. I think I’ll hang out at Shadow Falls.”

“What?” Della shook her head. She’d thought he’d been staying at the school because Liam and Natasha were here. “This place is ten times better.”

“Yeah, but Shadow Falls has something this place doesn’t.” Natasha grinned.

“No,” Della said. “You’ve seen the cabins there.”

“It has you,” Natasha answered.

Della glanced at Chase. He didn’t deny it. And he winked at her. Winked?

First he feeds her and then he winks at her?

“You’re crazy,” she said.

“Here’s to being crazy,” Liam said and picked up a glass of blood for a toast.

They walked out on the porch. Natasha pulled Della to the side. “Is my mom…? Do you still see my mom?”

Della nodded, and decided not to mention that Holiday wanted to perform an exorcism to send her packing. “Yeah.”

“Can you tell her that I’m happy? Really happy.”

“I’ll tell her.”

Her cousin hugged her. “Chase is a good guy,” she whispered in her ear. “Stop fighting it.”

Della didn’t answer that, but the thought hit her that if she was fighting it, she was doing a piss-poor job of it. Every damn day he got closer … not even just physically, but emotionally. And what was this feeding-her crap?

She glanced over at the guys.

Chase shook Liam’s hand. “Hey,” Chase said. “I just noticed your shoes. Are those the Nike foamposite shoes?”

“A knockoff, I’m sure,” Liam said. “My mom got them. She couldn’t afford the real thing.”

Della looked down at his bright blue shoes with weird soles and … bam. Just like that her world flipped. She wasn’t even standing. But lying flat on her back on a … cold, bloody, concrete floor.

“Della?” she heard Chase say her name. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” She blinked and things slowly came into focus. His face, and then the missing piece of puzzle just slipped into place. “We gotta go.”

She waved, jumped off the porch, and started jogging.

Chase kept up with her. “What is it?”

“I know what I forgot about the vision.”

“What?”

“Shoes.” Della continued to run.

“Shoes?” His footfalls fell even with hers in the darkness.

“One of the killers had on a pair of very strange shoes. Red, and they looked like snakeskin. I could be wrong, but for some reason I don’t think a badass were would wear a pair of knockoffs. He probably bought them. And if I’m right and they are as expensive as I think they are, then there may be only a few places that sell them. If we can find out who sells them, we might be able to find out who bought them. And we’ll have at least one of the killer’s names.”

She took off in flight, dodging the tree limbs and trying to hurry to get back to do her Internet search. While it wasn’t about her father’s case, it still felt good to think she was closer to catching Mr. and Mrs. Chi’s killers.





Chapter Thirty

Della and Chase landed in the parking lot of the school and walked through the gate. Voices, laughter, and music came from the dining hall. It smelled like a pizza party. Having stomached more food than she’d eaten in weeks, she headed straight to the trail. Chase moved right beside her. Occasionally, his forearm brushed against her shoulder.

Was he purposely doing that?

While her mind worked on the thought of identifying that mystery shoe, her heart seemed stuck on the things she’d learned about Chase tonight. He’d seen his parents’ bodies in a morgue and it still hurt him. He occasionally drank cold beer. He associated snickerdoodles with love, and was staying at Shadow Falls just to be close to her.

She recalled holding his hand, offering him emotional support after he’d told her why he’d wigged out at the morgue. She remembered waking up in his bed next to him, being overjoyed that he was alive. She even recalled how it felt that brief second when he’d fed her that damn chicken finger.

Then came the reminder of how she’d sort of been happy when he’d been embarrassed being in his underwear around Holiday, but not around her.

And that last thought led to her remembering how good he had looked in his underwear. All that skin showing. The muscles rippling down his torso.

Oh, hell!

Remembering all that stirred up things she didn’t want stirred.

She thought of Natasha and Liam. She’d bet those two were already in their underwear, or perhaps naked and in each other’s arms.

Could she ever find that … again?

She took in a deep breath and repeated two words in her head. Not now.

Maybe.

Perhaps.

She might at least entertain the idea after she got her dad out of trouble.

And found Mr. and Mrs. Chi’s killers.