Unspoken (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3)(82)

“I’m moving,” Della said. “Just leave the kid and I’ll let you go.” Della’s heart raced. If he tried to run with the girl, she’d have to stop him. There was no doubt he’d kill the girl if he got away.

Della didn’t lack the strength to catch him, but did she have the courage to do it, knowing how fast that knife could slice the child’s throat?

The little girl’s gaze met hers. The rogue pressed the knife closer.

“Go,” Della said. “I won’t chase you. Just let her go. She’s a kid. She didn’t do anything.”

The vamp picked up the child and slung her across the room.

Della jumped up in the air and caught the girl right before she hit the wall, landing in the middle of the living room.

She pulled the little girl against her. “It’s okay,” Della said, but she had to look away from the child’s face because she felt her eyes grow hot with fury.

But it quickly didn’t become an issue, because the girl buried her face in Della shoulder and started sobbing.

Seconds later, Chase rushed in. His eyes were bright, his fangs half out.

She shook her head. He nodded and darted off.

Seconds later, Shawn came in. He nodded at Della and she knew what he meant. She should turn the child over to him and get the hell out.

Before she did, she gave the girl one last pat on her back. “It’s all over now.”

*

“You did the right thing,” Burnett told Della, thirty minutes later.

The van had shown up and taken the three half weres away. The little girl had been taken by ambulance just to make sure she was okay. Stone wasn’t there. The apartment manager, a human older woman who kept an unlit cigarette dangling from her lips, gave them the bad news. Douglas Stone had packed his shit and left a couple of weeks ago. And all but these four of his “friends” who had helped him out around the apartment had left with him.

Burnett had Chase take Della across the street, where they parked beside a fast food restaurant and watched Burnett, Trisha, and Shawn handle the police.

With Della being a minor, he didn’t want her involved. They had changed the story; now Trisha had been the officer who saved the girl. Not that Della cared. The kid was safe, that was what mattered. But it wasn’t all that mattered.

“He got away,” Della said. Amazingly, her voice sounded calm, but her insides hadn’t stopped shaking. She kept seeing that little girl and the knife to her throat.

Chase stood at her side. Too close. She felt his shoulder against hers. But she didn’t have the strength to push him away.

“But it could have ended so much worse,” Chase said.

“He’s right,” Burnett said. And then asked, “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be okay,” she assured him, and her heart didn’t race to the lie. She would be okay: she just wasn’t right at this moment.

“Did you get anything from the weres?”

“Not yet,” Burnett said. “But we will.” He walked over and put his hand on Della’s shoulder. “You saved that girl, Della. You did the right thing.”

I know,” Della said. “But we still don’t have Stone. And in just days my dad is going to go to trial for murder.”

“And none of us are giving up.” Burnett looked at Chase. “Why don’t you take her back to Shadow Falls?”

“No,” Della said. “Didn’t you hear me? Time’s running out.”

“But—”

“No,” she said. “We still haven’t gone to Stone’s girlfriend’s place.”

For a second, Burnett looked like he was going to argue with her, then he let go of a deep gulp of air. “Fine, let’s go,” Burnett said. “I’ll meet you there.”

“We could handle it if you wanted to go get the interviews done,” Chase said.

“No,” Burnett said. “I’m going. It shouldn’t take long.”

“Wait.” Chase touched his forehead. “I just remembered.”

Della looked at Chase. “The guy I grabbed. I knew him from somewhere else.”

“What?” Burnett asked.

“The half were I snagged. I recognized his scent. I was going to tell you, but then all this happened. He’s one of the guys I pulled off Della that night and the one I smelled with the animal blood on him earlier that same night. He’s part of the group that killed the Chis and those other weres.”

“Are you sure?” Burnett asked.

“Positive he killed the Chis? No. But I’m positive he’s the same one with blood on him and the same one who jumped Della in the park.”

Della heard him, but had to work to get it. “Wait. Are you saying Stone, or at least his gang, is mixed up in the Chis’ murder, too?”

*

“Top up or down?” Chase asked Della a few minutes later as they got into the car to go see if they could find Stone’s girlfriend. He wished Burnett had insisted he take Della back to Shadow Falls. He could tell she was still shaken. And rightfully so.

He’d have been shaken too. He’d rescued a woman from a rogue before, but something about a child made it more intense.

“Don’t care,” Della said.

Chase reached over and caught her hand. “It’s going to be okay.”