Unspoken (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3)(91)

She swung around and stood there, not sure what she could or should tell him. But not appreciating him sniffing her like she was some dirty slut.

“You know what?” he seethed. “I’ve had a pretty miserable day and I’m done. Screw it.” He took off.

Della started to fly after him, but then stopped. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Yeah, she’d hugged Steve, but not like a hug-hug. Oh, and she’d told him she loved him, but as she’d finally admitted to Miranda and Kylie, she didn’t really love Steve. She was … this close to admitting she loved Chase.

And if Chase had asked her in a reasonable way about Steve’s scent, she would have told him. Hell, she’d been planning on telling Chase about Steve’s plan, and getting him to go with her.

But if he was going get all pissy about Steve, he’d probably find a reason she shouldn’t go get her father’s files.

She turned and stormed back into her cabin.

Miranda and Della were still at the kitchen table. “Forget what I said,” she snapped. “Chase doesn’t scare me anymore. He just downright pisses me off!”

She took off for her bedroom and slammed the door, forgetting it didn’t shut. The last sound she heard before she landed facefirst on the bed was the door falling and hitting the floor.





Chapter Thirty-eight

As angry as Della was, she left her phone on her bedside table so she would hear it when Chase texted or called with his apology.

It was almost three before she fell asleep. Not that it had been just him on her mind. He wasn’t even in the top five. Or maybe he was.

Her phone never rang, never dinged with a text. But she still checked it first thing when she woke up.

Nothing.

That hurt, damn it. Where did he get off being such a jerk?

She got ready for school early, thinking he might come by before he went to work. Wrong again.

Jerk!

At lunch, Steve texted and said his plan had worked. He found a room on the tenth floor where all the old files were boxed up. He’d even left a window open for her.

She texted him back and asked if he would go with her tonight.

And just as she knew he would, he said yes.

When she got out of school, she walked by Chase’s cabin, but he wasn’t there. So she took off to the front of the school, to see if Chase’s car was there. It wasn’t. But Burnett’s was.

“In here,” Burnett said as she moved inside the office.

Della stepped into Holiday’s office, not really sure what she planned on saying. Then she remembered she needed to let him know that she and Steve were going out.

“You back from work?” she asked, not wanting to blurt it out first thing.

“Yeah,” he said, looking up from his laptop. “You okay?”

“Not really,” she said. “Tell me we got a new judge on my dad’s case and I’ll be better.”

He frowned. “I haven’t heard anything yet.”

“So no luck finding Stone?”

“No. Chase did get a few more addresses from someone on the council to check. But—”

“Is that where he is now?” she asked.

“No, he covered that this morning. He didn’t find anything.” Burnett looked back at his computer.

“So is he working the Chi case now?”

Burnett looked up as if almost confused. “No, we did that earlier too.”

She didn’t want to ask, but it just leaked out. “So where’s Chase now?”

Burnett hesitated. “I’m assuming he’s at his cabin.”

“No, I went there, and his car’s gone.”

Burnett frowned. “I didn’t mean here, I meant at his cabin.” He sat up. “Did he not tell you he was moving back?”

She recalled Chase’s words: I’m out of here. Screw it. “Yeah, he kind of did,” she said, hurting.

“Is something up between you two?” Burnett asked.

“I wouldn’t have a clue what’s up with him,” she said to keep from lying. And it was true. She didn’t know what had gotten into Chase. Sure, he’d been jealous of Steve before, but never so … so crazy.

“He wasn’t himself today,” Burnett said.

Della almost tossed out that she and Steve were thinking of going out, but it just seemed too weird after talking about Chase. “Well, I’ve got homework.”

Not that she planned on doing it.

She took off, and almost as if wanting—hoping—to prove Burnett wrong, she went to cabin fourteen.

She stepped in. Looked around. She went to his bedroom. It was empty.

She looked at the bed where she’d stayed with him when she didn’t know if he was going to live or die. Her next intake of air brought on his scent. He wasn’t here, but his scent lingered.

Her heart almost broke then.

He’d done it to her again. Stormed into her life, made her start believing his talk about loving her, and then disappeared.

Her chest filled with a deep kind of pain and it just curled up and joined all the other pains and regrets she had.

Would she ever learn to stop letting herself care about boys?

*

“Where are you going?” Miranda asked Della that evening when she walked out of the bathroom with her jeans and black button-down on.