Unspoken (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3)(99)

“If I could get this young lady to give me her information and get her home, would you be willing to drop this?” Chase asked.

The woman looked shocked, but relieved. “Why … yes, I mean nothing bad has happened. Right?” She looked at Della and smiled.

“Will you do that?” Chase asked Della in an official tone.

“I just want to go home.” Della tried to sound desperate. Then again, that wasn’t too hard. She was desperate.

She’d broken into a hospital and didn’t have anything to show for it.





Chapter Forty-one

They left the office. Della couldn’t walk fast enough.

The moment they were alone, Chase asked, “Are you okay?”

“Yes.” Her heart pounded and ached. As they made their way to the exit, his shoulder brushed against hers and the touch sent sharp jolts of pain right to her chest.

Chase waved at the guard and the doors opened.

They walked through. The cold air hit Della’s face and it felt and tasted like freedom. Chase kept going until he reached the end of the sidewalk. He stopped and looked out into the parking lot across the street.

“The guard really shot at you?” He continued to look around.

“Yeah, but the box did hit him. It could have been an accident.”

“You threw the box at him?” Chase glanced up and down the street as if looking for something, or someone.

“No,” Della said. “The ghost did.”

He looked about ready to say something, but itching to put miles from this place before Mrs. Applebee changed her mind, she asked, “What are you looking for? Can we leave and talk later?”

“Steve drove my car. He should…”

An engine sounded in the night, and Chase’s car pulled into the parking lot across the street.

“Shit,” both Della and Chase said at the same time. Because the scent that reached them at the same time wasn’t Steve’s.

*

“What in the hell were you thinking?” Burnett asked as he drove out of the parking lot. Chase had quickly explained that they’d let Della leave without involving the police. Then Burnett told Chase to get back on his own, but to meet him at the school.

The moment Della had crawled into the car, she’d started explaining that this was on her, not Chase, but then she realized that if Steve had been driving Chase’s car Burnett probably knew what had happened.

“I was thinking my dad could get the death penalty.” She looked away, afraid he’d see tears in her eyes. And not because she’d been caught. She’d didn’t give a flying flip that she’d been caught. It was the fact that she still had nothing. Nothing that would help her dad.

After blinking, she looked back at Burnett.

“The files were gone. Someone took them. What if it’s the DA? What if—”

“It’s not,” Burnett said.

“How do you know?” she asked.

His hands tightened around the steering wheel. “Because I’ve already got them.”

Her heart dropped. “You got them?”

He nodded.

“When … But … why didn’t you tell me? I wouldn’t have done this if…” She saw his expression harden. His silence said so much.

“There’s something bad in there, isn’t there?”

Burnett let go of air. “What matters is if the DA does go to look for them, they won’t find them. I destroyed them.”

“What was in there? Did my dad see the murder? Does he know about … vampires?”

She saw Burnett’s Adam’s apple go up and down.

“Damn it! Tell me.”

“He talked about being attacked by what he referred to as a monster, but then … he claimed he killed his sister.”

“What?” she gasped. “He didn’t do that.” She curled her hands into fists and wanted to hit something. Yanking at the seat belt, she broke it.

“Della, I’m not saying he did it. I … I’m saying he told the doctor he did it. But that will never come out. I destroyed the file.”

“You did?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Did he say why he thought he did it?”

“No. He just said he did it. That’s all he said.”

She sat there, hurting. “He didn’t do it. We know this other guy did it. Stone did it.”

“I know. That’s why I didn’t tell you.”

She inhaled a shaky breath and they drove in silence for the next fifteen minutes. Her mind continued to race. She tried to understand. She couldn’t.

“Why would he say that?” she muttered.

“Because he was confused,” Burnett said. “Maybe in his mind, not protecting her was the same as killing her.”

It sounded as if Burnett had already tried to rationalize it. But did he believe it? Did he think her father had killed his sister? She remembered Bao Yu and the visions. The accusations.

None of it could make her believe that her father was a murderer.

A few minutes later, another concern hit. “What if his doctor testifies?”

“He passed away last year. Unless they can find a nurse—and that would be hard because I looked, and couldn’t find one—this won’t come out. Like I said, I destroyed the file. This will not come out.”