Eternal (Shadow Falls: After Dark #2)(55)

Three pairs of shoes were scattered around the room, jeans and some blouses were piled in one corner as if the last time Natasha was here, she hadn’t been sure what to wear and had changed clothes several times.

Had she been going on a date? Or going out for pizza with her friends? Oddly, standing in the room, Della felt bits and pieces of Natasha’s personality seep into her pores. A few CDs were on the dresser. She loved music. Maybe even to dance.

Pushing the crazy thoughts away, she started doing what they’d come in here to do: to see if they could find any clues.

The bed wasn’t made, as if the world had stopped the day she had gone missing—or as her parents saw it, the day she died.

For one second, Della remembered how her mom hadn’t touched her room after she left for Shadow Falls. Was that a sign of love?

On the bedside table was an eight-by-ten photo of Natasha and two other girls, all laughing and capturing a moment of happiness, of friendship.

Della moved closer to the picture and thought of her two friends Miranda and Kylie. Were these Natasha’s best friends? Had they too been devastated at what they thought was her death?

Picking up the frame, Della recalled the few friends she’d left behind in her old life. Oddly, they hadn’t been nearly as important to her as Miranda and Kylie.

Pulling herself out of her past, she noted another picture of the three girls with graduation caps sitting on all of the girls’ heads. Natasha was older than Della had originally thought. That, or she’d finished school early.

She put one picture down to pick up the other. Natasha’s face drew her attention. There was something … almost familiar about it. And it was more than just having seen it in the photo with Chan and her aunt.

The sound of Chase opening drawers and rummaging through things behind her called her attention. She got a big sensation that they were intruding on the parents’ personal shrine to their daughter, and she put the picture back down, almost wishing she hadn’t even touched them.

She glanced back at Chase. “Don’t move things around too much,” she said, sensing the mom or dad came in here often and had memorized the placement of all their daughter’s things. Things that told of her life.

“I’m just looking for anything that might give us something to help find her.”

Della didn’t know what that something would be, but being here felt right, almost as if the ghost had led them here. On top of a dresser was a picture of a man. Dark hair, slanted eyes. Della was almost certain it was the same man in the family photo that hung in the hall.

Funny how Natasha looked more Asian than her own father. Luck of the draw, Della thought, remembering how she hardly looked Asian.

All of a sudden, behind the soft music and lyrics, came the sound of a car moving down the road. “Someone’s coming,” she said.

“I know,” Chase said.

By the time they got to the window, the car was pulling into the drive. “Shit,” Della muttered.

“No problem,” Chase said. “We’ll wait until he unlocks the door, then we’ll jump out this window. It’s going to be okay,” he said, as if sensed her near panic.

Sensed it correctly. Della’s adrenaline pumped like crazy. The thought of being caught sent bolts of fear coursing through her veins. And then she heard it. Not the driver in the car outside who had cut the engine off. The car was the least of their problems. What Della heard were footsteps. Footsteps moving up the steps from inside the house.

Someone was already inside the home. Had been there the entire time. Had they heard them? Were they coming to check?

Chase, obviously hearing it as well, looked back out the window.

“He’s not out of the car yet.” His voice barely reached her ears.

“So what do we do?” she replied in the same low voice.

“Plan B,” he said.

“What is it?”

He paused one second. “I don’t have a friggin’ clue.”

“Shit,” Della whispered again.

The footsteps thudded closer, down the hall, almost in front of the bedroom door. Nothing but a thin piece of wood stood between them and being caught as intruders.

Never had Della been this envious of Kylie’s gift of turning invisible. But wishing was going to get her nowhere—she needed a plan. She needed one fast.

“The closet.” She latched her hand around his arm and pulled him inside.

They had barely gotten the door closed and sunk down amongst a few shoes and clothes that had fallen on the floor, when the footsteps stopped. Stopped right outside the bedroom door.

Della pulled her knees to her chest. Darkness filled the small space. Her shoulder pressed against Chase’s. Needing more air to attempt to deal with the panic gripping her lungs, she took fast, and hopefully silent, breaths. The smell of perfume and shampoo, obviously Natasha’s, filled the air. Then Chase’s scent, spicy male soap and outdoors, filled Della’s senses. While she could barely see anything, she still shut her eyes. Tight. And prayed.

Don’t let them come in here. Don’t let them come in here.

The door clicked open and the footsteps entered into the room. Soft footsteps sounding like a woman. What came next? If the person belonging to the footsteps had actually heard them, wouldn’t she check the closet? Oh no. Why had Della chosen the closet?

Della’s insides knotted with the thought of having to explain to her parents why she’d broken into someone’s home.