Eternal (Shadow Falls: After Dark #2)(66)

She went over, carefully picked up his chair, and dropped it back down by the table. “Sit down!” she ordered, and when she stared him in the eyes, she was reminded how young he was. Being young didn’t excuse his behavior, but she again felt fortunate that she’d had her cousin to help her through the turn, then Shadow Falls to keep her grounded. Had this guy had anyone?

When he didn’t immediately respond, she tried another tactic. “Look, I know you’re pissed. And you’re probably scared. But tell us what we need to know, and I’m thinking the FRU will make sure you stay alive long enough to make something out of your life.”

He practically flung himself into the chair. His pride looked chipped, he looked … desperate. She knew that feeling too well.

“I … don’t know much. I saw a group of weres with that kid. I think his name was Liam. Marco was going to try to recruit him when we spotted the weres with him. He backed away really quick like. He said the weres were bad ass, said they collected fresh turns and it wasn’t worth fighting for him.”

“What’s the name of the gang?” Della asked.

When he didn’t answer, Della banged her hand on the table.

“I don’t know. He didn’t say the name of the gang. I’m not even sure they are a gang.” He paused a minute. “He said the name of one of the weres though. A Damian Baker, or maybe Bryan, a B name. That’s all I know.”

Della believed him. She started to leave, but then remembered getting the familiar trace of a were at the restaurant.

“Does Damian or one of his friends hang out at Buck’s Burgers?” she asked.

“I don’t know. I guess they could.”

“What did the weres look like?”

“Like all weres—dirty dogs.”

Without warning, she got this empty-pit feeling in her stomach. Hunger to the point of pain, and she knew it came from Natasha.

“I’m going to need more than that!” she said, and her hollow-feeling gut said she was going to need it quick if she was going to find Natasha and Liam alive.

*   *   *

Burnett interrogated the other rogues using the info Della had gotten from Jason Von. He ended up getting more info. The name of the were seen kidnapping Liam was Damian Bond. Burnett was going to run the name through the FRU’s computer database to see if they came up with anything.

Before they left the FRU office, Burnett called her aside and told her how well she’d done in the interrogation. Yet even now, still whirling in the feeling that Natasha and Liam were running out of time, Della couldn’t bask in the compliment.

In spite of Burnett’s orders to go straight home, she and Chase had gone by Uck’s Burgers. At almost one in the morning, it was closed, most of the businesses were, and they sat in the parking lot, top down. No weres were in the area that they could smell. It was quiet, and they shifted their seats back just bit, comfortable in the night and the silence, and just watched the stars.

“I see the little dipper,” Chase said.

“Yeah. I just spotted it.”

“My mom was a stargazer,” Chase said. “Sometimes, at night, she’d bring our sleeping bags out, and we’d just lay out there and stare up at the sky.”

“That sounds nice,” Della said, and glanced at him. “Do you still miss them?”

“Yeah, but it’s not as bad as it was.”

After another ten minutes, with thoughts of pissing off Burnett, she told him they should go.

When Chase pulled into the Shadow Falls parking lot, she snagged the diary, offered a quick “later,” and leapt out of his car without even opening the door. She had the craziest feeling that if she didn’t get away he might try to kiss her.

As she moved from his car, she felt him looking at her.

“See you tomorrow,” he said and got out.

She didn’t look back, but damn it if a part of her didn’t feel as if she was walking away from something important. A part of her wanted to turn around and fall against him, to ask him to reassure her that they would find Natasha and Liam.

“I’ll miss you,” he called out just as she passed through the gate.

Me, too. The thought ran through her mind, but she refused to say it. Then she remembered something and turned around. Before she spoke, she turned her head slightly to hear if anyone was around. No one.

“Make sure you look into me meeting the council.”

She watched him wave and get into his car. She stayed there and watched his taillights disappear down the street. Funny how her request sent him driving off, when before he’d seemed happy to linger. Was there something to that?

Chapter Twenty-eight

It was almost two in the morning when she walked into her bedroom. The cabin was silent. Only the soft sounds of Miranda and Kylie sleeping in their beds filled the space. Della stripped off her clothes, donned PJs, crawled into bed, and hugged her pillow. Her mind spun, too hyped up to sleep.

Now, in bed, feeling a slight unnatural chill, thoughts of Chase faded and became replaced with thoughts of …

She looked around the room for any sign of a ghost. She didn’t see shit, but it didn’t mean shit wasn’t there. “Are you my aunt?” Her words seemed to rise up and hang above her in a small cloud of mist.

Della pulled the covers up to her neck, then spotted the diary beside her and picked it up to read. She found the spot she’d stopped reading earlier. Some of the dates didn’t have the year, but Della could tell the inscriptions were written several years back when Natasha was still in high school.