Reborn (Shadow Falls: After Dark #1)(124)

Oh yeah, that would go over about as well as a fart in church.

She heard someone walking up to the cabin. Lifting her face, she inhaled, wanting it to be a certain scent. Chase’s scent.

But what did she want with him?

Answers, she told herself. Chase had some explaining to do. And not just about this bond thing, but about who sent him looking for her.

It wasn’t Chase.

She heard Derek ask where she was, and then Miranda said, “You’re going to tell her now?”

She swung the door open. “Tell me what?”

Both Kylie and Miranda looked concerned.

Derek walked over to the sofa and dropped down.

“Just tell me,” Della said. “It’s about Chase, isn’t it?”

“No,” Derek said.

“Then what?” she asked.

“A couple of days ago, I finally got someone from your father’s school to chat with me about your aunt and uncle.”

“And?”

“Your aunt is … dead.”

Della heard him, but didn’t want to accept it. “So you found her obituary. She could have faked it, just like my uncle.”

“I don’t think so,” he said.

“Why not? Just because she wasn’t in the same funeral home. There could be others who—”

“It’s not that,” he said. “She was murdered.”

“Murdered?” Della’s gut tightened. Someone had killed her aunt? “When? How?”

“It was about a year after your uncle was supposedly killed in the car accident.”

“Who killed her?” She thought about her father, the pain he must have endured after first losing his twin and then his sister. No wonder he didn’t talk about the past. “Did they catch the bastard?”

His eyes filled with regret. “When I found this out, I went to my PI buddy and asked him to look into it. He has a lot of friends who are detectives.” Derek cupped his hands and paused.

“And?”

“He got someone to pull the file. It’s listed as a cold case. They never arrested anyone because they never had enough evidence.”

“So they had no suspects? None? Someone kills my dad’s sister and just gets away with it?”

He paused, and she could tell he didn’t want to tell her. “Spill it!”

“There was only one suspect.”

She waited for him to tell her more. Her patience snapped. “Good Lord, do I have to reach in your mouth and pull out the words? Who was it?”

He still hesitated. “Your father.”

Della swallowed. “They thought … That can’t be right. My father would never—”

“I didn’t say he did it, I just said that he was their only suspect.”

Della saw the way Miranda and Kylie looked at her. Empathy. And the little witch was about to try and hug her again. “He didn’t do it,” Della seethed. “I’m telling you he didn’t do it!”

“We believe you,” Kylie said. “We just feel bad that you have to hear it. And you’ve been sick and—”

Wanting to scream, no, wanting to run, she took off. At first, she forgot not to run too fast. But she slowed down just enough that she wouldn’t have Burnett after her. She made seven laps, pretty damn fast, and never even got tired. Finally, she landed. There wasn’t one noise. Silence.

Then her phone dinged with a text.

She pulled it out. Her breath caught. It was from Chase.

Worried about u. We need to talk.

“No shit, Sherlock!” she said, and started to type a response, but she heard and smelled someone coming.

Kylie, with Miranda on her back, landed beside her. Della slipped her phone back in her pocket.

“Are you okay?” Kylie asked.

“No,” Della said, miles past trying to pretend. “I’m not.”

“Do you need a hug?” Miranda asked.

Della stared at the little witch and thought of about ten over-the-top pissy things she could say, but when she opened her mouth, not one came out.

“Yeah,” Della said, and a few tears slipped from her lashes. “I think I do.” Confusion to the point of pain swelled inside her. Her dad was suspected of killing his sister. She was bonded to some guy she barely knew, and didn’t know what that meant. But as much as she wanted to deny it, it felt like it meant something.

Standing in the midst of a group hug, without a friggin’ clue what she was going to do, she found a moment of clarity. She had a shitload of questions that needed answering and big decisions she had to make, but one thing she knew. She had two of the best friends ever.

And if she could just remember that, she’d survive all of this. Survive and find answers. She had to.

After all, she was a reborn. That had to mean something.