Reborn (Shadow Falls: After Dark #1)(49)

“Hey mom,” Della said, trying to sound cheery.

“I spoke with Ms. Galen. I think it’s okay you go, but … don’t mention it to your dad.”

Why? Della wanted to ask, but then she knew: Her father would have objected. Just on the principle of not making Della happy, because he probably still thought she was stealing from him.

“Thanks,” Della said, and then, because the conversation felt awkward, she asked, “How was your day?”

“Fine.”

All of a sudden Della’s curiosity got the best of her. “Mom, can I ask you something?”

“I guess,” her mom said.

“Why doesn’t Dad ever talk about his past? His childhood?” His dead brother and missing sister?

“That’s a strange question,” her mom said.

“I know,” Della admitted. “But it’s just odd that he doesn’t talk about his life like you do. You talk about being in high school.” Feeling brave, she added, “And you even talk about your brother who died of cancer. But Dad says nothing about … anything.”

“He … he didn’t have an easy childhood,” her mom said, but Della could hear in her mom’s voice that she felt she was betraying her father by even saying that much.

“What made it so hard?” Della asked. Voices sounded in the background of her mom’s line. Her dad’s voice. “Gotta go.” The line died.

The lonely sound echoed in Della’s chest.

Well, that little conversation didn’t get her anywhere. Except more depressed. How sad was it that her mom didn’t want her dad to know she was talking to her.

Not wanting to just wallow in self-pity, she decided it was time to face Burnett about going to Kylie’s. Hopefully that would go smooth.

Why did Della ever expect anything to go smooth?

“Why can’t I go?” she insisted. “Even my mom said I could.” Della looked first to Holiday and then Burnett.

Holiday took a step back as if wanting to stay out of the discussion. But how could she when Burnett was being completely unreasonable? He hadn’t let her finish asking when he’d given the idea a thumbs-down. “Have you forgotten that there’s a chance you could still be the target of a murderer?”

“How can you say that? If the guy had wanted to kill me he could have done it. I was unconscious for God’s sake. How hard would it have been to finish me off?” She ran a finger across her neck.

Burnett’s eyes grew a tad brighter with aggravation. “It’s just like Holiday said, the death angels could have scared him off.”

“Scared him off, my ass. I still suspect the death angels are the ones who hit me. And frankly, I don’t think you even believe it was the murderer or you’d be all up in arms about it.”

Burnett’s expression told Della she’d hit the nail on the head with that remark. “I didn’t say I believed it, I said there was a chance.”

“And there’s a chance an asteroid is going to hit the earth and kill us all tomorrow!”

“I’m responsible for your safety,” he seethed. “And I can’t look out for you when you’re not on camp grounds.”

“But I’m not going alone. Miranda and Kylie will be there, and I don’t know if you forgot but Kylie just happens to be a protector and could probably kick an asteroid’s ass if it tried to land on me.”

When the expression of stern disapproval didn’t waver on Burnett’s expression, she took off the kid gloves and told him what she really thought. It was an old argument, but the best one she had. “I know what this is about. It’s because we’re girls, right? If it was Lucas and Derek and Perry wanting to go somewhere, you wouldn’t have questioned it. You are nothing but a male chauvinist pig. Oh, and that’s why you don’t want me working with this case, isn’t it? I’m a girl.”

“That’s not it!” Burnett snapped back and looked at Holiday as if pleading for her to intervene, but once again, his wife didn’t say a word.

Which meant she still agreed with Della. And that upped the fire in Della’s belly.

“So you are going to let me work on the case?” she asked, deciding she’d already pissed him off, she might as well go for gold.

“We haven’t moved forward on the case yet.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” she pointed out.

Apparently, the big bad vampire didn’t like being put on the spot. He growled. “You are an unreasonable stubborn little vamp and you need to learn to respect authority.”

“I will respect the authority, when the authority respects me! And that includes my br**sts!”

Burnett looked again at Holiday. “Can’t you do something with her?”

Holiday shrugged. “I think you both have good points.”

Now Burnett looked mad at Holiday. “She’s not being reasonable.”

“I think she just accused you of the same thing,” Holiday said.

Yup, the warm and cozy, almost hug-worthy emotional place Della and Burnett had found the other night was nothing more than a memory. They were back to butting heads.

Della continued, because Burnett wasn’t the only one with hard head. “If you can tell me without your heart jumping beats that if it was Lucas, or Chase, asking for a weekend away you’d tell them no, I’ll shut up.”