Page 42 of Unspoken (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3)

Chapter Forty-two

Della dreamed it. She was Bao Yu. So she woke up and refused to sleep. Then she saw it when she wasn’t asleep.

She saw the knife being yanked from her chest. The blood dripping from the blade. Her father’s face staring down at her. She struggled to take her very last breath of air.

Then she died. Or her aunt died. Over and over again.

And each time she went through it, right before she lost her life, Della felt her aunt mourn and grieve for something different.

People she would miss. Love she’d never be able to give. A child she had given up and would never be able to say “I love you” to. The chance to make all of the things she’d done wrong, right.

Della went to school, hoping it would stop. She walked out of science when it didn’t.

Exhausted, mentally, physically, and emotionally, she headed to the office. On that walk, one footstep after another, all Della could hear were Burnett’s words. He said he’d been attacked by a monster. Did her father really suspect she was vampire?

Holiday looked up when Della walked in, then gasped.

She must have felt what Della was feeling.

“I can’t do it anymore. I just can’t.”

Holiday ran to her and wrapped her in her arms. “I got you. I got you.”

Della leaned against her and sobbed. She didn’t care if she looked weak. Didn’t care if she was getting tears and whatever else on Holiday’s pretty green sweater. She simply didn’t care.

Or was it that she cared too much?

She cared about Bao Yu. She cared about her dad. She cared… that he considered her a monster. She needed to fix this. All of it. But how?

“It’s okay.” Holiday brushed her hand over Della’s back.

Some of the pain left with the touch, but not nearly enough. Especially when she saw it again. The vision hit. She was her aunt, and the knife was being pulled out of her own chest.

Della pulled out of Holiday’s arms and pushed her palms deep into her eye sockets, wishing it would go away. “I’ve seen it at least fifty times today. I’m seeing it now. What does she want from me? Does she want me to say he’s guilty? I can’t. He never even spanked us. He wouldn’t do that. And it doesn’t make sense. Why would he have killed her? When someone else had gone there to do it? What does she want?”

“I don’t know.” Holiday moved in and stroked Della’s back.

Della opened her eyes. “Is she punishing me because I still love my dad?”

“No. She’s not punishing you,” Holiday said. “She wants to understand too, and she thinks you can help her.”

“But how? What can I do?” And right then Della had her answer. It scared the crap out of her, but it was the right thing. It was going to happen sooner or later.

“I know what I can do,” Della said. “Talk to my dad. He has to know he didn’t do this. If she hears him say it, she’ll believe it.”

Holiday frowned. “Okay… I see why you think that would work, but…” She paused. “How are you going to explain any of this without telling him—”

“Telling him the truth?” Della finished for her. “Maybe it’s time I tell him.”

Holiday shook her head. “I’m not sure, with the trial and an angry ghost, that this is the time for that kind of talk.”

“Will there ever be a right time for this kind of talk?”

“There might be a better time. I’ll tell you what. Instead, why don’t you let me try to make her go away? I’ve been reading up on it. It wouldn’t be hurting her. Just blocking her.”

“And you don’t think that would hurt her?”

Holiday made a face, but couldn’t deny it.

“No,” Della said. Her idea was better.

Looking over her shoulder, she noted the sun streaming into Holiday’s windows. The bright rays hit the crystals hanging around her office and sent spirals of color dancing on the walls.

Not the weather to attempt a daylight flight.

She could wait until tonight, but damn it, she might lose her nerve. Plus, she wanted to talk to him alone, not with her mom. He’d be at work. That was the perfect place. He wouldn’t freak out too much. Not with his coworkers around.

“How about a cup of chamomile tea?” Holiday suggested.

She didn’t want tea, but a glance at Holiday’s desk and Della changed her answer. “Tea sounds good,” she lied and felt guilty for it.

Of course, lying was a sin, and grand theft auto was a felony. But it didn’t stop her from snagging the keys to the school’s silver Corolla and getting the hell out of Dodge before Holiday called out asking if she wanted sugar with that tea.

***

Della’s phone rang. Holiday’s number flashed on the screen.

Della cut it off, with good reason. It was dangerous to talk and drive. Oh, yeah, she’d use that excuse.

Trying to fight the urgency flowing through her veins, she drove, never passing the speed limit. It was bad enough she was driving a stolen car. She didn’t need a speeding ticket on top of it. Nope, Chase wasn’t here to pick it up for her.

Not now. Not now! She didn’t want to think about him. Her heart could only break so much. He was keeping something from her. And if he’d been thinking about her, couldn’t he have sent her a text? Given her a call? Yeah, he could have. But he hadn’t.

An hour later, Della parked her car at her dad’s work.

She leaned forward and looked up at the high-rise in the northeast side of Houston. She felt a slight breeze of cold air. That’s when she realized that since she’d come up with this plan, the flashes of death had stopped. It seemed her aunt was happy with her decision.

She got out of the car, walked in, and hit the elevator button for the ninth floor. Cool air brushed against her skin as the floor numbers flashed.

She recalled Holiday’s warning about having an angry ghost and it not being the time to talk.

“No throwing boxes! No throwing anything!”

The elevator doors opened.

Della stepped out and into her father’s workplace.

The receptionist, an older half-Chinese lady who went by the name Lucy looked up and greeted her with a fake smile. That smile changed into a real one when she recognized Della.

“Well, Miss Tsang. You’re growing like a weed. Look at you. You’re practically an adult now.”

Yeah, there was something about stealing a car that probably was going to get her tried as an adult. Of course, the breaking and entering she’d done last night was an adult crime too. She was just a regularly criminal now.

“It happens.” She forced a smile. “I was hoping to see my dad. Can I just walk on through?” She started for the door. It didn’t make that clicking sound saying it was unlocked.

She took three steps back and looked at Lucy.

The woman shook her head and had a sad face. “Well, I… I…”

Had her dad told them not to let her back? Was he that afraid of her?

“Your dad isn’t in.”

“Late lunch?” Della asked.

“No. He… hasn’t been in for two weeks. He said he needed to focus on the…”

“The trial,” Della said. But there was a problem. And a big one. She’d been home last week, and he’d left for work every day. Had he just not told her mom? Embarrassed that he couldn’t handle it?

Probably.

Della faked another smile and hurried back down and sat in her stolen car. Her chest ached for her dad. For her whole damn family.

She almost changed her mind. Confronting him about this would hurt him. But was it so wrong to need the truth?

And that’s when it hit. Bao Yu needed the truth. Della didn’t. She knew the truth. Her father hadn’t killed his sister.

But she hadn’t come here just about that. He talked about being attacked by a monster. It was about making him see her. Making him know she wasn’t the monster he considered her to be.

Della inhaled. “Where are you, Dad? Where are you hiding out?”

Just to make sure her dad hadn’t already come clean about his nonwork status, she dialed her mom.

She answered. “Why aren’t you in school?”

“Taking a break.” A long one. “Is Dad there?”

“No, he’s at work. Is something wrong?”

Hell, yes . “No. I just missed him.” Her heart dropped when she realized how true that was. She’d missed him for months. “Later.”

She heard her mom say her name.

“Later,” Della promised.

She rested her head on the steering wheel and tried to think. Where would her dad go to spend his days if he wasn’t at work?

***

Chase and Burnett walked around the empty house with a foreclosure sign out front. They had taken Chase’s car, but Burnett had insisted on driving. Chase didn’t know if Burnett didn’t trust Chase behind the wheel or if he just liked his car. He hoped the latter.

This was the third place they’d gone today from Kirk’s list and it appeared to be another one to simply scratch off his list. He couldn’t help but worry that this was a wild goose chase.

“You know, I don’t get why he’d be at any of these places and live and work at the apartment.”

“I checked, and all of the addresses you have were recently purchased, in different people’s names—but one of them was Don Williams, the alias that he used in France. He was either putting up his gang, or making sure he had several hideouts.”

Burnett hadn’t promised to ignore any information about Eddie that Stone might give, but he had promised to personally do the interview with Stone, and not hand anything over until he’d looked into it himself.

And since Burnett had called Chase at five this morning and told him to meet him at the FRU office, Chase suspected Burnett had already investigated some things.

They walked up onto the porch, both of them raising their faces to catch any scents and listen for any signs of someone hidden inside.

Chase got nothing.

“Where to next?” Burnett asked, and they started back to Chase’s car.

Before Chase could answer, Burnett’s phone rang. “Hey, babe,” the man answered.

Chase walked ahead to give Burnett privacy. But he stopped walking when he heard Burnett’s signature word for trouble.

“Shit!”

***

Della parked in front of the restaurant. The smell of fried rice filled the air. It was the same restaurant her grandparents used to own. The top floor was now used for storage, but it was where her father had lived for the first seven years of his life.

The Chinese couple who’d bought the place from her grandparents still owned it. And her dad brought her here regularly. And while they ate hot and sour soup and fried rice, he’d always tell her about his mother and father and his sister. Little did she know that during all of those talks, he’d been deceiving her about his other two siblings.

Yeah, the fact that he’d had a twin and another sister never came up.

Pushing away anger, she leaned forward, trying to see through the glass window to check out the patrons sitting at the tables.

In the back table, sitting by himself, she saw him. He had a paper in his hands, but she could see the side of his face, and his posture. And the way his hair stuck up in the back gave him away.

Tears filled her eyes. He’d been hiding out every day so he wouldn’t have to tell her mom he couldn’t face the thought that his associates might think he was guilty. Squaring her shoulders, she pushed the pity away, because she was about to upset him a lot more.

But it was time.

For Bao Yu and for Della.

***

“What is it?” Chase asked when Burnett hung up and started for the car.

“Your girlfriend,” Burnett said.

“My… Della?” No one had called her that, and Chase liked it.

“Yes. Or do you make out with any girl while you’re on a case?”

“No.” Chase smiled. “Just her.” Then he noticed Burnett’s expression. “Is something wrong?”

“Yes. She took the school’s car and is going to confront her dad.”

“About the murder?”

“Probably about everything.”

“It was bound to happen sooner or later. She’s pretty sure he knows she’s vampire,” Chase said.

Burnett shook his head. “Yeah, and her biggest fear is that he thinks she’s a monster. She doesn’t need to know how right she is.”

Burnett dialed a number. “Della’s on the loose, she’s trying to go see her father. Do you have him in your sights?”

“Yes,” Shawn said on the line.

“Della’s in a 2013 silver Corolla. Don’t let her talk to him. I’m heading that way just in case.”

Burnett hung up. “Let’s see if the little spitfire will answer me.”

Spitfire, Chase thought. Yeah, that was Della.

Chase heard it go to voice mail. “Della, I need to talk to you. Now!” Burnett growled. He looked at Chase. “Do you think she’d take a call from you?”

Considering their last few conversations, Chase doubted it, but he pulled out his phone. He left almost the same message.

He met Burnett’s gaze. “What do you know?”

Burnett started walking to Chase’s car. “I know that Della’s father is an idiot. And I know Della has a pissed-off ghost following her around.”

“What else?” Chase asked, knowing there was more.

Burnett frowned. “When I called to tell her father that Della needed to come back to school, he informed me that he didn’t want her coming back to his house again. Ever.”

Burnett raked a palm over his face in frustration. “Then yesterday he sent an anonymous email to the police naming Della as a suspect in the Chis’ murder. He gave the cops the name of the school.”

“Goddamn him!” Chase seethed, his eyes growing hot.

“So far they haven’t contacted us,” Burnett said, “but if the Chis’ case doesn’t get wrapped up quickly, they will.”

“Someone needs to teach him a lesson!” Chase said. “And I volunteer! Let’s go.” Chase stopped at his car. “Maybe that bastard did kill his sister!”

Burnett shook his head, and opened the locks but didn’t get in. “He didn’t. Something happened that night, however, that makes him think he did.” He exhaled and blinked as if trying to control his own anger.

“Believe me, I’ve looked under every rock, every leaf that man ever walked past. I’ve searched everywhere, hoping to find the smallest reason to beat the holy shit out of him!”

“How he treats Della isn’t enough reason?” Chase snapped.

“Yeah, but the kicker is that he’s a decent man. He’s a good husband, and until Della got turned, he was practically up for the father of the year award. Why else do you think she loves him so much?”

“But what about how he treats her now?”

“I know. I’d like to knock some sense into him too. But the only thing that makes sense is that her being turned somehow brought back all of these terrible memories. I think until then he either managed to forget or believe it was a dream. Now he’s scared. And not for himself, but for his family.”

“Then let’s not beat the crap out of him, let’s just talk to him.”

“Not now,” Burnett said. “We need to get this trial over with. If he loses it, he could hurt his case. And we both know if he gets convicted Della wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

***

Della walked to the door. Put her hand on the handle. I love you, Daddy. I just need to understand and you need to understand.

She’d practiced what she’d say on the ride over here. Now she took a deep breath and, holding it, she walked inside. She walked past the booth where her dad had told her he had done his homework every evening. She walked past the huge lion that her dad claimed he used to climb on as child. She walked past the picture of her grandparents that still hung on the wall.

Finally, she plopped her butt across from her dad.

She saw his paper stiffen. And only then did she breathe.

Only then did she realize her mistake.

The scent of vampire filled her nose.

“Hello, Della,” her uncle said.