“I have a safe in my office.” The manager kept talking on and on. “I can’t just let anyone come back here. You should arrest them,” the balding guy told Burnett. “I don’t think…”
Burnett swung around and faced the guy and gave him his best glare. “Shut up!” he snapped. “One more word, and I’ll have the health department out here before you throw out that expired meat you’re cooking. And I saw about fifteen other violations just walking in here.”
Chase leaned in. “That badge sure does come in handy.”
Della looked over her shoulder at him. “I know.” It was the first positive thing Chase had said about the FRU, and she couldn’t help but wonder if he wasn’t coming around.
Burnett didn’t have to say anything else for Mr. Manager to become cooperative. And after Burnett posed the question of who had run out the back, he started singing like a happy bird. “It was one of my new employees. He came in, went to run the register, and the next thing we know, he’s flying out the back so fast we barely saw him. Then these two jumped the counter like they’re superhumans.”
“Get me everything you’ve got on the guy. Now!” Burnett ordered when the man didn’t move fast enough for him.
The manager tore off to his office. Before Burnett followed him, he came over to Chase and Della and in a low voice he said, “The DNA was negative on Liam.”
Della wanted to kiss him. Hell, Chase looked happy enough to kiss him.
A feeling washed over her. A feeling she really, really liked. Hope. Natasha and Liam were alive and she was going to do everything in her power to make sure they stayed that way. Della had to swallow four or five times not to let the tears of joy fill her eyes.
When Burnett followed the guy into the office, Chase brushed the back of his hand against Della’s. A gentle touch, but it spoke loudly. Chase felt it, too. Hope. Amazing how much one appreciated that feeling when it had been robbed from you.
“What did Red do?” one of the guys hanging in the back asked.
“Red?” Della asked. “That’s his name?”
“That’s what we call him. Red hair and all.”
Red hair? Della’s mind started playing connect-the-dots again and she found more dots than she expected. The last red-haired guy she’d encountered had been a were at the cemetery where Chan was buried. The cemetery where the security guards had worn uniforms. And on the uniforms had been a … cross emblem.
Suddenly, she heard Chase’s remark from earlier: This is like … a tomb or something. She turned to Chase. “I know where they are.”
Burnett came walking out of the office, looking surprised and somewhat content that he’d gotten something useful.
“He worked at the graveyard, didn’t he? Evert something, right?” Della asked.
Burnett nodded. “How did you know?”
“They said they called him Red because of his red hair. And Natasha and Liam had tattoos—like a brand—similar to the ones on the uniforms of the security guards at the cemetery. They have them there, Burnett, in some kind of underground tomb.”
He pulled out his phone. “We’ll turn that graveyard upside down if we have to. I’ll have some agents meet us.”
* * *
It was dark when they got to the cemetery. Della glanced up at the moon, only a day from being full, which meant the weres would be at their most powerful. Not that it concerned her now.
They landed at the front entrance. The silver moonlight brushed against a rusty metal gate, baring the cross symbol. She could kick herself for not remembering it earlier. But she had no kicking time. Three other vampire agents showed up within seconds. Della inhaled and got hints of were just outside the gate. And Red was amongst them, too.
Burnett paired them up and sent them each to a side of the cemetery where they would enter. “Chances are the guards aren’t cooped up in the office. They are probably walking the grounds. If we get the graveyard surrounded they’ll have less chance of escaping. Let’s get these guys,” he said and glanced up at the moon. “Remember, they’re at their most powerful right now.”
Della and Chase went to the west side of the cemetery as Burnett had ordered.
Right before they leapt over the fence, Della got a strong scent of were.
Chase glanced at her, letting her know he’d gotten it, too.
He held up three fingers, and when the last one went down, they both bolted over the six-foot fence.
Midway over the rusty posts, Della heard the weres talking. They were close. Too close.
The sound of her and Chase’s feet hitting the ground thudded in the dark.
The talking stopped. Silence echoed.
The guards either heard them or got their scent. Della didn’t care. She was ready to kick ass.
Chapter Forty-two
There were five. Even in the dark, Della spotted them running full force at them.
Chase cut his eyes to her as if making sure she was ready.
Hell yeah. For Natasha and Liam she was ready to do whatever it took.
She kicked her foot out, hitting the first were right in the gut, and sending him about five feet in the air. A tree waited on him. He slammed against the trunk with an ominous clunk, then slid to the ground. His lack of muscle control told Della he was unconscious.
One down, four to go.
Nope. Make that three. Chase got in a right hook, and another were fell to the ground, out cold.
Two more came at Della … with knives. The silver of the blades reflected in the moon’s glow.