“What did you get?” Chase asked as Della jumped in the car.
“Let’s go,” she said, her heart racing, and looking back to make sure her aunt hadn’t followed her out. Which she would have heard, but she still had to check. Then she felt sweat pop up on her forehead. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d sweated.
He started the car and pulled down the street. Then he glanced at her again as he revved the engine and put it in second gear. “What happened?”
The gears in her mind spun with what to tell him. Or how much to tell him. Didn’t she trust him? “I know how Natasha is connected to me now.”
“How?” He cut his green gaze toward her.
“She’s my cousin.”
His brow creased and he looked puzzled. “That’s impossible. There’s only four of you. You and Marla and Chan and Meiling.”
There was something about how he named them off so easily. No, it wasn’t how he named them, it was that he knew the names. How did he know Chan’s sister’s name?
It occurred to her that Chan could have told him. But had she told him her sister’s name? She didn’t think so.
She just stared at him. “How do you know that?”
“Know what?” he asked.
“Their names?”
His eyes widened as if the question put him in the hot seat. He looked back at the road. “It was in the file,” he said. “So your aunt had another child?”
She ignored his inquiry to ask her own. “What file?”
He changed gears again. The car’s engine purred. “The file I got on you and Chan. Just like the file I showed you on Natasha and Liam.”
“That was the FRU’s file,” she said.
“Yeah, but the Vampire Council’s files are practically the same.”
There it was again, the feeling that he knew more than he’d told her. “Do you still have that file?”
“No,” he said without looking at her. “Once a case is over, you turn it back in.”
“What else did it say?”
“Just normal stuff. Where you lived, your parents’ names.”
Something wasn’t adding up, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. “So, if you knew their names, why didn’t you get that it was my aunt that called when we were in the closet?”
He lifted up one eyebrow and half smiled. “When we were in the closet, I had my mind on something else.”
She frowned at him. Then bam, her brain found that thing that bothered her. “So, in this file you had, it listed that I was at Shadow Falls?”
“Yes.”
She tightened her eyes. “Then why did you join the Blades? You told me you’d joined them looking for me and that’s where we met.”
He stared straight ahead and his hands tightened on the steering wheel.
“Answer me, damn it! And look at me when you do it!”
He turned and met her gaze. “The Vampire Council knew you were being sent on that mission. They didn’t want me going into Shadow Falls at first because they were afraid Burnett would be on to me.”
“How?” she asked.
“How what?” he came back.
“How did you know I was going on that mission?”
His jaw muscles tightened. “Why are we talking about this instead of talking about how this visit is going to help us find Natasha and Liam?”
“Because I need to trust you to work with you.”
He jerked the car over into a parking lot, cut off the engine, and then slammed his hand on the steering wheel. “You don’t trust me? I gave you my blood, went through the turn with you—which was damn painful, in case you don’t remember—and I gave you some of my power. And you still think I’m out to hurt you?”
Fueled by his anger, she squared off. “I didn’t say you would hurt me. I think you’re hiding things. Or not telling me things. And just for the record, I didn’t ask you to bond with me. I seem to remember telling you I didn’t want you to do it!”
He growled, tightened his grip on the steering wheel, pressed his head back, and closed his eyes. “You are the most stubborn—”
“Not any more than you!” she seethed. “Just answer my questions. How did you know I was going on that mission?”
He turned his head, loosening his grip on the wheel. “And you’ll report it right back to Burnett, correct?”
She didn’t see any reason to lie. “Probably.”
He exhaled loudly. “So, to win your trust, I have to betray the council?”
“Yes,” she said.
He looked appalled that she’d made it that clear.
He stared at her for a second as if debating, and then answered. “There’s a leak in the FRU. And before you ask, I don’t know who it is. And from what I hear, they don’t even give away anything that would really be detrimental to the organization.”
She believed him, not so much about the detrimental part, but about him not knowing who it was. But since he was finally answering questions, she had a few more. “What was the mission with me and Chan?”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“What exactly was your mission?” she repeated, her patience thinning.
“I was to check on you, attempt to help you both through the rebirth.”
“So, you were sent to bond with one of us?”
“No, that was totally at my discretion. I was there to try to make sure you kept up your strength. I told you that it’s been proven that those who are in better physical condition have a higher survival rate. Remember me making you run?”