Della went to refill her diet soda and got that first hint of … were.
She swung around and looked at Chase. He’d obviously smelled it, too, because he was already on his feet.
“Is that it?” he asked.
She inhaled again, waiting for her sensory bank to start pulling up old files. And then, bing. It hit. “That’s it!” she whispered, and had to lower her upper lip to hide her extending canines. Not from danger, but from her determination not to lose the dog this time.
She started looking around. A group of three guys sat in one corner, all of them with hats on.
She moved closer to the three, checking if they were were. A noise suddenly clattered in the front of the restaurant.
“Where are you going?” someone called.
“What the hell did he run for?” someone else asked.
Della turned around and the closer she got to the chaos, the stronger the scent got. She arrived at the counter, and not willing to lose this creep, she leapt over it and shot between the fryers and grills, dodging several confused-looking employees.
She felt and heard Chase right behind her.
“You can’t be back here,” someone said, a manager-looking guy. A human manager guy.
She ignored him and followed her nose to the back. She went through a hall and then a prep room. She’d no more stepped foot in the prep room when a solid steel door leading outside slammed shut.
“Stop them!” yelled the manager dude.
Della surged forward, but about five Uck’s Burgers guys surrounded her and looked eager to do as their boss ordered. Chase was suddenly at her back. “Too many humans to let our power show,” he whispered in her ear.
Indecision boiled inside her. She wanted to barrel though them, yank that door from the wall, and see who’d just gone through it, but she knew Chase was right. Burnett had preached this lesson from the very beginning. Public displays of power were the biggest no-no.
She felt her eyes brighten and inhaled, thinking calming thoughts.
“Who just left here?” she asked.
“Who wants to know?” asked the manager dude. “I’ll need to tell the cops when I call them.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll call them for you.” Chase grabbed his phone.
She thought he was calling someone from the Vampire Council. But then she heard Burnett’s voice on the line. “What’s wrong?”
“We need some assistance at Uck’s. Someone just ran out the back to escape us and the manager and his employees aren’t cooperating.”
“I’ll be there in five.”
* * *
It only took three minutes. Burnett walked in, his badge prominently hooked on his belt. He didn’t ask permission to go behind the counter. He didn’t jump over it, but his demeanor wasn’t any less intimidating. He came to stand right beside her and Chase and gave them a quick once-over.
“Who are you with?” the manager asked, gawking at the badge.
“FRU, an agency that works with the FBI for local cases.”
“What the hell is the FBI doing here?” He kept on rattling about how they’d lost a few customers due to the commotion. Then he started in about past robberies.
Burnett ignored him and turned to Della and Chase. “What happened?”
“We had a runner,” Chase said. “I think he might have recognized Della and escaped out the back, and these guys didn’t want us to go after him.”
“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.”