“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.”
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.
Out of the corner of her vision, she spotted six more weres charging toward them. Damn, that made a whole pack of ’em.
Four surrounded Chase. And two came to join the other two circling her.
She went to kick one back to make it better odds, when another jabbed a knife into her arm.
She felt the pain.
Smelled the blood.
And just got plain ol’ pissed off.
Chase’s growl filled the night air. Fearing he was hurt, she cut her eyes his way.
His eyes glowed bright red, his fangs completely extended, but she got the feeling his reaction came from her injury. Not his own.
That one-second glance cost her. The weres now stood closer. Too close. Hands, feet, knives, they came at her all at once. But she moved with power, blocking, and even landing a few blows, as she moved.
She caught one were by the wrist, swung him around, and let him take the next few blows from his friends. He grunted, groaned as feet connected with his ribs.
When his friends stopped hitting him, she used her captive as a bowling ball. Chan, her champion bowler, would have been proud. He’d have called it a spare, because only one remained standing.
Just as she moved in to take him out, Burnett showed up. He caught the were by one arm and swung him into a tree.
Della turned to help Chase. But instead, she watched him take down his last attacker.
Burnett looked around. “Considering the odds, you did good.” Then his eyes grew brighter as he moved closer to Della and smelled the blood on her shirt.
“It’s okay,” she muttered. Before Burnett could start coddling her, Chase shot over and did it for him. He ripped off her shirtsleeve to see the wound.
“It’s not bad,” she said.
Right then, the sound of fast-approaching footfalls sounded in her ear. All three spun around at the same time.
Della sucked air in her nose and caught the trace of one were. But he wasn’t alone. He was being chased by several vamps—the other FRU agents.
Then the were scent found its way into her memory bank.
“I got this,” she said and bolted forward.
In the silver light of the moon she caught sight of Red hauling ass toward her. He spotted her and turned his long-legged gait, moving fast back into the line of tall pine trees. But not fast enough.
“Girl Toy’s baaaacccck!” Della seethed as she tackled him, pressing him into the layer of pine straw covering the ground.
She put her knee in his back. “Move and I promise I’ll hit you where it hurts and you’ll be talking like a girl for weeks.”
When he didn’t fight back, she rolled him over and looked him dead in the eyes. “Where are they?” Fear filled the were’s eyes and for good reason. Della didn’t plan on asking twice.
* * *
Red, along with all of the other weres told the same story. The owner of the cemetery, Ramon Henderson, had taken part in the underground fights. But when news came from Dallas that the FRU was on to them, he packed his bags, took his best men, and flew to Mexico.
They also admitted there had been several fresh turns kept at the cemetery, but all they knew was that they were kept in burial vaults. Mr. Henderson and his top men had been in charge of them, and they just assumed he’d disposed of the evidence.
There were six burial vaults on the property. Keys with numbers on them hung on the office wall.
The first four were empty. As she, Burnett, Chase, and two other agents hurried through the cemetery to the fifth vault, she told herself not to panic. They were minutes from finding Natasha and Liam. We’re coming. We’re coming. She repeated in her head, somehow hoping Natasha and Liam could hear her.
The fifth vault proved difficult to open. Burnett rushed back to the office, found two sledgehammers in a storage room, and between him and Chase they brought the thick concrete door down.
And as soon as it crumbled, so did Della’s heart. The strong smell of death whooshed out as if seeking escape. The two agents shot back.
Burnett, gritting his teeth, looked back at her and Chase with empathy. “You two stay here,” he said as he stepped into the dark vault.
“No,” she cried and tried to follow, but Chase grabbed her. “Let him check.”
She fought Chase for a second, then she read the reasons in his eyes. If it was them, he didn’t want her to see them like this. He didn’t want to see them, either. Della leaned against Chase and fought to grasp tightly to her newfound hope. But the smell of death was so strong it threatened to destroy it.
In only a few seconds Burnett came out. He held his arm over the lower half of his face. His gaze went to Della and Chase. He lowered his arm and swallowed hard.
“Four bodies. Three male, one female. They are in too bad a shape to identify.” His voice came out tight as if the sight sickened him.
“It’s not them,” Della said, her pulse racing so fast she felt it fluttering in her throat. “They were alone.”
Burnett looked down as if seeking strength, and then up. “One female and male were alone in a room.”
Della felt doubt cut through her heart like glass.
“There’s still one tomb left.”
Burnett nodded, apparently not throwing in the towel yet, either. He turned to the others and gave orders for someone to call for a van to take the bodies in.
He picked up the sledgehammer, Chase grabbed the other, and the three of them went in search of the last vault. The last one was half way across the graveyard. They didn’t talk as they moved.
The moon gave off just enough light and turned some of the gravestones a milky white. When they came to the raised tomb, taller than Della, she didn’t think her heart even beat. She couldn’t seem to get enough oxygen into her lungs.
This was it. If Natasha and Liam weren’t in there …
The key didn’t want to turn the padlock that hung from the large concrete door. Burnett grabbed the sledgehammer and hit the lock and knocked it loose.
It took both her and Burnett to push the door open.
Darkness hung heavy in the tomb. Burnett switched on a flashlight. The beam of light moved left to right. Only a pile of concrete blocks filled the vault. No Liam. No Natasha.
Chase let out a breath. She felt him pull her closer, and they looked at each other. This near him she could see his eyes looked wet and hopeless. Frustration built up in Della so tight, she wanted to scream. She dropped to the floor, hugged her shins, and buried her head on her knees. They had failed. Della felt sick, her stomach heaved.
“Did you hear that?”
She recognized the voice and pulled in a shuddered breath. It wasn’t Chase or Burnett.
“Hear what?” She raised her face, but saw only darkness.
“That noise,” Liam said.
“They’re burying someone else,” Natasha said. “I don’t want to listen.”
“No, it was different. Listen.”
“No, I’m tired, Liam. I want to go to sleep forever.”
“Don’t say that.”
“They’re here!” Another voice sounded, but distantly, and Della realized it was Chase. “They’re here somewhere!”
“They’re not,” Burnett said. “We tried.”
Della came out of the vision just in time to see Chase grab his sledgehammer. “Do you hear this?” he screamed as he slammed into the stone wall and knocked a hole in the tomb.