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“Look, I’d better go now,” Della continued. “I’ll see you in bit. Oh, and again, I’m thrilled things worked out.”
“Me too,” Natasha said. “Don’t forget to come by; I can’t wait to see you.”
“I’ll be there.” Della hung up.
“You ready to do this?” Della motioned to Sam behind the window.
“Perry’s going in first,” Burnett said. “Then Chase and I.”
“Not me?”
“I think we have this,” Burnett said.
Chase saw Della flinch, but she tried to rein her frustrations in. She was constantly doing that. Except with him. She didn’t hold back with him. At least not with anger.
“Perry stepped out for air,” Della said.
“Just met him in the hall.” Burnett paused and glanced back at Chase. “Meanwhile, Mr. Tallman has just made it official. He’s an agent. Got his badge, suits, and everything.”
Della smiled at Chase, and it looked genuine—the kind of smile that reached her eyes, and made them twinkle a little brighter. He wanted to see that a hell of a lot more. See her happy, worry-free.
And he would, his gut told him. Just as soon as the problems with her father were resolved.
“Congratulations, Mr. Tallman,” Della said, her voice sounding sincere.
“Thank you.” If Burnett weren’t in the room, Chase would have moved in for a kiss, because he’d learned that whenever she allowed herself to smile, it meant her guard was down. And only then did she let him close.
What he wouldn’t give to knock that guard down for good. While he knew he needed to be patient, he couldn’t deny growing frustrated.
“It feels nice,” he said, and held out his hand, hoping a handshake would curb his desire for a kiss.
It looked as if she wasn’t going to accept it when he literally saw her guard go back up. But she slipped her hand into his. He took advantage of the moment and gently ran his thumb over her knuckles, hoping she felt that same spark of something wonderful that he did. Touching her was like sticking his finger into a happy socket. Nothing made him feel more alive.
From the quick way she retrieved her hand and the way her eyes widened, he knew she felt the electricity too. So why the hell was she fighting it?
Then through the two-way mirror, Chase saw Perry walk in and sit down across from his cousin, Sam. The two of them looked enough alike to be brothers.
“They send you in here to soften me up?” Sam asked.
“Maybe,” Perry said. “Look, you gotta tell them what you know, or you’re going to go down for a lot of shit.”
“I didn’t do anything but break into that school. What? Is that gonna get me sentenced to life?” Sarcasm rang from the guy’s voice.
“Don’t you get it?” Perry asked, his eyes turning gold. “You were helping that Stone guy, and that means you’ll be responsible for everything he did too. And from what I hear he’s a murderer.”
“Whoa. I didn’t hurt anyone. And hell, yeah, he’s a badass. And if I talk, he’ll come after me.”
“Then tell them what they want to know and let them catch him. If you go to jail, you know this guy is gonna think you’ll crater and talk. If he’s half as bad as you think he is, he has friends in low places. He’ll have you killed. Do you want to die?”
* * *
Thanks to Perry, it only took Chase and Burnett a few minutes to get the shape-shifter to spill his guts.
“I met the guy at the Get-Along Bar. It’s known to be friendly to half-breeds such as myself. He was vampire, but had a slightly weird pattern like … he had a bit of something else in him. He said his name was Michael Higby, but someone else told me he also went by Stone. I heard he hired a lot of down-on-their-luck bar patrons to do grunt work for him. That’s how I got here. But rumor had it he has a gang called the Bastards.”
“What kind of gang is it?” Burnett asked.
“I don’t know. Like I said, he was … vampire … Mostly, anyway. He approached me and said he needed a shape-shifter to break into a school. I was to spy on a—” He looked at Chase. “You. He wanted to know what you were doing at that school. It didn’t sound illegal. I thought you were like his long-lost kid or something. I was just trying to reunite a family, you know?”
