Della refocused on Burnett. “Are you going to continue to work on the case? Investigate other leads?”
“We don’t have any other leads,” Burnett said.
I do. She thought about the Facebook message she’d received from Lindsey, Lorraine’s friend, about the Crimson Blood band. “Lorraine had an old boyfriend and her friends think he could have done this.”
Burnett stared at her as if she’d completely lost it. “This was a vampire kill.”
“I know, and maybe he’s—”
“We don’t follow maybes. We follow leads and it looks as if this lead is good.”
“The name of his band—”
“You’re grasping at straws.”
Della gritted her teeth. Burnett had his mind made up. She had to talk to Kevin. “Can I leave now?”
Burnett grimaced and looked at Holiday.
“It’s late,” Holiday said, and again rubbed her belly.
“Fine,” Burnett said. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”
Yes, they would, Della thought, and she hoped she had something to tell him about Phillip Lance. Something that would help Billy Jennings.
Della was only halfway to her cabin when she pulled out her phone and searched for Kevin’s text message.
U still n Houston? I need to c u.
She stopped walking and closed her eyes as the message sent. Would he see it? Answer it?
Staring at her phone, she saw the little icon that told her she had voicemail. From Steve.
Biting at her lip, maybe because she thought she couldn’t feel more than she was feeling now, she clicked it open and put the phone to her ear.
“I know you’re not speaking to me, but I just want you to know that I’m sorry. And while I wasn’t the one who initiated the kiss, I know I’d be pissed if someone kissed you. So get mad at me. I deserve it, but … damn it, Della, I care about you. I don’t care about her. It’s you I want. Please, call me.”
Emotion tugged at her heart. What she wouldn’t give for him to be here now—to just hold her, to help her understand all the craziness that was going on.
She had her finger over Redial, and hesitated. What was she going to say to him?
Her phone dinged with an incoming text.
From Kevin.
C me about what? Another favor? U really r going to owe me. We’re talking getting naked.
He put a smiley face beside it. She hoped that meant he was joking. But what the hell? She’d already been accused of being a prostitute. She wouldn’t do it, but he didn’t know that.
Whatever. Where r u?
Close to ur camp. Where do u want to meet?
Della considered jumping the fence—meeting him somewhere in Fallen. Burnett would have a fit. She’d have hell to pay. Then it hit her, why not do what Chase did with whoever the hell he was in cahoots with, and have Kevin meet her at the fence? As long as he didn’t touch the fence they should be fine. No reason to break a rule when one could just bend it a little.
She texted Kevin back and gave him the exact location where to meet her. Do not jump or touch the fence.
Ten minutes later, Della waited by the fence line where the creek ran through. Sitting on a fallen tree, she hugged her knees close. The cold air found its way under her shirt and brought goose bumps to her skin, which probably meant her temperature wasn’t right. The night noises echoed in the distance. A chorus of frogs, insects, and a few small critters scurrying in the brush trying to stay warm.
Feeling alone, she pulled her phone out to keep her company. She remembered Steve’s voicemail. She checked her text messages and found one from him she hadn’t read.
Miss u.
She missed him, too. Closing her eyes, feeling the lack of sleep, she dropped her forehead on her knees. She envisioned his face. His smile. The soft way he kissed and how that kiss slowly became hotter and hotter.
Guilt whispered over her for kissing Chase. She’d done it to keep their cover. Hadn’t she? Or had the seed the little witch planted in her head sprouted and led her down that path?
Right then it occurred to her that she was no longer so angry at Steve for … for letting Jessie kiss him. Hurt maybe, but not angry. She couldn’t even be mad that he’d enjoyed it. She had enjoyed Chase’s kiss, hadn’t she?
Could Miranda’s idea have worked? No, she told herself. Two wrongs still didn’t make a right, but maybe walking in his shoes, she realized the kiss didn’t mean he didn’t care about her, or that he would necessarily do it again.
She wouldn’t kiss Chase again. Wouldn’t let him kiss her again, either.
Would she?
No.
Sitting up, she looked back at her phone and Steve’s text, and typed in: Let’s talk this weekend, ok? It took her longer to hit the Send button than it did to type it.
Within less than thirty seconds she got a text back: Ok. Miss you.
Her heart gripped. He had to be awake, watching his phone. Hoping she’d text or call him. The memory of the pain she’d seen in his eyes when they’d argued had her lungs releasing air. She typed back. Miss u too.
A few seconds later, another ding came in: Want to talk now? I’ll call Burnett and come.
Panic stirred inside her. Not just because she was waiting on Kevin, but because she wasn’t altogether ready to talk to Steve. Was she going to tell him about Chase? Was she going to agree to … make this thing between them real? Or was she simply going to expect things to go on like they were? Nope, she wasn’t ready to talk to him yet.
No. This weekend. Ok?
Ok.
She heard a distant noise and slipped her phone in her pocket. Tilting her head, she focused on the slight sound. Footsteps, soft, came treading her way. They came from the other side of the fence. Filling her nose with air, she hoped her sense of smell had returned and that she’d recognize Kevin’s scent. She got nothing.
While the sound of steps continued, the forest noises stopped. No birds, no insects, even the trees stood silently against the wind.
It had to be Kevin, she told herself. But remembering how she got clobbered on the head not too long ago, she rose and stood behind a tree. Leaning slightly around the trunk, she fixed her eyes in the direction the sound came from.
Chapter Thirty
Della spotted Kevin moving through the brush. He lifted his nose in the air, testing it to find her.
“I’m here.” She stepped out from the tree and started toward the fence.
He walked closer, and was about to latch on to the fence post when she said, “Stop. I told you not to touch the fence.”