“Cadence you are never going to believe what I found!” her sister replied in an urgent voice.
“We--we found,” Lucy chimed in, sticking her head in front of the screen.
“Luce! I told you not to let her know you were here!” Cassidy yelled pushing her out of the way.
Cadence sighed and rolled her eyes. She knew her sister had her friends working on the footage project with her.
“Relax, Cass. Geeze!” Lucy said rubbing her arm. “I didn’t tell her anything else!” she whispered sharply, causing Cassidy to give her a stern look.
“What is it, Cass?” Cadence asked.
“It’s footage of Giovani getting off a small private plane in Austria!” Cassidy explained. “And his girlfriend is with him. And don’t worry--my friends have no idea why we were looking for him. They just wanted to help.”
Just then another head popped up behind Cassidy, and Cadence paused to say, “Hey, Emma. How are you?”
“Hi, Cadence,” the shyest of the three replied quietly.
“Cass, are you sure it’s Giovani? It’s not Charlie from Lost again, is it?” Cadence asked cautiously.
“God, Cadence! No, it’s him. I told you; we even saw his girlfriend,” Cassidy exclaimed.
“Okay, well, send me the footage, and I’ll look it over,” Cadence said, calmly.
Cassidy’s forehead creased. “Fine. But, why aren’t you more excited? You don’t believe us, do you?”
“I do!” Cadence assured her. “It’s just… we pretty much already knew he was over there. We just haven’t been able to find him. And while it’s great to have confirmation, it doesn’t really help… that much.”
“What?” Lucy screeched, jumping back into the shot. “We’ve been pouring over this video footage for half of our lives, and you don’t think it helps? OMG!”
Cadence held the phone back from her face a bit, as if she was afraid Lucy might climb through it and slug her. “I’m not saying it isn’t useful. I’m sorry--look I’m getting ready to go on a… job… thing, and I’m kind of thinking about that right now, so just send it over, and we’ll look at it. We appreciate your help.”
“What if we could somehow use this footage in combination with other exterior shots of the airport, now that we have a timestamp, to see if we could track where he went after he arrived in Austria?” Emma was asking.
“Now, that would be helpful,” Cadence agreed.
“You are infuriating,” Lucy muttered stepping back out of the shot.
“I love you, too, Luce. But Emma, I’m not sure what kind of footage we can access. I’ll get this over to Christian and have him check on that okay?”
“Fine,” Cassidy said again. “Well, be careful….” She paused midsentence, and her face scrunched up again.
“What’s wrong, Cass?” Cadence asked.
“Who is that guy you’re with?” Cassidy asked slowly and quietly, as if he somehow couldn’t hear her that way.
Cadence realized now that Brandon had leaned into the shot. “Oh, um, this is Brandon.”
“Hi, Cassidy,” he said smiling. “How are you? I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Yeah, hi,” she said, the puzzled look still on her face. “Nice to meet you.”
Lucy jumped back over into the screen. One look at Brandon, and her eyes narrowed as well. “Brandon? Wow, you look a lot like…”
“Elliott,” Cassidy whispered.
“Yeah, that conversation is going to have to wait until another time, Sis,” Cadence replied, shoving Brandon away from her phone. “Aaron and I seriously have to go.”
“Okay,” Cassidy muttered, her face still puzzled.
“Bye, Cassidy. It was nice to see you!” Brandon said, ducking back in front of the phone before Cadence pushed him away again.
Cassidy just nodded, and while Cadence hated leaving her hanging like that, she didn’t have time to explain right that second. “I’ll call you in the morning, okay?” Cadence assured her.
“All right. Be careful,” Cassidy managed before she disconnected the call.
“Thanks a lot, dingle dork,” Cadence spat, practically pushing Brandon out of the booth.
“What?” he said, recovering enough to keep from falling on the floor.
“She doesn’t know about you,” Aaron explained, seeing that Cadence had lost her cool a bit. “She has no idea that Elliott had a son. And she was really close to him.”
“I guess she knows now,” Cadence reminded them, crossing her arms.
“Why is that a bad thing?” Brandon asked. “I thought you were all so happy to have found me.”
“We are,” Cadence agreed. “But I would have liked to have told her about you in person.”
“Oh, well, you’ve only had, like, four months,” he replied.
“Okay, look, there’s nothing we can do about it now,” Aaron said calmly. “I’m sure Cass will be fine.”
“I guess so,” Cadence admitted. “I just hate thinking she’s upset.”
“I think she’s more upset that you didn’t like her news than about me,” Brandon replied haughtily.
Before Cadence could reply, Aaron jumped in. “Regardless, we have a hunt to go on, so we need to get changed and get out of here. And Brandon, I’m sure your mom is probably starting to wonder where you are.”
Brandon’s expression shifted noticeably, a look of sadness and then irritation displayed before indifference took over. “Trust me, she won’t have any idea what time I get in.”
Aaron raised an eyebrow for a moment but decided now was not the time. “Cadence, are you ready to go?” he asked, hoping she had calmed down.
“Yes,” she replied, with a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry, Brandon,” she added. “I shouldn’t have gotten upset at you. It’s just… hard being reminded of your… of Elliott. But it’s also really great to be around you. You’re a lot like him. And I guess I just hated to think of Cassidy knowing you’re out there, that you exist, but that you’re never going to be a part of her life, because she really misses him, too.”
Brandon put his arm around her. “I know you miss my dad,” he said quietly. “And I’m glad I remind you of him. But… I’m not him. I never even got to meet him.”
“I know, and I hate that for you. Because he was….”
“Irreplaceable,” Aaron offered.
Cadence considered that response; Brandon could never truly replace Elliott. She needed to find a way to accept that. “Yes,” she agreed. “But you’re pretty damn special in your own right.”
“Thanks,” Brandon said squeezing her. “I’m glad you guys came.”
“Me, too,” Cadence replied, smiling up at him.
“Oh, hell,” Aaron said, slamming his hands down on the table, causing them both to look up in surprise. “I really hope I don’t regret this, but what the heck. All right, Brandon. You can come with us. But you will stay exactly where I tell you to the entire time, got it?”
Brandon’s eyes widened. “Are you serious?”
“What?” Cadence asked over the IAC. “Are you feeling okay?”
“I know. I may have lost my ever-loving mind. But it might be the only way we can get him onboard.” Aaron explained. “You’ve got this, right?
“Sure,” Cadence confirmed. “He’ll be fine. But I think there might be something wrong with you.”
“Yep, let’s go before he changes his mind,” Cadence said, pushing him out of the booth. “I hope you don’t scare easily.”
“Who me? Nah, I’m not afraid of a little Vampire,” Brandon assured her, absently wondering what in the world he had gotten himself into. If Vampires really did exist, he wasn’t sure he wanted the only thing standing between him and a bloodsucker to be a five-foot-eight brunette who may or may not be crazy.
