Cadence hadn’t really slept for the second night in a row. She had been up past 3:00 with Aaron trying to get the Philly team on track and figure out where Giovani may have disappeared to, but it had been a comedy of errors, and she couldn’t help but wonder what in the world they needed to do to get these area teams on target. Once she finally did go to bed, she had tossed and turned and had possibly gotten two hours of restless sleep--if that.
At 7:30, she arrived at the office she shared with Aaron. He had already been there for hours talking to various members of their team via IAC, trying to determine who should be involved and who shouldn’t. Even though Cadence didn’t typically drink coffee, she stopped at Mrs. Carminati’s Keurig on her way into the office. It was going to be another long day.
He was sitting at the conference table with a pile of papers spread out in front of him, clearly in deep thought. He glanced up as she came in, but she could tell he was in the middle of a conversation, so she chose not to disturb him just yet, sitting the coffee she had poured for him down away from the papers and taking a seat beside him. The bitter, scolding hot liquid didn’t go down well, and she remembered why she didn’t usually drink it.
After a moment, he smiled at her and leaned over and kissed her. “Did you get any sleep?” he asked, a concerned expression on his face.
“Not really,” she admitted. “I tried, but I just couldn’t stop thinking about last night.”
“Yeah, it was quite a debacle,” he sighed, sitting back in his chair and rubbing his forehead.
There was really nothing she could say in response to that, so she said, “Tell me what you have in mind for this morning.”
“Well,” he began, “I assumed you’d want Meagan and Aurora with you, so they should be here in a few minutes, along with Hannah and Jamie. I went ahead and told Shane he could come, too.”
“What? Why?” Cadence asked, surprised.
“He knew about it from Meagan, and he made a good point—how is he ever going to prove he can handle these types of road trips if I never give him an opportunity?”
“By not being a dumbass on local hunts, maybe?” Cadence argued.
Aaron laughed. “While that’s true—usually—he did a pretty good job for Aurora and Hannah last night, so I thought we’d give him a chance. We can let him supervise part of the Philly team or something.”
“Your call,” Cadence shrugged. “As long as he stays out of the way and doesn’t get himself killed, I guess I don’t care.”
“Jamie said Brandon and Cass were asking to come this morning, and I agreed to it so long as they just observe and don’t say a word. I thought it might be a good chance to find out if they can follow directions or if either of them happens to take after you.”
Cadence opened her mouth and then closed it sharply once before saying, “I want to argue with that, but I can’t. Okay. Who else?”
“We’ll have Cale and Morgan on via FaceTime feeds, as well as Andrew from Philly,” he said gesturing toward the giant TV screen on the wall. “Stormy will be listening in on the IAC, but she’s already in the air headed that way, as is Christian.”
“Sounds good,” Cadence said, despite her trepidation at working with Stormy again. She was looking forward to seeing Cale, even though it might be a little awkward. Still, she knew he could help them. “And?”
“And Eliza is also in route to Philly—so she’ll be joining us over IAC as well.” Cadence groaned, and he continued. “I know, I know. But she’s already involved—at your suggestion—so we may as well let her see it through. She won’t be leading anything, and I’ve already told her that if she screws up one iota she’s going back to Siberia, no questions asked.”
“I’m so glad you’re having such frequent conversations with your ex-girlfriend,” Cadence said, plastering a sappily fake smile on her face.
“Hey, Cale will be there, too, so maybe the four of us can go out on the town and catch up.”
She laughed. “That would be a load of fun!” Even though she hadn’t dated him for long, the thought of Cale spending any time with Eliza made her nauseous, and since the dragons were still at war from yesterday, she pushed the thought out of her mind. “What about Laney?”
He exhaled sharply, telling her this must be a touchy subject. “I sort of wanted her to come. She’s been chasing him forever, after all, but she is busy in Africa still. And I’m hesitant to put her in the field with you under the circumstances.”
Cadence was surprised. “What do you mean?”
He hesitated again, and she wondered if there was something he wasn’t telling her. “I just want to proceed with caution when it comes to her. If we can leave her alone and let her keep doing what she has been doing, then I think we should leave it at that. I told her about it, and she didn’t seem like she was dying to join us. Besides, that’s such a long flight, I’m not even sure she’d make it in time.”
“Speaking of time, how long will it take Giovani to turn Gibbon?”
“Honestly, it’s probably already done,” Aaron admitted. “But turning him is one thing. Making him loyal is something else entirely. That may take a while.”
“So, we need to find him before that happens.”
“That would be nice, but I don’t think it is likely. I don’t think we’ll find Giovani until he’s ready to be found. And when we do find him, Gibbon will be unlike anything you’ve ever faced before.”
