The first thing she did when she arrived in her apartment was contact her sister and let her know that Brandon would be picking her up Saturday instead of Cadence. While she was clearly put-out, she was also in the middle of algebra class and couldn’t argue and concentrate on instruction at the same time. Cadence assured her that she would fill her in on everything as soon as she could but that this mission was top secret, and Aaron didn’t even know about it. Cassidy’s profound response had been a resounding, “Whatev.”
Cadence spent the rest of the afternoon talking to various area leaders, helping them talk through their issues and catching up on how their training and recruiting programs were going. She required each of them to turn in a number of reports once a week, and she always tried to look at them and go over any anomalies the next week. They included kill rates by Hunter and Guardian, training time, number of new recruits, and potential promotions, which the leaders could ask for but she had to approve. This was a much more manageable system for her than what she had been doing at first, just trying to check in and see what was going on with every team or waiting for them to contact her. Now, she could be proactive and inspire change.
Another task that she didn’t like at all was payroll. She hadn’t even realized she would be getting paid for this job when she initially took it. Paying Hunters and Guardians made sense. After all LIGHTS couldn’t provide absolutely everything each of them needed. Aaron had attempted to explain to her where the funding actually came from, but she didn’t really understand it, and eventually he had just said, “Governments, private citizens who want protection, and investments are our main sources of income.”
Initially, she found out that Aaron handled payroll for everyone—in the world—by himself. That didn’t work for her. She took on the Hunters, found someone to create an automated program that would pay everyone the same unless a raise was manually entered, and also found someone to add the new recruits in each month in every area. Meagan handled the Kansas City office for her. So, once a month, she ran the program and looked for changes, checked them, and issued checks. So much easier than doing everything one person at a time….
She hoped eventually Aaron would realize her methods may help him as well, but he didn’t seem interested in changing, and she didn’t pressure him. By the time he returned home to get his luggage, she was done with her weekly check-ins and payroll was ready to be issued at the end of the month—which happened to be next Wednesday.
“What are you working on?” he asked as he walked into the office she had off of the living room.
“Just finished payroll,” she replied, sticking her tongue out.
“Already?” he asked. “The end of the month isn’t until next week.”
“I know, but nothing will change between now and then,” she reminded him, not pointing out again that she intended to be busy that day.
He let it go, knowing it was yet another topic they disagreed on. She followed him out of the room and into the bedroom where he pulled a carry-on suitcase out of the closet and began to fill it.
“How was your day?” she asked, plopping down on the bed. She’d offered to help him pack more than once, but she never did it right, so she’d given up.
“Busy,” he replied, placing various items into precise locations. “Yours?”
“About the same,” she shrugged.
“How are the recruits today?”
She wondered why he would ask since he saw them for himself but imagined he must just be trying to make small talk to avoid certain topics. “Really good. We’ve got some talent this time around.”
“I think so,” he agreed. “Are you planning on releasing Ashley and Mickey next week?”
“I don’t know if we’ll get in enough hunts before then. Depends on what goes on with Philly, I guess.” She had to pretend like she was intending to go there, though it made her nauseous to do so.
“Maybe you and Jamie could take them out tomorrow night?”
She wanted to scream that she had other plans, but instead she smiled and nodded. “Maybe.”
“You know Ashley is in awe of you, right?” he asked, carefully looking over the contents of his suitcase to make sure he didn’t miss anything.
She was surprised to hear that. “I think she might be in awe of you.”
He looked up at her, his eyebrows furrowed. “No… you’re the one she’s constantly comparing herself to.”
“That’s not quite what I meant,” she said, pulling her knees up so she was sitting cross-legged. She still had her shoes on, which she knew would probably drive him crazy—shoes on the bedspread—but she didn’t budge.
He slowly shook his head as if he had no idea what she was getting at and zipped the suitcase. “She was talking about you all the way over there last night, saying how she couldn’t wait to see you in action.”
“Is that what was so funny?” she asked, trying to keep her voice even.
Still looking confused, he sat down next to her on the bed. “What?”
“You guys were laughing pretty hard when you got there,” she reminded him.
After a moment of thought, he said, “Oh, no. I was telling her about that time in that Italian restaurant when you asked that waitress if she wanted to borrow your napkin to wipe the drool off of her chin.”
Cadence remembered the occurrence well. She was used to other women checking him out by now, but that one took the cake. “Why were you talking about that?” she asked.
“She said that she appreciated it when you came in the gym because it took some of the attention off of her. Apparently, she’s had some issues with the guys ogling her.”
“Now that I can see,” Cadence replied. “She’s gorgeous. I mean—them staring at her. Not me.”
“Uhm, you're gorgeous,” he said, leaning toward her and bumping her shoulder with his.
She rolled her eyes. “So how did that lead to the waitress story, exactly?”
“She asked me if it ever bothered me, and I told her I never really even notice.”
“Of course you notice. You notice everything.”
“I mean, I don’t assume if women are staring at me it’s because they are having lustful thoughts.”
“Why not?” she asked, turning to stare at him. “Have you met you?”
He laughed, possibly a bit embarrassed. “It’s just not something I think about.”
“You walk into that gym and those girls go from Serena Williams to Beyoncé in two seconds. No more grunting and groaning, everything is styling.”
It took him a moment to catch his breath, he was laughing so hard now. “Anyway… as I was saying, Ashley really looks up to you, and I think she has potential to be a really good Hunter someday. I think you could mentor her, and we could consider adding her to our team.”
“You mean our KC team?” Cadence clarified.
“Don’t you think?”
Cadence thought about it for a second. She could always use a good Hunter, but she had been thinking a male Hunter might be better since she already had two other good females. Males tended to think differently, and sometimes that helped. “I guess so,” she finally replied. It was worth thinking about.
“Well, I have to head to the airport,” he said, though he didn’t stand.
Cadence nodded, and uncrossing one of her legs, she swiveled around to face him. “Okay. Be careful.”
“You, too.”
“I am always careful.”
He leaned over and kissed her, and she held back a bit, resolved not to get distracted by her complete and utter physical attraction to him. “See you Saturday,” he said as he released her and stood up.
No you won’t, she thought to herself, but said only, “Okay.”
Pulling his luggage off of the bed, he walked toward the door, and she followed. With his hand on the doorknob, he turned and said, “I love you, Cadence. I always will.”
“I love you, too,” she assured him. She watched him go out the door and then stood there staring at it for a few moments, wondering what might happen the next time she actually saw him face-to-face again.
Once he was gone, she was tempted to go check the one thing she knew could make her go unhinged. But she was resolved to wait until after his airplane took off before she did it. She was afraid that, if he had done what she thought he might do, she would not be able to control her rage. She might run over to the airport and scream at him before he even left for Connecticut, which would ruin her entire plan.
Rather than taking the chance, she decided to do some yoga, something she’d tried on several occasions before she Transformed, but could only master now that she had her new super powers. Once she received word from Christian that they were in the air, she’d let herself check.
It took about forty-five minutes for him to call her IAC to let her know the plane had taken off. By then, she’d worked up a bit of a sweat, but she felt much more calm. She found a towel in the bathroom and wiped her brow, making sure her palms were also dry, before she approached the mantel. Bracing herself, she carefully reached up and pulled Elliott’s urn off of the mantel. She knew immediately something was different. The weight was off. Trying to control her anger, she pulled off the lid.
It was empty.
