“It’s pretty simple, Cass,” Cadence was explaining, sprawled out on one of the beds in the hotel room she would share with her sister for as long as they were in Philly. “You just stand there between Elliott and Jamie. If either one of them has to come help, you glue yourself to the other one. If both of them come to help, then you switch to Cale or Scarlet, the Healer from Philly. That’s it. You just stand there.”
Cassidy sighed. She was pacing the room, doing her best to convince her sister that she needed to be more involved, but so far Cadence wasn’t buying it. She wasn’t letting her little sister get sucked into the battle this time, not when there were so many others there to protect her, and Cassidy hadn’t even finished her training yet.
“But what if I can convince him to come to me?” she asked. “What if I give him the idea that I’m on his side? Then, you could swoop in and get him while he’s distracted.”
“And what if he rips your leg off of you and uses it as a club to beat you with? Jamie’s a pretty damn good Healer, but I don’t think anyone’s gonna be able to reattach your severed leg without an operating room,” Cadence countered.
“Argh!” Cassidy groaned, dropping herself onto the window sill. “This is so unfair!”
“Cassidy Elizabeth!” Cadence shouted, shooting up to a sitting position. “Listen to me, young lady. I got you what you wanted. You’re here, aren’t you? If you want to go on this hunt at all, then you will listen to me. Just be thankful that I convinced Aaron to let you go. If you’re going to be living with me soon, then you’ve got to stop arguing with me all of the time!”
“God, you sound like Mom,” Cassidy whined. “Only meaner.”
Cadence knew what her sister said was true, and she wasn’t exactly happy about it. No one wanted to sound like their mother. Still—she was right, and Cass needed to let this go. “Listen, if you don’t want to take my word for it, ask Elliott. He will tell you the same thing. It’s going to be a madhouse in there. You have no training. Stay where I say, or you don’t come on another hunt. Ever.”
“Listen to your sister,” Elliott’s deep voice sounded through the door, and a few seconds later he was standing between them.
“What—were you eavesdropping?” Cassidy asked, her attitude slowly starting to mellow.
“Yes. Always,” he replied as if there was absolutely nothing wrong with that. “Cass, this is going to be the wildest hunt any of us have been on in a while, and you’re gonna help us figure out where he’s at if you can, but you can’t get in the way. And if you move two inches away from me, I’m going to use these.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. “And I just might have to handcuff you to someone other than myself—someone less fun. Like… I don’t know, Mickey.”
Cassidy made a face at the thought of being attached to the strange new Guardian. “You wouldn’t.”
“Hell, if I thought it would keep you safe, I’d handcuff you to Christian, and I know you’d hate that.”
Her face contorted even more. Cadence had no idea Cassidy had something against Christian. Interesting.
“The bottom line is, you’re gonna do what your sister says, what Aaron says, and what I say. Now, go make me a sandwich.”
“What kind of….”
“Just go!”
Cassidy looked at her sister and then back at Elliott who was pointing at the bedroom door definitively. She got up and went out, but Cadence had no idea what she might do next since the hotel room was only a living room and bedroom. There was no kitchen and certainly no sandwich making material.
Once she was gone, Elliott plopped down on the bed next to her. “That girl has changed a little bit.”
“You think?” Cadence asked. “How the hell is she going to make you a sandwich?”
“I don’t even want a sandwich,” he said, shaking his head. “I just wanted her to listen.”
“You don’t want a sandwich?” Cadence repeated. Putting her hand on his shoulder, she asked, “Are you feeling depressed?”
He snickered. “No, just trying to adjust. This isn’t as easy as one might think. It’s like I’m missing eight months of history. Everyone else keeps talking about things I missed, assuming I know what’s going on. Did you know the Cubs won the World Series? What kind of a world have I returned to?”
“I know. Everything changed when you left. Even sports,” Cadence agreed, shaking her head. “You’ve been spending a lot of time with Brandon, though. How’s that going.”
Elliott’s face lit up. “Good. He’s a good kid. A bit of a smart ass….”
“I have no idea how that’s possible.”
“I was afraid he’d hate me because I wasn’t there for him, but so far he seems to be coming around.”
Cadence nodded. “I think he’s mature enough to realize that you couldn’t be there when you had no idea he existed.”
“I guess. Still, it must be really weird to find out the dad you’d been told was dead your whole life was actually alive, but then find out he just died—only to discover he was alive again. I mean… that’s a lot of flip flopping going on there.”
“Well, I think if you keep doing what you’ve been doing, the two of you will be just fine,” Cadence offered, patting him on the back and letting her hand linger there. She still had trouble believing he had returned.
“I’m not sure what I think about this thing with Cass either,” he offered. “I mean… it’s like my son is dating my little sister. Man, that’s messed up.”
Cadence laughed. “I was wondering what you would think about that. I wonder if that’s how grandma felt about me and Aaron dating.”
Elliott shook his head. “Nah, I don’t think so. I mean, Aaron was like a son to her in a lot of ways, but I think she was hoping that would happen. I think, in some ways, she orchestrated that.”
Cadence felt her stomach knot up. That nagging voice in her brain was back again. Did Aaron love her, or did he just think he did because he had to?
“Cadence? You all right?” Elliott asked, nudging her with his shoulder.
“Oh, yeah,” she said, pulling herself back around. “Just… never mind. It doesn’t matter.”
“I guess I’m a little nervous about this hunt, too,” Elliott admitted. “My last hunt didn’t exactly go as planned.”
She smiled sympathetically. “I remember. This one will definitely be different. We’ll all make it out.”
With a sharp nod, he said, “I think so, too. Just bad memories. None of those shitty titanium bullets hanging out this time, right?”
“Shouldn’t be,” Cadence assured him. “Christian was supposed to have collected all of those and locked them up.”
“Good. I know that has nothing to do with what Sam did to me, but I don’t like remembering what Laura did to you.”
“Me neither,” Cadence said, absently rubbing at the spot right beneath her collarbone near her left shoulder where she still had a slight indentation from the bullet Laura had hit her with. “Hey, speaking of Christian, what’s up with Cass and him? That was some face.”
Elliott laughed, the sound filling the small space and nearly rattling the glass in the window. “She said he reminds her of a creepy old uncle, only he doesn’t look old—except his eyes. She said he has the eyes of a pervert trapped in the face of a B-list British actor.”
Cadence couldn’t help but laugh at her sister’s interpretation, even if she thought the assessment was off. “Cassidy is such a weirdo. I’ll talk to her. He’s not a pervert.”
“He’s not?” Elliott said, looking at her closely, his bushy eyebrows arched. “I mean, I seem to recall a certain video….”
“No, that was weird, but one video doesn’t make a person a perv.”
“I don’t think that’s the only one,” Elliott replied, standing. “Hell, I don’t know. I never much cared for the guy.”
“You know he helped me bring you back, right?” she asked, looking up at him. She had to lean back so she could see his face he was so much taller than her at this angle.
Elliott shrugged. “Not sure that’s something to thank him for. We’ll find out. Can’t imagine he did it without thinking there must be something in it for him, though. I’d be careful about owing Christian any favors.”
Cadence’s brow wrinkled. She had no idea what he might be talking about. Lowering her gaze to the carpet and chewing on her cuticles, she pondered the idea for a moment, but Elliott didn’t wait for her to formulate her question as he began to walk toward the door.
“Just be careful, Cadence. You don’t know everyone as well as you think you do. Not yet anyway.” He offered her a small smile before pulling the door open and shouting, “Cassidy! Where’s my sandwich?”
Still chewing on her finger, Cadence tossed herself back onto the bed where she’d been trying to take a nap nearly an hour ago when her sister insisted they needed to talk about the hunt. Christian had helped her without saying anything at all about Cadence owing him a favor or wanting anything in return. Surely, Elliott was mistaken and Christian was just helping her because they were friends. What else could he possibly be trying to accomplish? With a sigh, she slid her arm under her head and flung her other arm across her face. Whatever it might be, she couldn’t think about it right now. If she was going to be at her best to get Gibbon, she couldn’t worry about Christian, or Ashley, or Morgan—or even Cass. She needed to concentrate on killing this monster so they could all get on with their lives.
