“You okay, Cadence?” Aaron asked, looking slightly worried and marginally confused.
“Uh, yeah. Just… a little… jumpy after the hunt last night.”
“You do sound a little bit like a werewolf,” Elliott said to his boss.
“Technically, they weren’t werewolves.” Christian raised a finger, to emphasize his point, and Elliott turned to look at him, his eyes capable of cutting through glass.
“Sometimes it’s like being on an episode of The Three Stooges where Lucille Ball has stopped by to take Shimp’s place,” Jamie said, gazing up to meet Aaron’s eyes.
“You’re telling me,” the Leader agreed.
“What’s that now?” Cadence was certain there was an insult about her in there somewhere. “What did you just call me?”
Jamie couldn’t answer though, because the sound of Elliott making “Whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop,” noises was too loud for anyone else to get a word in edgewise.
Once he was done adding a few other sounds Cadence recognized from the television program she’d watched a few times with her grandmother, followed up with a loud cry of, “Ricky!” in a whiny voice she assumed was supposed to be his interpretation of the leading lady from I Love Lucy, Jamie finally managed to say, “We were just discussing what to do with Cassidy’s samples.”
Aaron seemed to buy it. “Oh, yeah? How did that go? I take it she’s done then?”
“Yes, she came in a little early. It went well. Christian and I have all of the tests we want to run straightened out now, and it should only take a day or two.”
“Good,” Aaron said, obviously distracted. “Sorry I missed it. No one told me.”
“You seemed busy,” Cadence replied, offering him a small smile. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, just staring at maps,” Aaron replied, rubbing his eyes with both palms.
“Still no answers?” Elliott seemed to have gotten over his stand-up comic routine.
“I don’t know,” Aaron admitted. “Maybe. I would like to meet with all of you at some point this evening, though. I think… well… we’ll talk about it later. When is a good time?”
“Whenever,” Elliott replied, and Jamie agreed.
“I have a date tonight,” Christian reminded them, although he had no way of knowing if anyone other than Cadence was already aware. “Can we do it before 7:00?”
“That’s still on?” Cadence asked before thinking about what that might sound like to him. “I mean… Ashley seemed a little busy when I spoke to her at lunch.”
“It’s still on,” Christian assured her, looking wounded.
“Wait—what? Ashley?” Elliott asked, spinning around to look Christian directly in the face. “You have a date with Ashley?” His shocked expression made the rounds to each of them before he returned his eyes to Christian.
“Yeah. So what?” Christian asked.
“So… she’s hot. And you’re you.”
“Hey,” Cadence said before she even thought about what she was doing. “Christian’s not unattractive.”
“Thank you. I guess,” he muttered.
“No, I mean… never mind. Yes, he has a date with Ashley. And let’s just leave it at that.” She folded her arms and leaned back in the chair.
“Speaking of Ashley,” Aaron said, and Cadence immediately turned to look at him. “I need to get back to my office. She asked to meet with me, and I told her I didn’t think I had time with Cassidy’s procedure, but if it’s done, then I guess I do.”
Cadence felt her mouth go dry. Somehow she managed to stammer, “Wh—what does it about?” Realizing that made no sense, she tried again, but he interrupted her.
“I don’t know what she wants to talk about, but when she asked if we could meet, she sounded a little distressed. How was lunch?”
“Uh… fine,” she said, knowing he could tell she was lying but not wanting to tell him the truth in front of everyone else. Her face felt hot, and she assumed she was glowing red like a branding poker.
Aaron raised an eyebrow. “All right. Well, she wanted to meet in private, so I’ll let you know when she’s gone in case you wanna come back to the office, okay?”
“K,” was all she could manage.
“Everyone good with 6:00 then?” he asked, looking around at the rest of the team.
“Yep,” Elliott replied first and Jamie and Christian both agreed that would work.
“I’ll let Hannah know, too, then….”
“And Aurora,” Cadence insisted, thinking it might not be a good idea to push things right now after what she’d done earlier in the day, but the two topics were not related.
“Okay,” Aaron said, though it sounded more like a question than an answer. “And Aurora, and we’ll meet in our office because that’s where all the new maps are. All right?”
He left to a chorus of agreements and goodbyes, and once they heard the outside door close, Elliott was the first to speak. “What did you do?”
“Nothing!” Cadence insisted, feeling three pairs of eyes boring through her. “Nothing. I swear, I didn’t do anything.”
“Is that why you thought she might’ve cancelled our date?” Christian asked. “Because you’re mean?”
“I am not mean!” Cadence insisted. “I didn’t… I wasn’t….” But she couldn’t explain the situation. Any way she attempted to word it in her own head, she really did sound like a mean person. Quietly, she finally said, “She likes Aaron.”
“What?” Christian asked. “Are you stuck on that again?”
“It’s true,” Cadence replied, not sure exactly what he was getting at. “Doesn’t anyone else see it? I mean, last night, when she went to ask him whatever was so damn important and just happened to stumble into him? No one else saw that?”
‘”I saw it,” Elliott admitted. “I did think it was a little odd. Who needs to come all the way across the field to ask something through the IAC. And then there was the whole, ‘Oopsie,’ bit when she tripped over nothing and had to use his muscular bicep to steady herself.” He did a pretty good impression of her demure expression, and Cadence fought back a giggle.
“Yes, exactly,” she said. “Thank you. Girls don’t do that for no reason.”
“Is that what you were so upset about the night we went to take out those twins at that superstore parking lot?” Jamie asked.
Cadence remembered the night well. “I was mad about the portal, but yeah, I didn’t appreciate her sitting in my seat next to him laughing at everything he said like he’s some sort of a comedian.”
“I do agree that Aaron’s not funny. At all,” Christian said dryly.
Cadence began, “That’s not exactly what I meant—”
“At all,” he repeated, more sternly, and Cadence could see the fact that she believed Ashley had a crush on Aaron was beginning to cloud his thinking as well.
“Look, I don’t know if she likes him or not, not really. But I can’t be friends with someone who might be after him, that’s all. I am not going down that road again. My back still aches from the last knife I pulled out of it.”
“I don’t think any of us can blame you there,” Jamie said, giving her a sympathetic smile.
“Eliza’s a bitch,” Elliott added. “I kinda want to go to Quebec or wherever the hell she is now just to slap her in her smug little face.”
“You would hit a girl,” Christian replied, shaking his head.
“She’s not a girl. She’s a bitch,” he countered, loudly.
“She wasn’t, though. Not at first,” Cadence countered. Before he could argue, she added, “Not to me anyway. And there’s the rub.”
“Well, I’m gonna go check on my kids,” Elliott said, pulling himself out of his chair. “See if they’re still squabblin’.”
“One of those kids is mostly mine,” Cadence said, smiling. She was glad he was looking after her little sister, especially since their parents’ move was delayed.
“Yeah, well, she spends enough time at my house. Hope she’s got her shit in one sock by now. She sure has been in a pissy mood since last night.”
Cadence knew he was more concerned than upset, regardless of his word choice, so she didn’t bother to remind him of everything her little sister had gone through the night before. “Yell at me if she needs anything.”
“Will do,” he replied, disappearing out the door.
“I’m gonna go check those samples out,” Christian said, the disturbing mad scientist expression back on his face.
“Don’t touch mine,” Jamie warned, and Christian seemed to ignore him.
“My little sister has all sorts of guys fighting over her,” Cadence joked.
“Yeah, I am a little worried about her, though,” Jamie said, once the others were gone. “She seemed a little depressed when she came in earlier.”
“She was upset last night, and not just about the table she destroyed either.” Cadence thought back to the brief conversation she’d had with her sister after the meeting. “I think she saw some things in Mina’s head she hasn’t wanted to talk to us about yet.”
“I hope she lets them out soon.” Jamie sighed and ran a hand through his spiky hair, which immediately returned to its former position. “There may be some things in there that will help us out.”
Cadence nodded. “Yeah. It’s probably not good for her to keep all of that bottled up inside.” He agreed, and her words reminded her of a topic from earlier. “Jamie, I was thinking earlier today when I was working out, I never have gotten a chance to talk to you about Pearl Harbor. I know you don’t like to bring it up, but, I really would like to hear about Ellie someday, when you feel we’re close enough for you to trust me with her story.” She watched his eyes carefully to make sure she’d gotten the name of the girl he’d once loved right, and when he didn’t cringe or correct her, she assumed she had finally remembered something.
“It’s not that I don’t trust you, Cadence,” he said, his countenance changing and a shadow of sadness overcoming him. “It’s just something that’s very hard for me to talk about.”
“I can understand that,” she said, thinking about the questions Ashley had asked earlier and how it had brought back so many difficult memories. “Well, I just want you to know that anyone who is important to you is important to me. And someday, hopefully, I’ll get to find out about her. She had to be a pretty special lady.”
He managed a small smile. “She was amazing. Thanks, Cadence.”
From his tone, she could tell that he was done. “See you later,” she said, standing. She picked up the chair, and even though he assured her he’d move it back later, she carried with her to the door, wondering what she could do to kill time before Aaron killed her.
