The flight back to Kansas City was relatively silent. Ashley was asleep on Cassidy’s shoulder, and her sister had little to say. So Cadence spent most of the three hours staring out the window, fingering the locket Elliott had given her, and trying to determine if she was doing the right thing.
It would’ve been a great time to get some work done, but everything she needed to do next had to happen in person, and most of the other Hunters had been leaving her alone since Aaron had disappeared. Cadence should’ve been out of commission now anyway, preparing for her wedding, which was supposed to happen the next day. The Area Leaders had already planned on this. There weren’t a lot of Vampires left now, since the raids earlier in the year. Unfortunately, the ones who remained were feisty sons of bitches.
Her mind went back over everything that had happened in the last thirty-six hours and then through what she would need to do when she landed. It was a lot to keep straight, and she wasn’t used to playing a commanding role all by herself.
When the airplane touched down in Kansas City, she expected Aurora to be there to pick them up. But it wasn’t her redheaded friend waiting with an SUV to take them back to headquarters. Cadence stood at the bottom of the steps staring into familiar blue eyes with a question mark hanging over her head for far too long before Cassidy nudged her in the back. “Cale—what are you doing here?”
The Reno Area Leader shrugged, his blond hair blowing in the wind. “I thought maybe you could use some help.”
Cadence handed her carry-on bag to Cassidy and took a few steps into his embrace, glad to have a friend to help her with all of this. She rested her forehead on his shoulder and took a few deep breaths, letting the comfort of his arms around her free her from her worries for a moment or two before she stepped back and looked up at him. “Thank you for coming.”
“I’ll do whatever I can to help,” he replied with a small, reassuring smile.
Cadence took her bag back and the four of them piled into the vehicle. The rest of their luggage would get sent over to HQ and unloaded while they were in their first meeting of the morning, with Ward over at the archives. From the passenger side of the vehicle, Cadence watched the familiar landscape fly by her window and tried not to think about the first time she’d been picked up at this airport. It made her miss Jamie, who had been her chauffer that day.
“Where’s Morgan?” Cassidy asked from the back seat.
“She stayed in Reno. Someone’s gotta run the show with me gone.” That made logical sense to Cadence. Cale was the Guardian Leader, and Morgan, a Hunter who had been running most of Montana until recently, was fully capable of handling just about anything on her own. “Besides,” Cale continued, “she and I are taking a little break, and I think some space is probably a good idea.”
“How convenient,” Cassidy said in Cadence’s head, but she ignored her sister’s comment.
“I didn’t realize that,” Cadence said, trying to sound sympathetic. She’d never been a huge fan of Morgan, not since she was way too familiar and flirty with Aaron when she’d first met the woman. “You don’t seem too broken up about it.”
Cale, who was also a Healer and a medical doctor, much like Jamie, shrugged. “It was a mutual thing. We kind of rushed into things, and I think we both need some time to figure out what we want.”
Cadence kept the idea that Cale was on the rebound when he’d started dating Morgan to herself since the person he’d been rebounding from was Cadence herself.
“How are you all holding up?” Cale asked, that tinge of sympathy back in his voice.
“Not well,” Cadence admitted.
“At least we were getting those texts every few hours.” Ashley’s voice sounded like she was on the verge of tears again. “Now that Aaron has ordered everyone to turn their phones off... I just don’t know how I’m going to do this.” No longer able to keep her emotions in, Ashley began to sob again, and Cassidy offered her shoulder—again.
Cale’s eyebrows were raised, and Cadence could see him puzzling over what to say next. “Makes sense,” he finally offered. “Never know when you might need your phone.”
“We have started sending one text from all of us to Brandon’s phone because it has the most juice—for now.” Cassidy’s tone wasn’t sad at all, more like angry, and Cadence imagined she was planning on taking her rage out on Christian again as soon as she saw him.
Ahead of them, the gates that surrounded the complex loomed in the distance, and Cadence felt her stomach roll over. Coming back here alone seemed so odd, especially since she hadn’t expected to be back here at all at least for a couple of weeks. After the wedding, she was supposed to fly straight to Fiji for her honeymoon. Now, the idea of returning to her apartment alone was too much to think about, so she didn’t.
“Cadence, Mom just sent me a text to tell you to call her when you get a chance. She said she’s texted you, but you’re not answering.” Cassidy didn’t sound nearly as annoyed as she normally would have if circumstances were different.
“Thanks,” was all Cadence could muster. She’d get around to calling her mom later. Right now, she was surprised her mom was even out of bed, although, she had asked her to take care of an awful lot regarding the wedding, and she hadn’t given her a lot of time to get it done.
“Where to?” Cale asked.
“Oh, uh, the archives building,” Cadence replied.
“Great. Where’s that?” the doctor asked.
Cadence had no idea. She had probably been there once, but that would’ve been on her first tour of the place. She basically only frequented the apartment buildings, her office, Jamie’s office, and the smaller building where they held some of their pre- and post-hunt meetings. Besides the gym and recently tagging, those were the only buildings she could’ve picked out on a map, save the little chapel.
“It’s over there on the left, past the office buildings, around the corner,” Cassidy said.
“Thanks.” Cadence caught her sister’s eyes in the rearview mirror.
“You really should get out of your bubble a little more.”
