by ID Johnson
Hannah almost immediately swept Ashley and Mickey up and out the door, and Cadence was certain she was trying to prevent the newbies from experiencing any more tension on the team. Aurora and Jamie stayed for a moment, and Cadence was sure they had questions for her they didn’t feel comfortable asking in front of the inexperienced members.
As soon as Hannah had the others out the door, Aurora asked, “What the hell, man?”
“I’m sorry,” Cadence replied, staring at the table in front of her instead of at her friend.
“I mean, if I’d had any idea you were going to do that, I would have saved myself some effort and moseyed over instead of sprinting.”
Aaron turned off the projector and finally sat down next to her, though he kept his distance. “I think that might have been a last minute decision,” he offered.
“No, it wasn’t,” Cadence interjected, not allowing him to let her off the hook. “I was mad, and I didn’t think about any of the rest of you. I just did what I wanted to do without bothering to communicate with the team. I’m sorry.”
Aurora accepted that explanation. “Okay, well the next time, a little heads up would be awesome.”
“Sure thing,” Cadence replied.
“And since I am the only person in this room who doesn’t know what the hell is going on, I guess I’ll go now. Unless any of you want to fill me in?” She looked at the three faces staring back at her, and when none of them flinched, she said, “No? Okay. Peace out,” and walked out the door to a chorus of goodbyes.
Once she was gone, Jamie said, “At the risk of sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong, will the two of you at least promise each other that, no matter what happens with the portal, once next Wednesday has passed, you will let it go? Whichever of you gets your way—the other one has to live with it. And if you let it affect you like it did tonight, it will affect the rest of us as well.”
“You’re right,” Aaron admitted. “Yes, of course. I didn’t realize it was going to affect us tonight.”
“Because you can just set your personal feelings aside the second we move into a hunt—and I can’t,” Cadence exclaimed, swiveling her chair to face him.
“I do because I have to.”
“And I don’t because I can’t,” she replied.
In his calm and reassuring voice, Jamie reminded her, “Hannah was trying to help you and you wouldn’t let her.”
Cadence knew that was true. She’d told her to stop. “Fine,” Cadence finally said, looking at Jamie. “Yes, I will let it go. But it won’t be easy.”
“Nothing in our line of work ever is,” the Healer said, leaning back in his chair.
“True. Besides, it doesn’t matter. As long as I have the opportunity to see if the portal will open, I’ll be satisfied.”
“And I refuse to let you do that,” Aaron reminded her with that assertive tone that annoyed the hell out of her.
Cadence didn’t bother to say anything else about it; it was pointless to keep going around in circles. “I’m tired. I’m going to bed. I assume you have work to do?”
“Yes.”
“Maybe you should go to your office to do it.”
“Fine.”
“I’ll walk you home,” Jamie offered, and Cadence nodded at him before stepping as far around Aaron as she could to reach the door.
Once they were out in the fresh air, she felt her muscles begin to relax. She hadn’t even realized how tense she’d been.
“Cadence, you’ve got to calm down,” Jamie said, his hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t you know that the quickest way to make a woman angry is to tell her to calm down?” she asked, though the way he’d made the statement hadn’t made her angry at all.
He laughed. “True. But I think that’s only the case if it’s your significant other, isn’t it?”
“Maybe,” she shrugged. She looked up at the stars, and like every other time she had done so recently, she wondered if Elliott could see them. Did he know they were debating opening the portal for him? What would he think of the situation?
As they approached the apartment building, Jamie pulled her closer and whispered, “Let me tell you a little secret. Aaron doesn’t like it when people don’t do what he says.”
“What?” Cadence fake overreacted. “This is brand new information!”
Laughing, he said, “I know that you have a bit of that going on yourself, missy. And here’s the deal. It’s tempting to fire back at him, to push his buttons, but honestly, if you really want to find a way to skirt around him with this one, you’re going to have to pretend that you’ve let it go.”
“How can I possibly let it go?” she asked as he held the door open for her.
“I didn’t say actually let it go. I said pretend to let it go. Honestly, you don’t have to make it until Wednesday. You only have to make it till tomorrow at six when his plane leaves for Connecticut.”
They boarded the elevator and Cadence pressed the button for Jamie’s floor and then hers. “What do you mean?” she asked.
“Well, I mean, you could take Elliott and leave right now, but it would be a hell of a lot easier to do it when he’s not here.”
“And go where?” she asked as the elevator stopped at his floor.
The doors opened and he stood between them for a second to answer her question. “Wherever the skies are projected to be clear next Wednesday, I guess.”
He was right. Just because Aaron said she had to go to Philly didn’t mean she had to. And she could get Brandon to bring Cassidy down and Aurora to work with her. She could go. Her task was more important than any of those others.
“’Night, Cadence,” Jamie said, stepping back so the doors could shut.
“’Night, Jame,” she called as the doors began to shut between them.
“Jame?” he questioned as the elevator began to rise.
“Yep. What? Do you have an ex-girlfriend who used to call you that? Do you find it annoying?”
“No, not at all. You’ve just never called me that before.”
“Well, as far as I know, you’ve never single-handedly solved almost all of my problems with one simple suggestion,” she replied.
“Have a good night, Cade,” he said, clearly laughing over the IAC.
“You, too,” she said, but she knew it wouldn’t be a good night unless she could avoid the person she loved the most in the world, which didn’t even seem to make sense, and yet it was true.
Chapter Seven
Aaron was no fool, and he had done the only thing a sane person would do and left her alone that night. When Cadence woke up the next morning, there was no sign at all that he’d even been home except for his clothes from the night before in the hamper in the guest bathroom and a slightly damp towel hanging on the rod behind the door.
She’d finally fallen asleep the night before after tossing and turning for hours, trying to determine her best course of action. Jamie’s suggestion had been a good one, and it seemed like the smartest location for her to head to for clear skies would be the desert. And she just happened to have a friend who had a whole lot of desert in his back yard.
A bit of research on her IAC let her know that it was about a twenty-two-hour drive to Reno from Kansas City if one were driving normal speed limits. That meant she could probably do it in more like fifteen, but once she left headquarters, there was really no reason to rush, so she might as well plan on stopping somewhere along the way. If she waited until Friday morning to leave, she could be at Cale’s by Sunday afternoon, easily.
Aaron would immediately suspect something, however, if she told him she was going, and if she didn’t tell him where she was at all, he would assume she was headed that way. She’d need some help from her friends to make sure he didn’t attempt to hunt her down. She was certain that, even if she was lost in the desert like Moses, Aaron would find her.
Honestly, she was sort of hoping he would be so confident in her inability to pull this off that he wouldn’t bot
her to attempt to find her at all. But that would also mean he would have to do something so awful she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to forgive him, though in retrospect, it wasn’t any worse than what she’d already done to ensure she came out on the winning end of this debate.
Once she was showered, dressed, and had forced a few bites of a cereal bar down for breakfast, she headed over to the training facility. If she was going to get away with this, she was going to need assistance from the people she could trust, and it would be easier to talk to them in person, despite the fact that she couldn’t say anything specific about what she was up to.
Walking into the main workout gymnasium, she was shocked to find Aaron there talking to Shane. He didn’t look surprised to see her at all, since that’s where she spent most of her time these days, but she expected him to be in his office, and having him nearby while she went about her scheme would make things more difficult. Since he was dressed in slacks and a button down shirt, he obviously wasn’t going to be doing any training that day, and she was hopeful that he had just swung by on a quick errand.
As soon as Shane saw her, he called out, “Well, if it isn’t old deadeye!” so loudly, every eye in the facility turned to look at her. Feeling her face redden, she attempted to come up with something witty, but she saw Aaron elbow him and say something she couldn’t make out, which told her he was still coming to her rescue even though they were in a heated disagreement.
She saw both of the people she had actually come to speak to across the room. Aurora was instructing some new recruits and Brandon was working out with said new recruits, but taking Jamie’s advice, she decided to approach Shane and the handsome, arrogant man next to him first.
“Hey, Shane,” she said with a cheery smile. “Sorry you couldn’t make it last night.”
“I wasn’t invited,” the gym rat replied, crossing his sufficiently muscled arms across his chest.
“Oh, that’s right,” Cadence said, tilting her head to the side like a teeny bopper and pulling on a loose strand of hair. “Sorry ‘bout cha.”
“I already explained to Shane that it was a pretty simple operation,” Aaron interjected, an attempt to pacify the other Guardian who was apparently upset that he wasn’t asked to go.
“Yeah, I’ll say,” Shane agreed. “Bang, bang you’re dead.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I had to defend my tactics to you,” Cadence replied. She’d never really liked Shane, but this was the first time he’d called her out in front of other people in a while.
“You don’t,” Aaron replied, and wrapping his arm around Cadence he turned to Shane and said, “Just get me those numbers as soon as you can.”
“Sure thing,” Shane said, not taking his eyes off Cadence until after Aaron had her turned around and was leading her away.
“How are you this morning?” he asked, relaxing his grip a little bit.
“Fine,” she said, forcing a smile and mentally repeating to herself, “I am happy. I love this man. Nothing is wrong,” over and over again.
“Good.” He led her over to the sidelines, away from where the others were running through their training program.
“Did you get a lot of work done?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said, his hands resting on her upper arms. “Hey, I’m really sorry about what happened last night…”
“No, don’t be,” she cut him off. “I was just upset. I overreacted. I’m sorry.”
Aaron nodded. “Well, let’s just put it behind us and try to make sure it doesn’t happen again, okay?”
On the inside she was screaming, “Are you saying this is all my fault?” But on the outside, she smiled sweetly and said, “Sure. And I’m sorry I told you to F-off.”
Leaning in closely and whispering into her ear, he said, “I somehow don’t think you’re really sorry about that.”
The feel of his warm breath on her skin momentarily made her forget she had at least fifty pairs of eyes on her and that she was extremely angry with him, and she had to pull away from him a bit to regain her composure. “No, I am,” she assured him.
He released her and took a step back, clearly having difficulties focusing himself. “All right. Well, we are headed over to the airport around 5:30. I’m going to head back to the office for a little while and then go back home to pack.”
“Okay,” she smiled. “I’ll be there before you leave.”
“All right.” He squeezed her hand before he left, which was just a little reminder that he loved her that didn’t give anyone else the opportunity to make kissy faces or gush all over them.
She watched him exit the building completely before she headed over to where Aurora stood with her clipboard in hand, whistle in mouth.
“Aurora,” she called as she got within a few yards, “can I have a moment, please?”
“Sure thing,” the other hunter called, momentarily stepping away from her troops. “What’s up? You finally going to tell me what’s going on?”
“No, sorry,” Cadence said, her hands on her hips and her eyes momentarily on the floor. “I just need a favor.”
“A favor from someone who keeps secrets from me,” she teased. Before Cadence could respond, she blew her whistle and screamed, “Knees up, Campbell!”
“Listen,” Cadence began, once she had her attention, “I have to go out of town for a while. I’m not telling anyone where I’m going, and more importantly, I’m not telling very many people that I’m leaving.”
Her tone must have clued her friend in as Aurora asked, “Does that mean Aaron won’t know where you are?”
“Or that I’ve even left until he gets back from Connecticut on Saturday.”
Aurora’s green eyes narrowed. “Okay… is everything all right?”
“It will be,” Cadence said, confidently. “Anyway, I was supposed to work with my sister this weekend, and I won’t be here to do it. So, if Brandon will go and pick her up Saturday morning…”
“I’m sure he’ll protest that,” Aurora interrupted sarcastically.
Cadence chuckled. “Right? Anyway, when Brandon gets her, will you train with her? I think she works better with you than she does with me anyway. She seems to second guess herself when she’s with me.”
“No problem,” Aurora nodded as her eyes carefully scanned the recruits. “And when you get back, will you please tell me what the hell is going on?”
“You got it,” Cadence assured her. “All right. Keep up the good work. May I borrow Mr. Keen from your line of punishment for a moment?”
“I don’t know,” Aurora replied, seeming to consider whether or not she could let him out of the routine for a moment. “Since you’re the boss, I guess so.”
Cadence laughed, mostly because she never felt like she was the boss, and also because Aurora seriously considered saying no, and then called for Brandon to come meet her on the sidelines through the IAC.
They were working on a routine that involved sprints, high knees, and burpees, and when he dropped out of line to sneak through his colleagues to make his way over to her, she could see a bit of relief on his face.
That face. He looked so much like his dad. It was killing Cadence that she couldn’t tell him anything. In fact, she’d avoided him thus far because she was afraid she might actually slip up and tell him something he didn’t need to know yet.
“What’s up?” he asked, his dark hair slightly less of a mop due to the copious amounts of sweat pouring down his face.
“Got a towel somewhere?” she asked, trying not to laugh.
In response, he lifted up his shirt and dried off his forehead. “Nah, who needs a towel when you have a T-shirt?”
She resisted the urge to tell him he reminded her of his dad again, as he had heard it a million times before, and since he’d never had the chance to meet his dad before he died, he didn’t always appreciate it. “I need you to go get Cassidy either Friday evening after school or Saturday morning,” Cadence explained.
“Oh,
gosh, I don’t know,” he teased, “I mean, I’m kind of busy….”
“Yes, I know. I’m sure you have a billion other things you’d rather be doing than spending alone time with my sister.”
“Can I fly?” he asked, a hopeful expression in his brown eyes.
Cadence considered the request. “I don’t care,” she said, watching him literally jump up in the air. “Make sure you request a plane ahead of time.”
“Will you approve it?”
“I think I just said I would,” she replied. They didn’t usually use planes for personal things like this, but at this point she didn’t care. She was asking a favor after all.
“Okay. Why aren’t you getting her?”
Sighing, Cadence crossed her arms. She didn’t want to ask him to lie to Aaron, but she also wanted to be as honest with him as possible. “Listen,” she said, lowering her voice, “the first thing I learned when I got here was that sometimes it’s better not to know everything.”
“All right…”
“Let’s just say I have something I need to do that no one else knows about except for a very small, select group of individuals.”
“And by your tone, am I to conclude that one of those people who doesn’t know is your betrothed?”
Cadence stared at him for a second before asking, “Why do kids these days sound like old people? Yes, yes. You can conclude that.”
Ignoring her first remark, he said, “Okay. I guess I won’t ask why.”
“It won’t do you any good.”
Brandon nodded. “All right. I’ll go get her.”
“Thanks.” She stopped herself before adding, “And keep her safe this time,” because as tempted as she was to give the reminder, she knew it was always at the forefront of his mind. He completely blamed himself for what had happened to Cass—just as Cadence blamed herself.
With a nod, he said, “I guess I should get back to the group before Aurora decides to make me do extra burpees.”