Chapter 130
“When we walked into the woods that night, Elliott knew there was a possibility this was all a farce, too. But he still thought we should go through with it,” Aaron continued.
I nodded, understanding that he was saying Elliott took the same calculated risk they all did. “So… can you tell me what happened, or is it too hard to talk about?” I had an idea now. I wasn’t sure that I even wanted him to tell me anymore, certainly not the details, but I also didn’t want to tell him to stop talking now that he was.
“Sam shot him.” He said it like it was a fact from a history book. If I had asked, “Who shot Abraham Lincoln?” and his response was, “Booth shot him,” it couldn’t have sounded any more dispassionate. But I couldn’t blame him. He was a facts kinda guy, and I was asking him to talk about something that wasn’t just factual to him. It was emotional and real and it really, really sucked. So if he had to switch to clinical mode to get through it, then so be it. “Sam shot Meagan in the leg first and was trying to track her down when Elliott got between them. He slowed Sam up enough that he couldn’t get to Meagan before Cadence had Laura in custody, and we were on our way over to assist Elliott. So Sam shot him and then ran away.”
I stared at him for a moment, not in the eyes this time so that I could concentrate, and thought about what that must’ve been like. Visualizing it made my stomach churn, so I pushed the thought aside. I couldn’t think about some ridiculous man dressed like a cowboy standing there, pointing a gun at one of my best friends and pulling the trigger. “Where was… Jamie?” I asked.
“Also shot,” Aaron replied. “Hannah tried to help Elliott, but it was too late. By the time we got him to the hospital, he was gone.” I nodded again. That explained my sister’s reaction to seeing Jamie earlier in the day. He must’ve been wounded pretty badly not to be able to help Elliott at all. “Christian was also shot, but he wasn’t as bad off as Jamie and Meagan. Once the helicopters arrived, they were all flown back to Reno for treatment. There wasn’t anything Cale could do for Elliott, though.”
He said all of that like it would make perfect sense to me, like he wouldn’t need to explain who Cale was or why he would be trying to save anyone. He also didn’t say his name like he was at all upset that my sister had been dating that man a few days ago. How quickly the world changed, and we were all just little collections of dust spinning around on it. “So Sam got away?” I asked.
“Yes, but we hunted Camilla down that night, and she is now deceased.” It also sounded very matter-of-fact, but something about the way he said it made me snicker. “And Laura is in custody awaiting justice.”
“Like a trial or something?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” he admitted, with a sort of sigh. “I don’t think anything like this has ever happened before, where we’ve actually taken the culprit into custody, so I’m still trying to figure out what to do with her.”
“And the other two are still on the lam?”
“For now. But we will find them. We have a lead on Finn.”
My sister had mentioned that they were going to meet the next day to discuss that. “I really wish there was something I could do to find him, and especially Sam,” I said, shaking my head. “Is there anything at all?”
“Sam’s pretty old, and pretty low tech. He’ll likely go completely off grid and try to disappear for a while. Chances are, if you can help us at all, it will be with Giovani. I know that isn’t quite the same as assisting with the search for Sam, but if you really want to help, there’s some online tasks you could complete, which would be taking over part of what Elliott was doing, looking for Giovani, and freeing up our personnel to look for Sam. That would be helpful.”
“Like checking surveillance cameras, stuff like that?” I asked.
“Precisely.”
It wasn’t the same as being out in the field actually working alongside them, but for now, it might be the most I would get. “Yeah, I’ll do what I can,” I replied.
“Great,” he said, making a sound that almost made me think he was relieved I’d agreed to help. Was he really that hard up for computer savvy people, or was he just happy I’d stop bugging them to let me go with them? Maybe CHENRY77 was about to be reassigned or something.
“You still can’t tell your friends,” my sister reminded me, and I tipped my head to the side and stared at her. “I’m serious. They don’t need to know.”
“Fine,” I said, narrowing my eyes at her, but when I looked back at Aaron, I swear he winked at me, and I wondered if that meant he knew my friends were aware of what was going on. Why would he be placating Cadence? He was the boss, wasn’t he?
Aaron exhaled loudly and looked from Cadence to me and then back again before slapping his hands down on his knees and declaring, “I think that’s enough for one night.”
“I concur,” Cadence replied, standing. She seemed to have gotten a little bit of color back in her face, and her eyes didn’t seem to be so absent.
I supposed it really didn’t matter what I thought. At least they’d told me as much as they had, which was honestly quite a bit. I never expected to get this much information out of anyone, especially now that Elliott was gone. I hadn’t quite figured out why Aaron was being so nice, telling me so much more than he would’ve ever allowed Elliott to, but I was thankful for it.
