Chapter 218
Cadence still wasn’t back by Sunday afternoon, the day that Aaron was due back—the day that I would have to leave. Brandon and I both decided we didn’t want to be anywhere near him when he returned since we didn’t have any answers for him, so as soon as Aurora was done kicking our booties, we hit the showers and loaded up the car to head back to Iowa. I hoped I got there before Aaron arrived at headquarters. It was hard for me to imagine him angry, but I was sure it wouldn’t be pleasant to be on the other end of that conversation.
“He’s scary when he’s mad,” Brandon said as we headed down the highway. “Because he’s still relatively calm. So the whole time he’s ‘yelling’ at you,” he did air quotes with one hand, not letting go of the wheel, thankfully, “you’re just waiting for him to lose it. It could happen at any moment.”
“And does it?”
“Not that I’ve ever seen. But it has to eventually, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, I would think,” I agreed, twisting my ring on my finger. “But I doubt he’ll yell at her.”
“Right. Which means he’ll try to figure out if anyone knew about this, if anyone was helping her. And that’s who he’ll target.”
I looked out the window and saw the blur of pastures flying by already, and we’d only been out of the city for a few minutes. This part of Missouri really did look a lot like Iowa. “So who do you think knows where she’s at?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted with a shrug. “I think Aurora does because I saw Cadence talking to her right before she talked to me.”
“That makes sense. Who is in charge when they’re both gone?”
“Technically Hannah, but I don’t think there’s any way Cadence would confide anything to her.”
“Why not?” I asked, turning to look at him.
“Because she’s like Aaron’s toady.”
“Say what?” I asked, cocking my head to the side. “For real?”
“Yeah. Hannah will bend over backward for him. Not kidding.”
“Hmmm,” was all I could manage to say to that, but I assumed there was a story there. “Well, if she doesn’t know Cadence is gone, then who is in charge?”
“Jamie, I guess.”
“Jamie,” I said, nodding. Now that made sense to me. I hadn’t seen much of him while I was there, and I imagined that might be because he was trying to make it seem like Cadence was still around to everyone who might tell Aaron she was gone—which would definitely include Hannah if what Brandon said was true. “Do you think Christian is in on this?”
“I kinda do, actually,” Brandon nodded. “I think it would make sense that he would be, since he’s with Aaron.”
“But does my sister trust Christian?”
“I think she knows he’d have her back over Aaron’s on most things. Christian and Aaron aren’t exactly friends from what I can tell. I think they had a history before Christian killed him, and Aaron can tolerate anyone. But you know Christian and Elliott were not friends, right?”
“I had a feeling, but I didn’t know for sure. Your dad never really talked about him much.” Elliott had sort of told me to stay away from Christian, though, that he was creepy. I still agreed, even though I’d been working on trying to get to know him better since he put in my IAC. “Do you have any idea where Cadence went?”
“Not a clue,” Brandon admitted. “I’ve heard a lot of speculation about it, but no one seems to know.”
“I guess there’s no way to track her IAC?”
“No, and she apparently had Juan Diego take the GPS tracker out of her bike before she left.” He snickered, and I turned and looked at him wide eyed.
“That’s funny.” Juan Diego was the sweet guy who worked in my sister’s building. I always loved chatting with him when I came to visit. I was glad I had the chance to tell him goodbye. I could tell he really liked my sister, too. “Well, it’s smart on her part that she hadn’t told anyone where she went so that we don’t have to try to lie if Aaron starts asking questions.”
“I agree,” Brandon nodded. “I don’t like lying to my boss. Especially since I am hoping to get to go back to Philly when they go.”
My stomach rolled over. I knew he hadn’t meant to upset me, but the thought of him getting to go hunt down Gibbon while I studied stupid algebra made me more than a little jealous. “When do you think that will be? This week?”
“Maybe. They still haven’t heard anything, though. That Andrew is such a joke.”
We were all on the same page there. “I’m surprised Aaron hasn’t fired him yet.”
“I think he would if he could find someone to replace him. Your sister’s got Jamie and Christian both working on getting new recruits in quicker, better training programs throughout the country for new people who’ve been through headquarters, all kinds of new stuff going on, but until they build some capacity, jokers like Andrew are about the best they can do.”
“If they still think Gibbon is in Philly, they’ll need to put someone else there to find him,” I muttered. Brandon slipped his hand into mine. “Maybe they could temporarily move someone.”
“Maybe. Honestly, though? I think Cadence isn’t too worried about him right now for some reason.”
“Why is that?” I asked, leaning forward.
“I don’t know. She never seems too excited about trying to chase him down. It could be she’s just so busy trying to work on the restructuring of everything she’s distracted.”
I didn’t like the sounds of that. Gibbon was a monster, priority number one, in my opinion. I had to think on that a little while, let it simmer, before I decided if I should try to do anything about it.
We were about twenty minutes from Shenandoah when Christian messaged both of us to let us know that Aaron had arrived back at headquarters. He said he thought we should know, just in case the Guardian Leader contacted us regarding Cadence’s whereabouts. We thanked him and both took shallower breaths the rest of the trip, just waiting.
Brandon had just pulled into my parents’ driveway when Aaron contacted us, also both at the same time. “I don’t suppose either of you happen to know where Cadence is? Or that you’d be willing to tell me if you did?”
I looked at Brandon, and he looked at me for a long moment before he said, “No, we don’t know where she is. And that’s the truth. She wouldn’t tell us.”
“But you did know she was gone.” It wasn’t a question—an accusation, perhaps?
“We did know,” I said. “I guess you didn’t?” I wrinkled my face up and stared at Brandon, hopeful that I hadn’t made a mistake in trying to play dumb.
Aaron could’ve said something sarcastic back to me, something about obviously not, or that he was pretty sure I already knew the answer to that. But he didn’t. “No. I didn’t. Okay. Well, it would be really great to know where she is, so if she happens to tell you…. I know you don’t want to choose sides in this, either one of you, but it would be a really good idea for you to let me know. If she tells you.”
This was definitely the most disjointed I’d ever heard him. He seemed more concerned than angry, and I almost wished I knew something so I could tell him. “I don’t think she’ll tell me anything, but if she does, I’ll… think about it….” That was the best I could do.
“Thanks.” It was the response of a defeated person. “You coming back tonight, Brandon?”
“Yeah, I’m planning on it. I need to train tomorrow.”
“Well, it looks like Philly’s going to be off until after Wednesday, so assuming you trained this weekend, if you want to wait and drive back while Cass is in school tomorrow, that’s fine with me, assuming her parents don’t mind if you borrow their guest room.”
It always surprises me how he can be so put out about one thing and so nice about something else at the same time. “Okay, thanks,” Brandon said, and we climbed out of the SUV, disconnecting the discussion with Aaron as we did so. Brandon had never stayed over by himself before, but I didn’t think my mom would mind. I assumed we’d find out shortly.
