Chapter 307
Cadence handed me a plastic bag full of snacks and said, “Thought you might be hungry.”
I noticed she was looking at Brandon like she thought he might eat all of the chips and other snacks she’d thrown together, and he said, “Don’t worry. I had a large pizza for lunch.” My eyebrows shot up, though I’m not sure why it was a surprise to me. I’ve seen the boy eat. “I’m a stress eater,” he added, and I chuckled. He’s an any time eater.
“Dax, how are you doing?” Cadence asked, and I was happy she’d remembered his name, though I guessed she could’ve cheated and used her IAC. My sister is so bad at remembering names, how people are related, where people are from, all those little details that I always know. I think it drives her a little crazy that she’s so awful at it, but there’s a lot on her mind.
Dax sighed and somehow produced a smile. “I’m okay. Still… overwhelmed. And tired.”
“I can imagine,” my sister said sympathetically. Her expression changed almost immediately to something much darker, and I could tell something was going on. I looked at Elliott and saw whatever message my sister was getting, he was seeing the same thing. After a moment, they were both back to normal, but I still wanted to know what was happening. Somewhere in the pit of my stomach, I started to get an uneasy feeling.
My sister picked up where she left off. “I promise there are dull days around here. Hopefully, you’ll see that soon enough.”
“Dull days. Dull people. Dull-witted people,” Elliott agreed, digging into the bag of snacks I was holding but hadn’t really paid much attention to. He pulled out a bag of crunchy Cheetos, his favorite, and I looked at him like I was a baby and he’d just stolen my lollipop.
“I brought those for the kids,” Cadence said. I thought it amusing she referred to me like she was more than a few years older than me.
“When have I ever been accused of being an adult?” Elliott countered, and he had a point.
I shook my head at him and pulled out a bag of Doritos before handing the bag over to Dax. Before my sister could retaliate against Elliott, Cale walked into the room. Even though I have a very attractive boyfriend, I couldn’t help but stare at him a little bit. He’s one of the best looking guys I’ve ever seen, with blond hair and blue eyes. His British accent is to die for. And he’s always very nice and friendly, unlike Aaron who looks grouchy a lot of times. I imagined my sister probably had had a hard time choosing Aaron over Cale, but I’m sure she is happy with her decision, even though Cale’s current girlfriend, Morgan, is annoying and my sister doesn’t much care for her. But then… that’s almost every other female Hunter….
I brought my mind back to the room around me and watched Cale shake Elliott’s hand. My sister looked distracted again, but she moved out of the doctor’s way as he examined Tara.
Only a millisecond after he put his hand on her chest, Cale said, “Cadence!” He turned and looked at the monitor behind him. As if the flatline running across the screen wasn’t enough, he turned up the volume again so that awful buzzing sound filled the room. “She’s….” He stopped and looked at us, as if he wasn’t sure whether we all knew.
“I know,” Cadence assured him. Cadence looked at Elliott, like he’d been the one responsible for telling Cale what was going on and clearly hadn’t. “I know.”
Cale was clearly confused. “You know she’s dead?” He said it like the last word leaving his mouth would make it true, even if she wasn’t already. He clicked the monitor off.
“No, turn it back on,” I insisted. I guessed he didn’t know what we were up to, but that was okay. I needed to keep an eye on that line, even though I didn’t want to hear the buzz. “We’re waiting to see if she comes back to life.”
The doctor looked at me like I had two heads. “What?” He spun around to look at Cadence. “What’s going on?”
“Elliott didn’t tell you?” She glared across me to Elliott, who was licking Cheeto powder off of his thick fingers.
“No, I didn’t tell him,” he said as if it was obvious he had intentionally left Cale in the dark. “Did you hear me tell him?”
“I was busy,” Cadence said, and I assumed they’d all been in on the same IAC call after all. “Something seems to be going on in Australia.”
Immediately, my eyes flickered to Jamie who was still out of it, but he stirred at her words. I remembered a conversation I’d had with him a few days ago about his sister. I hadn’t been particularly happy with my own sister at the time—over something stupid—and he’d told me all about how he used to fight with Margie, his older sister, who happens to be the Guardian Leader in Perth. He’d talked to me about her before, but this was the first time he’d gone into a lot of detail, and despite their differences, I imagined he was concerned about her.
Elliott was chiding my sister for her inability to multitask, saying “Still can’t do two things at once?” and she punched him pretty hard in the arm.
“What’s going on?” Cale asked, and I was glad he’d been the one to ask what we were all thinking because he was the most likely to get an answer.
But he wasn’t talking about Australia, I realized, as my sister started to answer. He was referring to Tara. “Look, here’s the thing,” Cadence began, clearing her throat. “We kinda did something… and we need to keep it a secret.”
Cale’s face grew stern, and I remembered this was not the first time my sister had dragged him into one of her schemes. He’d been involved in bringing Elliott back, too, though I don’t think he’d wanted to be. I don’t even think he knew what she was up to until Cadence had shown up on his doorstep. “Oh, gosh, Cadence,” Cale exclaimed. “Not again!”
She crossed back over to him and put her hand on the arm of his white lab coat. “I know. It’s just… we had to. We didn’t have any choice. If we didn’t do it, she was going to die.”
He wasn’t buying it. “Well, it looks like whatever you did didn’t work.”
“We don’t know that yet,” I insisted, placing my hand on top of the sheet covering Tara’s legs.
