Chapter 355
“Why is it so quiet?” I asked Brandon, not liking it one bit. I wasn’t sure what it was that had me on edge, but it was unsettling.
“Would you like for me to sing you a song?” His sarcasm is almost as brutal as his father’s.
“No thanks.” I’ve heard him sing. I opened up my computer and got to the page for our algebra class before we could get off task. It was easy to do if I wasn’t careful, and the last thing I needed was to waste my time. Getting a good grade on this test would be difficult if I wasn’t diligent.
“Are you hungry? I’ve got some leftover Chinese food. Or I can make you a sandwich.”
He is always trying his best to get me to lose focus. “Not right now, thanks.” I checked over the list our teacher had given us of what to study and realized there were at least three skills I hadn’t yet mastered. “Can we just get to it?”
“Sure.” He grabbed his computer off of the coffee table, and I could tell I’d offended him a little bit, but math was difficult for me, and I didn’t want to get a bad grade if I could avoid it.
We got into it pretty quickly, and I felt like I was just starting to understand the first objective when a knock on the door interrupted my train of thought. Annoyed, I looked at Brandon, who shrugged. Clearly, he had not been expecting anyone either.
In a high pitched voice, Brandon called out, “Who is it?” and I was instantly giggling. I hadn’t let him joke around at all until that moment, so I shouldn’t have been surprised he was acting ridiculous.
“Open the door, Brandon,” my sister called in the angriest voice I’ve heard her use in a long time.
I instantly went over a checklist in my mind of all of my activities since I’d last seen her and decided she couldn’t possibly be mad at me. I hadn’t messed up at training, missed any appointments, or said anything rude to anyone. Still, she was clearly angry about something and potentially looking for me.
Brandon hopped up and pulled the door open, muttering, “Gee, someone is in a lovely mood.”
I set my laptop on the coffee table next to Brandon’s and waited for my sister to come in and settle down. She dropped into Elliott’s beat up recliner and announced, “Cass, I need you to gather as much intel as you can about Lexington.” My sister glanced around, and I assumed she was looking for Elliott. Seeing that he wasn’t home, she continued. “I am going to put a hunt together, but I likely won’t be able to take any Guardians, so I need as much info as possible. And before you ask, no you can’t go.”
I mulled over her entire statement, disappointed that I couldn’t go, but then my brain caught up with the other part of what she’d just said. “Wait—what? What do you mean no Guardians?”
My sister sighed and ran her hand through her long brown hair. “It’s been forbidden.” Brandon hadn’t sat back down yet. He continued to stand in the doorway and stare at her, and I couldn’t blame him. I was also confused. “I know it sounds ridiculous, but humor me, okay?”
Remembering how Aaron had been acting the day before, and compiling that with all of the weird behavior I’d seen from him lately, coupled with the expression on my sister’s face, I decided not to push it. Clearly, she had her reasons for not wanting to talk about whatever had prompted her to barge in here in a huff and request I do this for her. “Okay. Like—now?” I wasn’t sure how quickly she needed the information.
“No, it doesn’t have to be now, but the sooner the better,” my sister replied, relaxing a little bit. “I need numbers. Hiding places. What kind of location this is. Is it a residence? Is there security? All of the usual stuff, only you’ve gotta be absolutely certain.”
I decided not to let my sister’s doubt offend me. Of course, I never gave her information that was inaccurate—certainly not on purpose anyway. But there was no point in stating that at the moment. “Okay. Let me finish my math, and I’ll check.” I couldn’t stay in Brandon’s apartment to study forever, but I could access the information my sister needed from my own bedroom later.
“Great. Thanks.” I thought my sister looked slightly better, but she leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees, just staring at me, and I could tell there was more to this story she wanted to unburden herself from, but she wasn’t speaking.
“Is there something else?” I finally prompted, my algebra book, which I’d set next to me a few moments ago, back in my lap but not open yet.
Cadence seemed to go over a few things in her mind, like she was trying to determine how much to tell me. “Could you check in on Hines?” The question came out with long pauses between words. She was deciding what to ask me as the words were leaving her mouth. “He might be on an airplane right now,” she continued. “It’s just... he’s been up to no good, too, and I wanna know if you can pinpoint him.”
There was something weird about the request, but I complied. “Oookay....” Brandon finally walked over and sat down next to me, and I was glad for it. With my sister acting so strange, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Hines—or anyone else. I closed my eyes and tried to hone in on the psycho doctor.
“He might not be alone. But don’t worry about whoever is with him.”
My sister’s voice not only interrupted my concentration, her comment seemed so odd, I couldn’t help but open one eye and look at her.
I closed my eye, but before I went to Hines, I dropped in on Holland out of habit. I wanted to make sure she wasn’t up to anything, and Christian would be looking for his tracker info. It was odd. She was fighting me harder than usual. I knew she was thinking about her baby, and something about Hines’s ‘cockamamy plan,’ which made no sense to me, but I’d check that out in a minute. She was thinking about never letting him do something like this again. I got the sensation of movement but couldn’t tell what that meant, and something seemed very important, something she didn’t want me interfering with. I couldn’t figure it out, and then she pushed so hard, I finally decided to give up on her and shifted my thoughts to the doctor.
