Chapter 36
I stepped out, too, and closed the door behind me. Luckily, I was still wearing my coat. I just realized I’d never taken it off. “Why is that funny?”
“It just is. How old do you think Aaron is?” Elliott took the three steps down to the sidewalk that ran to the porch quickly, but not nearly the speed I’d seen my sister move.
“I don’t know. Twenty-five?”
He stopped and spun to face me. “You think he’s younger than me?” He shook his head and mumbled something under his breath, but all I understood was “pretty boy.”
Elliott continued to walk toward his motorcycle. I followed, undeterred. I had felt the shift in the tides; somehow, I had won him over, and he was going to help me. I could just feel it. He flung one long leg over the bike and rested on the seat, turning back to face me. “Cass, you’ve got to let this go. When you’re older, all of it can be explained to you. For now, just trust us. Trust your parents.”
I stopped next to him on the curb. “How old is Jamie?”
I’d stunned him a few times with my questions, but he wasn’t expecting this at all. “Jamie?” he said, his forehead puckering. “How do you know…?”
A smile crept across my lips. “I have my methods. How old is he?”
Elliott stared at me in such a way that I felt as if my blood began to run backward. I wasn’t afraid of him, necessarily, but I felt like a line had been crossed, like he was no longer able to joke around with his new co-worker’s younger sister. “Cassidy,” he said quietly, “whatever you know… whatever you think you know… you need to be careful. Not everyone is as willing to let infractions go as I am.”
Infractions? What was he talking about. What was it about Jamie that had struck a nerve. My smile was long gone. I took a step back.
Elliott continued. “I don’t want to scare you, Cass. I don’t. But… clearly you know things we didn’t realize you knew. You should try to forget them. For now, anyway. I could take them from you. I’m not going to, not right now, anyhow. But, please, don’t go poking the bear, okay?”
I nodded, slowly, not sure why. I felt like my veins were on fire. “I’m… sorry.” It seemed like the right thing to say.
“Give me your phone.”
I raised my eyebrows. Lucy’s text was still on there—a lot of them, for that matter—if he read what we’d been talking about…. But I didn’t have any choice. I reached into the pocket of my jeans and handed him my unlocked phone.
He didn’t keep it long, only a few moments, before he handed it back. “Cassidy, tell your friends—Emma and Lucy—none of this concerns them. Tell them you talked to me, and you’re no longer trying to figure out what happened to Drew. You understand that your sister is going to be working for a security company out of Kansas City for a little while, but she’ll be back shortly, okay?”
I nodded. He hadn’t brainwashed me. He wasn’t talking to me like I was a silly high school girl. His tone conveyed that everything he’d just told me was for the best, for my safety. “Okay, Dr. Sanderson.”
“It’s Elliott,” he said, managing a small smile. He reached out and patted my shoulder, and I felt like he was my big brother, trying to protect me. “Take care, Cass.”
He started the bike, and I stepped back away from it. He didn’t wear a helmet, but something told me he didn’t need one. As the bike sped away, I continued to gawk after it until he rounded a corner, disappearing from my sight.
The front door creaked behind me, and I turned to see my mom approaching. She didn’t have on a coat, and she had her arms wrapped up against the early December breeze. My feet were still planted in the dead grass between the sidewalk and the street, my phone burning a hole in my palm.
“Did Dr. Sanderson leave without saying goodbye?” my mom asked, coming up behind me.
“Yes,” I replied. “He seemed like he had somewhere he had to be.”
“Hmmm,” she said, she put her arm around me, turning me toward the house. “What did the two of you discuss?”
My answer came naturally enough. “He said that Drew’s death was a tragedy, but these things happen, and I shouldn’t worry about it.” I glanced up to see a satisfied smile on my mom’s face. “He also said I shouldn’t worry about Cadence. She’s working in Kansas City now, but she’ll be back soon.”
We’d reached the front door. My mom pushed it open. “That Dr. Sanderson is a smart fellow,” she said, stepping into the foyer.
“Yes, he is,” I agreed, going inside and closing the door behind me. My mom was headed toward the kitchen, her favorite room in the house. “I have some homework,” I called after her. It wasn’t true, but I did need to go make some notes on our conversation before I forgot everything and get Lucy to back up her texts since I was pretty sure mine were all gone now.
“Okay, honey,” my mom called. She would get back to making dinner, and I would get back to investigating whether or not my sister was a vampire, even though I’d been strictly warned not to do so.
As soon as she was out of the room, I unlocked my phone and looked to see how much damage had been done. I opened my text exchange between Lucy and Emma, expecting it to be eradicated. Shockingly, everything was still there. I flipped to my pictures. The ones of Jamie, which Emma had sent to me, and the ones I’d saved of Eliza were also still there. “What did he do?” I asked aloud, checking my emails and social media. Everything was exactly the same.
It took me a few minutes to find it, but when I did, I almost dropped my phone. In my contacts, I found it. “Elliott Sanderson,” and a phone number.
