Chapter 363
The answer about what had happened that was keeping my sister so busy came from my own thoughts about Aaron. Transferred—he’d said he’d send any Guardian who went with Cadence away. Was that the weird thing that Brandon had referred to? Had the Leader actually given Brandon and Elliott letters of dismissal or sent them reassignment paperwork? I desperately wanted to know, but I decided to wait for the answer to come to me because Brandon had said he’d get back to me as soon as he could, or at least that was the impression I got. If I was tired before, I was wide awake now.
I waited as patiently as I could for what seemed like hours, but when I glanced at the clock, it had been less than fifteen minutes before Brandon came back on. “Sorry about that, babe. You would not believe what we came back home to.”
Part of me was afraid to ask. But I needed to know. “What was it?”
“A moving truck.” His answer was crisp, and it took me a moment to respond, so he continued. “Yep. Aaron had them loading up all of our stuff.”
“A moving truck?” I did my best to keep the screech out of my voice. “Are you serious? Where was he sending you?”
“Heck if I know. The movers didn’t take a whole lot of convincing from my dad that this wasn’t a good idea. We grabbed some of the workers from the apartment building and a few of the Roatan Guardians who happened to be around and started unloading everything, but all of my stuff is either on the sidewalk outside of the building or on its way up in the freight elevator.”
His tone was a mix between aggravation and exhaustion—not that he was physically tired so much as irritated that he’d had to do so much work for no reason. I wasn’t sure what to say next, so I asked, “Do you think that’s where Cadence went? To get it taken care of?”
“Yeah, that’s what she said. I’m sure she will. We’re not going anywhere. You should’ve heard how mad my dad was.”
“I can only imagine.” It had to have been hard enough on Elliott that Aaron, who was supposed to be his best friend, hadn’t shared the information about the Blue Moon Portal with anyone—though Elliott never said anything negative about that—now he was packing him up to send him away without even so much as a discussion.
“Anyway, we’ve got a few hours of work ahead of us even with superhuman strength and speed. And then I need to take my algebra test, too. How was it?”
“Hard. For me. I’m sure you’ll do fine.” My answer was nothing if not honest.
“I bet you did great.” He was reassuring, but I was certain “great” wasn’t the right word. “You should probably get some sleep.”
“Yeah. My sister said she’d come over and tell me how it went. But... she might be busy for a while.”
“She might be,” he concurred. “I don’t know what’s going on with Aaron, but someone needs to fix it. And if it’s not Cadence, Dad’ll give it everything he’s got, which won’t be pretty.”
The idea of Aaron and Elliott duking it out would’ve been humorous under certain circumstances, but considering what I’d just seen in Aaron’s head, there was no way to tell what Elliott might be up against, not to mention the battle would be futile. It’s not as if either one of them could really do anything permanent to the other. “Well, hopefully, Cadence will be able to talk some sense into Aaron.” I didn’t think that was going to happen either, but it was the last shred of hope any of us had for some semblance of sanity returning to this little operation.
“I’m sorry, I’m gonna have to go so I can concentrate on this mess. Literally everything I brought with me from Oklahoma is packed up now. And they weren’t exactly careful about it.”
My eyes scanned my bedroom. Even in the dark, I could easily see everything I’d brought along from Iowa. The idea of unpacking it again made my stomach roll, not to mention Brandon had other rooms full of stuff, too, since he had lived in the apartment by himself for a while when Elliott was gone. And Elliott had lived there for decades.... “Okay. I understand. I’m so sorry you’re having to do all of that.”
“It’s not your fault,” he replied. I knew that---that didn’t make me any less sorry. “He better have an awfully good reason for being such a jerk.”
I knew he meant Aaron and wondered if Brandon was considering getting in on the fight should there be one. “I hope he does, too.” Maybe later I’d explain to my boyfriend what I’d seen in his boss’s head, but now wasn’t the time. “Good luck.”
“Thanks. I love you, beautiful.”
“I love you, too.”
I switched the IAC conversation off and took another deep breath, wishing I could go help. I wouldn’t be shocked if Brandon let Dax and Tara know so they could come unpack with him, though I doubted they’d be able to get Lucy out of bed. There was no way I could go unless I snuck out, and while the thought crossed my mind, taking Brandon’s and Elliott’s belongings out of boxes seemed like a miserable reason to be grounded for a month.
Another few minutes passed before my sister was in my head again. “Cass, I’m sorry I haven’t made it over there yet, but something important has come up, and I need your help.”
I ignored that last comment at first, wondering what in the world she needed me to do now. Maybe she did want me to help unpack. “I’ll say,” I said under my breath. “Did you know Aaron had all of Elliott’s and Brandon’s stuff packed up?” She must’ve been aware of that. Was that what she was talking about?
“Yeah, I know. It’s awful. But that’ll have to wait.” I was surprised that what she was going to ask me to do had nothing to do with the situation I was aware of and settled in for another surprise.
