Repercussion: The Clandestine Saga Book 3 (31 page)

"When did you..." Meaghan asked, her tears temporarily dried up.

"That sucker is ginormous!" Aurora shouted.

Everyone else had an opinion as well, except for Christian, who stood by quietly, as if he wasn't sure what to say, and his silence said everything to Cadence and Aaron. It seemed he hadn't quite gotten over his infatuation with the Hunter, at least not yet.

              As they made their way over to the main building for the luncheon Hannah had planned, Cadence looped her arm through her sister's and hung back a bit, hoping to have the opportunity to speak to her alone. "How you doin' Sis?" she asked, a sympathetic look on her pretty face.

Cassidy sighed. "I'm not sure," she admitted. "I never even knew this place existed. Those pictures of Elliott--and you--hunting Vampires, that was surreal. And now you're engaged to some guy I hardly know who seems like he's okay, but hasn't he already broken your heart a couple of times?"

Cadence nodded. "Yes, but things are different now," she replied.

              "If you say so," Cassidy responded. "I see all of this, and I think about what happened to Elliott, and I get so angry. I can't help but wish I could be part of it now, you know? Rather than waiting."

              "I know," Cadence assured her. "But you're not old enough to Transform yet. As soon as you are, we'll make it happen. In the meantime, you really need to talk to Grandma. She can explain everything a lot better than I can. I know she wanted to be here. At least she got to watch the memorial."

              Cassidy agreed. "I've spoken to her about Elliott dozens of times, and she never even acted like she knew him. I always thought it was a little odd that no one thought it was weird that I was such good friends with a guy my sister worked with who happened to be, in my understanding, like, ten years older than me. But even grandma would just say she was glad I had someone to look out for me. It makes sense now, I guess."

              "Elliott was assigned to look after you, since you were a baby," Cadence explained as they approached their destination.

              "What?" Cassidy asked, stopping in her tracks. "He was?"

              "Yes. Aaron just told me last night. So, it makes perfect sense that you would have a relationship with him from the beginning. And of course, Grandma, Mom, and Dad would think nothing of it."

              "Wow," Cassidy said, shaking her head. "This keeps getting more and more bizarre by the moment."

              "You're telling me," Cadence mumbled.

"No wonder he hated that guy I had a crush on," Cassidy said, walking away from Cadence, the bewildered expression back on her face.

              "Say what?" Cadence asked, but by then, her sister had already entered the building and walked off to join her parents, and Cadence was face to face with someone she really wasn't expecting to see--Cale.

              "Hi, Cadence," he said, literally running into her in the entryway.

              "Oh, hi," she said, forcing a smile, unable to meet his eyes. "It's nice to see you."

              "You did a great job at the memorial, with your speech," he replied, stepping out of the way so she could continue to enter the building.

              There was a short hallway that led to a larger room where Hannah had a catered lunch prepared, and while Cadence could see into the room, she couldn't quite get there. Where was her boyfriend--fiancé--now when she needed him? "Thank you," she said, finally deciding to go ahead and address this uncomfortable situation and get it over with. "It wasn't easy."

              "Well," Cale said nodding, "I know you're probably in a hurry to get in there with your family, I just wanted to let you know that, despite how angry I was the last time we spoke, I don't wish you any ill-will. In fact, I'm very happy everything turned out all right with you and Aaron in Ireland, and you're secret is safe with me."

              Cadence hadn't realized she was holding her breath until he was done speaking and she exhaled. "Thank you," she said, most sincerely, patting him on the arm with her left hand.

"You're quite welcome," he replied, offering her a small smile. He caught her hand out of the corner of his eye, and Cadence watched as his expression changed. "Is that? Oh, wow... that seems... quick."

              Cadence immediately withdrew her hand. It had somehow slipped her mind. "Oh, yeah, uhm... there's that."

              The smile had disintegrated fairly quickly, but with a bit of effort, he forced it back onto his handsome face. "Congratulations," he said mildly.

"Thank you," Cadence replied. After an awkward pause, she said, "Well, I guess we should..."

"Yes, please, after you," he agreed, following her into the noisy room.

              Rather than approaching the buffet first, Cadence immediately plopped down in the seat next to Aaron. "I'm sorry. I'm saving that for my fiancée," he said, squinting at her playfully.

              "Uhm, do you know who I just ran into?" she asked, trying to keep her voice down but not doing a particularly great job of it.

              "Cale?" he whispered, leaning towards her.

              "Uh, yeah!" she replied.

              "And how did that go?"

"Not good. This rock on my hand is attracting a lot of attention!" she exclaimed.

"Did you want me to take it back?" he chided, trying not to laugh at her.

              "No! But, if you knew I was talking to him, why didn't you come over?"

"Don't you think he at least deserved to have a private conversation with you?" Aaron replied, the calmness in his voice beginning to transfer to her.

              Cadence considered his response. "I guess," she said, crossing her arms and turning away so that her back was in the chair properly now.

"I'm sorry, Cadence. If I would have thought you needed my help, I would have come over. But I thought you should handle it yourself."

              His hand was on her shoulder and she felt herself relaxing. Still, she said nothing. After a moment, he added, "Besides, eventually, Eliza is going to find out, and something tells me you'll be happy to let me handle that conversation by myself."

              Cadence's eyes grew wide. "Ooh, payback is hell, love."

He nodded. "That it is. Luckily for me, news doesn't travel to Siberia quite as quickly as it does to Nevada."

              Cadence shot up in her chair. "Siberia? You sent her to Siberia?"

              "No, I did," Hannah replied from her seat across from Cadence. The Hunter looked at her in shock and amazement. "Hey, something had to be done, and you two were off vacationing in Ireland," she explained with a wink.

"Holy hell," Cadence muttered as she watched Hannah stand and approach the buffet. "Remind me never to piss off Hannah!"

              Aaron just nodded. "Now come on. Elliott would be sorely disappointed if we didn't at least attempt to eat our weight in cheeseburgers and nachos."

              Cadence laughed, knowing the statement was true, and followed her betrothed to the buffet, no longer caring who might have a problem with the enormous ring on her finger.

***

              The next morning, after a tearful goodbye with her family, Cadence found herself in her usual chair in Aaron's office, sitting next to Jamie, who had no idea how much of a distraction it was to her that he was sitting in Elliott's chair-- in her mind, that's who should have been sitting there.
At least it's not empty,
she thought, as she waited for the rest of their team to take a seat so Aaron could get started.

              Hannah, Christian, Shane, Meaghan, and Aurora were also present. Cadence tried to focus on the tasks at hand, determining their next steps in tracking down the renegades, and Giovani, rather than the enormous hole in her heart that kept nagging at her every time the opportunity for a snide remark presented itself and went unsaid. It was obvious by the dispositions of everyone else present that she wasn't the only one missing the comic relief.

"All right," Aaron began once everyone was seated and the idle chatter began to die down. "We've got quite a few topics to discuss. First of all, we are hearing some rumors regarding the whereabouts of Flynn, but nothing solid on Sam; is that correct?"

"That's right," Hannah spoke up. "While you were gone, we caught wind that Flynn may well have made his way into Montana. Morgan and her team have had several reports that he may be hiding out in the mountains in her territory. She's putting together a group to do some probing and see if they can at least get some visual confirmation before she requests assistance."

              "Good," Aaron confirmed. "I don't want her to move on him without at least part of this team up there because I don't want him tipped off. The last thing we need is for him to get away, but if she can confirm that it's him, that will be perfect."

              "We have had some unconfirmed rumors regarding Sam," Christian mentioned. "But they are scattered so it doesn't sound solid."

"I want to make sure we've got some reliable contacts in Texas. The leader of the Dallas area is friends with Alex from San Antonio, and we all know that Sam and Alex have a tight relationship, so let's feel that out, Christian."

              "I'm on it," he replied, nodding his head.

"What about the shipment of those titanium bullets?" Aaron asked, looking around as if he wasn't sure where the answer might come from.

              "Oh," Aurora spoke up. "I've been working on that," she said with a small smile. "I've confirmed that they were intercepted by customs, and they are being held. So, if I can get a team together to go in there and seize them, that would be quite helpful as we go to battle with Sam and Flynn."

              "Perfect. What do you need from me?" Aaron asked.

Aurora had never been in charge of anything before, so she looked a little unsure of herself. Cadence spoke up. "Hannah's our best bet on running interference at this time. Why don't you take her and go to the port of entry--is it Miami?" Aurora nodded. "The two of you can probably manipulate their release, don't you think?" She was looking at Hannah now, who indicated that she agreed. "Work for you?" she asked, returning to Aaron.

"Absolutely," he replied. "And I'm sure Teresa would be happy to help you out. She's the lead in the Miami area. "

              "Awesome--I'll get it done," Aurora smiled, obviously proud that she was being trusted with such a large task.

Aaron gave her a nod of confidence and then moved on to the next item on his list. "Giovani," he said. It was more of a question than a statement, and there was absolutely no indication from the rest of the team that anyone had any sort of a reply. "Well," he said after a long pause, "I guess that means he's probably still in the Amazon then. Elliott sent a party in looking for him months ago, but they’ve come up with nothing, which isn’t surprising considering it is the Amazon."

              "If I were him," Cadence thought out loud, "I would wait until we are thoroughly distracted by Sam or Flynn and then emerge."

The rest of the team agreed with her. "You're probably right," Aaron concurred. "What else have we got going on down there?" he asked, glancing around but settling his gaze on Hannah eventually.

"I moved Priscilla over there," she explained. "She was our lead contact when Giovani and Jack were doing all of that damage in the Caribbean, and even though she's very young, she knows what's she's looking for."             

              Aaron took in her words carefully. "Okay," he finally replied. "And what about our former Area Leader, Paulo?"

"Still there," Hannah confirmed. "I just thought Priscilla would be an additional asset. We still have several contacts at every single airport, the larger the more saturated, and they know to watch any and all possible means of transportation closely."

Again, Aaron listened cautiously before responding. Finally, he said, "Good. That should be enough for now. But Cadence is right. We can't allow ourselves to be so distracted by these Hunters that we forget that Giovani is also a primary objective." Once again, the rest of the team showed their understanding before he moved on. "Shane, how's Laney doing?"

              "She's all right, I guess," the muscle-bound Guardian replied.

"What's going on with Laney?" Cadence questioned, quietly.

"We have had her under constant supervision since she returned from Europe a few days ago," Shane explained. "So far she seems to be siding with us regarding her sister's detention, but just in case Laura tries to talk her into helping her escape, I've been keeping a close eye on her."

              Cadence nodded. "So, who's watching her now?"

              "Paxton and Smith," Shane replied.

              Cadence raised her eyebrows and scoffed, knowing those two had reputations as bumbling idiots. "Sorry," she said, looking away. "I just hope she's still there when you get back."

              "I know," Shane admitted. "But I have them on the IAC, and they did okay yesterday during the memorial. Surely they can keep an eye on her for a few minutes...."