Repercussion: The Clandestine Saga Book 3 (9 page)

              Without hesitation, Aaron grabbed the Glock from his holster, swung out the open window, and emptied the chamber into the charcoaled ghoul. He fell on the hood of the car and immediately turned to ash, the fire extinguishing.

Cadence also climbed from the car, weapon in hand, relieved she didn't have to dispatch this one, the weariness suddenly returning and hitting her full force.

"Damn," Aaron whispered under his breath, inspecting the paint on the hood, which had bubbled from the heat.

              Cadence glanced at the rest of the car and realized that was the only damage. It didn't seem possible. "Holy hell," she said, and dropped onto the hood. She knew that, despite the lack of traffic, someone would report a high speed chase, shots fired, and a vehicle on fire. They only had a matter of time before the emergency vehicles began to arrive.

              "You all right?" he asked, coming around the car to stand in front of her.

              She nodded. "We need to get out of here," she replied, rubbing her face with her hands.

              "We've got some time. And your friends are on their way. Should be here in a few."

              Cadence realized she hadn't even checked in with the rest of the team. "Is everyone okay?" she asked.

"Yep," he replied, staring down the highway the way they had come, as if he could somehow see them approaching.

"Cale got shot a couple of times. He's all right, isn't he?"

              "He's fine," Aaron assured her.

"That's gotta hurt," she said more to herself than him.

              "Tell me about it," he replied.

Cadence looked up. She hadn't been thinking. She knew that Aaron had also been shot--only by a Hunter--while defending her against Holland. And those bullets didn't bounce. He almost died. "I'm sorry. I didn't' mean to..."

"Don't worry about it," he said dismissively. He turned and walked a few steps away from her.

              "No, Aaron wait," she said following him. She could see vehicles approaching in the distance and assumed it was the rest of the team, though she didn't check the IAC to make sure. "Please don't walk away from me."

              "You're the one that left," he shot back at her, clearly frustrated that she was so concerned about Cale.

"You can't blame this on me!" she reminded him, running around to stand in front of him. "This is your fault!"

              He stared into her eyes for a moment before shaking his head and saying, "What do you want me to say?"

              She heard cars behind her but didn't hear any doors. She suddenly realized her IAC was still on. She turned it off. "How about 'I'm sorry?'" she suggested, her arms flailing, her soul lurching forward.

His expression was one of disbelief. He waited a moment before replying. Finally he said, "You want me to SAY I'm sorry?"

"Yes," she whispered.

"You want me to
SAY
I'm sorry?" She nodded and watched a myriad of expressions flicker across his face before he finally stepped towards her, cupped her face in his hands, and kissed her. Despite the anger and resentment that she'd been holding on to for so long, she returned the kiss, parting her lips and letting him back in. A torrid of memories flooded over her, and even before he released her, she realized she was crying.

              Taking a deep breath, he met her eyes and said quietly, "Cadence, I'm sorry."

As he began to walk toward the driver's side of the car, confusion washed over her yet again. How could he kiss her and then just walk away? She was vaguely aware that the others had exited their vehicles and were standing nearby. At the moment she didn't care. She caught up to him just before he slid into the car. "Where are you going?" she asked, tears still streaking down her face.

              "Home," he replied, a tone of nonchalance in his voice that she could not comprehend.

              "But..." she stammered.

He started the engine. "I'm sure Cale will give you a ride. And, Cadence, don't let anyone else make your plan from now on, all right? You almost got yourself killed tonight."

"You can't just leave…," she shot back at him. He was clearly not listening, however, as he rolled up the window, and threw the car into reverse.

              Cadence watched in utter disbelief as he pulled the car through the median and headed back the direction they had come. "What the hell?" she asked, shaking her head. Even though Meaghan and Aurora were at her side now, the question was directed at the universe.

              "I'm sorry, hon'," Aurora offered, slipping her arm around her shoulders. "Are you okay? I mean, physically?"

              Cadence didn't respond to the question. "I don't.... How can...?" she stammered.

              "It's all right," Meaghan offered. "You don't need him."

              Cadence nodded, feeling herself starting to slip back into the self-imposed numbness she had been operating out of for the last few months. But the recent experience of feeling alive, of feeling whole, was still clinging to her senses, and she wasn't willing to give up without a fight. "No..." she said quietly.

              "What's that sweetie?" Aurora asked, not sure what she had said.

              "No," she said a bit louder this time. She shook herself free. "No! No, no, no!" She turned to look at her friends, avoiding the stares of the Reno team, who clearly had no idea what they had just witnessed, except for Cale perhaps. Cadence pushed him out of her thoughts completely. "He can't do that. I'm not going to let him do that to me again! It's not fair!" Without asking, she sprinted over to the bike she had seen Aurora get off of, popped the kickstand, and revved the engine. The audience seemed frozen in awe, and despite the blare of approaching sirens, no one seemed to move as she directed the motorcycle back the way Aaron had disappeared. She wasn't sure where he had gone, but she knew she would find him.

Chapter Four

              He had just completed his pre-flight check list when she caught up to him. Somehow, he had known she was coming, despite the fact that her IAC was off, and there was no other way he could have known; he just knew.

Part of him had hoped she would miss him, that he'd make it off the ground before she arrived. But now that she was here, he was also a little relieved. Better to get this conversation over with now than to let it continue to linger.

              She hadn't wasted time with a helmet. She brought the bike to a stop, stepped off, and entered the hanger. The sun was beginning to send streaks of red and pink over the horizon. Subconsciously, she noted it would be easier to see the mountains in the daylight.

              She stopped a dozen feet away from him. He was writing something on a clipboard. "You flew yourself here?" she asked. She hadn't realized he was a pilot. She wondered what else she didn't know.

"Yep," he replied, placing the clipboard back in its proper position. He continued to focus on the airplane, waiting for her to say whatever it was she had come to say, hoping she would get it over with quickly.

              Cadence waited patiently, wondering why the airplane was so much more important than she was. When it became clear he wasn't going to volunteer his attention she said, "Why did you do that?"

              He stopped his fake inspection of the airplane for a second, but only long enough to let her know he had absorbed the question. Resuming his forced activity, he responded with a question of his own. "Why not?"

              She gasped. "Why not? I can think of a hundred reasons why not!" she shot back.

              "Well, I don't really have time for you to list a hundred reasons, so if you could just pick out one or two really important ones..."

              Clearly, he was being sarcastic, and she didn't appreciate it. "Really, Aaron? Could you stop for a minute and look at me?" He didn't. In a fit of frustration she decided to do what he asked. "Fine. You want some reasons why you shouldn't have kissed me and walked away? Uhm, maybe because I don't deserve for you to continue to treat me like crap! Maybe because it might have meant absolutely nothing to you, but it meant a whole hell of a lot to me! Maybe because you are the most selfish bastard I have ever met in my entire life, and I'm sick of your shit! Does that answer your question? Are those good enough reasons why not?"

              She had his full attention now. He turned and looked at her, his arms crossed in front of him. She was crying again, tears of frustration, hurt, and anger streaming down her face.

              "Are you finished?" he asked, that calm tone that was so very helpful in battle annoying the hell out of her now. She swiped absently at her tears, wishing to God that she could just stop crying over him. She nodded.

              He didn't' say anything for a moment, prompting her to ask, "Why are you always so damn calm?"

              He laughed then, shaking his head and focusing on the ground in front of his boots for a moment. "I'm not, Cadence," he said, though his tone seemed to prove otherwise. "That's why I kissed you. That was an emotional response to a stressful situation. It shouldn't have happened, and I'm sorry."

              She considered his words, but she still found herself just as confused as she was before. "So, when you said you were sorry, is that what you were apologizing for?"

              "No," he scoffed, shaking his head. "I was apologizing for the reason you wanted me to. I'm sorry that I hurt you. I'm sorry that I didn't believe you. I'm sorry that I chose Eliza over you, and I'm sorry there's nothing I can do to take any of those things back."

              Cadence stared at him in amazement. She had been longing to hear those words for so many months. Now that she had, she realized he was right. It didn't really change anything. She nodded in acceptance and then silently pondered what needed to happen next. Despite hearing exactly what she had requested, she still felt burdened by the anguish she had carried around all that time. "I just... I don't understand how you just let me go.... You didn't ask me to stay..."

              "You didn't let me," he reminded her.

              Her eyes widened. She knew she had left without saying goodbye, but she was reluctant to let him off the hook so easily. "But before that, you knew I was leaving... you said I should go..."

              "I wanted you to be happy."

              "But I haven't been..."

              "Then you should come home," he replied. Though his tone was still calm, there was a hint of longing and sadness in it as well.

"But... I can't..." she found herself saying, though she wasn't exactly sure why.

              He sighed. "Then I don't know what to tell you, babe."

Suddenly, she was very aware of the gap between them. "I just feel like... sometimes... I mean, it's like you don't even care.

              "I'm sorry you feel that way."

              "Do you?"

"Care about you? Yes, of course. I always have."

              The way the words came out, she wasn't sure she understood. "What do you mean by that?" she asked, hoping for some kind of clarification.

              He sighed again and retreated a few steps until he was leaning against the plane. The symbolism was not lost on her. Yet, she was surprised by his response. "What did you wear to school the first day of your freshman year in high school?" he asked.

              Cadence furrowed her brow in confusion. "What?" she asked.

"Your freshman year. What did you wear on the first day?"

              She shook her head. "I have no idea..."

He nodded. "It was a blue dress with matching leggings that hit just above your knees. You wore it with your Converse. The next day, everyone was wearing dresses with tennis shoes. You didn't even notice."

              "How do you..."

"When you were seven, your grandma came to visit and took you and Cassidy to the park. You both got a balloon. Yours was orange. She told you to let her tie it to your wrist, but you refused. A few minutes later, you accidentally let it go. You cried and cried until she finally bought you another one. Do you remember what color the second one was?"

Cadence recalled the incident. She remembered watching that balloon fade into the sky, wondering why she hadn't listened to her grandma. "It was red..."

Once again, he nodded. "Do you remember the time when you were four and your parents took you to the zoo? Your mom was very pregnant. When that goat started eating your shoelaces, she couldn't get there in time. You didn't cry, though. You laughed and laughed. Your dad called you Goat Bait for the rest of the day."

              She was baffled. Did he really care so much about her that he had, had these conversations with her friends and loved ones? To the extent that he could recall specific discussions and events that accurately? Then, suddenly it dawned on her. There was only one explanation for how he could possibly know all of that information in such detail. "You were there!" She felt a shiver of chills go up her spine as the words escaped her lips.

              He nodded and watched her bewildered expression shift to acceptance before he continued. "Cadence, this whole situation has been... very confusing for me." He saw the acknowledgement in her eyes. "I don't know if we can figure this out or not. It might not be possible. But, there is one thing you need to be very clear about--I have always loved you. Please, don't ever stop believing that, no matter what happens, no matter where you are, I do love you." He was no longer interested in fighting back tears and let them roll down his face, fully aware that she was crying as well. After a moment, he pulled himself back together, his calm façade etched back in place.

              "Why didn't you tell me?" she asked at last.

              "I promised I wouldn't," he admitted. "But I talked to Janette earlier this week, and she said maybe it was time for you to know."

Cadence nodded. Janette was her grandmother, the same one who had bought the balloon. She had been the Hunter Leader at one point in her life, the last one, before she retired. The spot had remained vacant ever since.

              Wiping away her tears, she realized she had a lot to think about. She could see he was growing impatient again, wanting to take off. She didn't blame him. Cadence felt as if she had just detected an iceberg, the oblivion below the surface still hidden beneath a pristine sea. "I'll let you... get back to headquarters," she said. She had almost said, "I'll let you go," but that didn't quite seem right.

She closed the gap between them and wrapped her arms around him, unwilling to let him go without doing so. He returned her embrace, unsure of whether or not he had made the right decision in uncovering the past.

"Be careful," she said, releasing him but not quite stepping away.

              He nodded. "You, too."

              "Let me know when you get there?"

              "Sure."             

              She backed away then, giving him one last look before collecting Aurora's bike and heading back to the hotel. The sun was fully above the horizon now, and a new day had begun.

***

              It turned out the diner was a little bit more crowded around lunch time, though Cadence and Cale still had no trouble finding a table. After she'd arrived back at the hotel, she had collapsed, finally getting enough consecutive hours of sleep to qualify as more than a catnap. Even at that, she had shot out of bed about five hours later, not only haunted by her dreams but with the events of the night before hitting her full force at the same time.

Cale always seemed to wear light colors, which went well with his blond hair and pale eyes. For a moment, the symbolism of early American westerns crossed her mind. Good guys wore white, bad guys wore black. She pushed that idea aside and verbalized her thoughts. "You look nice today," she said quietly, a small smile playing at her lips. "That blue really brings out your eyes."

              He returned the smile, smugly. "Thanks," he answered politely. "You look lovely as always."

              She glanced down, not even sure what she had thrown on, and remembered she was wearing an emerald green summer dress. "Thank you," she said, suddenly feeling extremely self-conscious. She took a sip of her water, wishing she had asked for a straw, and glanced around to see if their waitress was nearby. This one was not nearly as energetic as the last, and she was with another table now.

              Eventually, she would have to let him know why she wanted to speak with him, and now was as good a time as ever, perhaps better than when her food arrived. She didn't realize how famished she was until she'd looked at the menu. Though it was past noon, she had ordered pancakes, eggs, bacon, and biscuits. She'd gotten over the notion that girls were supposed to eat like birds a long time ago. Ironically, Cale had decided to stick with the coffee.

              "I appreciate you agreeing to meet with me," she said, playing with the condensation on the outside of her glass.

"Sure," he replied, as if he wasn't completely uncomfortable sitting across from her now. "What is it you wanted to talk to me about?"

              She concluded that sentence with the statement, "that you couldn't address over the IAC" even though he hadn't actually said it aloud. Taking a deep breath, she said, "I just thought, after last night, I owed you an explanation... and an apology."

              He looked a little surprised. "What do you have to apologize for? You came, you did your job... Vampires are dead, end of story."

              She shook her head. "No, that's not true. Nothing went the way we had planned. It wasn't fair to your team, the way things went down. It shouldn't have happened that way. And then, there were... other things that happened, things none of you should have had to witness. I'm just... I'm sorry for the way I acted, and I'm sorry if you feel like I was dishonest with you." She had gotten it out almost in one breath and had to pause to inhale, before taking a gulp of her water, while he apparently attempted to decipher exactly what she was saying.

He took a long sip of his coffee before speaking. Finally, he said, "Did you invite him?"

              She shook her head. "No, I had no idea he was going to be there. I was just as surprised as you were."

              He seemed to believe her. "We both know he wasn't really in the neighborhood. This trip was intentional."

              Cadence nodded in agreement. She wasn't exactly sure why he had chosen last night to check up on her, and though she was almost certain it was Elliott who had let him know her plans, he could have just as easily accessed Aurora or Meaghan's IACs to find out. If Elliott had told him, he certainly wasn't trying to create this situation. She would definitely be speaking to him soon about all of this anyway. He had already tried to contact her several times, but she had put him off, wanting to talk to Cale first.

              "Whatever it is that's going on between the two of you is none of my business, Cadence, but you were clearly very upset when he left the scene last night. It broke my heart to see you so distraught. When you caught up to him, were you able to get anything settled?" he asked, his expression proof that his words were true.