“Shut up!” I exclaimed. “When did you see Giovani at Heathrow, Lucy? Today?” I had a feeling if she was calling me it might have something to do with Giovani. The fact that they’d carried on with their quest after we got the new access the night before hadn’t surprised me.
“Yes!” Lucy replied in response to my question. Emma had her laptop out, and Lucy pulled it around so I could see, holding the phone near the screen.
Cadence leaned in and looked over my shoulder as Lucy hit play on the video. It was difficult to see considering we were watching a low quality video over FaceTime, but it did appear as if Giovani and Zabrina were making their way through security at a rather large airport. I could see the stamp LHR in the corner, and I knew from all of my own hours and hours of research that those were the letters for London Heathrow. The timestamp showed it was about ten hours ago.
Cadence mumbled, “Oh, wow,
It had taken some serious negotiation, but I had managed to convince Cadence to let me stay in the operating room with Brandon, with Aaron’s help. I reminded her that I’d promised the new Guardian I’d be there when he woke up, and when Aaron assured her Jamie would be right next door, she finally gave in. She and Aaron had a lot to do, so she hurried off, back to her apartment, and Jamie disappeared for a few minutes, coming back with a bed identical to the one Brandon was sleeping in, which he wheeled over to Sleeping Beauty’s left.“What’s this?” I asked as he pushed it into place.“Well, I thought you might get tired,” he replied with a shrug. “I’m not sure how long he might be out, but I can’t imagine you’re planning to stay awake all night.”“Thanks, Jamie,” I said, thinking it was a really nice gesture. “Look, I’m really sorry I was such a brat earli
“Does it hurt at all?” I asked Brandon.“No,” he assured me. He licked his lips and finally put his arms down, which I was thankful for. They were starting to make me dizzy. “It hurt a little bit when Jamie put the first dose in, but I think I was already out by the time he gave me the second one, the pain medicine.” I nodded. I had thought he was already unconscious before the second shot, too, but it was hard to tell. “What time is it?” he asked, looking around like he might be able to see the clock, which was behind him.I had stowed my phone under my pillow, so I pulled it out and looked at the time, seeing I had a text from Lucy from about an hour ago asking if there were any updates on Brandon. I’d have to answer her later. “It’s just after midnight.”“Just after midnight Sunday morning, or just after midnight the third week of April?” Brandon asked. He shoved his pillows u
“Right,” Brandon remarked, turning his attention back to the ceiling. After a few moments of silence, he said, “Remind me who Jack is again.”“Oh, good grief!” I pulled the pillow out from under my head and playfully swatted him with it. I thought he at least knew that much. I was a little shocked he let me get away with that, considering he could’ve torn the pillow away from me, but he had his eyebrows raised as I shoved it back under my head. “He was my sister’s ex-boyfriend.”“That’s right,” Brandon replied. He was studying my face again, which made me uncomfortable, so I lay back down, finding familiarity in the ceiling again. “Well, I don’t think we should ask to go right now. Let’s just focus on getting into the meeting, okay?”His plan made sense, and I agreed we’d need to take this one step at a time. Prove we could be loyal soldiers at the meeting
The sounds of whispering woke me, and when I opened my eyes, I was surprised to see light pouring in the windows. It seemed like I’d only been asleep for a couple of minutes. I rubbed my eyes and stretched, only vaguely remembering where I should be.“Oh, no,” Brandon said loudly enough to let me know he was no longer worried he’d wake me. “We’ve awoken the sleeping princess.”“Just as well,” I heard another familiar voice say as I turned over to see what was going on. I knew before I looked at him that it was Jamie. “We have a meeting in a little while, so….”“We do?” I asked, sitting up, hopeful. “You managed to talk them in to letting us go?” I smiled at Brandon, not even thinking of what I might look like.“What?” Jamie asked, looking from Brandon to me and then back again.“Uh, not yet,” Brandon said in a voice that let me k
The air was chilly outside, and once again, I wished I’d brought a coat. “So… I’m in the other building, the one across the street, for now. They’re… they’re going to give me Elliott’s apartment, once they’re done with a few things.”I wondered if all of his stuff was still in there, if they hadn’t yet touched it. I couldn’t imagine it had been sitting the way he’d left it for months. It seems like Aaron wouldn’t like that, but then, it was possible. “That’s… cool.” I wondered what it looked like, but I didn’t want to walk into it and see all of Elliott’s stuff, smell him, miss him even more. I was twisting the ring on my finger without even thinking about it.“Where’d you get that?” Brandon asked as we crossed the street.“Oh, from your… from Elliott.”He nodded. “It’s pretty.”
Whatever discussion the bosses had been having came to a halt when we walked in. Cadence jumped out of the chair she’d been sitting at around a long boardroom-like meeting table and exclaimed, “HI! How are you guys?”“Never better!” Brandon replied as Cadence hugged him and then stared at him for a second, like she was trying to figure out whether or not he was being sarcastic, before she turned to me.Aaron had been standing at the far end of the table, but he came around to clasp Brandon’s hand. “You feel different?”“Nah, I’ve always been like this.” Brandon looked down at himself as if to say he’d always been so awesome. Aaron shook his head at him and briefly rested his hand on my shoulder as a greeting. That was good enough for me. Hugging him still seemed awkward to me.I noticed my sister rolling her eyes at Brandon as she gestured at us to take seats at the table. I thought i
The next face to come into view was a man who appeared to be in his thirties with short, dark hair. He looked utterly exhausted, and when everyone began to say hello, I found out this was Andrew, the Philly Area Leader.A woman joined us via the screen shortly thereafter, and I learned that her name was Morgan. She had long, brown wavy hair and was cute but feisty looking. Her area was in Montana.“Oh, my gosh!” Morgan gushed, leaning closer to the screen. “You look so much like your dad!”I turned to see Brandon fumbling for words and scooted my leg over so that my knee bumped his leg, trying to offer support. “That’s what I hear,” he managed, with a smile.“I mean, seriously, just like him!” Apparently, Morgan didn’t take hints very well, so Aaron cut in and started the meeting, for which I was sure Brandon was thankful.“As you know, we have a very serious situation on our hands i
“They didn’t all escape,” Andrew interjected. I could tell by his tone he was tired of being blamed for all of this mess, even if he deserved it. “We did manage to get one of them, at least. I think we may have hit another, but of course we have no way of knowing if he survived.”“Why is that?” That was Aurora. I wondered if everyone felt compelled to speak at least once during these meetings. I turned and looked at Brandon, and he glanced at me for a moment with a reassuring look as we turned back to Andrew.“We took out one of them as they were entering a black Chevy Tahoe that pulled up to the back door. I watched him turn to ash. Another was hit in the leg, but his friends got him inside the SUV, and they pulled away. My bikes gave chase, but the SUV managed to lose them in the city traffic.”“At one o’clock in the morning?” Morgan seemed very annoyed at Andrew in general. Her tone was b