Even as her finger pulled the trigger, she began to dive across the room. Initially, her goal had been to catch the baby; she hoped to grab her before she fell out of the window to the sidewalk below. However, as she flew through the air, she realized Aaron had burst through the door and was diving for the child. Cadence shifted her focus midair and reached for Henry’s head instead. As Aaron dove under her, she forced her momentum upward, grabbing Henry’s skull and giving it one swift crank to the right. Not only did she break his neck, but just as had happened with Carter before, as she pulled, the Vampire’s head came off in her hands.

She turned to see Aaron’s upper body hanging out the window, his legs resting on the bed and the nightstand awkwardly. Tossing the head aside, she rushed over to him, afraid he might fall out of the window. If he had the baby, it might be difficult for him to work his way back in. She pulled him back into the room, relieved to see the baby girl wiggling angrily in his arms. On the sidewalk below, Cadence caught a glimpse of Elliott and felt relieved that even if Henry had dropped the baby, she would’ve been caught.

The mother hurried over to take her daughter. Her screams of terror had quickly shifted to tears of joy as she held her precious baby in her arms. Even while the mother was cradling the child, Aaron quickly and carefully checked to see if there were any scratches or teeth marks on the baby. He shook his head at Cadence, letting her know that Henry had not harmed the child, so he allowed the exhausted mother to calm her little girl.

Cadence could hear sirens in the distance and realized that, even in this neighborhood, shattering glass, the mother’s screams, the roar of a motorcycle engine on the lawn, and shots fired had probably alerted the building’s other residents to call the police. She looked down to see that Henry’s body had already turned to ashes.

Just as the mother began to ask questions, Elliott entered the room. Cadence and Aaron were both more than willing to let him talk to the shaken woman. Christian had also arrived carrying some sort of vacuuming device, which Cadence assumed was to collect the remains of Henry. Without saying a word, Aaron grabbed Cadence by her upper arm, not hard enough to hurt her but firm enough to get her attention. He directed her toward the door, and as she passed Christian, he gave her a pathetic smile. The reality of what she had done began to set in, and Cadence realized she was going to have a lot of explaining to do. It was evident that Aaron was extremely unhappy.

Just as they reached the doorway, Elliott picked the Glock up off of the floor and, without turning his head, tossed it backward to Aaron, who caught it with his free hand without looking and tucked it into his waistband.

“Twenty minutes to debrief. Resume protocol.” Aaron instructed to the team sharply as he moved Cadence to the staircase.

Cadence ascertained that the last portion, the part about protocol, had to be stated because of her. She had broken protocol. And she had broken it good.

Aaron didn’t say anything at all to her as he led her down the six flights of stairs. As they reached the landing before the external exit, he said sternly, “Do not say anything to anyone. Do you understand?”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Taking his directive quite literally, she nodded her head in the affirmative and walked with him out the door.

Most of the team had assembled on the sidewalk here, except for the two that were still inside and Meagan and Shane who, no doubt, were still standing in the alley. Cadence thought they might remain in their positions for the next several years if Aaron never gave them specific permission to move.

She could see that Finn was pretty beat up. His arm looked to be broken, and he had several lacerations on his face and legs. He was standing with his team on the sidewalk across the street. As Cadence and Aaron exited the building, Sam approached them, weaving in and out of traffic, screaming a trail of expletives at both of them. Aaron seemed to ignore him and led her over to where he had dropped his bike on the sidewalk before he kicked in the front door and sprinted up the stairs to save the baby. Cadence assumed she was riding with Aaron back to headquarters so she stood by as he righted his motorcycle. Sam had a few more choice words for her, and they were becoming more and more vulgar with each passing second. Though she was trying to tune him out, it was becoming increasingly more difficult. She didn’t know if she should punch him in the face or start to cry.

Aaron looked at Sam sharply and slowly stated, “Sam, that’s enough. I said I would take care of it. Now, leave her the hell alone.”

The old man looked a bit intimidated at first, but then he remarked, “Yeah if everything you said happened, we wouldn’t be in this situation now, would we?”

“I gave the order for her to take the shot.”

“If that bitch hadn’t taken off on her own like that….”

Suddenly, the older man jumped back a few paces and stopped speaking mid-sentence. Cadence had no way of knowing what Aaron had said to him over the IAC, but she got the impression he had used a few expletives himself. Whatever it was, it was enough for Sam to bite his tongue.

Cadence didn’t understand why Sam and his party were so angry. She had completed a task they had failed at for years. They should be thanking her! Clearly, she was missing something, however, and since she had promised she wouldn’t say anything, she was glad that Aaron had handled it. Even though he was obviously angry with her, she felt a little better knowing he had stood up for her against the verbal abuse of Cowboy Sam.

Aaron climbed on his bike and gestured for her to get on as well, which she did immediately. If he was giving directives to the rest of the team, he was doing so individually because she saw nothing more from him come across the team IAC.

Cadence glanced back over her shoulder as they pulled away and saw Sam’s ire was up again. This time, he was speaking to Elliott. It was difficult to tell whether the Guardian was agreeing with the cowboy or telling him off, and as they turned a corner, Cadence lost sight of all of them.

Aaron neither said nor sent a word directly to her the entire ride back. He pushed the motorcycle’s limitation on speed, and she had to hold on tightly to keep from flying off especially when they went around corners. Under normal circumstances she would have loved the idea of riding his bike with him. But right now, she felt like a small child who had been warned that she would be receiving a spanking when she got home.

As they pulled into the lot in front of the meeting room, Cadence’s emotions began to get the best of her. She was doing everything she could not to cry. He parked the bike, waited for her to get off, and then, without a word, walked into the building, clearly expecting her to follow. He led her down a hallway to a small room near the back of the building. Looking at his watch, he let out a sigh. Cadence checked the time on her IAC and saw they only had ten minutes until the debrief was to start. She assumed he would need much more time than that to go over this mess with her.

Gesturing toward a chair on the other side of a small table, he said simply, “Sit. I’ll be back.” He slammed the door so hard behind him that the entire room shook.