I didn’t know exactly how Christian thought he had this rigged up, but it clearly wasn’t working. “Because when Aaron tried to get you, he couldn’t. You set it so that he couldn’t turn it on, remember?”
“Yeah, but... I’m on vacation.”
Did he honestly think Aaron wouldn’t even try to contact him because he was out of the office? “But he should be able to make you talk to him. You didn’t think this through very well, bruh. Not very well at all. And now you’re stuck in a hole where your IAC isn’t showing up at all. We’re going to have to come and get you out. Nothing you try is going to work on Daunator. You know that.” I was being blunt and real while he was listening, but my warnings were falling on deaf ears. I knew that before he even spoke. He couldn’t say I didn’t warn him.
His next question really threw me off. “Did your sister tell you what I said to her, right after you ripped my face off?”
Now, it was my turn to freeze and think. Cadence hadn’t told me anything, had she? What had she been talking about on the cliffs, right before we got Aaron back? We were talking about Cale, but there was something else there. I couldn’t say, but I did know the answer to Christian’s specific question. “No.”
“Good.”
Now, I was curious. “What did you say?”
“It doesn’t matter. She just can’t come over here, all right? I need you to keep her there.”
He was sounding a little frantic now. I needed as much information as I could get. “Christian, I can jump a little deeper into your head and find it.”
“But you won’t because you don’t play that way, right?”
He was using my own morals against me. How important could it possibly be for me to know what he’d told my sister? Judging by his tone, I was guessing that whatever it was, it was private, and I didn’t need to know about it. I wondered if it had anything to do with.... “Will you at least tell me who that other girl is? The one with the lavender eyes?” If I knew that, maybe I could start to understand him a little more.
“No.” Another definitive answer. “Stay out of my head, Findley.”
He was starting to get agitated, and he really wanted me to leave for good. I needed to try to calm him down. Trying to use a pleasant tone, I said, “Christian, I’m trying to help you....”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, womanchild, but not everyone is as lucky as you and your brawny boyfriend, okay? Not everyone has the kind of love that makes you wanna get up in the morning just so you can hold hands, eat sugar cookies, and stare into each other’s eyes, all right?”
My forehead wrinkled. “What the crap?” That was aloud, to myself. I couldn’t imagine anyone eating sugar cookies in the morning. He’d lost it. It didn’t matter, though. As the humor of listening to his tirade subsided, I realized why he was saying that. He didn’t know. “Christian,” I began, taking a deep breath and thinking twice about telling him. My mouth kept moving. “My life isn’t perfect. Brandon dumped me a couple of days ago, okay?”
“Bull. That’s just a lie on your part to get me to talk to you.”
“It’s not.” I could see why he would say that. It was hard to believe. I’d lived it, and I was still having trouble processing it. “He said he thought I needed more space, to get myself together. I didn’t tell him I was helping you, though he did know I’ve been working with Eliza. Anyway, if that girl hurt you, I get it. I feel like someone jabbed a knife into my heart.” I had tears in my eyes now, which made me a little angry. I hadn’t meant to bare my soul to Christian of all people.
“Yeah, well, you can compare those two things, but until someone has actually done it, you have no idea.”
His tone was more sympathetic than I’d expected, but I was confused. Until someone does what? “What do you mean?”
“Nothing. Never mind. It doesn’t matter.” He meant that, and I realized pushing that topic was pointless. He wasn’t going to say anything else about it or explain his statement. “Don’t tell them where I am. Lie to them. Tell them you’re in my head, and I’m relaxing on the beach, all right? Just do it, Cassidy.”
“Fine.” I wasn’t going to do that. I wasn’t going to bold-faced lie to my sister like that, and Aaron would see right through me anyway. But Christian didn’t need to know that. I’d think of something else to do instead to keep his secret, though I still didn’t know why it was so important to me to do so. “I’ll check on you later.”
“Don’t bother. I’m fine.”
He was crazy. “You’re not fine, though, Christian. If you were fine, you and I would’ve never started hating each other in the first place.” I’d taken it to a whole new level. I just wished he’d open up to me. Maybe I could help him.
“I don’t hate you. I don’t hate anyone—except the monster keeping me down here. I might not be fine. I’m certainly not perfect, but I get my job done. And I do it well. Aaron and I have a mutual understanding that I don’t have to get along well with others, so long as that’s the case.”
And now I was mad. Not a thing that had just come out of his mouth seemed to be accurate. “Did your understanding include getting him killed twice?” How could he say he didn’t hate anyone when he had done the things he’d done? I could only imagine what he might’ve been involved in before I met him.
“Get out of my head, Cassidy.”
So we were back to that. “I just want to know!”
“I swear, if you don’t get out of my head, I will do the unthinkable.”
“What are you talking about?
I shouldn’t have asked. At the top of his lungs, in a country twang that made Heather sound Northern, Christian began to sing “Achy Breaky Heart” by Billy Ray Cyrus. “I’m going, I’m going. Don’t torture the others!” I didn’t know if he was actually singing out loud or not, but I felt so awful for the other people in the ground near him if he was, I got out of his head as quickly as I could.