Chapter 29
29
I t’s just past noon on a chilly March day when Cass steamrolls into Micah Devereux’s Outpost Office and snaps his fingers to shut the door behind him. “All right, I’m here,” he says without preamble, raising his eyebrows expectantly at the two demons behind Micah’s desk. “What do you bozos want?”
Gregorio stares back. “I beg your pardon?”
“Then beg,” Cass says, crossing his arms over his chest. “I have an unattended former hunter and a demon toddler at home. Make it snappy.”
“Wait.” Micah squints at him. “Cass?”
Belatedly, Cass glances down at himself. Right. The glamour. It’s not the same one he used on his field trips with JJ and Desi?—he’s considering that one compromised until further notice?—but it does its job just as well. “The one and only,” he says, and he spreads his arms wide. “Well? You wanted to see me?”
Sighing explosively, Gregorio waves a hand. Instantly, the blinds clatter shut and the door’s lock clicks into place, closely followed by the telltale tingle of a soundproofing spell falling over the office. “Well, you certainly know how to make an entrance.”
“Thanks. I try,” Cass says, letting his glamour disappear.
“It wasn’t a compliment.” Gregorio looks even more annoyed and grumpy than usual, which Cass thinks is fairly impressive for him. “What the hell have you gotten yourself into, Chin?”
“Nothing!” Cass protests. “I’m the absolute picture of a law-abiding citizen!”
“You literally just said you have an unattended former hunter and a demon toddler at home,” Micah points out. “I’d say that counts as ‘something.’”
“Nothing besides the obvious, then,” Cass says, leaning back against the door. Both Micah and Gregorio are across the office from Cass, Micah in his chair and Gregorio sitting on the edge of Micah’s desk, but somehow, Cass still feels like he’s being boxed in. “Listen, is this about your whole ‘I need you to trust me when I ask for it’ thing? Because if we’re about to tread any deeper into blackmail territory, then??—?”
Micah’s eyes widen. “Blackmail? Cass, we’re not blackmailing you!”
“Then what are you doing?” Cass demands, frustrated. “The jig is up. The Chain found out about JJ and Desi?—hell, Maggie Khan called me the other day to register Desi. You lost your leverage. There’s nothing left for you to exploit. So why am I here?”
Gregorio’s jaw works. “Wow. I wasn’t aware that you thought so little of us.”
Cass’s temper spikes. “Actually, I thought the world of you two until I realized you’re keeping secrets that could put the people I care about in danger,” he snaps. “And you have no legitimate reason to help me. Nothing to gain and everything to lose. So what’s your game?”
Micah’s eyebrows furrow. To Cass’s surprise, he looks almost… sad. “So we’re not friends? Because friends generally help each other, Cass.”
The words catch Cass off guard. “I?—?” he begins, and he takes a deep breath, trying to gather his thoughts. “I always… considered us friends, but?—but you have to see this from my perspective. You stumbled onto a dangerous secret I was hiding from the Chain?—a secret that I made it clear I’d do anything to keep?—and you expect me to believe you covered for me just out of the goodness of your hearts?”
“Yes,” Micah says, exasperated.
“No.”
Micah turns to Gregorio, appalled. “Babe.”
“What? We do have some ulterior motives, Micah.” His narrowed eyes flicker to Cass. “Just none that would harm your kid or your boyfriend.”
“Not my boyfriend,” Cass says automatically, trying not to fidget with the words. “And what ulterior motives? If you would just tell me what’s going on??—?”
“It’s better for everyone involved if you know as little about what we’re involved in as possible,” Micah cuts in. “Trust me.”
For a long moment, Cass weighs his options.
On the one hand, he doesn’t like this. He doesn’t like this at all. Even though he’s trusted and even liked Micah and Gregorio for centuries, the fact that they’re actively hiding something from Cass?—something related to JJ, judging by how quickly Micah recognized him?—sets his teeth on edge.
He has to protect JJ and Desi. If Micah and Gregorio could compromise them, then Cass needs to be prepared for the fallout.
On the other hand, though, Cass wouldn’t have even agreed to this meeting if he truly believed they were a risk to his newfound family. Even so… “If ‘what you’re involved in’ ends up putting my people in danger,” he says, “you really won’t like the consequences. Tread carefully.”
Micah looks almost upset. Gregorio looks mostly unamused. “We’ll bear that in mind,” he says, and he leans forward. “But we’re not here to argue about that. Actually, we wanted to talk to you about something else entirely.”
“Which is?”
“How’s Roma?”
Cass stares at Gregorio.
Gregorio stares back.
“Roma,” Cass repeats, discomfort winding down his spine. “Roma Gutierrez?”
Gregorio looks exasperated. “Do we know another Roma, Chin? It’s a fairly uncommon name.”
“Why are you interested in Roma?” Cass asks, honestly confused. “Hell, how do you even know that she’s involved in all this?”
Micah squints at him. “You haven’t heard? She’s the talk of the town right now?—or, at least, the talk of the Redwater Food Truck Association. Someone from the Sanctum let it slip that Roma defected within earshot of Mina from Bibimbap House, and, well. You know Mina from Bibimbap House. Half of Redwater knew by the end of the lunch rush.” He raises his eyebrows. “So?”
Cass scowls back. Much as he’s relieved that they’re apparently not as interested in JJ as he feared, he’s not about to tell them everything he knows about Roma?—or anything he knows, for that matter. Hunter or not, she helped him break JJ out of prison. “You didn’t answer my first question. Why do you care?”
“It’s more of a personal interest than a professional one,” Gregorio says.
“Still doesn’t answer my question.”
“Listen,” Micah jumps in, “we’re not asking for her home address or bank account number. We just want to know…” He hesitates. “If she’s doing well. You know. Outside of the Sanctum and all.”
Cass deliberates briefly before deciding on the truth?—within reason, of course. “She’s fine. JJ is the only one who really talks with her. She’s messaged me once or twice, and she hits up Obie sometimes, but otherwise, she’s just sort of living independently.”
Immediately, he snaps his mouth shut, cursing himself. “Living independently” can easily be interpreted as “living alone,” and even though she is flying solo in the studio apartment Obie set up for her, there’s no reason for Micah and Gregorio to know that.
Micah nods seriously. “That’s good. And you… trust her? You think she can be trusted?”
“I guess,” Cass says reluctantly. “Why? You don’t?”
“We didn’t say that,” Gregorio says, and he hesitates. “Actually, we’re hoping she can be trusted.”
Cass blinks back at him, bewildered. “So am I, but?—but why do you care?”
“Let’s just say that we have a vested interest in Gutierrez the Younger,” Micah says evasively.
Gregorio stiffens the slightest bit. Cass notices. “Gutierrez the Younger,” he repeats, eyeing Micah critically. “As opposed to Gutierrez the Elder? Naomi Gutierrez?”
“Well, Naomi is the more famous one,” Micah says, but his eyes tellingly flicker away from Cass as he says it. “Roma might be giving her a run for her money, but I think everyone in Redwater heard about it when Naomi Gutierrez and Sawyer Solomon went on the run.”
“Right,” Cass says warily. “And you have a ‘vested interest’ in them, too?”
“Sure. We love gossip,” Gregorio says, and he arches an eyebrow. “So?”
Cass sighs, shrugging expansively. “You know what? Sure. Sure, I trust Roma. I don’t trust her enough to let her into my safe house yet, but that’s really more paranoia on my part than anything else.” He leans forward, eyes narrowing. “But she helped me break JJ out of the Sanctum, and that means a lot to me. So if anything?—and I mean anything? —happens to her, then I’ll personally make sure you regret it.”
Gregorio doesn’t back down. “You’re just adopting hunters left and right, aren’t you?”
“I’m an equal-opportunity demon,” Cass says briskly, and he makes a show of checking his watch. “Is that all? You just wanted to pick my brain about Roma?”
Micah’s lips pinch together. “And to see how you’re doing, too.”
“And to check on those new identity packages,” Gregorio adds. “I can put the paperwork through off the record, if you need.”
Cass gapes at him. “What part of this conversation makes you think I want you anywhere near their new identities?”
Gregorio scoffs. “Who else is going to file them for you, Chin? You’re wanted for questioning by the Chain. You might not be a fugitive yet, but no demon in their right mind would help you.”
“I can figure it out myself.”
“And how long will that take?”
Cass fights back a flinch. Truth be told, when he created his last secret identity from scratch, it actually took years to get all the individual pieces together without arousing suspicion.
But he doesn’t want to wait years to get these documents for Desi and JJ?—especially JJ. In fact, the sooner Cass gets him a new identity?—with all the perks that entails?—the sooner he can broach the idea of taking a step further in their relationship. And above all??—
Gregorio’s voice is quiet. “Look, Micah and I could get in trouble just for talking with you. Since new identity packages aren’t my division, the Chain would know I cooperated with you if I tried to snitch, and that could cost me my job. And it’s not like you’re going to put your current address on the forms, anyway. There’s really no way this could circle back to you.”
Hypothetically, at least. The part of Cass that’s always prepared for the worst argues that the offer itself could be a setup, that the Chain could’ve put Gregorio and Micah up to this clandestine meeting, that they could be actively plotting against him??—
But the more reasonable part of Cass knows it’s unlikely. He may have never fought a war side by side with Micah or Gregorio, but he has known them for almost two centuries. That level of subterfuge would be out of character from Gregorio and downright shocking from Micah.
Even if Cass doesn’t love the idea of them knowing Desi’s and JJ’s new identities, it looks like his best option is to trust the Conspiracy Couple for now. Reluctantly, he nods. “I’ll consider it. Thanks. Anything else you want to know?”
“Nope,” Micah says, and he expertly flicks his wrist, breaking the soundproofing spell and unlocking the door at the same time. “Enjoy the rest of your day, yeah? And tell the little one we say hello.”
Privately, Cass is sure that he’s going to do no such thing, but he nods anyway. “Sure,” he says, and he snaps his fingers, sliding his glamour back into place. “See you when I see you.”
And, with one last awkward wave, he shoulders his way out of the Outpost and heads down the sidewalk, feeling disconcertingly like he said more than he should have.