Visionaries

thirteen

// THIRTEEN //

"What are you doing here, May? I was expecting you to send Darius to save me, but to throw yourself in this, not smart," Cass mutters.

"Cyrus and Darius advised me against it. Em was even very reluctant to let me leave, but I convinced them all. I went all CSI on their asses and made them believe that I needed to be the one Pete made the switch with."

"But look at how that turned out?"

I stare at my arms twisted behind me, cuffed to the leg of an armoire bolted to the floor. I stare at Cass cuffed to the bed pole. They screwed us over and got me in this mess whilst never letting Cass out. They played us.

"Even if I would have sent Darius, he would've been stopped in the fake crash and you would still be here. At least now, there is someone back in Lugano looking over Cyrus and Em."

She nods to herself.

"Did you sleep okay last night?" she asks.

"As okay as sleeping with you arms cuffed behind you can be. How have you been doing this?"

"Well, thanks to you, I want to say I didn't have to do it for long, but from the looks of it, we're both stuck here a little while. Better get used to it now."

I sigh. I want to promise her our escape, but I don't know anything more than she does at this point.

"Darius and Cyrus will find us. Don't worry."

"They could have me in their big bulky arms right now on the way out of this place and I'll still worry."

I snort. There's the Cass I know and love.

"Mike is going crazy not knowing if you're okay."

She shakes her head furiously and I can almost see tears.

"Don't say that. Don't talk about him."

Mike Keller is one of the most decent humans I know and he is most probably not going to teach any of Cass' courses. He won't be her teacher and they are so compatible. What is making her sad?

"What did you guys talk about before you were taken, Cass?"

She sniffs, but her tears are invisible.

"He told me that he liked me a lot and he wishes that he could get to know me and to love me."

"What's wrong with that?" I ask excited. He knows he'll love her eventually. That's powerful.

"That he said he couldn't. May, he wished he could but said that he couldn't."

"I don't understand, why?"

"He said it was something personal."

I shake my head in confusion. I try recalling everything I know about him. I understand if he would feel the need to put his job first, but he didn't even mention that as being the problem. He knows that he won't be Cass' teacher and he even said so himself, it was better if he wasn't.

We did find out that his brother was the person that took Cass away and that he was sick, but that was after their talk. How could he...

I gasp. "Has he ever mentioned anything about his sick brother?" I ask.

She nods. "He didn't know he was sick but he's mentioned his estranged brother. Why? How do you know he's sick?"

"'Cause I traced the DNA of the blood of the guy you punched on your rings. It matched with his and he had sickle-cell disease. He was taken aback by that too."