Page 66 of Anchor

“You sure?” she insisted.

I was getting a little nervous. I didn’t want to hurt Jim and Jam—well. I didn’t wantother peopleto hurt Jim and Jam becauseIabsolutely would if they didn’t tell me the truth soon.

“Yes, I’m sure. Please, just…don’t send anyone after the twins. Let me handle it.” It sounded like I wasbeggingher.

“Fine,” Cassie said with a sigh. “Yes, yes, fine.”

She turned and leaned against the wall of the building and took a sip of her coffee. When she saw that it was cold, she whispered another spell, her wand still in her hand, and she waved at it once before the coffee began to steam again.

She forced a smile for me (she was still angry). “Magic.”

“Wow, how fascinating,” I deadpanned and drank my own coffee—cold. I didn’t plan to spell it, though. Not worth the pain when the taste was the same.

“Seriously, though,” Cassie said. “Maybe I should set up a meeting with my cousins one day. You know, just so you can say you know them.”

Again with her cousins. I tried not to sound suspicious, though I was a little at this point. “What are they, a big deal or something?”

A pause. “Youreallyhaven’t heard of the Mergenbachs before?”

Yeah, now I wasverysuspicious. “No, I really haven’t. Why, though?” I was pretty sure I hadn’t heard that name, had never come across it. “You keep bringing them up.”

Cassie smiled again, and this time it didn’t just look fake, but painful, too. “Because you’re an agent and they’ve been wanted once or twice, that’s all. I was just sure you’d have heard about them.” She didn’t give me a chance to comment. “Go on, keep talking. The twins are not the only thing you’re keeping from me.”

I flinched, not entirely sure if I should tell her anything. Just now she’d seemed so…off.

But on the other hand, Ineededto. Goddess knew I needed to get this off my chest or I was going to explode. And just because Cassie was smiling when she didn’t want to, that didn’t take away everything else she’d done for me already. I knew she was trustworthy—I felt that, too. And though my instincts had led me astray before, right now I was choosing to make this easier on myself for once.

“I’m looking for Taland,” I said, and Cassie was not surprised.

“Tivoux—that Taland?”

“Yes, that Taland.” I looked down at my coffee, cheeks flushed now just because I’d said his name out loud. “He, um…he’s out there. I know it. And I’m just trying to find him.”

Cassie raised her head. “Between me and you, I find it suspicious that the search for him has stopped to begin with.”

That was certainly news to me. “The search for him has stopped?”

“Yep. They’ve put O’Bryan and his team on a new case and have moved Tivoux down from his top-three list. His last report said that he’d vanished, simply wasn’t there anymore. He wasn’t anywhere,” Cassie said, and my heart was already galloping in my chest.

“And when was that report brought in?”

She shrugged. “About two weeks ago.”

Two weeks ago, Taland was with me in the Iris Roe.

Fuck.Could it be that the IDD had really given up searching for him? Could it be that being in the Iris Roe had actuallyhelpedTaland get off their radar completely, so now they thought he was dead or something?

“There’s something else.”

I blinked, focusing on Cassie’s face again. “What else?”

“Youtellme—what else are you hiding?” she said. “C’mon, spill it. What is it?”

And I wanted to tell her. The words were at the tip of my tongue—Taland was with me in the Iris Roe.

It would have been so easy.

But I couldn’t because that was not about me. That washistruth to share if he wanted, and I wasn’t going to put him in more danger, not for any reason.

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