Of Wolves and Spies

Chapter 6

Silence.

Complete silence.

The air was so thick with anticipation and a curtain of tension closed around them so tightly that Lizzy found it hard to breathe, let alone think of a response to the question. How was she supposed to answer? Dare she tell him the whole truth, or just lay the facts out in front of him and leave him to deduce what he will?

Yeah, because keeping secrets always works out great in the end...

The sound of hammering of the floorboards startled Lizzy into looking up. Instead of her brother standing there, there was only a shadow, an impression. A cloud of dust was left in his wake and she realised that she had been silent for too long, lost in her own thoughts. Taken too long to reason out the best possible course of action to take, what would be the right words to say, but she had taken too long to respond and now he was going to ask Mike and somehow, she doubted that he was going to be polite about it.

And because he was so angry about being kept in the dark, the fact that he didn't know what was going on or why, he began to storm through the cabin like he was the Incredible Hulk and she had to stifle the burning desire to ask him if he'll be turning green, too.

She knew that if she didn't do something soon, there would be major destruction left in his wake. So, she followed the heavy sound of his foot treads to the sitting room just in time to watch as he grabbed Mike by the collar and demanded answers from him.

She knew that he was angry, angry enough to turn this cabin into rubble. But she couldn't understand why all of his rage seemed to be directed towards Mike. Normally she was good at reading people, situations, but right now, at this moment, she looked at her brother and couldn't understand why he was looking at Mike with such... hatred. What possible assumptions could her brother have leapt to, to garner such a hatred of Mike. What could have possibly caused this eruption of rage that made Cade look as though he were a hair's breadth from beating him to death?

"Why is she here Mike? Why would she come here, why did she come here? How could she have even known about this place, if you didn't tell her?" Then suddenly a darkness seemed to grab a firmer hold of her brother and for the first time since she discovered her daughter's kidnapping, Lizzy found herself worrying about someone else other than Ava. But what surprised was that Mike was just letting Cade hold him like that, he just stood there, doing nothing to get out of the hold, which he could do with ease.

So, why was he not doing anything? What was it that he saw in Cade's eyes that made him look as though he felt like he deserved this? What could possibly be running through their demented minds?

"Did you know all along? Did you? How could you stand by and watch my family be in absolute agony over her death knowing that she was alive? What kind of man are you, what kind of friend are you?" All of a sudden, Lizzy was acutely aware that it wasn't a good idea to allow Cade to continue questioning Mike, because with each unanswered question his anger and hurt and confusion just seemed to keep building and his pain that thrummed in his heart drummed out his ability to hear anything but the sound of his anguish reverberating in his mind and soul.

Of course her brother would assume that Mike knew, after all, here she was, in Mikes cabin - a place that only direct family knew about, and only his mother, brothers and Cade knew the location of. What else was he supposed to think? That thought, however, did not prevent Lizzy from wanting to slug her brother for leaping - more like catapulting - to such an erroneous assumption. And for thinking that she would ever do that to her family, or to Mike.

"I had no idea that she was alive! You know me! If I had known, I would have told you!" Mike's words did nothing to extinguish the wildfire that had ignited within Cade, in fact, they seemed to inflame him further.