I pulled myself away from Rey and climbed out of the car in time to see Cassie storm out of the building. Roma must have called her to let her know we were on our way back and what had happened.
"You," she screamed. Stopping in front of her husband, Cassie raised one hand and slapped his face as hard as she could. She put her hips into it, a nice hard smack.
"You should be ashamed of yourself."
Franklin's face crumpled and he did look ashamed. His eyes filled with tears. "I—"
"Oh, no. You don't get to talk. You don't get to be yourself and be all cocky."
Franklin straightened and arched one eyebrow. "Listen, babe."
"Stop it." She turned in a circle. "How is it you're standing in front of me and not groveling on the ground, begging for my forgiveness?"
Without another word, Franklin dropped to his knees and sobbed, tears pouring out of his eyes. "Cassandra, my love, please." He hiccupped, then threw himself on the ground, prone. "I'm so sorry."
Given what was probably on the sidewalk, I’d have been sorry too. Yuck.
"Ugh." Cassie stormed back inside. She shared Roma’s love of high heels, which made her stomping look a little funny to me.
Franklin sat up, blinked several times, then looked around. As he got to his feet, he muttered under his breath, "Why am I on the damn ground?"
Huh. That was weird. Looked like Cassie had some special powers of her own. Cool.
We traipsed inside and up to Repupair’s offices. We had to figure out what to do with these damn alchemists. I flinched a little at the memory of the dead men in the alchemist’s lair. One with his throat ripped out, the other had broken his neck when he hit the wall. The living ones should stay alive. I didn’t know if they were going to take the injured one to a hospital, but he looked like he needed it.
Bran considered the vertical alchemists for a moment, as we all stood in the lobby. All of them were sweating, Franklin the most. The woman was composed, but her eyes kept flitting around the room, looking for escape maybe.
“Tie their hands together and gag them,” he said briskly after a long moment. “Put them in separate meeting rooms. Christian, you’ll monitor them while we consider what to do with them.”
The tall muscular goblin, who’d remained at the office, nodded. “And the injured one?” he asked.
“Leave him here. Let Harry look at him and set the broken bones. I doubt he’ll be able to concentrate enough to work any magic.”
As the goblins got to work restraining and moving the prisoners, Bran turned to Cassie. ”Let’s go into Roma’s office.”
Once we were in and the door shut, Bran tugged Roma to his side. It was crowded in here, and I moved to her chair and settled in it to clear up a little room for the others.
"Can you do something for me?" Bran directed the question to Cassie.
She glanced at her sister, Roma, and then back at Bran. "Sure?"
"Tell your sister that she's happy, and when you say it, really believe it. You are happy."
Roma laughed. "Bran, what—?"
He held up one finger. "Humor me, okay?"
Cassie shrugged one shoulder, looked at Roma, and said, "You are happy."
Roma smiled in a puzzled way. Then they both looked at Bran, confused. He shook his head. "Try again but try to believe that she is ecstatically happy. She's thrilled, right in front of you."
With a deep breath, Cassie squinted at Roma, then said. "You. Are. Happy."
A slow smile spread across Roma's face. "I am happy. Yes." Her eyes sparkled as she looked between Cassie and Bran. "Why? I feel like I’ve had too much to drink, all uncontrolled."
In a sudden swift move, she hugged and kissed him.
Cassie had a wistful depression for a moment as Bran kissed her sister back. I hoped the divorce went through fast; she deserved a man who loved her.
