I had completely forgotten about that. I quickly tell Rana.
Again, she hesitates. “Okay, I still wouldn’t risk it. Every two months.”
“Agreed. I really hope that it doesn’t come to that,” I tell her honestly.
I doubt that she’s going to keep hold of the phone that Van’s parents gave her. I wouldn’t, not if I wanted to be completely untraceable like she’s going to be. An untraceable phone isn’t always as untraceable as you think it is, and we have her number, which means someone else could get the number, which means they could use it to call and bargain with her to turn herself over, usually by using someone that she cares about.
She isn’t going to risk it.
I wasn’t lying, I really do feel like she’s a friend.
I want to try to convince her to allow SID to protect her if the worst happens and The Owner escapes tomorrow. I’ve been in a similar situation though, and she won’t trust SID, hell she most likely doesn’t trust me, even if she wants to. She has been abused and kept against her will for the majority of her life. There is no way that she’s going to risk going back to that. Which means earning her trust is going to be almost impossible.
I feel like it’s important that I do though.
I don’t know why.
Maybe it’s because of our shared trauma, maybe it's because she’s clearly as bloodthirsty as I am.
Which is rare.
I don’t know, but I do know that it’s important that she’s in my life.
So I’m going to make sure that she is, it really is as simple as that.
“Now I have a favor to ask of you,” Rana says, her voice strong.
“Anything,” I reply and then add, “well, within reason. I mean, if you ask me to kill someone for you. I’ll probably do it, but I will need to know why.”
“What?” Reed asks, his eyebrows high on his forehead, while the others stare at me in shock.
Apart from Coen, he just grins. He knows me well enough that he doesn’t question my words at all. In fact, he would help, and I wouldn’t have to give him a reason.
I blow him a kiss, simply because I appreciate the shit out of him. Wow, I have such a lovely way with words.
“Neith?” Rana asks.
“I’m so fucking sorry. Did you want me to kill someone for you?”
She laughs, “Not right now, but I will remember that offer, so I hope you were serious.”
“I am,” I reply with no hesitation.
“I would do the same for you,” she replies.
“See, I knew we were friends,” I joke. “Seriously, though, what did you need?”
“If he’s not there, if he escapes, can you promise to call me immediately?” She asks. “He’s extremely powerful, knows a lot of people, and he is a fairly strong supernatural as well, although it’s the connections that he has that worry me the most. I need to have as big a head start as I possibly can.”
“Of course,” I reply.
“And don’t look for me. If you look for me, then someone will piggyback onto the search, and he will find me,” she adds. “He has the best of the best working for him.”
“All the big bads think that they have the best working for them,” I reply, and then quickly add. “But I promise that I won’t look for you.”
“Thank you. Trip really is the best at all things missing. He won’t want to find me, but he won’t have a choice,” Rana explains with a heavy sadness in her voice. It’s obvious that Trip meant something to her.
My intuition pings at the way that she has worded her explanation.
