Chapter Twenty-Four
Neith
“Yep, come on. Van will catch up,” Reed confirms as he pulls me under his arm and we head back through the woods, the same way that we came, although at a much more sedate pace than when we arrived.
It doesn’t take long for Van to catch up with us.
We make our way through the woods, and I’m hoping that the guys know where they’re going because absolutely nothing looks familiar to me, probably because I spent too long looking at their asses when we first came this way and not long enough remembering which way we were walking.
It does occur to me that I could probably talk to them about the dream that was not actually a dream, but as I open my mouth, I realize that it is the kind of conversation that is probably best to have in a more secure location than in the woods.
I’ll wait until we’re in the car. I’ll get the guys to call each other so everyone can hear, or maybe I will wait until we get home, and then I can just show them Styx’s shirt.
The walk to the cars somehow seems a lot shorter than the walk to the sales.
I don’t know how that works, but it just is, and I’m grateful, because I’m definitely more tired than I thought I would be.
Of course, this is my second big battle of sorts in less than twenty-four hours, so that might explain why.
Even though Ethel helped to heal my aches with her tea, it doesn’t change the fact that, technically, I didn’t actually get much sleep last night, if any.
Thankfully, we get to the cars without incident, and we all jump inside. My eyes are already drifting close as we head out of the little clearing that we were all using for a parking lot.
It’s a couple of hours' drive to get home, so I can nap. Not that I think I have much choice in the matter since my eyes are already closed.
∞∞∞
The ringing of a phone rudely pulls me out of the most wonderful dream where I’m surrounded by every single kind of donut that you can possibly think of, and all kinds of coffee, and I’m not getting full, I’m just munching my way through all of these incredible flavors.
It’s the best dream, and I try to go back to it while I’m still half awake.
“Ty just called, the convoy with The Owner in it got attacked, The Owner has escaped,” Van's voice comes through the speakers of the car.
My eyes fly open as I sit up.
“Whoa,” Reed exclaims, and I realize that I had somehow made way over to him in my sleep, and that he has a drool patch on his shirt where my head was resting.
Whoops.
Not important.
I try to get my brain to kick online and to process what I just heard. Going from fast asleep to wide awake has never been a strong suit of mine, although at least this time I didn’t end up with Betty in my hands.
“Why have you summoned Betty?” Coen asks from the front of the car.
Having no idea when I closed them again, I finally open an eye, just one, because the other one is a lazy bitch and is still asleep, and glance down at my lap.
Sure enough, there’s Betty, she buzzes, and I have to assume that it’s in amusement that I’ve managed to summon her while half asleep again.
Wait.
Does that mean that all of those times that I woke up with her in my hands, or shooting that I wasn’t just grabbing her from the bed next to me?
Another time. I can figure that out another time, because right now there is something a lot more important that I need to focus on.
I disappear Betty, and ask, “Please tell me that was part of the dream I was having, and The Owner has not escaped?”
It’s unlikely, I was dreaming about donuts, and The Owner escaping definitely wasn’t a part of that, but I can hope.
“Sorry, Neith. Technically, he hasn’t escaped, but rather someone has broken him out. He was still knocked out cold from what I did to him,” Van replies immediately over the speakers.
“Fuck,” I growl. Pulling out my phone, I immediately call Rana.
“Did he escape?” She asks as soon as she picks up.
“The convoy was attacked, and someone has freed him,” I reply.
“Fuck,” she hangs up, and the line goes dead.
I look down at my phone and try to call her back. I didn’t get a chance to tell her that Trip is on the way to her, or at least he might be.
She doesn’t pick up.
“Is she going underground?” Raiden asks me with concern.
I nod and sigh, “I would. I can’t get through to her, and I didn’t get the chance to tell her that Trip might be heading to the compound.”
“Dare is messaging me when he shows up, I’ll get them to tell him that The Owner escaped, and is most likely going after Rana,” River replies.
I frown, “I really don’t like that she’s gone, but there was no way that I was going to convince her otherwise.”
“We have to respect her wishes,” Van says. “Even though it doesn’t feel right. Ty has sent several teams out to the location and onto the portal where they were driving to in order to transport The Owner back home to where the strongest prisons are. Hopefully, we’ll pick him back up.”
“We’re going to have to trust that the other agents know what they’re doing and leave it in their hands,” Griff says unhappily. “Hopefully, Rana will get in contact with you soon, and we can try to convince her to either accept help from SID or maybe even come here and stay with us.”
“Well, we have got a couple of spare rooms,” River reminds us.
“That’s true. Now I just need her to pick up, and she can come and stay with us,” I reply. Not needing to give it any more thought and silently cursing myself that I didn’t think of it sooner.
I try to call her again, but it goes straight to voicemail, and the text I send just bounces back as undelivered.
She’s ditched the phone.
I can’t even let Trip know that Rana is in danger because The Owner’s escaped because none of us have any way to contact him.
There is nothing that we can do, apart from wait it out and hope that SID catches The Owner quickly.
Judging from our past experiences with him though, he's going to disappear, and we’re not going to find him for a long time.
“It’ll be okay,” Reed says. “Ty has the best of the best working for him, and he knows that Rana will be under threat from The Owner, so he will be working around the clock to find him.”
I nod, “I know. I just don’t like it.”
“None of us do,” Coen replies.
Trip
I wasn’t going to go to the compound like River suggested, even though I do trust him, and I felt more comfortable with all of them than I have felt with anyone else for a really long time. I was going to do what I had originally decided to do and get my head sorted before I saw Rana.
Being regularly tortured, not allowed to shift, and kept in solitary confinement does something to a shifter. Especially one like me. I want to run and enjoy being free for a while before I face Rana.
That was the plan, but something has shifted.
I don’t know what, but something has changed, and I suddenly have the need to head to the compound as quickly as I can.
My instincts are screaming at me, and I kick myself for not grabbing any of their phone numbers before I shifted and ran.
I briefly consider heading back, but I move really fucking fast when I’m shifted, and although I could make it back to them just as quickly as I got here, something is urging me forward toward the compound.
Plus, I have no idea if they’re even at the location where the sales were anymore, so it could just be a huge waste of time.
I almost skid to a stop when I realize that at some point I changed direction, and I’m already heading in the direction of a portal that will take me to the country where the compound is.
The fact that I’m being steered this way is making me nervous, but I’ve never backed down from a challenge.
I just hope that River has had time to let the portal operators and the people at the compound know that I’m coming.
My people skills are a little rusty.
Who am I kidding? My people skills have always been rusty.
Neith
The drive home is quiet, all of us worrying about Rana. The thing is, I know that if she needed help, then she would ask me, and I can’t do anything until she gets in contact with me.
The only reason why I’m not calling Kar and getting him to trace her is that she specifically warned me not to, and I don’t want to compromise her safety any more than it has already been compromised.
So I’m going to have to wait until she calls me.
“Oh, your bikes are here,” I say as I get out of the car, inside the garage, and see Raiden’s bikes, and several other vehicles that I remember seeing in the guy's garage back at their place.
“Yeah. House has all of our toys here and some new ones that I can’t wait to play with too,” Raiden replies with a smile as he strokes one of his bikes.
“Do you think that all of our stuff will go back with us when we go back to the other house, or do you think that House knows something that we don’t and we’re staying here longer than we think we are?” River asks curiously, making us all pause.
Doc shrugs, “That’s a really good question. I guess we aren’t going to know the answer until we’re able to leave here and go back to the other house.”
“I like it here,” Ransom adds thoughtfully. “I don’t think I would mind if this became our permanent address. I like the fact that it keeps us further away from work and all the shit that it brings. It brings another level of safety that I’m finding that I really enjoy.”
“Yeah, that’s true. I definitely feel more relaxed here, but I hadn’t realized that I wasn’t relaxed at the other place, if that makes sense,” Reed replies.
“Getting to work would be difficult though, we would still need to go to the Training Academy regularly, we have classes to teach, and we would need to go for our assignments and to check in and all of that,” Van says, his eyebrows dipped slightly as he tries to work out the logistics of living here permanently.
I have to admit, it makes my heart happy that they love being here as much as they do.
I would live here permanently in a moment if I could.