Page 12 of Raze
“Dane.” Her voice is soft and full of sorrow, like she’s already given up before anyone’s even tried.
“Don’t give me that. You didn’t even try to save her!” I hiss.
She flinches at that. “I didn’t mean to—”
“It doesn’t matter,” I cut in sharply. “What’s done is done. This is your second chance. Are you going to take it, or are you giving up on her, and on me, again?”
It’s dirty. I’m playing her fucking dirty and I know it. She knows it. But I also don’t care so long as she frees me and I can seek out Vera again before it’s too late.
She chews on her lips while studying the determination on myface. There’s no way that I’mnotgoing to go looking for my sister the second I can. She just gets to make the call if now is that time or not.
Raegan glances back at the hallway to make sure no one else is watching or coming out to catch us. My lips curve upward in a smirk when I see it because I know then that I’ve won. She holds up two fingers. “Two conditions.”
I hadn’t counted on those, but I’m willing enough to hear them out if they mean getting to Vera tonight. “What are they?”
“This is arescuemission, not a sacrifice. You will, under no circumstances, go with her to any place of her choosing or to anywhere that brings you to GE. Either she comes to you and comes back here or you part ways. Or…escape, more likely. I’m not letting you go just to have you kidnapped by GE.”
I have zero plans of returning to GE, where they’d escalated to treating me like a lab rat in the last year of being there. One of the reasons I can’t completely dismiss what Raegan said is that there were a lot of times in the last year where they’d been taking more blood than normal from me. One time in particular that stands out.
I would pretend to go with Vera at the chance of getting her alone, but my plan tonight involves drawing her out to me, anyway.
“Deal. What’s the second one?”
“You take me with you.”
I chuckle without an ounce of humor. “You’re kidding, right? Why would I agree to that? I still don’t trust you, and Vera wants you dead. You being there just makes it all worse.”
Her face tightens at my words, but she can’t argue with them.I’m telling her the reality of the situation and why that can’t be a condition. “If you aren’t going to tell the others about this, then I need to go as your backup. I’ll make sure you aren’t walking into an ambush and that you get out. I also…owe you more than just breaking you free. I owe Vera, and you, to try to save her, like you said. I know this will never make it up to you or her, but I will do everything I can to get Vera back.”
Her words rock the world under my feet and light a fire in my soul. For the first time, I’m speechless. She’s surprised me, in a good way, and I didn’t think I’d ever feel that way with her again. I merely nod in agreement, raising my wrists again to show I’m ready for these fucking things to come off.
She reaches for them, but I drop my wrists before she can touch them as a thought occurs to me. “Wait. I have a condition too.” I lick my lips to prepare what I’m about to say. “You have to swear that you’ll never hurt Vera again. Even if she is brainwashed, or evil, or whatever, I have to know that there is no chance you’ll try to hurt her again. I can’t let you come with me unless I know that. Even if my life is in danger. You promise that you will do everything you can to save her.”
Raegan freezes. It’s a big ask if she cares about me at all, but I’m not expecting much on that front after the way I’ve treated her. I’m more worried that she and Vera will have some sort of vendetta against each other that’ll wind up with my sister killed again.
The fact that she doesn’t agree right away tells me she’s really thinking about it, which I hate to admit, but I appreciate. None of this should be taken lightly. When she answers, it’s like a lead weightof worry off my chest. “I don’t like it, but fine. I won’t hurt Vera no matter what.”
I nod and extend my hands out again. “Now get these off. They’re barbaric as fuck, and Aiden’s going to find some spiked glass handcuffs on his wrists the next time he tries to use these against me.”
Vera is a technopath. Which means she can touch any piece of technology and make it do what she wants. No typing, no coding experience. Just complete and utter control over technology.
Yes. I’ve considered the possibility that she was the one who cut the power on the Tower when it was attacked. And why the generators didn’t kick on as they should have.
I’m also nearly positive that she’s the one who has been blocking my attempts at getting satellite footage of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.
It doesn’t make a difference to me whether or not she’s involved. People will do anything when they’ve been brainwashed. And I’m convinced that’s the case at this point. The alternative that she’s willingly letting kids be kidnapped and imprisoned to become GE’s expendable soldiers, all for power, would break me.
I can’t even consider that as a possibility or I’ll lose it.
Because of her crazy gift, all I do is hop on the web and send out an encoded message I know she’ll pick up and only she will be able to decipher. We had our own secret language as kids that wemade up together. It was how we coped when we were first brought to the island and were separated by age and gender, so we passed notes. After the first one was found by a teacher, we created our own language so no one could read one of our messages again.
That’s what I send out.
Even if someone else stumbles across it, they won’t be able to read it to know what it says or who it’s from.
Raegan dresses back in her black cargo pants and black shirt, even though there’s still blood on them because she has nothing else to wear here at the safe house. I’m also in the same clothes from this morning. I never got the chance to change or shower since Aiden chained me to the floor while I was still unconscious as soon as they got back here.
I’d bitch that Aiden has no trust in me, but here I am, doing exactly what he thought I would.
