“For what purpose?” Raiden asks softly. “He has nothing to gain.”
“We’ll leave it for now, but I did think that you should know,” Coen says. “It’s up to you what you do with that information. If you want to just ignore it, that’s fine, and I won’t bring it up again.”
I tilt my head slightly as I study his expression, “But?”
Coen smiles, and he gets up and comes around to my side of the table. Ransom lets go of my hand as Coen turns my chair and then crouches in front of me.
Taking one of my hands in his, he places his other hand on my cheek and says, “I completely understand if you don’t want to believe me, or if you need proof until you can believe it’s possible. I get that you don’t trust him, and I don’t completely either. But if it is true and he is being controlled like I was, I can’t just leave it, I can’t drop it. I have to do something.”
I nod, honestly, I get it. I really do understand.
“Okay, for the time being, I don’t want to be involved. I have been burned by Dimitri so many times that I can’t help but think that this is just a trick.”
“I get that,” Coen says. “I was thinking of trying to get in contact with Kar and seeing if he knew anything.”
I nod, “That would probably be a good idea. He’s always said that something wasn’t right. That’s why he stuck around when we left.”
“I know,” Coen replies.
“If you need a hand, let me know,” Griff offers. “He helped Neith when none of us could, and although that doesn’t excuse his behavior, it does mean that I’m willing to look into it if he really is being controlled.”
“Thanks, man,” Coen says with a surprised smile.
“Count me in as well,” Raiden offers. “I’m curious about a lot when it comes to Dimitri. I especially would like to know why I don’t like that he’s in prison.”
“Yeah, that is odd,” I mutter. “I mean, I know why I don’t like it, but none of you have any connection to him, it shouldn’t bother you at all.”
“Alright,” Van says, effectively ending the conversation, which I am incredibly grateful for. “We will leave that conversation for the moment and come back to it at a later date. Neith, did Sully get back to you? Did he find anything at the pub?”
I frown, and then fish my phone out of my pocket. I’d actually completely forgotten that I had called him, and he was checking to make sure that the Blue Fucker wasn’t watching his bar, or had hired people to watch his bar.
“Erm, sorry, I forgot to check. Yeah, he says he can’t find any sign of the Blue Fucker and that all of his staff have been thoroughly questioned under oath and everything is good,” I finally reply to Van as I read out the text.
Reed grins, “To be honest, I’m not surprised at all. Sully is a scary motherfucker, and they’ve obviously got history. I’m surprised that he was brave enough to get so close to Calia and Eamon. He must have had some pretty strong warding or something on him in order to hide from them. Although I suppose there is a lot of land, miles and miles of it, between the wolves' pack house and the compound house where Calia and Eamon live, although it was risky, it probably wasn’t that risky.”
“Well, at least we don’t have to worry about Sully’s place being compromised,” Griff says, with a relieved sigh.
“Not for the moment at least,” I reply, my eyebrows drawing down.
The Blue Fucker needs to be gotten rid of for so many reasons, but now that he appears to have his focus set on me again, thanks to the Choosing exposing that I’m actually alive, it’s putting those I care about at risk, and that’s pissing me off.
“You should probably see when we can go over and speak to him about Murray,” Coen suggests.
“Yeah, I have no idea how that conversation is going to go. They’ve known each other far longer than Sully has known me. They were in Trieneliea together. Hell, they both worked for the King and Queen,” I reply, my fingers hesitating in tapping out the message.
Ransom smiles, “Yeah, that’s all true, but you’re Neith. He’s got such a big soft spot for you. He loves you like you’re his own, that’s obvious to everyone. If you tell him, then he’s going to keep an open mind.”
I smile and type out the message quickly, pressing send as I reply, “Good point. Hopefully, he’ll know what to do about it too, because I have no idea.”
“We’ll treat it like any other case,” Reed says firmly.
“Erm, that might be easier said than done,” Ransom says with a slight grimace.
“What have you just figured out?” River asks curiously.
“There’s a good chance that she built in an alarm of sorts into the spells that were guarding Merrikh. They would have alerted her that someone was messing with them, and could have even told her that they had been broken,” Ransom explains.
“Which means that she could put two and two together, figure out that Merrikh has most likely told whoever was trying to break the spells who put them there, and has gone to ground,” River summarizes.
