Sighing in disgust, she backed up and selected the images instead. Scrolling through those, she found a lot of interesting art, plenty of pictures that showed various designs and patterns used on fabric, and then a smiling face caught her eye. Clicking on it opened up a blog about the nomadic lifestyle of African tribalists in prehistoric times.
Bingo.
First, she made a complete profile, using a generic picture of a Nordic rune as the avatar. In that, she included three different ways to reach her, all of them disposable. Once that was set up, she moved to a post from years ago and scrolled to the comment section. Then she began to type. Her message wouldn't make sense to anyone else, but once he saw it, he'd know how to reach her.
Northern Lights: No one cares about history anymore. The digital age is what's important.
She clicked to post that just as Brenda was back with the pie. "Here you go, honey," the woman said. "And if you're gonna keep driving, you need to eat something more than sweets. Don't need you falling asleep at the wheel, you know."
"I will," she promised. "This is just a break. I'll stop in a couple of hours and get a room. Just wanted to sit in a different position."
"Well, yell if you need anything - " The buzzing of Dahlia's phone on the table cut Brenda off. "If that's your ex, you don't need to answer that, girl."
"Not my ex," she promised. "It's the friend I'm going to see."
Brenda nodded and turned away, heading over to check on her other two customers. Dahlia quickly scrambled to check her phone. Sure enough, she had one new email at her brand-new address. A click opened that up, and she had one single message.
[email protected]: What is the best color?
So he wanted to verify that it was her, huh? Well, that was easy. It also made her feel a little better, because if he was asking that, then clearly she had the right person.
[email protected]: Pink like petals.
Then she added her phone number at the end. The moment she pressed send, her heart started to race, but it would take him a bit to get that. Dahlia picked up her fork and took a bite of the pie, trying to act casual since Brenda was probably watching.
Then her phone rang. She swiped at it quickly, not caring about what came up on the screen. She wouldn't recognize the number anyway.
"Hello?" she said.
A warm, deep chuckle was her reply. "So, decided you finally missed me huh?"
"Cain," she breathed, recognizing his voice so easily. "You sound exactly the same."
"Your accent's changed," he countered. "What part of the world are you in, love?"
"Kansas. Heading to Iowa, actually. What about you?"
He murmured at that. "Minnesota, actually. Was thinking about Idaho, but if you two need a little company, I can change course."
"They got her, Cain. Dallas, a few days ago. I'm not sure exactly how long, since I took a nap, but they..." Her voice cracked and she simply gave up.
"Shit," Cain breathed. "How'd you get back, Iona?"
"The same way I know that Des Moines doesn't have a branch of the Church," she said, keeping her voice down. "I'm also going by Valerie this year, it seems."
"New change?" he asked.
"Very," she agreed. "What are you using?"
"The same, just spelled K-A-N-E. So where am I going to meet you?"
"I don't know," she admitted, reaching for her coffee. "In all honesty, I'm a little lost, and my head's still spinning."
He murmured in a way meant to be reassuring. "I'm always here for you, Valerie. Always. I just need to know what's going on, and we can make sense of this."
"Is this number good?" she asked. "Because I'm in the middle of a diner, and it's going to be a very long talk."
"It's good," he promised. "Call me back whenever you're free, because I'm going to be waiting all night until I hear from you again."