𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄- 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐑 𝐑𝐄𝐈𝐃

𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘

𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐀 𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄, 𝐀𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐀 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐏𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆. Her best friend had just been taken into police custody because they suspected she had something to do with the murders. Alana couldn't stomach the thought of losing another one of her best friends. She refused to let Rhiannon take the fall for something that she did. The plan was always that if someone was going down, it would be Alana. Rhiannon was supposed to stay out of all of this, and Alana had gone and dragged her right into this whole mess. 

"You need to calm down," Mallory advised, frowning at the way that Alana had been pacing frantically. "They have nothing to hold her there. Rhiannon's smart, Alana. She covered her tracks, right?"

"Of course she did," Alana replied. Rhiannon was quite literally a technical genius. If not for her, she probably would have been caught a long time ago. The BAU could technically hold Rhiannon for questioning, but they had no evidence to accuse her of anything. Plus, Rhiannon coming to town wasn't a strange occurrence. She cane often to check on Mr. Scott, which was what she was doing when the FBI caught wind of her presence in town and brought her in for questioning. 

"Then you don't need to worry," she said quietly, trying to comfort her to the best of her abilities. 

"Don't tell me to calm down," Alana snapped. She couldn't lose Rhiannon, not after everything. She might just lose it if she did. She was the closest thing that she had to a sister; the closest thing she had to a family. Alana vowed that no matter what happened, she would protect Rhiannon from all of this. Because if anyone deserved to live once all of this was over, it was Rhiannon Sinclaire. "I have to do something now."

"What exactly are you planning on doing?" Mallory asked skeptically. Tonight  was the search party for Miles, led by Corey Mitchell himself. If they went far enough into the woods, there was a chance that they'd find Miles there, and Alana couldn't take that chance. 

"Miles needs to be taken care of tonight," she said slowly. If Miles showed up dead tonight during their search party, then they would have no choice but to release Rhiannon, because that would mean there's no way she committed the murders. Even if they profiled Alana to have a partner, they had no physical ties that connected Rhiannon to the murders. They'd been careful from the very beginning. "But Spencer wants to keep an eye on me. He seems to think that I might be on the deputies radar since he failed at killing Spencer."

Mallory snorted, "It's really cute how he thinks that you can't defend yourself." Alana managed to crack a small smile at the joke. Alana wasn't used to having someone that wanted to protect her, since she was always so used to protecting herself. Having someone other than Rhiannon care about her was strange, but she'd come to like it. "How exactly are you planning on sneaking away from the search party without Spencer noticing? It's risky," she warned, crossing her arms over her chest. Rhiannon was always the sensible one, always knew what to do during a crisis. 

But Rhiannon wasn't here. 

Alana toyed with the knife in her hands and glanced down at it. She'd have to end Miles quickly and hope that they found the body, but with all the people there, she'd have to be extra careful not to get caught there. Spencer's team was already looking into her, and she didn't need to give Aaron Hotchner another reason to find her suspicious. She needed to stay off of their radar. 

"I know that," she groaned, running her fingers through her hair. She needed to do something tonight, or else she risked everything else falling apart. "But I don't really have a choice."

"What if you did?" Mallory asked slowly, glancing at Alana with a raised eyebrow. 

She had a devious expression on her face, and Alana kind of loved it.