Page 35 of Scorned

“I have an address of a place she can meet us at. It’s roughly halfway between here and there. I’ll drop it to her in a text. Tell her tomorrow night at ten in Las Vegas.”

I shook my head, my brows pinching. “Vegas is too far. We’d have to spend the night.”

Winnie smirked. “Las Vegas, New Mexico.”

Taking the phone off mute, I immediately relayed the information to my mother.

“I’ll be there.” The conversation went silent since neither of us wanted to hang up. Finally, my mother whispered, “I love you, Sagelynn.”

“I love you, Mom.”

The call ended and I felt broken again. Lost.

“The next twenty-four hours are going to be the longest ever.” A long sigh left me as I wiped a runaway tear. I glanced up at Winnie and he was staring at me. “What?”

Taking a few steps forward, he pulled me in for a hug. “Everything will be fine.”

“Why are you being nice?” I asked when he let go.

“I’m going to need a favor.”

I narrowed my gaze on him. The look on his face told me I wasn’t going to like what he needed me to do. Which seemed to be a familiar scenario lately. “Like what?”

His hazel eyes burrowed into me for a few quick breaths before he said something stupid. “I need you to ask your mom if she knows where VRC is.”

“Are you serious, Winnie? You know how dangerous that is! What would happen if someone found out? She could be killed.”

“Who’s the president of Venom?” he asked, and my brows furrowed.

“You know it’s my dad.”

“Do you think your dad would ever allow harm to come to your mom?”

Thinking of the answer, I shook my head. “I don’t think so. But if you asked me a year ago if I would be standing here talking to my vampire boyfriend’s best friend while he’s possibly being tortured by VRC, I would have said hell no.”

Winnie crossed his arms and leaned back with a grin. “You called Luka your boyfriend.”

“What? I did not.”

Wait, did I?

“You did.”

“Shut up, Pooh Bear.”

Winnie’s eyes glistened as he gave me a fanged grin. “There’s my Sage Stick.”

A few hours later, I grabbed a battery-operated lantern and went to find Vivi, hoping she would accompany me on a walk through the woods.

“You want me to go?” Her suspicious expression amused me.

“What’s wrong with that?”

“You’ve been so, I don’t want to use this word but, you’ve been super depressed and didn’t seem like you liked anyone. Since we were never really close beforehand, I just assumed you would want one of your friends to go.”

“I figured we have a lot in common since both our men are locked away somewhere being starved of our blood and . . .” Vivi’s expression turned sad and I quickly changed the topic. “Anyway, you’re my friend and I thought maybe we can walk, talk, bond, whatever.” I bit my lip nervously, waiting for her to laugh at me.

Her cheeks tightened with a smile, which showed off her dimples. “I’d like that.”

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