Page 23 of Dead to Rights
Hell, even snapping her neck hadn’t gotten the message through to her.
“Maybe we can ask Hades for help,” he suggested.
Noah snorted. “Have you actually met him?”
“Once.” And it wasn’t an experience he wished to repeat, but desperate men did desperate things.
“Same, and I don’t get the sense that he’s in the business of helping people.”
“I see your point.” Leaning back against the sofa, he scratched his fingers through the stubble along his jaw as he thought. “What if we convincedherto cross the river?”
“Good idea. How do you propose we do that?”
He didn’t miss the sarcasm in his mate’s tone. “I don’t hear you coming up with anything better.”
“I had the witch plan.”
“Like I said.”
“Okay, okay.” Chuckling, Noah held his hands up in surrender. “Getting her across the river is probably the best plan. I don’t think she’s going to volunteer to hop in the boat, but—”
“I could hogtie her.”
Noah snorted out another laugh. “I was going to say that maybe we can trick her.”
Yeah, that would probably be better. “I’m listening.”
“If she thinks you went across, she’d definitely go after you,” Noah mused. “We’d just need to spread the rumor and lie low for a while.”
A good plan in theory, but it had some holes. “I sensed it the minute she arrived in the Underworld. I didn’t know what it meant at the time, but I felt it. I reckon she did, too.”
“So, she’d know if you’d left the village or not.” Noah bobbed his head, but he didn’t look deterred. In fact, he looked downright devious. “Then we won’t stay in the village.”
“Not to burst your bubble, but there’s not anywhere else to go.”
Noah responded with a wicked grin. “That’s not exactly true. I know a place, somewhere she won’t be able to sense you.” He sucked his bottom lip between his teeth and tilted his head. “What do you know about Erebus?”
“Not much,” he answered honestly.
Beyond some rumors and one intensely uncomfortable blackout, he knew next to nothing about the god. He’d heard that Erebus—or Rebes as the townspeople called him—came into the tavern sometimes, but he’d never seen him, let alone met him.
“He lives just outside the village,” Noah explained. “Out past the diner.”
“But there’s nothing past the diner.”
“You’ll see. He’s not going to like it, but I think I can convince him.”
“So, your plan hinges on the help of a temperamental god?” he asked, skepticism creeping into his voice. “Maybe I should just hogtie her.”
“He’ll help.”
It sounded crazy, but if that was what Noah wanted to do, Finn would follow him anywhere. “Okay, how do we contact him?”
“Leave that to me.”
“And you really think this will work?”
“I don’t know,” Noah admitted. “I think it’s all we have right now, though.”
