“I have to go save her.”
“Yeah, no shit.” Sarah rolled her eyes at me. “But are we calling in the calvary and hope that she is bluffing, or are you going to waltz right into her trap?”
“Fuck.” I sat back on the bed at a loss.
“What would Ethyl do?” Sarah asked.
“I don’t think I can screw my way out of this.”
Three dots appeared next to Vivi’s name. Sif was typing. I needed to decide now.
“No,” Sarah said, “but she always said when faced with two bad options and you can’t make a third, take the least dumb one.”
“Okay, but what is that? I can’t leave Vivi with that psycho, and I can’t risk her getting hurt because I show up with Rune.”
“But what if she didn’t know Rune was coming?”
“He is kind of massive and hard to miss. Do you have an invisibility cloak I am unaware of?”
“No, but I have a gang of angel bikers on the way.”
“I’m going to need you to elaborate.”
The dots had disappeared, but there was no new message.
“Last night, Tab offered to call in a group of angels that are known for their tracking skills. They are on their way from Vegas. Should be here in about an hour.”
I grabbed Sarah’s arm. “Why didn’t he call them the second Vivi was taken?”
I didn’t really know Tab, but from what Sarah had told me, I couldn’t imagine he would hold back that kind of resource when a life was on the line.
Sarah pried my fingers off her arm. “Because, technically, this is demon business. He shouldn’t be offering at all, but he knows how much I love Vivi. He also wanted me to agree, because after they get Vivi home safe, I must make my choice and get an angelic lobotomy or go to a country my mother fled from to see if they want to use me.”
“Oh, fuck.”
“Yup. But that is a me problem. Let’s deal with one crisis at a time.” Sarah sat on the bed next to me, fiddling with her rings, something she only did when she was anxious.
“Okay, what is the plan?” I asked.
“You go wherever Psycho Bitch Barbie wants you to go. You turn the GPS on your phone on and drop a location pin in the group chat once you arrive wherever. Then you stall.”
“I stall?”
“Yup, the second you leave, I’ll wake up all the menfolk, and we’ll be ready to follow you. I’ll have Tab contact the incoming reinforcements, and we will all be on standby for that pin. The second you drop it, we are on our way.”
“Then what?”
“Then you get Vivi. And you stall Sif and try not to die before backup is there.”
“There are holes in this plan.”
“Yup,” Sarah said, “big glaring ones, but do you have a better idea?”
I shook my head and ignored the hollow pit that was forming in my gut.
“Take Rune’s car,” Sarah added.
“I’m already breaking a promise I just made to him. Why do you want to add grand theft auto?”