“No. Bertie.”
“The planning meeting?”
I tucked my phone in my pocket and leaned my head back against the soft cushion of the chair. “Do you think she’d miss me if I weren’t there? Or maybe if I were just dead?”
“Yes. Also if you were on vacation right now, she’d excuse your absence. But look where you are. Here. In the Valkyrie’s reach. Stupid.”
I groaned again and rubbed my forehead.
Myra stood. “Come on. I’ll go with you. You know she’ll want all of us to attend.”
“Have I told you I love you lately?” I pushed up onto my feet.
“Nope,” she said. “And that’s not going to change my mind about your vacation avoidance.”
“Oh my gods,” I said, “I’m not avoiding it. I’mtryingto get out of town.”
“I’ve never seen a Reed woman not get something she sets her sights on.”
“Meaning?”
“For someone who says she wants to leave town, you’re still right here.”
“Don’t you have a demon to torment?”
She grinned, and it was wicked. “Yes, but he’s not here eating all my cookies.”
Just for that, I stole the last three on the plate and stuffed them all in my mouth in one go.
She laughed and strode out the door. “Get going, Chief,” she said. “We’re burning daylight.”
Chapter Five
“What’s with the mallet?”I asked Jean.
My youngest sister shifted the comically huge hammer over her shoulder and gave me wide eyes like she had no idea what I was talking about. “This old thing?”
We were inside the cavernous hall of the community center, which had once been the grade school and was now the office and seat of power for our local Valkyrie. The neatly printed sign on the brick wall statedMeetingwith a blocky arrow pointing toward what was once a gymnasium.
Myra ignored us both and strolled off to the meeting.
“Is it a collectable? Like from a movie or something?” I asked.
“Nope. I got it from Crow’s sale. Went back after the call to Mom’s, and it was there and… I had to have it.”
“Like the hippo.”
“House hippo,” she corrected.
“Which you had to have because…”
“They bring luck.”
“And the hammer?”
She started off toward the main room. “I just felt like having it.” She paused. “I’m trying to listen to my gut more. Like Myra, you know?”
“Uh-huh. And it was totally your gut that wanted you to have a Harley Quinn mallet?”
