Page 38 of Frenemies

His black hoodie and crooked smile were so far down the ladder that my Mayberry roommate was out of his league. A fact proven by the way he reared back from me. No girl wanted a man without balls. What was he going to do when a rat ran through the house? Jump on a chair and scream?

I held up my hand when his mouth opened to say something and walked away. Thankfully, no one else bothered me, and I made it to the fire in no time. The Miami Fire Department really needed to up their game. It had been at least twenty minutes since I was so rudely woken up, and flames were still roaring out of the building.

I watched a couple of firemen run past and scanned the chaotic crowd for my friend. The first person I noticed was a man walking away. I could see the brim of a baseball cap poking out of the hood around his head, but what really caught my attention was the calm way he marched off.

He had the right idea. It wasn’t like our house was on fire. Well, I suppose it could be his house, in which case I’d say that guy really didn’t give a fuck, but I highly doubted it.

I barely heard Ava’s voice over the fire.

“Naomi!”

My face fell in my palm. Ava was up to some crazy shit, alright. She was off the side of the building, holding out a stick over a body that lay a foot away from her. I shook my head while she turned the white cube on the end and smiled like she was at summer camp.

“Did you come to roast marshmallows with me?”

Why was no one stopping this? There was still smoke coming off the corpse, for Christ sake.

“No, I did not come to roast marshmallows with you.”

A small frown tugged at the corner of her mouth. “I know it’s not as good as smores, but no one will bring me chocolate and graham crackers.”

No shit. Of course, they wouldn’t. She was roasting marshmallows over a damn body. I knew her and still thought she was crazy.

“Ava,” I walked up and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I think it’s time to go home.”

“But we haven’t sung anything yet,” she argued.

“I don’t want to sing anything.”

But Ava wasn’t listening to me. She sat down, twirled her stick, and swayed back and forth.

“Kumbaya, my lord…”

Oh my god. Could this day get any worse?

As if the universe could hear my thoughts, another roaring sound rocked through the sky. This one was a lot more familiar than the fire warming the air. Three Harley’s rolled down the street and pulled up on the sidewalk next to us. I eyed the red skull and crossbones patch as the one in the lead rested his forearms on his handlebars and winked at me.

“A little underdressed, aren’t ya.”

I knew they were Chase’s brother’s men. Reapers. I also wasn’t in the mood to deal with their crap. My daily fill of crazy was already tapped out.

“What do you want?” I huffed and crossed my arms.

He tipped his chin and snuck a glance over his shoulder. “I don’t see your boyfriend around here.”

Was that supposed to be some kind of threat? I made a note of the scar on his face when he leaned back and openly eyed me.

“It’s not very smart for a man to leave a lady like you all alone.”

Now that was meant to be a threat.

Before I could respond, one of the other Reapers sat forward to look around me and cocked a brow. “What the hell is she doing?”

I glanced back at Ava, who was still singing Kumbaya, and said, “Clearlyshe’s roasting marshmallows.”

Anyone could see what Ava was doing. It wasn’t like she was hiding it.

As if Ava was a shark looking for blood, the Reaper slowly sat back and muttered, “Uh huh.”

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