Page 40 of Stuck with my Frenemy
Chapter Fifteen
Ebony
Good thing Bernie left to pick up his car and go after his brother. I struggled to fill my lungs for the last hour or two, going as far as sending Sol and Corvus away because no one needed to see me like that. Including my familiars.
Cherry joined me back on the porch. Closing the door softly behind her, she handed me a large glass of wine. When I didn’t take it in a timely manner, she wiggled it at me, the red liquid sloshing precariously around.
“Take it.” She did that thing again where she thought she looked stern. “Now drink.” Apparently I needed instructions on what to do when someone handed me a drink, too.
After she made sure I took a sip, she brought her own glass to her lips and eyed me over the rim. Looming over me where I sat on the rocking chair, she just stood there, not even drinking the damn thing.
“I can’t do this.” My way to get out of there was blocked when she slid to prevent me from getting up. “Move.”
“Nope.” If she sounded any more cheerful, she would’ve lost a limb. “What exactly is this thing you can’t do, huh?”
“Cherry, I’m not doing this with you right now.” With a deep breath, I closed my eyes on the exhale. “Please, step aside. I’m not myself at the moment. I’ll say things I don’t mean, and as much as you piss me off, most of the time I don’t think you deserve it. It’s not you I’m angry at.”
“One, I’m not going anywhere until we really talk before the boys come back or Karma finally decides to grace us with her presence.” When she assured herself I wasn’t going to bolt, she shuffled back to lean on the railing in front of me. “Second, I know you have issues, so I never take anything coming out of your mouth personally. So, don’t worry about what you’ll say.”
“I have issues?” I gaped because there was no other expression to reflect how I felt hearing her words.
A pointed look and a cocked eyebrow was her answer.
Leaning my head back and closing my eyes, it took me a long moment to brush off her asinine comment. “I don’t trust that all this was just Loki trying to play a prank on Thor. I know it’s not unheard of; I mean the guy shifted into a woman and poor Thor ended up marrying him for fuck’s sake, but this still feels off. Not even Loki is dumb enough to screw with Karma, and we both know that much.”
“I don’t know why everyone is so scared of her, Ebs.” My eyes snapped open so I could gawk at her. “I know, I know, she’s all stiff and scary, which kinda works for her if you ask me, but so are you Miss Gloom and Doom, yet I know under all that glowering you and I are not that different.”
“Oh, we are plenty different, believe me.” I could tell she wasn’t convinced.
“Why does it matter what his motive was?” Cherry shrugged, finally taking a dainty sip of her wine. I gulped half of mine in one go. “We found the hammer, karma was delivered two-fold if you take Ash’s break-in into consideration, and task numero uno is over. We should celebrate for a job well done.”
“Nothing is that easy if Karma or Loki are involved, Cherry. Don’t be dense.”
“Easy?” she shrieked loud enough to make me flinch. “Easy, she says. You are cray-cray, my friend. Or did you forget when that ninja lobbed you in the head with a wooden bat like he was trying to crack a watermelon?” She froze, her eyebrows climbing to her hairline. “Ohhh, I love watermelon. It’s so juicy and delish.”
“Please, kill me.” I meant it. I’d never wanted to die more than in that moment.
“You are so funny, Ebs.”
“What can I say, that’s me. The funny one.” With a strained smile, I swung my gaze over her shoulder, searching the night for any sign that Karma was lurking in the background enjoying the show.
Not that she was wrong, per se, that the job was indeed done. After all, the hammer was found, the culprits, guilty or not, in possession of it punished, and all that was left was handing over the weapon. If Loki was telling the truth and all of the crapstorm was him just trying to prank Thor and mess with us, it would explain why it felt a little too easy for me. Other than a couple of close calls while dealing with the masked humans, I had to admit we didn’t do bad for our first task. Somewhere along the line between hearing that the hammer was stolen and right now, I must’ve decided to ditch the plan of sabotaging our job, too. Because instead of being upset that I’d be stuck here longer with Cherry, I couldn’t brush off the unease prickling my skin.
I wanted for the other shoe to drop.
“Just because we solved this one on the first go doesn’t mean the same will happen with the next. We just got lucky, I think.” Cherry bumped the pointy tip of her stiletto on my shin.
“If life has taught me anything, Cherry, it’s that luck has absolutely nothing to do with it. If it’s easy, it means I screwed up somewhere.”
“There you go, now we are getting somewhere.” She sounded excited, which immediately put me on edge. “That’s one of your issues. You think everything has to be a struggle and suffering to get things right.”
“Because it’s the truth.” I spoke slowly in case speaking fast made it harder for her to focus on the words. “Not an issue of mine.”
“Actually, no. It’s not. Some things are easy, and instead of poking holes in a perfectly baked cake, all you need to do is eat it, Ebony. Cherry on top and all, if I can say so myself.” She giggled at her pun.
“Okay, fine. I’ll make you a deal.” That had her on high alert, but I didn’t care. “I can’t get rid of this feeling that something is still off. So, I’ll go to check the casino again to make sure Loki was telling the truth and he is no longer there. You stay here and wait for the humans.”
“Our mates you mean?”
