Page 22 of Stuck with my Frenemy
“Seriously?” Ash sounded incredulous. “You left the door unlocked?”
A sharp pain stabbed my neck when my head whipped in his direction. Ash was glaring at his brother, who in return gaped at the warehouse, his face blanching. Unease pooled in the pit of my stomach when I turned very slowly forward, and my eyes locked on the doors. The right side was pulled outward, forming a gap wide enough for a person to pass through it. I wanted to tell them to wait outside so I could check if anyone was still inside, but when I voiced my plan, the brother’s looked at me like I was the crazy one, not Cherry.
“I locked it,” Bernie snarled and bolted for the now opened door. “Stay here.”
Ash was on his brother’s heels, and the two of us were breathing down his neck. We were almost inside when Cherry wrapped her talons around my arm and jerked me back. Both men disappeared in the warehouse as I rounded on her.
“Ebs, I did good.” Cherry beamed at me her, boobs sticking out in pride.
My knees buckled.
“What did you do?” When her smile slipped and she opened and closed her mouth with no words coming out, I shook her. “Cherry, what the fuck did you do?”
For the first time, I saw guilt flicker in her expressive eyes. In the dying sun on the horizon, even the sky resembled my turbulent emotions, darkening and suffocating the bright rays. My hold on Cherry tightened, my nails digging into her forearms.
“I sent payback karma to them for stealing Thor’s hammer.” After a second, her chin jutted out stubbornly. “That’s what our job is here, Ebs. Not ogling the hotties. But it’s okay, I got your back. Don’t worry.”
My whole body shook with fury.
“We don’t know if they have the fucking hammer, you idiot.” I had a feeling she wanted to screech something back, but Ash beat her to it.
“What the hell do you two know about the hammer?” His body filled the doorway, the light from behind him casting him in shadows just like when he was in the back of the bar the night before.
“What hammer?” Acting dumb was our best bet, so I added a frown in hopes to sell it. “I said ‘grammar.’ We were hoping you had some ancient scrolls or something since Cherry here has a new hobby of learning dead languages.”
“I adore them” Rainbow Disaster gushed, and I really wanted to punch her. “Ah shu we seny of helir.” I could’ve sworn she spat a little on the harsh r’s of the gibberish.
“What?” Ash didn’t look less horrified than I felt.
“Never mind.” Cherry waved him off while staring down her nose at him. “It’s a long forgotten Aztec saying. You wouldn’t understand.”
“It sounded like made-up German.” He glared at her, covering my groan.
“Listen.” I pressed the bridge of my nose with a sigh. “We had nothing to do with this. We didn’t even know your brother had a warehouse.”
“What she said.” Cherry perked up. “Helloooo, how can we steal Thor’s hammer if we had no clue you stashed it here? Duh!”
“I never mentioned a hammer or that it was a replica of Thor’s.” Ash took a mincing step forward, thank the goddess, or I would’ve broken her neck.
It all happened at once. Ash reached for Cherry when Bernie’s shout echoed from the silent warehouse. I blocked his grab with my forearm, and my fist connected with the center of his chest. When he grunted in pain, I felt it in my own center, but I pushed the feeling away and clenched my teeth. No one had the right to kill Cherry but me.
After I got us out of here.
Instead of fighting me, Ash stumbled inside the building, so I followed. The click-clucking of Cherry’s heels told me she was behind me when we entered the dimly lit warehouse. Stacks of wooden boxes were rising almost to the roof, and shelving stretched between them from one end to the other. I saw Ash disappear to the right at the second row, so I darted after him.
“We should go, Ebs.” Cherry panted from behind me. “We are done here. You heard him. He had Thor’s hammer.”
“I’ll deal with you later.” Plastered on the crates, I darted my head out to see if I could spot the brothers.
The row was empty, so I continued deeper inside when I heard grunts of pain and fists connecting to flesh. Ignoring my instincts telling me to get the hell out of there, I threw caution to the wind and bolted as fast as I could toward the fight. At a wide opening between all the piles in the building, the brothers were fighting one person who moved faster than any human I’d seen.
Dressed all in black, the person flipped and spun, kicking and throwing punches before the two men could block them. Locked on the fight, I missed the prickle of magic until it was too late. The glint of metal caught my attention, and my body went numb when I realized the person was about to stab Ash in the chest.
“Hey!” my shout exploded like a boom in the vast space, but I was already moving.
My fists pumped at my side as I shot like a bullet from behind the crates and barreled right at the person holding the dagger. Voices shouted in the background, but my full focus was on removing the threat. I should’ve stopped to ask why it was important for me to protect them, but I didn’t. We dropped on the dirty floor and slid a few feet before we collided with a pile of crates.
A foot was planted in my midsection, and the next thing I knew, I flew back, my head connecting with the concrete. The person was on me before I could regain my whereabouts, and I lifted my forearm just in time to block the dagger from stabbing my neck. My hips twisted, and I flipped us over, landing on top of the attacker before proceeding to pummel him until he stopped moving.
