Page 5

“Oh,hellno—”

“Shut up and get on my backnow!”

I hesitated for a moment, staring at him as he waited, the scowl firmly in place.Oh hell… I let out an exasperated sigh before rushing toward him. He crouched down, motioning me to climb up. I did. He positioned us over the opening of the window, grabbing the length of rope and looping it through the carabiner attached to his tactical belt. I made the stupid mistake of looking down. And it was alongway down.

“Shit,” I muttered.

“Hang on.”

I gripped tighter and closed my eyes as Wes spun around and slipped outside the window, his muscles shifting under me. I heard another wham at the door, causing me to look up. It was still holding, but they were going to bust through at any moment. Wes began propelling us down, my heart sinking into a pit as my hair drifted toward the sky in waves of weightlessness.

Every time he pushed off the building, I felt my heart flutter and my stomach bottom out. I closed my eyes a little tighter, and I hung on for dear life as air blew past my face. The summer heat wrapped around us as Wes continued to propel down, suffocating me. I took the chance and opened my eyes, leaning over to see how much further we had to go. We were almost there, but we still had several stories left, and—

Oh shit.

“Wes, we’re going to run out of rope,” I shouted into the night air.

“What?”

“There’s not enough rope!”

His movements paused as he looked down. “Fuck.”

I looked down again, my eyes seeing the last few yards of rope dangling below us, and then the cavernous depth that remained between us and the ground. “What are we going to do? We’re still too high!”

He shifted under me as he looked down again. I could feel his body shaking as the muscles beneath me rippled and strained. “We’re going to have to jump—”

“What?We’re thirty feet high! We’ll never survive the fall.”

“I know that, Mara,” he snapped back through gritted teeth.

“Oh my god…” I looked around desperately. My heart was pounding, threatening to explode from the fear.

“I’m going to slide down the last few yards of rope, okay? I’m going to get us as close to the ground as I can. Then I want you to climb down my body until you’re at my feet and then hang from there.”

He was crazy. This was crazy. “I don’t know, Wes—”

“Just listen to me!” he gasped out. He took several deep breaths before continuing. “Hang from my feet. That’ll get you closer to the ground. When you let go, make sure you land on the balls of your feet, not your heels. Keep your knees bent and stay loose. When you land, allow your legs to bend and roll into the landing.”

My mind was swimming with his instructions. Sure, I had been training all summer, but never in my life did I train for a free fall from a building. This was insane! “What about you?”

“Don’t worry about me.”

“Oh my god.”

“Get going.”

I looked over my shoulder at the distance below and felt my stomach bottom out, nausea filling me. I closed my eyes, trying to steady the dizziness that was overwhelming me.

“Mara…” I turned my head to face Wes, but all I could really see was the side of his face as he tried to look at me. “It’s going to be okay,” he said gently. Wes was never gentle. Rarely had I heard him speak in a way that wasn’t a growl or condescending. But here he was, speaking softly, slowly, encouragingly. “We’re not going to die. I’m going to get us out of this, I promise. But you have to trust me, okay?”

My stomach twisted as warmth flashed through me. Did I trust him? I didn’t know. It wasn’t like Wes and I were close or anything. Sure, we had some awkward moments, and yes, Wes had saved my life before…twicein fact. But trust was such a strong word, and our relationship was so incredibly complicated, made worse because Matias and I were in a weird place too.

My heart clenched, tightening my chest and creating a lump at the back of my throat.Matias. Sorrow filled me…and anger. But I couldn’t do this right now. I couldn’t unpack all that crap while I was dangling from a rope, clinging to another guy—who was freaking gorgeous, by the way—while being suspended thirty feet off the ground. Uh,no…I didn’t think so.

“Mara?”

My attention snapped back into place, bringing me into the here and now. And without even thinking about it, the words fell off my lips. “I trust you.”