Page 162 of The Enforcer

She could distantly hear the chaos from the raid below, and she really hoped no one was looking up and noticing this ladder. “W-what if they see us?” she asked, now hanging halfway between the buildings.

“They aren’t gonna see you. No one ever looks up,” Tino assured her. “It’s all fine. You’re almost there. You’re doing good.”

It wasn’t until Brianna reached the other building that she realized she’d barely breathed the whole time. Her heart was still thundering as she crawled over the edge on the other side and turned around to look behind her. Tino and Carina were dark silhouettes. Their bodies were noticeably tense. It was obvious that watching Brianna make that trek had them near frozen with fear. Though Tino had managed to keep his cool rather than let her hear his apprehension.

“Jesus fucking Christ.” Carina’s voice carried on the wind. “I have to do this. She’s over there, and I’m here. I have to fucking do this.”

“Come on, where are those stugots? You got this, sweetheart,” Tino said as Carina crawled up on the ledge. “I’m gonna hold it for you like I did for Bri. Like my fucking life depends on it, okay?”

“Are you drunk?” Brianna called from the other side. “Do you feel stable enough to make it?”

“I’m not drunk anymore,” Carina replied as she grabbed the first rung and looked up at Brianna. “If you can do it, I can.”

Brianna leaned down and grabbed the top rung on the ladder. “I’m holding it from here. We won’t let you fall.”

Carina nodded wordlessly and crawled out, slowly but surely until she was hanging between the buildings with nothing but the metal ladder to support her. Carina’s breath was leaving her in quick, silvery puffs, betraying the fear. It was a horrible thing to watch,really horrible, a thousand times worse than actually doing it.

“Go, sweetheart.” Tino sounded anxious. “Get to the other side. I don’t wanna rush you—”

“Then don’t fucking rush me,” Carina growled back to him. “My hands are sweaty as hell, and I feel like I’m gonna puke. Cazzo. I’m never drinking again. I swear to God, the fucking government’s put me off alcohol for life.”

Carina spent so much time bitching and praying she didn’t realize she’d made it to the other side, and when she did, she said another quick prayer in Italian and then crossed herself as she crawled down from the ledge to the roof.

“Hold it, Bri,” Tino called and then crawled onto the ladder like he had done this a hundred times before. “Both hands.”

Brianna leaned down and held it tighter as he took to that ladder like a firefighter with a five-alarm blaze going. Tino was moving so fast the whole thing was shaking, and there was no one on the other side to keep it steady. Brianna’s hands were still sweaty, but she held on to that first rung like it was life-and-death.

Which it was, more so than anything else she’d done in her eighteen years.

Carina wrapped an arm around Brianna’s waist as if afraid Brianna might just plunge over the edge and take Tino with her. Brianna looked down once. She couldn’t help it. Watching Tino move across that ladder so quickly made the view twelve stories down more appealing. Then in the next breath Tino was grabbing the ledge, and Brianna let go of the ladder so he could crawl onto safe ground with them.

“Get down,” he said as he leaped onto the roof.

Tino bent over to grab the ladder, grunting when he unhooked it. He managed to keep it from slamming against the building when he pulled it off from where it was balancing on the other ledge. Then he brought it up quick and didn’t bother to slide it back into place. He just tossed it on the roof and then ducked down between Carina and Brianna when they both sat to catch their breath.

“Porca puttana, Tino.” Carina clutched her chest but wasn’t able to finish, because Tino slammed a hand over her mouth.

“Wha—” Brianna started, but Tino’s wide-eyed look shut her up.

She instinctively ducked down farther, and only then did Brianna hear the chaos from the other building. The bark of dogs as federal agents swarmed onto the roof. The glint from flashlights hit their roof, and Brianna’s heartbeat nearly deafened her as the dogs’ barking got louder.

“There’s no fucking way. Unless it was Spider-Man up here. The dogs are losing their touch.” A voice echoed from the other side. “It’s clear.”

Tino took a shuddering breath next to Brianna, but the three of them stayed there for a long time. Though the guy deemed the other roof clear, it took forever for the ATF agents to go back downstairs. Tino shrugged out of his jacket and gave it to Brianna. She didn’t like the idea of his arms bare, but she went ahead and put it on because her dress didn’t cover very much, and she could freeze to death waiting.

Even after the agents were all gone, the three of them stayed down, so silent they were barely breathing. Carina started texting on her phone that she had stuffed in her back pocket. Brianna had left hers at home since they’d decided to ditch their purses, and thank God they had.

“Paco got out,” Carina whispered. “He’s gonna meet us at the apartment.”

“El Barrio.” Tino didn’t sound surprised Paco had avoided arrest. “He knows how to get the job done.”

Carina was still typing on her phone. “He got your boy Aaron out too.”

Brianna nodded and breathed another sigh of relief. “Bet he’s never coming out with me again.”

“Fuck Aaron,” Tino growled, as if all the stress from nearly getting caught by federal agents chose right then to rise up. “You can find a better dance partner.”

Brianna turned to look at him for a long time before she asked, “Can I?”