it, and I quickly uncover the location for Thrase’s room.
“Finally, some good news,” I mutter under my breath, a smile spreading across my lips. Coincidence or not, she has been placed on the fifth floor, and her room is right below mine. As all the accommodations have balconies, I assume that with some acrobatics I’ll be able to get there unseen.
Rising from my seat, I make my way toward the balcony. I push the glass door open as silently as possible, trying not to make the thug outside suspicious, and then place my hand on the railings. The moment I look down, I immediately feel the dizzying punch of vertigo.
The building is anvil-shaped, which means the edges of the upper floors reach farther than the floors below. That, of course, will make my acrobatics even more perilous. I can’t jump directly from one balcony to the other, nor is it a simple matter of climbing down. Evidently, this isn’t going to be as easy as films make it seem. Still, I don’t let that discourage me.
Carefully, I swing one leg over the railings and take a deep breath. I lower myself until I’m hanging from the railings, my fingers the only thing preventing me from plunging to my death, and then start swaying my legs. Once I have a momentum going, I grit my teeth and let go, the swaying motion of my body propelling me forward as I fall.
I thought I’d crash inside Thrase’s balcony but, instead, I crash against the outer railings. Disoriented, I reach up instinctively, holding to the rails as I dangle from the edge. I feel my fingers start to slip over the smooth metal, and my heart almost stops beating. I miscalculated this, and now I’m going to pay for it by falling to my death.
“Zander? What the hell are you doing here?” Thrase’s voice cuts through my ominous thoughts, and then I feel her delicate fingers clutching my forearm. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
Allowing her to help me, I haul myself over the railings and awkwardly collapse on her balcony. For the first time in my life, I find myself praising the universe for solid ground.
“What are you doing?” Thrase continues with a low whisper, pulling me up and dragging me inside the bedroom. She closes the door behind us and then holds a finger up against her lips, cautioning me to be silent. “You made such a damn ruckus. Are you trying to get us kicked out of this place?”
“I think they’d do more than just kick us out,” I tell her, reminding myself not to raise my voice. “I hacked into the system and managed to access the building’s schematics. That’s how I found you.”
“Smart,” she says. “But stupid.”
“It had to be done,” I continue and then forget what I was about to say when I notice she’s wearing nothing but a skimpy nightgown made of satin. It allows for an expansive view of her cleavage, and the way the hemline cuts just a couple of inches above her knees make her legs seem even more perfect than they already are. Everything about her seems magnetic, and I find myself rocking on my heels as if that magnetism is pulling me in. “Right, so, huh… we have to figure out our next move.”
“Yes, of course,” she replies, and I can’t help but notice the way her cheeks have turned tomato-red. Still, she doesn’t make any attempt to cover herself, and I couldn’t be any more thankful for that. It’s hard to focus when she’s dressed like this, but it’s a price I’m more than willing to pay.
“They’re on us every minute of the day, but there’s a slight lull in security whenever there’s a shift rotation, I think,” I force myself to say, looking around the room just so her breasts don’t make me speechless. “If we time it right, we might have fifteen minutes or so that we can use to poke around. That’s the only time I figure we won’t have anyone breathing down our necks.”
“I’ve noticed the same patterns in security, yes.” Taking one step toward me, she looks straight into my eyes, her slightly parted lips commanding all of my attention. “It’s going to be risky, but it has to be done.”
“Yes, I agree,” I whisper, but I’m no longer thinking about our improvised plan. I’ve lost myself in her eyes, and my entire body is abuzz. A scorching heat has spread from between my