“We’d better haul ass then.” Alec picked up his pace, and I had to jog to keep up.
We climbed up a dingy back staircase. A faulty fluorescent light kept flickering, making my nerves even worse. After the first flight, I made them stop so I could take my heels off, after which we were able to climb faster without making as much noise.
“Who. Is. Doing this?” I asked between panting breaths, not daring to slow down. Tyler was breathing only a little harder than usual—as if he were going for a light jog, not sprinting up stairs with his life in danger. Alec wasn’t even breaking a sweat.
“I’m not entirely sure.” Tyler’s voice echoed off the concrete walls. “It’s not my focus right now. We just need to get you out of here.”
I was about to argue, demand he give me answers, when the sound of gunfire startled me so badly I flung myself against the wall. Alec didn’t even flinch. Tyler grabbed me firmly by the elbow and pulled me forward.
“Move,” he ground out, keeping his voice low. I obeyed.
The gunfire sounded way too close. It came in bursts, separated by silence and occasional shouting. Whoever it was had made it to the higher floors of the building, but it wouldn’t be an easy win for them. There was a small army of Melior Group agents to get through.
At a door marked with a plain red “89,” Alec stopped. I leaned on the railing, trying to catch my breath quietly.
He cracked the door open, peeked through, then swung it wide and stepped into the service corridor of the eighty-ninth floor. We followed close behind, Tyler closing the door soundlessly.
The gunfire and shouting sounded farther away now—as if someone had left an action movie playing on the TV in the next room—but I knew it could catch up with us at any moment. Both my guys crept forward cautiously, guns raised.
Alec led the way down the corridor and back into the nice part of the building. The plush carpet soothed my bare feet after all those rough concrete stairs.
We made it into another bigger boardroom without meeting anyone on the way. The room was just as dark and quiet as the one we’d been in several floors below.
“J. Report,” Alec said, his hand pressed to his ear. “Copy that.” He moved to the windows and opened the glass door. A cold breeze lifted the light curtains as he stepped out onto the balcony. With a firm hand at my back, Tyler pushed me out after him.
Plants and seating dotted the edges of the enormous balcony, which was twice the size of the boardroom. Manhattan spread out spectacularly far below us, but the wind this high up was biting.
I wrapped my arms around myself. Tyler faced the door, his gun lowered but ready, as Alec pushed a bench up against the glass railing and leaned over. My heart jumped into my throat—he was bent double over the edge, looking as if a light breeze would send him hurtling down eighty-nine floors to the concrete below. But he didn’t fall—he holstered his weapon and reached down. The next thing I knew, Jamie was climbing over the railing, dressed in all black with heavy gear strapped to his back.
I rushed forward to help him take the gear off.
“Hey, kitten,” he panted out and smiled, as if we’d just bumped into each other in the mall. “Ready to blow this party off?”
“Yes.” I nodded emphatically, my eyes wide. I just didn’t have it in me to crack jokes.
Within moments, the two of them had secured thick, heavy ropes to the bolted railing, and Alec strapped a harness on. He removed his suit jacket and draped it over my shoulders. “Put this on. The wind is even worse at the side of the building.”
“OK.” I nodded.
I went to put my arms through the sleeves and realized I still had a death grip on my heels—one beautiful red shoe in each hand. I dropped them and finished putting Alec’s jacket on, rolling the sleeves up several times so I could have use of my hands. The jacket reached the middle of my thighs, and it smelled like him.
“Wait.” It suddenly dawned on me what they were about to make me do. “No. Fuck. Alec, I can’t rappel down the side of a building! I . . . I’m . . . I do science.”
Eighty-nine floors, at an average of twelve feet per floor—that was 1,068 feet!