“And what happens if Brendan’s home?”
“Then you can drag his lying ass back here to pick up his damn grandma.”
Wind whipped my hair over my face as I peered over the ledge. Brendan’s balcony was only a few feet away, and the railing looked sturdy. I’d traversed far more terrifying terrain in the ceiling of a chop shop in Atlantic City. At least here, no one was trying to shoot me.
I checked the stairwell again. Then the ground below. There wasn’t a soul in the parking lot. No one coming or going from the building, as far as I could see. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”
I slipped my phone in my pocket before I could talk myselfout of it, muffling Vero’s voice inside the thick layers of my coat. I climbed onto the ledge. The ground wavered below me, much farther down than it had seemed a moment ago. I gripped the side of the building for balance, shut my eyes, and swung a leg out sideways, clinging to the brackets of a drainpipe as I searched for the metal railing with my foot. The heel of my sneaker caught the slick surface of the top rail. My stomach dropped as the rubber sole slipped, the force of my sudden lurch pulling the drainpipe away from the wall.
I yelped, groping for a fingerhold as brackets and screws tumbled to the sidewalk below with softclinks. My nails raked the brick façade, mortar and grit collecting under my nails until they caught the edge of a shutter.
“Don’t look down, don’t look down, don’t look down,” I whimpered, my heart flapping furiously against my ribs as I eased a foot back onto the railing. With one final sideways step, I threw myself over the top of it and collapsed onto Brendan’s balcony.
“Finlay! Say something. Anything!” Vero’s shouts were frantic and tinny in my pocket as I lay motionless on the cold, wet decking.
My hands shook as I retrieved my phone from my pocket. “I’m not dead,” I said between ragged breaths. At least, I didn’t think I was.
“Where are you?”
“On Brendan’s balcony.”
“See anything?”
“Other than my life flashing before my eyes?” I pushed myself to my feet and peered through the slats in Brendan’s blinds. A single lamp was on in his living room. The kitchen was dark, the counters clean of clutter. I could just make out one side of his crisply made bed through his open bedroom door. “No sign of Brendan. I don’t think he’s home.” I tested the doorknob. “But we have a problem.”
“What kind of problem?”
“I’m stuck on Brendan’s balcony.”
“Can’t you just go back the way you came?”
“The drainpipe broke. My only hope for getting out of here is a fire truck ladder or a key to his condo.”
“Good idea. Stay where you are. I’m calling the maintenance office.”
“You’re doingwhat?!”
“They’ll send someone out to help you. All you have to do is pretend you live there. Tell them you’re Brendan’s girlfriend and you went outside to get some air and accidentally locked yourself out of his condo.”
“No!”
“You have a better plan?”
I peeped over the railing. The balcony below Brendan’s was at least fifteen feet down. A low rumble of thunder echoed in the distance.
“There isoneother way,” Vero suggested, “but only if you’re willing to be flexible on that whole breaking-and-entering thing.”
A fat raindrop plunked down on my head. “Absolutely not!”
“Would you rather I callyourboyfriend to come save you?”
“Fine. You can call Javi, but tell him to hurry. It’s starting to rain and it’s freezing out here. The last thing I need is for the cops to find my frozen corpse on Brendan Haggerty’s balcony.”
“Look at the bright side,” she said as the sky opened and it started to pour. “At least you won’t stink.”
Exactly twenty-eight minutes later, a white panel van eased into the condominium’s parking lot, its windshield wipers slapping away the heavy rain. It made a slow pass through the complex and parked beside my minivan. The driver’s side door opened and Javi got out. Hewore a pair of dark sunglasses, a grease-stained pair of blue coveralls, and his baseball cap low over his eyes. I rocked back and forth to stay warm, watching from Brendan’s balcony as Javi retrieved a toolbox from the back of his van. His eyes climbed the side of the building, searching for me as he approached. I hugged my knees against the driving rain, my teeth chattering. I considered getting up and waving to him, but my clothes were plastered to my body and I couldn’t feel my toes. Javi’s steps faltered when he spotted the drainpipe dangling from the side of the building. He quickened his pace to the stairs.
The next few minutes felt like an eternity. The balcony door swung open. Javi pulled me upright and dragged me into Brendan’s condo. My face tingled at the rush of warm air as he closed the balcony door behind us and quickly shut the blinds. He took a throw blanket off the back of the sofa and wrapped it around me.
