“Where’s the captain?” I called.
“Over there,” Adam answered.
Dante was doing his best to control the drop. When he was close, he did the unthinkable, trying to yank off the pack. It happened sometimes when jumpers became disoriented.
“Don’t do it. Don’t do it!” I was now the one yelling, running toward where I knew he was going to land. Right on the goddamn precipice of the mountain.
He landed successfully, even pulling himself away from the edge.
“He’s an old pro, Axe. Don’t worry about him.” While I heard the jumper’s voice, I continued heading toward Dante. I knew better than to think anyone was safe until it was proven.
Dante grinned as I walked closer. “What’s wrong, Axe man? Did you think I wasn’t coming to the party?” He was actively trying to unbuckle the vest holding the parachute.
“I thought you were going to take that off mid fall.”
“Yeah, well, I thought I’d need to. Thank God the wind shifted. Where the hell are these damn cold fronts coming from?”
The weather pattern had been highly unusual that last week. While June usually shifted from the last of winter into summer, the volatile patterns had been exceptional.
He continued fighting while walking toward me.
“You need me to cut that off?” I asked, teasing him.
“Don’t touch me, dude.” He grinned and finally popped the buckle.
Just as a hard rush of wind flowed under the fallen parachute, immediately dragging Dante off the ground.
“Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.”
“Fuck!” he yelled.
“Jumper in distress,” I yelled into the communications system while rushing toward him. He was back peddling, still fighting with the vest while being twirled around like a puppet.
I lunged forward just as the wind began to shift in direction, deflating the parachute.
Dante stumbled backwards, sliding off the edge of the cliff the second I grabbed his wrist.
We both went down with a brutal thud, Dante hanging in midair.
“Jesus Christ,” Rock snarled as he thumped down beside me.
“Keep me steady,” I yelled to no one in particular. “This is going to be dicey.” While my grip was firm, the man outweighed me by a solid thirty pounds of muscle. And I thought I was bulked up.
“Fuck,” Dante hissed.
“Yeah, you know how to piss away a part of a day, huh?” I teased, scanning the area below him. This wasn’t good.
“Got you!” Adam told me while hanging onto my legs, the others crowding around. The last thing I would allow was for him to fall.
“Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to hold you while you remove one side of your vest. Then we’ll switch to the other side. No big deal.” I kept a grin on my face.
“Nice and steady, gentlemen.”
The weight of the goddamn parachute was too much. We couldn’t pull him up with it attached. People had no idea how heavy a parachute could be, especially with the material used for jumping into dangerous situations that we found ourselves in.
“I know, Captain,” I said, comforted by hearing his voice. “No hot-dogging.”
“I don’t know. Now might be the time we need to. You’re good at that, Axe man. I’ll take whatever you can do.” For the first time since I’d known him, I heard the angst in Dante’s voice. Very little fazed the man, much like the rest of us. Extensive training helped, as did years in the business. And that reckless attitude we all seemed to have.
