“I’ll just keep it nice and simple today. Remember, we have a fire to go to.”
Dante kept his eyes locked on mine as he moved one arm, trying not to exert much energy in extracting the vest. “That’s where all the fun is.”
Another blasting breeze and my grip slipped slightly, the wind slamming his body against the side of the cliff.
“Shit,” I hissed.
Rock placed his hand near mine, managing to grab a hold of Dante’s shirt. “Come on, buddy,” he said. “Like Axe man said, we need to get to a fire. Do you think you could speed up the action a little bit?”
“Why, sure thing, Rock. Jumping right to it.” After taking a deep breath, he managed to slide off the vest, still rocking in the wind.
“Lift your other arm,” I told him.
Dante was already getting tired. Hell, so was I, but nothing would prevent me from rescuing him.
“You still won’t let me have a conversation with your girl. Oh, not your girl?”
On top of the fucked-up weather conditions, Dante was also sweating, which wasn’t helping the situation. “How about you get your ass up here and fight me for her.”
When Dante lifted his arm, Rock grabbed his shirt. I gave him a quick nod and before he had a chance to change his mind, we switched to his other arm. The quick maneuver caught us both, his body swinging again.
Dante laughed nervously, almost looking down.
“Don’t do it, Dante. Eyes on me. Maybe we’ll do some arm wrestling to see if you have what it takes to date my friend.”
The look in the jumper’s eyes was disconcerting as hell. He was falling prey to the kind of fear that could make a man do stupid things.
“Come on. Get the vest off. All you need to do is drop your arm and it’ll slide off.”
The moment I could tell he was freezing up, I reacted. “Drag him up, Rock. Do it.”
“What’s happening?” Denver asked.
“Nothing my friend. Let me work.” With my knife in hand, I wasn’t in the mood for wasting any additional time, thankful the blade was sharp and the ropes were close.
“Drop your arm, Raptor.” Hearing the captain using Dante’s moniker was meant to jar him from the near paralysis.
One rope was free, but the idea was for him to drop his arm.
“Come on, Dante,” I muttered. “You can do it, Raptor.”
“We’ve got you,” Rock added.
While I continued my actions, we were losing momentum, the wind was picking up again and we were exhausted.
Finally, Dante slowly dropped his arm. Everything shifted at the same time.
And I found myself going over the edge.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” I yelled.
Rock huffed as he lunged for the both of us.
“Get ‘em up. Get them up!” the captain commanded.
I laughed, shaking my head as I stared at Dante. “Come on, bud. Let’s do this.”
Dante finally nodded.
