Page 53 of XOXO

“We have less than 40 seconds to move,” Brynn warns.

“Or what?”

“The patrol comes by. Honestly, you pay attention to nothing.”

“Well, we’re here. What now?”

Brynn leans against the wall and braids her fingers together.

“Up,” she instructs.

There, on the second floor, is a darkened window.

“I’m not going in there sight unseen.”

“If you don’t, we’ll be caught in 35 seconds and be prisoners anyway. Either we make it inside without notice or you get us caught. Up.”

Grumbling, I brace my foot in her joined hands and hoist myself up the wall.

I am not ninja enough for this garbage.

But when I wedge my fingers on the windowsill, the frame won’t budge.

“It’s stuck,” I whisper down to her.

There’s a precarious moment where it seems like only air supports me while she wavers this way and that before passing me a Bowie knife.

“Where did you get a dagger?” I squeak.

“Just get inside, Vi.”

The blade fits nicely between the stone exterior and the wooden casing. I pry the edge deeper then drag the steel against the stones’ uneven surfaces to work the window latch open.

“Faster, Vi,” Brynn warns.

“Going as fast as I . . . There!”

The window swings out. The knife thuds against wood when I toss it inside. I grip the ledge and shimmy my way up the side of the building.

After rolling in, I whirl to the opening and stick my body halfway out.

Brynn takes a few steps away, then with three lunging strides, she rushes at the wall, plants a foot on the brick, and vaults several feet into the air.

Why was that fucking sexy? She literally climbed in my window.

Well, not my window. But kind of.

In the corner of my eye, the patrol rounds the corner of the building.

Right, focus for now, Vi.

Brynn curses and nearly pulls me out the window while trying to scramble inside.

We roll through. Brynn lands on top of me and we make a sound not all that different from the knife against the wood boards. It’s a miracle neither of us was stabbed in the process.

We’re awkwardly piled up in the dark room, with only the moonlight streaming through the windows.

“You like being beneath me too much,” she murmurs, but there’s a smile there.

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