Page 22 of His to Possess

“I’m not scared of heights,” he informs me. “I’m just calculating how to land without breaking every bone in my body.”

There’s no time for a debate. I swing a leg over the balcony’s wrought-iron railing, study the distance then take a leap over empty air. My body slams into the neighbor’s balcony and I swing over the rail.Almost there.Angelo hisses a curse behind me, but I can see him following suit.

“Hurry!” I whisper-hiss. Heart in my throat, I watch him jump with ease then climb over the rail and step up beside me. “Good job. Now we just need to go up.”

Whoever was at the door is probably now in the apartment and there’s not a second to spare.

“Help me up!” Urgency has me hustling up onto the edge of the railing, and Angelo moves just as quickly which I greatly appreciate.

“I don’t like this,” he grumbles, helping me stand up on the railing.

Luckily, I have fantastic balance and this is nothing. Stretching out, I reach for the ladder and wrap my fingers around the side bar. Then I swing over, grab the opposite side of the rung with my other hand and secure my feet on a lower rung. Angelo is climbing up onto the railing when a woman steps onto the balcony behind him.

Fuck.It’s Vixen, the other female bounty hunter I’ve run into on occasion. She isn’t very friendly and I’ve never trusted her.Apparently with good reason—because there’s only one reason she’s here right now. She wants to take me and Angelo in and collect the reward money.

Not gonna happen.

When Angelo should be jumping, he pauses to look over his shoulder.

“Hey, handsome,” Vixen purrs, her green gaze on his ass. “Fancy meeting you out here.”

“Angelo, jump!” I yell. He takes a flying leap, grabs the ladder and I start climbing up. “Don’t stop!”

“You’re going to make this hard on me, aren’t you, Butterfly?” Vixen asks, hand on her hip.

“I thought you didn’t take a job for under $100k, Vixen.” I keep moving, hand over hand, but I’ve got my eyes on Vixen. She’s the type to pull a fast one and I need to keep Angelo safe.

“I don’t, but they just upped the reward to two-fifty,” she informs me with a dangerous smile.

Shitshitshit.Not good.

“I never did anything to you,” I remind her. “Let us go and I’ll owe you.”

“Okay…for a mil. I’m ready to retire and that will help me sail off into the sunset.”

A million dollars? Is she crazy?

“I’m open to negotiation,” I tell her even though it’s a lie. I’m trying to buy us some time. The ladder is too narrow for Angelo to pass me unless he literally climbs up and over my body. Sohe’s moving up slowly behind me. I drop my head back and see we’re still about three more floors from reaching the top.

“Can I ask you something?” Angelo looks over at Vixen.

“No, keep moving!” I snap.

“You can ask me anything you want, handsome,” she says, eyeing him like a cat before it pounces on the canary.

“What did I do to get caught in the middle of all this?”

“Angelo!” I’m about to whack him on the head with the heel of my boot. Why is he even talking to her?

“You must’ve done something to piss off Carmine Gallo,” she states, then looks down at her fingernails. She frowns as though she just discovered a chipped nail. “Look, I don’t feel like chasing you all the way up there and further screwing up my manicure. So I’ll see you when you reach the ground.”

Not if I can help it.And who in the actual fuck is this Carmine Gallo character?I wonder. I pick up my pace and feel the ladder shake slightly with our combined weight. When I reach the top, I climb up onto the roof and let out a sigh. That could’ve been bad, but luckily Vixen isn’t one to pursue her prey too hard. She much prefers an easy catch. I guess I can’t blame her. At this point, we’re at the top of our game and only doing this to pad our Cayman Island bank accounts. Not because any of us actually need the money.

So the fact that she’s demanding one million dollars from me is damn annoying. Retiring, though, is sounding better and better.

Angelo moves up onto the roof, stands up straight and looks around. “Now what?” he asks.

That’s a damn good question. Instead of answering him, I stalk around, peering over the edge of the building, and looking for a potential escape route. But, nothing looks too promising and if Vixen is waiting down by my car—which I’m sure she is—then I need to figure out another way to evade her.

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