“Bri’s not thinking with her head. She’s thinking with something completely different when it comes to you. I don’t have that problem, and we’re twelve stories up! You’re nuts if you think I’m doing that! I’m not climbing on that fucking ladder in the dark!”
Brianna ignored them as she tested the ladder herself, tugging it toward her while her hair blew in the cold breeze dancing over the rooftops. It seemed stable enough, or at least as stable as a slide-out ladder caught on two hooks drilled into the side of the other building could be. She had no idea how rusted those hooks were. It was too dark to see them. They could’ve been put in by long-dead mobsters for all she knew. This was New York City. There were parts of Cosa Nostra’s network that dated back well over a hundred years in the city. She just really hoped these hooks weren’t that historic as she crawled up on the ledge and promised herself she wouldn’t look down.
“One step at a time, baby,” Tino said as he came up next to her and held the ladder. “You can do this. Don’t look down.”
“I know,” she snapped at him. “I know not to look down. I’m not stupid. I know that.” She reached out to grab the metal, knees still on the ledge as she crouched there, and she couldn’t help but look between steps. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.”
“Oobatz. She’s not doing this. I’m sitting my Italiana ass right here and getting arrested. Both of yous are too. Nova can bail us out.”
“It’s not that fucking simple. I can’t get arrested, Carina,” Tino growled at her. “They’ll try to flip me against the Borgata. They’ll keep me until they find something on me bad enough to put me down. Not to mention, if you get arrested on my watch—”
That was all the motivation Brianna needed. She crawled out on the ladder, the freezing metal digging into her knees, making her wish she had worn jeans like Carina. Despite the cold, her palms were sweaty as hell, but she gripped at the ladder for dear life. The other building was slightly higher than theirs, so she was climbing at an incline. One step at a time, with the wind still blowing up between the buildings and her ponytail hanging in her face.
She could distantly hear the chaos from the raid below, and she really hoped no one was looking up and noticing this ladder. “W-what if they see us?” she asked, now hanging halfway between the buildings.
“They aren’t gonna see you. No one ever looks up,” Tino assured her. “It’s all fine. You’re almost there. You’re doing good.”
It wasn’t until Brianna reached the other building that she realized she’d barely breathed the whole time. Her heart was still thundering as she crawled over the edge on the other side and turned around to look behind her. Tino and Carina were dark silhouettes. Their bodies were noticeably tense. It was obvious that watching Brianna make that trek had them near frozen with fear. Though Tino had managed to keep his cool rather than let her hear his apprehension.
“Jesus fucking Christ.” Carina’s voice carried on the wind. “I have to do this. She’s over there, and I’m here. I have to fucking do this.”
“Come on, where are those stugots? You got this, sweetheart,” Tino said as Carina crawled up on the ledge. “I’m gonna hold it for you like I did for Bri. Like my fucking life depends on it, okay?”
“Are you drunk?” Brianna called from the other side. “Do you feel stable enough to make it?”
“I’m not drunk anymore,” Carina replied as she grabbed the first rung and looked up at Brianna. “If you can do it, I can.”
Brianna leaned down and grabbed the top rung on the ladder. “I’m holding it from here. We won’t let you fall.”
Carina nodded wordlessly and crawled out, slowly but surely until she was hanging between the buildings with nothing but the metal ladder to support her. Carina’s breath was leaving her in quick, silvery puffs, betraying the fear. It was a horrible thing to watch, really horrible, a thousand times worse than actually doing it.
“Go, sweetheart.” Tino sounded anxious. “Get to the other side. I don’t wanna rush you—”
“Then don’t fucking rush me,” Carina growled back to him. “My hands are sweaty as hell, and I feel like I’m gonna puke. Cazzo. I’m never drinking again. I swear to God, the fucking government’s put me off alcohol for life.”
Carina spent so much time bitching and praying she didn’t realize she’d made it to the other side, and when she did, she said another quick prayer in Italian and then crossed herself as she crawled down from the ledge to the roof.
“Hold it, Bri,” Tino called and then crawled onto the ladder like he had done this a hundred times before. “Both hands.”
Brianna leaned down and held it tighter as he took to that ladder like a firefighter with a five-alarm blaze going. Tino was moving so fast the whole thing was shaking, and there was no one on the other side to keep it steady. Brianna’s hands were still sweaty, but she held on to that first rung like it was life-and-death.