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“You bossy, obstinate man.”
He made a choked sound, burying his face in her hair. “We have to keep moving.”
“Yes, you’re welcome for saving your life.”
He shook his head, and then tipped her face up to look at him. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
He got up and pulled her to her feet. “I may still punish you when we get out of this.”
“Punish me? I don’t think so.”
He gripped her chin. “Don’t you dare risk yourself like that again.”
“I do as I please, Dare. Don’t you forget that.”
With a shake of his head, he grabbed her hand, and they set off running across the roof. At the edge, she was relieved to see the next building was far closer. Still holding hands, they both leaped over the space, and onto the next roof.
They kept moving like that, building to building, until the shouts on the ground below faded away. Thankfully, some buildings were so close together it was only a step across. Finally, something was going their way.
“It’s Golden Nova down there, isn’t it?” she said.
“Has to be. For now, we just focus on getting out of here.”
Finally, they leaped from the final structure onto the top of a building that had a pretty domed roof. She looked over and saw thick metal cables disappearing into the darkness. The cable car station.
Dare climbed down a wall, and as Dakota shimmied down after him, with her eyes locked firmly on the wall in front of her, he reached up, circled her waist, and lifted her down.
There were no lights on in the station and everything was silent. In the moonlight, she could see one of the big glass carriages sitting at the platform. Just past it, she looked up and saw that a section of the cables was completely missing. There was hazard tape and signs around it indicating that maintenance work was being carried out.
Dare studied the cables intently.
Her stomach turned over. “There’s no way we can take the cable car down. The lines are cut for maintenance.”
He was frowning, and she could tell he was assessing the situation. Then, he pointed farther down the platform. “Look. We can take that.”
Right near the edge of the platform, where the thick wires dropped and disappeared down the mountainside, she saw what he was pointing at. She stared in horror. Hanging from the wires was a tiny, two-man, open sling that wrapped around the wires and then dangled below them. It looked like the beach hammocks she’d seen on the resort world of Duna.
“The maintenance workers must use it to inspect the wires,” he said. “We can take it down to the city.”
Okay, maybe she had prematurely thought that her luck was turning. She decided she’d been cursed. Some vengeful force had decided to curse her with facing multiple heights all in one day. Life just wasn’t fair.
“No.” Her nerves had suffered enough. “I’ll just let the bad guys take me.”
Dare grabbed her hand and pulled her forward.
“Dare, I mean it. I can’t handle any more heights today. I’ve gone past my limits.”
“Get in.”
“No.”
He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her off her feet. As she continued her protests, he ignored her. She hammered her hands against his chest, but he just climbed up into the small sling, dragging her in with him. She landed in one of the bucket seats set in the bottom.
As the sling wobbled wildly, she went still. He settled into the tight space, eyeing the simple controls.
Barely daring to breathe, she sat in the narrow seat without moving an eyelash. He reached over her and clicked her harness in. She didn’t care that she had a belt, there were still no sides on the damn thing.
