"Over here," Dani whispers. From where she's,once again,hanging off the roof.
But sure enough, when I make my way over to her, a fire escape comes into view.
"How did you find…" I trail off when I realize it's a pointless question. I shake my head instead. "Never mind. Move over, I'm coming down."
She flashes me a grin—giving me a look that clearly says,now you’re getting it—and disappears down the steps.
"Hey!Come back here, you two!"
I look sheepishly at the security guard right before I drop down to the ledge. "Sorry, man. I gotta go with the lady."
I follow Dani down two levels, sending multiplethank God's to whatever gods are out there that I don't have a fear of heights. Because despite the fact that we're climbing down an enclosed fire escape, we're stillseven stories upon a building that clearly hasn't been used in years.
"In here," she finally whispers as she disappears through an unlocked window.
But when we drop into the empty hallway, we hear the security guard yell into his walkie talkie, "They stopped on the seventh floor! Somebody catch them on the way up!"
“Shit.” Dani looks around frantically. She grabs my hand and moves to open a classroom door, then promptly shoos me inside. But before she follows me in, she looks thoughtfully at the entrance to the stairwell that’s right next to our classroom.
"What're you doing? Get in here," I hiss.
"Shut up and get in the supply closet," she hisses back.
“I’m not leaving you to go into a closet,” I whisper with a glare. “I can already hear the jokes coming.”
She gives me a look of annoyance. "Don't worry, I'll be back in a second to soothe your fragile masculinity."
"Trust me, sweetheart, there ain't nothing fragile about my masculinity.”
At the sound of a door slamming nearby, both of our attention jumps to the stairwell. I let out a veryun-masculine sound of distress when Dani bolts toward the door.
She opens it and pokes her head out so she can listen. "They're in the stairwell," she whispers. Then a determined look appears on her face, right before she glances around her.
And then slams the stairwell door loud enough for even the dead to hear it.
"Are youinsane?!" I hiss. "Now they're going to know we're here."
She gives me another exasperated look.
"Not quite, though it's good to know you're not the getaway partner I’ve been looking for. You suck at this."
I glare at her, speechless for probably the first time in my life.
But I catch a smile on her face as she shoves me back into the classroom. "Go, closet, now," she barks like some war general.
We're almost to the supply closet when we hear voices outside the classroom. I quickly push Dani inside, but leave the door slightly open so we can hear what the security guards are saying.
"Where'd they go?"
"I saw them go down two floors on the fire escape. I know they're on this floor."
"Yeah, but we also heard the door to the stairwell slam. They probably climbed down another floor before we could get up here."
"Goddamnit, there are like ninety classrooms just in this section of the building. They could be anywhere."
"Come on, Carl, they're just a bunch of kids. Were they doing anything illegal?"
"You mean being on an blocked-off and hazardous roof isn't enough?"