Page 64 of Point Blank

“Three.”

He clenched her legs and then catapulted her off his shoulders. The balcony rushed up to meet her, and she locked her hands around the bars. She let out a whoosh of air from her lungs and dangled. Milo’s hands pressed the bottoms of her feet, relieving the sting of strain on her arms.

“I’m going to push on one foot. Can you swing the other to the balcony?”

“Yes,” she said with a gasp. She’d come this far—there was no way in hell she was letting go of the railing until she was standing on the balcony. He pressed both of his hands beneath one foot, boosting her up another few inches. With that momentum, she lunged her knee to the concrete ledge and wiggled her hands up the bars. She was too high for Milo to reach her other foot. She was on her own.

She summoned all her strength and ignored the burning in her shoulders. Gritting her teeth, she dug her knee deeper into the piercing surface. She dragged her other leg up and her toe caught the lip of the ledge. The pins and needles in her arms faded away.

She’d made it.

She turned to look down at Milo, a grin tickling the corners of her mouth. The flash of his white teeth made her smile brighter. She climbed over the metal railing and dropped to the balcony.

“Yes! Way to go.” Peyton’s giddy encouragement shrieked through the earbud. She didn’t risk responding but gave a thumbs-up in her direction.

Her muscles desperately wanted a break, but she couldn’t waste a second. She pulled the cable that hung across her chest over her head and secured it to the top of the railing. Then she tossed the end down to Milo.

She watched as he jerked on the wire and shook his head. He turned toward Brock and signaled him.

She held her hand out in the air, palm up. What the hell was he doing?

“I need a boost,” he mouthed.

Brock’s form skittered across the lawn from the fountain, following the same route they’d taken. There was a flurry of movement below as Brock boosted Milo up the wall. With his boots pressed into the stacked stone, the cable in his hands, Milo walked his way up the steep incline. His muscles tensed with every hand-over-fist motion and every stomp of his boot. His head reached the railing, and he shot his gloved hand out to catch the steel. Serena latched her hands onto his forearm, but before she could try to help him over, he swung his leg over the edge and dropped down beside her.

A rush of air blew from his lips. “Don’t ask me to do that again.”

She snickered behind her fingers. “You did good.”

“Pretty sure I pulled a hamstring.”

“You never were good at stretching after your workouts.”

He grunted and nodded at the balcony door. “Is it locked?”

“I didn’t try it.” She moved to the double doors and pushed on the winged handle. “Yeah, it is.”

Without missing a beat, she pulled out her lock-pick set. She’d let Milo catch his breath while she worked on the door. She inserted the tools and a few clicks later, the lock released. She pushed on the handle again and the door glided into the room.

Milo caught her wrist before she could cross the threshold. “Wait here.”

“Why?”

“Stay put.” He advanced into the room, flashlight in hand, and she reached for the gun at the small of her back. Its weight made the aching muscles in her hands ache that much more. Milo disappeared into the room, and she rocked onto her toes and back down to her heels.

A second later he stepped into the pool of moonlight shining through the balcony doors and motioned her inside.

“Can’t take any chances.”

She nodded and returned the gun to its spot before following him into the room. His flashlight illuminated their path. They passed a large stone fireplace at the foot of the California king-sized bed and moved into the en suite. Memories of Titus parading her through the same space flooded her. Had it really been only days since she’d been a rising, hungry realtor without impending doom closing in on her every breath?

Her fingers drifted toward the white marble and quartz with light-blue accent tile, but didn’t touch. A soaker tub large enough to fit a horse sat nestled beneath a chandelier, with the fireplace at its back. Despite the fact that she was robbing her client, excitement at the house’s features hummed through her all over again. Maybe selling the house in record time would cancel out the bad karma of her act.

“Oh my god,” she moaned. “I forgot how glorious this bathroom is. I’d kill to soak in this tub.”

Milo turned, and the flashlight’s glow cast shadows over his face. His jaw moved back and forth.

“If you start stripping, we’ll never leave this bathroom.”