Page 66 of Time Served in New York
“Yeah. We’ll take it down with us when we go. There’s a small room attached to the ballroom where we can keep it.”
“Are you sure we should get you dressed up here, Frankie? You’ll have to get on the elevator and all that . . .”
“That room is way too small for all of us to get dressed in. We’ll do all the major stuff up here and then be really careful going down.” Frankie took her robe off and handed it to Paula before she walked to the middle of the room. “This is gonna be quite an undertaking, isn’t it?”
“We can handle it,” I assured her. “Let me show you. Go pee one more time.”
Frankie laughed and took off for the bathroom while I spread the dress out the way the woman at the boutique had shown me. Once Frankie was back, Paula and I helped her step into it, then we pulled it up over her hips as Blue held the bodice up for her to slide her arms into.
“Well that wasn’t nearly as painful as I thought it would be,” Frankie said with a giggle. “Now I just need the sadist of the bunch to tighten the corset so we can zip this thing.”
“While you guys see to that, I’m going to step outside for some air. I can’t get any bars on my phone, so I’m going to risk going out onto the balcony so I can call Valentine. I haven’t talked to him since I left the room early this morning.”
“I’m going with Bernadette,” Jenn said as she started walking toward the terrace door. “My phone isn’t working well either.”
“It’s weird,” I said as Jenn closed the door behind us. “It’s been fine the entire trip, but I found I’d lost service when I checked it a few minutes ago.”
“Same. I sent Boss a text 20 minutes ago and got his answer right after, but now I’ve got no service at all.”
“Still nothing,” I said as I leaned against the rail and looked down at the street below. “Man, I’ll be so glad when this day is finished.”
“I thought you enjoyed planning this sort of stuff.”
“I do. But in the future I won’t have to be involved in all the activities I plan for an event.”
“I just want to wash my face,” Jenn complained. She glanced over her shoulder when we heard Boo start crying. She screamed as if she were in pain, and Jenn and I stood, both on high alert since our friends inside the suite were yelling too.
“What the hell?” I barked as I turned to go inside.
“Get over here,” Jenn hissed as she yanked on my arm and pushed me against the bricks beside the door. “Listen. There’s a man in there. Fuck. Where are the guards?”
“I’m gonna peek in,” I said as I slid closer to the door. I used one finger to slide the door open the smallest bit and then ducked down so the couch would hide me if someone happened to be looking out the window. With a quick glance, I could tell there was something horribly wrong. I leaned back against the bricks and whispered, “There’s a man holding Boo like a football, and he’s got a gun pointed at the girls.”
“Holy shit,” Jenn whispered. She picked up her phone and shook it as if that would make it work again and then she looked toward the end of the terrace. “We have to get over there and get inside.”
“How the fuck are we gonna do that?” I asked.
“I was on that terrace earlier. I’m almost positive I didn’t lock the door.”
I looked down at the street below us. “I’ve never been afraid of heights until now.”
“Get over it,” Jenn hissed as she gauged the distance between us and the terrace next door. “It’s like six feet away. We can jump that.”
“Right. Yeah. We can do it,” I said, trying to reassure myself as I took one more glance toward the door behind us. “We’ve gotta hurry.”
“Okay. We’ll climb up on the chair and hold onto the bricks while we stand on the rail, and then we’ll just jump over onto that balcony.”
“Sure. Okay.”
“Calm down, or you’re gonna pass out.”
“Or I could fall to my death. You know. Whichever happens first.”
“I’ll go first,” Jenn said as she climbed onto the chair. “If I fall, you jump over there and go get help.”
“If you fall . . .”
“Not for me. I’ll be dead of a fucking heart attack before I hit the ground, I assure you. I can feel one coming on already.”
