Jeff eyed the smooth concrete columns flanking the front of the house. “You couldn’t climb those without damaging them. They’ve got no hand- or footholds. And I don’t see anything at the edge of the roof that would catch and hold a grappling hook.”
“I could climb one.”
“Hey, I know you’re a monkey, but come on. Those things are six feet across. You’d get no purchase on it. Even with a lumberjack’s rig, you couldn’t get enough traction with your feet to do it.”
“Oh, ye of little faith. I’m telling you, I can do it.”
“This I have to see.”
He actually wanted her to try it? “You gonna come up on the roof with me and take a look around?”
He murmured, “I’d never ditch a lady on a date.”
While she gaped at him in surprise, he added, “If you can get up there without setting off the alarms, send a rope down. I’ll come up and play with you.”
“Hold my gear.” She stripped down to only her basic climbing equipment to reduce weight, slung a rope and carabiners across her chest, then pulled out a small spray can.
“What’s that?”
“Stickum. Athletes use it-illegally, in most cases, I might add-to make their gloves or hands sticky. Helps them make the crucial catch in the big game. Since cricket’s a national obsession in Barbados and it involves catching balls, I assume this stuff’s available on the island.”
“Wouldn’t it leave a residue on the column that the police could find?” Jeff asked.
“The good stuff that the pros sneak onto their gear evaporates quickly. Leaves practically no residue. That’s how they get away with it.”
Ready to leave, she paused and asked impishly, “Care to place a small wager? I say I can do it.”
He grinned. “Winner gets to kiss the loser.”
She laughed under her breath. No matter who won or lost, they’d get to kiss again. “You know we can’t do that. Once we start, we’ll never stop. How about loser pays for dinner?”
“You’re on.” A pause, then he added, “Chicken.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “I assume you’re announcing what you plan to eat, for surely you wouldn’t call me that.”
He grinned mischievously at her and said deliberately, “You’re a chicken. Coward. Yellow belly. You’re scared to kiss me again.”
“And you’re not scared to kiss me?”
He shrugged. “I’m willing to take my chances. I think we can be lovers and still pull off the mission. But you- you’re scared of letting go. Of losing control. At the end of the day, you’re more scared than I am.”
Her knee-jerk reaction was to retort that she wasn’t, but honesty stopped her.
Without replying to his oh-so-accurate assessment, she took off running, skirting the edge of the lawn until she reached the sidewalk, where she crouched down. Spotting the cameras, she timed their rotation cycles and then did some quick math. In two minutes and ten seconds, they would align perfectly.
She counted down on her watch, and as the first camera swung past her, she walked quickly along behind its arc. A quick dive onto her belly as the next camera swung her way, then she was up and walking again, behind its arc. She repeated the maneuver until she stood behind one of the massive porch columns.
She pulled out a long rubber strap and passed it around the column. A quick spray of her shoes with the stickum, and she was on her way up the column. It was awkward clinging to the curving surface like a fly, but it was definitely doable. Pausing about halfway up to re-spray her shoes was tricky, but she managed.
She lunged upward with one hand to grab the edge of the roof. In the other hand, she maintained her grip on the climbing strap. For a hazardous moment, she hung precariously by her right hand, three stories above the concrete porch below. But then she flung the climbing strap around her neck and reached up with her second hand. From there, it was a piece of cake. She threw a leg up and scrambled onto the flat roof.
She ran lightly to the big air-conditioning unit, found a sturdy structural post, and attached her rope to it. Then it was back to the edge of the roof and lowering the rope until it hung a few feet above the ground. Jeff mimicked her progress up the sidewalk, then climbed the rope hand over hand quickly to join her. Dang, he’d made that look easy. Sometimes she envied the men their incredible upper-body strength.
“Now what, Spider-Woman?”
“Over here.” She led him to a flat vent on the roof. “Does that caulk look fresh to you?”
Jeff knelt down beside the grate, fingering the white gel oozing out around its cracks. “Yeah. It’s not entirely dry. Smells like a liquid adhesive.” He grinned up at her. “Shall we pry it up and see where it goes?”
She grinned back. Who’d have guessed breaking and entering with him would be this much fun? “After you.”
“I hate to say it, but you probably ought to go first. You’re so much smaller than I am; if you get stuck, we know I can’t make it through. And if you do get stuck, I’ll still be up here to haul you out.”
“Your call, boss.”
He pulled out a small crowbar and pried up the grate. The glue gave way with a moist, sucking sound. She lowered herself into the rectangular hole. After about four feet, the vertical ventilation shaft connected to a horizontal one of similar size. She eased along the low aluminum tunnel to another grate like the one above. This one showed fresh scratches in the galvanized aluminum around its screws. Yup. They’d found the Ghost’s entry point.
She whispered into her microphone. “Come on down.”
In a few seconds, Jeff touched her foot. “Is there room for me to slide up beside you and take a look below with my goggles before we go in?”
Kat murmured an affirmative. It was only after he’d joined her in the now very tight space, their bodies pressed against each other, rib to rib, hip to hip, with breathtaking intimacy, that it occurred to her he could’ve just passed the goggles forward and let her take a look around. She ought to be annoyed at him, but strangely enough, she wasn’t. Such was the desperation of her craving to be near him like this. Oh, man, was she in trouble.
As they banged elbows yet again, trying to maneuver in the close confines, he whispered, “Roll on your right side.”
She complied, and was stunned when he rolled onto his left side, bringing them belly to belly, chest to chest. An errant urge to ravage him right there made her freeze in shock.
“What?” he demanded. “Did you hear something?”
Yeah. Her heart about pounding out of her chest. “No, it’s all clear,” she replied.
“I’m going to lift the grate off and then stick my head out for a look around,” he murmured.
Her nod turned into a gulp as his hard, vibrant body slid upward against hers and her nose rested somewhere in the vicinity of his zipper. Kowabunga. He made some sort of physical exertion above her head, and his body flexed unexpectedly, lurching toward the hole. She grabbed him fast, wrapping her arms around his upper thighs in case something had caused him to momentarily lose his balance.
“Give me a sec if you want more of that,” he murmured. “I’ll be right there.”
“Are you okay?” she muttered, chagrined. “It felt like you were falling.”
“I already fell for you, darlin’.”
She rolled her eyes and turned his hips loose. But it wasn’t like there was anywhere to retreat to. Her eyes squeezed shut in mortification, she tried to ignore the obvious view and asked in desperation, “What do you see?”
“Doesn’t look like there’s a stitch of security in here. Apparently, the owners relied entirely on the perimeter system.”
“An expensive mistake,” she replied.
“Wanna take a look around?” he asked.
“Sure. We might learn something about the Ghost.”
Thankfully, his crotch finally slid past her face as he slithered through the opening and landed lightly below. She pulled herself forward with her elbows until her shoulders projected out of the opening.
“Need me to catch you?” he murmured.
