Lucidity

Chapter 35 - Leap of Faith

Her breath came in panicked gasps. She rolled onto her belly and crawled along the sleet-slicked glass. The thud of Lukas’s landing rattled the glass beneath her body. She clawed for any purchase on the unyielding surface, finding only widely spaced thin-rimmed metal supports.

“Grace!” Jimmy’s voice ripped through her panic. She turned her head and saw that he’d made it to the rooftop above them. Lukas was close, too close. As Jimmy leapt onto the Skyway, Lukas snaked a hand out toward her.

Jimmy slammed against the glass, the force of his landing almost rolling him off the edge. Grace kicked against Lukas’s grip. The madman’s mouth was open, the wind shredding his words as he grinned at her in delight, as if this nightmare was the answer to his prayers. He reached his other hand to grab her ankle and began to haul her toward him.

Grace allowed herself to slip back close enough to aim a kick against his face. His grip loosened for a moment and she clawed her way forward. The hatch was only a foot or so away, if she could reach the handle...

A shot tore through the air. The glass beside Grace’s hand splintered into a small star. She raised her head and stared across the void at the helipad.

Eve Warden stood there, a very large black gun resting in her hands. She looked confident as she raised it once more and took aim.

“No!” Lukas cried, leaping forward to cover Grace’s body with his own. The sound of another shot rang out. Lukas’ right arm dripped blood. He looked down at the blood and then into her eyes. “I’m sorry, Grace. I should have loved you better.”

He turned and climbed to his feet, straightening to his full height, shielding her from Eve’s deadly aim.

“I’ll come back,” he shouted to Eve. “I’ll do what you want, if you leave her alone.”

Jimmy got to his feet on the other side of Lukas, while Grace eased her way forward. She grabbed the handle to the hatch and twisted it with all her might. The frozen metal burnt the torn skin of her palms and refused to budge.

“Sorry, Lukas,” Eve said. “It’s too late. For both of you.” Another shot sliced through the night, ricocheting off the steel housing of the hatch, narrowly missing Grace’s face. Grace pulled back, turned her head away. She wrenched her weight against the handle.

It groaned, began to turn, then stopped again. Grace yanked once more, felt it give. She pulled herself up to a crouch and hauled the small glass door open.

“Grace, look out,” Jimmy called as she felt Lukas’s hands push against her back. A fourth shot sounded.

Grace caught her balance before she could fall through the opening. She twisted to look around. Lukas stood, towering over her, his chest blossoming blood. “I was only trying to save—”

His words were swallowed by the wind as Jimmy stampeded into him, launching both men to the edge. Lucas’s arms windmilled wildly, his expression one of surprise and terror as he plummeted into the void.

Jimmy landed on his belly but his momentum toppled him over the edge of the icy surface. Grace watched, her throat tight with fear. At the last moment he grabbed hold of the edge, his fingers clawing into the metal framing.

Grace ignored the crack of another gunshot. She hooked her feet on the hatchway’s inside rim, using it as an anchor, and flattened herself out on the roof as if it were an icy pond and Jimmy had fallen through. Stretching out to her full length, she was able to grab onto Jimmy’s right wrist with both of her hands.

Blood dripped from his nose, one eye was already swelling, but still he looked up at her with a smile. “Isn’t this where we started, love?”

“Stop talking and start climbing,” she said between clenched teeth. “Don’t know how long I can hold on to you.”

“S’all right, Grace. Let me go.”

She stared at him in horror. “No, never. Jimmy, don’t ask me—”

Another shot interrupted her. He slipped further from her reach. Grace clamped her fingers tighter, her arms trembling from the effort.

“My time is up,” he crooned softly. “Let me go, love.”

“No,” she sobbed. “Please, no. I can’t lose you again, I can’t go on.”

“Sure you can, Grace. You always could. And our love will never die.” His smile widened to a grin. “We’ve proved that, haven’t we? Outfoxed them all. Even that bastard, Leo.”

He released his left hand from the roof edge. Laid it on top of her hand, his fingers stroking her naked ring finger. Then he opened the fingers of his right hand. “Let me go, Grace.”

Her shoulders burned in agony as she fought to hold him. He kept his eyes locked onto hers and in them she saw no regret, only peace.

She blinked back tears and opened her fingers.

Jimmy slipped away from Grace. It seemed in slow motion at first, the gold of his wedding ring capturing a stray spark of fading sunlight. He plummeted into the shadows, his body spiraling, tumbling, spinning out of control. Spinning into...nothing.

She craned her head over the edge, saw Lukas’s battered body on the pavement seven stories below, surrounded by a crowd of people. But there was no sign of Jimmy.