Chapter 15 #2
I snorted a laugh, shrugging. “Don’t be salty because you didn’t think of an excuse to flash your abs.” Not that it’d been my intention in any way, but if it got us more Cliks, who was I to complain?
For a few moments the four of us watched in silence until Skye reached us and Ace met him with a towel and bottle of water.
“Holy shit, where did that rain come from?” Skye exclaimed, shaking his head like a wet dog. “That wire is so slippery now. Like…can we somehow get Xavier to call it quits at the end of the zip? Noah could—”
“Do you think he’d listen?” Ace cut him off with a grimace. “Don’t worry. Xavier won’t let him get hurt.”
I hated that he was right, but at the same time… “We have to trust him,” I growled, my hands balled into fists at my sides. “He knows his own limits, and we have to trust that.”
As we watched, no one daring to speak, Xavier handed Noah the zip line handles and the delicate little dude just launched off the platform without even a moment’s hesitation.
My heart lodged firmly in my throat as he whizzed down the line at startling speed, but then Z was right there to catch him on the other side.
The air gusted out of me in a huge exhale. “Thank fuck. Thank fuck.”
“I feel sick watching this,” Torin murmured beside me. “Can our next challenge be something safe, please? Let’s do a live drawing class.”
“Agreed,” August huffed. “We can flip a coin for who needs to be the model.”
My lips curled with amusement at that idea, and I locked eyes with Torin.
I knew exactly what he was thinking…because I was too.
Purely on a friendly entertainment level, though, and just because I’d already clocked how quick Noah was to blush when he was uncomfortable.
It’d be funny, in a totally platonic way.
Z threw the pulley back across to Xavier, and I watched unblinking as Noah swiped rain off his skinny arms. It was really coming down now.
Xavier nailed the zip line, not even needing to be caught as his feet found the platform easily.
His balance was impressive. Z started cautiously across the tightwire, balancing by holding onto the top wire as he progressed, and Xavier bent his head to speak with Noah while they waited on the platform.
Unless necessary—in the case of someone leading a blindfolded person—it was safer not to have two people on the wire at a time.
Whatever he said, Noah shook his head firmly, water flying from his hair.
“See?” Ace muttered with a sigh. “I’d bet you a hundred bucks he just tried to talk him into calling it quits.”
Torin scoffed. “No one is taking that bet.”
Z made it to us a moment later and jumped off the wire with a splashy thump. “That was fucked,” he announced. “Actually fucked. Who is operating the drone, by the way? They’re way too close to the wires.”
“Our camera drone?” Ace asked, leaning out the window to search for what Z was talking about.
“It’s not us!” the drone operator called out from further along the wall of windows. “I’m over here,” she pointed to where her camera drone was battling the weather, “well out of range and using a zoom lens. It’s someone else.”
“Shit!” August whispered, pressing his hands to the glass as he leaned closer to see Xavier and Noah. “Come on, Noah, you’re so close.”
My own pulse rushed in my ears as I watched the two last members of our team making their way across the wire. Xavier walked backward, holding on to the guide wire with one hand and keeping his eyes locked on Noah.
Noah… Fucking hell, did he actually have a death wish? He wasn’t even holding the guide wire at all, just balancing with his arms extended and sliding his little feet along the wet wire like it were nothing more than a painted line on the ground.
Time seemed to stand still. I couldn’t blink—couldn’t breathe—all I could do was watch and wait and hope like fucking hell he would make it safely across. And when he did, I was going to hug him. Really hard. Big hug. I loved hugging Noah.
“Shit, that drone is getting really fucking close,” Skye commented. “What the fuck are they doing?”
Right as he said that, a strong gust of wind wobbled both Xavier and Noah on the wire, and my lungs seized.
The drone veered out of control, swooping toward our teammates, and I was powerless to do anything other than watch as Xavier yelled and grabbed Noah’s arm a split-second before the drone would have hit him in the back of the head.
Regardless of having dodged the drone, his balance was shot. He wobbled, gripping Xavier’s hand as he took another step to try to recover. His foot slipped, coming off the wire entirely right as the drone swooped back toward them again. This time Xavier backhanded the flying camera away.
A panicked sound escaped Noah, and it was the kind of sound that kept echoing in my mind as Xavier’s movement jerked the smaller guy completely off the wire. All of a sudden, he was dangling over the ten-story drop with nothing but Xavier’s grip on his hand to save him from certain death.
“Noah!” Torin exclaimed, one foot back on the wire as though he intended to run back out there and save him. But that movement was enough to make the whole wire wobble, and Xavier flashed a warning look as he barked “Stop!”
We stared in horror as Xavier used his grip on the guide wire to try to haul Noah back up, but whether it was the rain or the lack of balance, it was no use.
“Noah!” I heard him bellow as he looked down at my blindfolded Chicken, our smallest and most fearless member. “I need you to trust me!”
Then he let go.