Page 41 of Maximum Dare
I felt a wave of pity for this beautiful girl. My brother was still wielding his spell over her. “What’s the dare, Daisy?”
The line was muffled as she called out to someone. “Sorry, Max. I have to go.”
“What have they got you doing?”
“We’re going over.”
“Over what?”
“The top of the building.” She huffed out a nervous breath. “Sorry to have bothered you. I won’t call you again. I know it’s awkward. I didn’t mean it to be.”
The call dropped and I heard only silence.
Istared at the skyscraper with a feeling of dread, my throat constricting.
Going over it?
What the hell did that mean? Studying the silhouette of The Shard, I realized that whatever they had her doing was quite possibly illegal. No city would grant permission for anything that hazardous to their clients or the pedestrians below. There’d been no initial indication of the organizers leaning toward criminality. It had seemed more like trivial fun…the get-out-of-your-comfort-zone kind, not the get-yourself-killed kind.
The last dare had been in a controlled environment with the glass chute being constructed for this exact purpose in a well-respected hotel. It had been open to the public and proven safe for over two years. It was in the Waldorf Astoria, for God’s sake—the best hotel in London.
What Daisy was suggesting was that they’d rigged something at the top of the building and were going rogue.
As the blood chilled in my veins, I pulled on my coat and headed out. Different scenarios kept flashing through my mind and none of them were good. Within a minute, I’d hailed a taxi and was heading through commuter traffic toward that towering skyscraper.
If anything happened to her, I’d be to blame. I’d encouraged Daisy, and I’d even found the whole idea amusing.
After hopping out of the taxi, I bolted into the foyer.
I navigated through the milling crowd and eventually arrived at the glass lift. Once inside, I was alarmed to see that it jutted outside the building. Rising fast, the view of the city was spectacular, if not alarming. I experienced a momentary sense of weightlessness as we arrived at the top floor at lightning speed.
I exited the lift and the chatter of a crowd drew me in the right direction. The members of the Dare Club I’d seen last night were all here. Over in the corner, Ted was helping Daisy pull on a red jumpsuit. He interacted with her in a flirty, confident way, which spiked a protective reaction in me. I’d be quite happy to see her make a smooth transition back to singlehood and find happiness again. But if I wasn’t careful, batting off wayward suitors who could hurt her all over again could turn into a full-time profession.
Daisy disappeared through an emergency exit. I followed the others up a staircase to the roof.
A blustery gale whipped at my coat and disheveled my hair as soon as I stepped outside. I immediately felt chilled to the center of my bones.
We were impossibly high. The noise from the city was drowned out by the sheer force of the winds. It was hard to deny the iconic tower’s spectacular positioning. The tallest building in the city provided a clear panoramic view of London.
Clearly, I wasn’t the only one in awe of the scenery. People were gathered at the far end of the roof and they, too, were staring out as though hypnotized by this incomparable vantage point.
Daisy’s cheeks were flushed from the cold and she fought to keep her hair out of her eyes. She looked windswept and vulnerable, biting her bottom lip nervously, her eyes filled with terror—yet her beauty was startling in the moonlight.
I stood transfixed, unable to drag my gaze away from her angelic presence. Even in a situation like this, her enduring sweetness was revealed. It was the way she smiled at her new friends to comfort them. The way she seemed to rally her courage to go through with the dare.
Holy fuck!
They were going to be dangled over the edge of a ninety-five story skyscraper.
Ted’s team was attaching people to an overhead wire safety system.
The first volunteer stepped forward, a young man who looked as nervous as hell, understandably. After a slight hesitation, he placed his feet on the edge of the building and leaned precariously forward, the rope loosening behind him until he was horizontal with the ground.
Insanity.
Daisy, too, was secured to the wire. Slowly and with trepidation, she stepped toward the chrome edge as Ted guided her forward.
Sidling up to share the same view, I looked over the edge and sucked in a breath of panic.
