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“That you did.”
“Not as wild as some of the stunts you pull on your YouTube channel.” Pixie’s comment was a welcomed change of subject. “You should see some things she can do. She’s like a cross between Spider Man, Wonder Woman, and a Cirque du Soleil Acrobat.”
Anna’s expression showed that it impressed her. But Jade blushed and tried to wave it away.
“Don’t you be modest with us,” Val scolded. “We’ve all seen your videos. You run across buildings and dive over gaps for fun. I do believe you’re crazy, talented but crazy.”
Many people thought the same thing when they saw her stunts. “Lots of practice over much safer obstacles. I know what I can and can’t do. Honestly, it’s not the running across the top of buildings that is dangerous.”
“What is the dangerous part?” Cami asked.
“It’s scaling the buildings. Running across the rooftops, while fun, there’s very little chance that I’m going to do more than twist an ankle or take a bump and bruise if I land wrong. But free climbing, whether it was on a mountain or the side of a building, has more risk. It’s the drop that’ll get you every time.”
Her attempt to lighten the mood with her last joke had failed. Pixie looked shocked. “What’s the tallest building you’ve ever scaled without gear?”
She thought about it. A few years ago, when she’d been younger and dumber in an attempt to get some extra followers to her YouTube channel, she had agreed to something that still gave her chills occasionally. “Eight stories. It was an apartment building, downtown.” She’d almost fallen six stories up, but had managed to barely catch herself. The video had gone viral, but she’d never tried something with that level of danger without safety equipment again.
“Could you climb to the r-roof of this building?” Cami asked.
Jade pictured what she’d seen of the outside of this building. It wouldn’t be hard. The front at least had a slight overhang she could use to lever herself up. Lots of windows on the second story with windowsills. With two stories, she only needed two or three pull up points.
There was also a pipe running down near the corner of the building. If it was thick enough and well secured, it would be a lot easier to shimmy up that.
“Yeah. That wouldn’t be much of a challenge.”
“Oh, I want to see this,” Anna said.
“You want me to climb to the roof of this building, right now?” She shook her head. She wasn’t in the right clothes, though she’d climbed in these boots before. “I’m just here to relax.”
Cami hopped off her stool, her little cheerleader skirt flaring out around her. “How about this?” She had a twinkle in her eye that made Jade nervous. “If you prove you can c-climb to the roof of this building right now, I’ll pay for all of us to do six more m-months of your private lessons and give you the contact number for my Old Man’s friend, Kane. He runs a mercenary company out of Denver. I’ve been thinking about suggesting your p-place to him anyway. Those guys train and do drills all the time, at different locations. Your gym would pr-probably be the perfect setup for something like that.”
Jade’s heart fluttered. Cami had inadvertently stumbled on one of her dreams for the place. Drawing in people from the military and law enforcement for training could easily double, if not triple, her customer base. Once she had her outdoor area expanded, she could create areas that would be good not only for climbing, but for things like paintball, or military style training exercises.
“Oh, I know that look.” Val smiled. “I think that says you’re on.”
Chapter 20
Good friends are like condoms. They protect you when things get hard.
Hannibal
Hannibal didn’t bother to stop to give Grinder some good-natured ribbing about his unwanted promotion. He’d received a text twenty minutes ago when Jade arrived, and the urge to see her was itching under his skin. After everything they had discussed, he needed to see with his own eyes that she was okay.
Maybe now wasn’t a good time to foster a deeper relationship with her. It might put a target on her back. The problem was he didn’t think she would believe they only wanted to pause things, not call them off completely.
The risk of losing the spark developing between them wasn’t something he was willing to chance. The main area was almost completely empty of people. Where were the Old Ladies? Surely, Jade would be with them.
Decaf waved him over from behind the bar where he was stationed. “That woman of yours is insane. You might want to get outside and stop her before she breaks her neck.”
Hannibal raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, her and the women went outside. Cami bet her she couldn’t scale up the building to the roof and I think she really intends to do it.”
“She what?” Ink’s angry voice was behind him.
Not bothering to continue the conversation, Hannibal headed straight for the front door. The Clubhouse was only two stories. But why would someone want to climb it when there were perfectly good stairs?
Hannibal took a deep breath, trying to calm the fear that was bubbling up inside him. He had seen videos of his woman doing much crazier stunts than climbing up the side of a building. The structures at her gym were almost three stories tall, but there was padding and mats there.
