Godoy pointed to the large hole in the ceiling. “The only way,” he said. “You two climb up there and get her. The roof’s twenty feet high. She can’t go anywhere.”

Jesse looked at the dangling I-beam, then at his brother. “He wants you to go first,” he said.

Johnny frowned, “Why me?”

“Because you’re nimble.”

“Nimble? I’m not nimble.”

“Just climb up there, will you? I’ll help you.”

Godoy was about to explode as he listened. “Both of you go. She’s too fast, you can’t do it with one.”

“Okay,” Jesse said to his brother, “You go first. I’ll push you up.”

“Me?”

Godoy waved his pistol in their faces, “Both of you go! Now!”

They walked over to stare at the beam. Jesse sighed and said, ”Get next to the wall and bend over. I’ll stand on your back.” Johnny positioned himself and Jesse grunted as he climbed on his brother and rose to his knees. He almost lost his balance then and wallowed around, moving his knees all over Johnny’s back.

Johnny hissed, “Gawd, you’re killin’ me! Get off your knees before you rupture my kidneys!” Jesse reached above his head and grabbed a meat hook to steady himself, then stood on his feet. When he felt balanced, he grasped the I-beam. Jesse put both meaty hands over the top and pulled himself up. Johnny felt the pressure come off his back and started to straighten when the beam slipped a foot before catching again on the wall.

Jesse’s stomach lurched with the movement and his feet stiffened for the impact, only to hit on top of his brother’s hairy head and slide down both sides. One sole scraped hard across the half-maimed ear.

Johnny fell and squalled as a volcano of pain erupted on the side of his head. He yelled, “He shot me in the head! I’m blind!”

Jesse whuffed and used his feet against the wall to pull himself up until he could straddle the I-beam and sit on it like a horse.

He looked down at his brother and said, “Get up, you big wuss.”

Johnny felt of his ear and winced. “I didn’t think it was still there,” he said.

“Well, it is. Now stand up and give me your hand. I’ll pull you up.” Jesse sounded testy.

Godoy was in a rage, so furious he was speechless. He was within a hair’s breadth of killing the brothers and disappearing, taking all the money and leaving El Milagro, The Miracle, that superior-acting sonofabitch, to face the fallout alone. But if he could tie up this one loose end, this one little Indian girl, the money would continue to grow. They were making large sums now, and he could work with Milagro one more year, then move to Europe and the life of luxury that was his destiny. He took his finger off the trigger and watched Jesse use one hand to pull his brother up to the beam.

Johnny clambered with his feet against the wall until he could grip the girder, then pulled himself up, straddling the beam in front of Jesse. “What now?” asked Johnny over his shoulder.

“I’ll help balance you. Get to your feet and walk up this thing till you get on the roof.”

Johnny looked up the girder and at the tangled mass that hung on the beam in front of him. It looked like a birds-nest tangle in an open-faced fishing reel. “You comin’ behind me?”

“Yeah.”

Johnny started up the incline, holding his hands out to the side for balance. He wobbled back and forth, muttering obsce

nities under his breath each time he almost fell. When the tangled wires and rebar were close enough, Johnny grasped the stronger looking ones and steadied himself. It wasn’t as hard as he thought, and it took only a minute to get through them and out the other side. He rested there and turned to watch his brother.

Jesse didn’t like heights of any kind and was having a rough time. As he inched up the sloping iron, his knees bent and he got lower and lower on the beam. By the time he reached the wires, Jesse was on his hands and knees.

Johnny couldn’t resist. “You look like a big baby crawlin’ like that. Be a man, stand up.”

“You just shut your mouth.”

Johnny sang, “Baby, baby, baby.”

“I’m gonna kick your ass.”

Tags: Billy Kring Thriller
Source: readsnovelonline.net