Operation Date Escape

work on them down there.” She pointed to the ground.
    Her friend clicked her tongue. “I should leave you up there just to teach you a lesson.”
    “Nanci,” she pleaded with a nervous glance up at the strip club’s open window.
    “Help is on the way. Just hang on.”
    As if she had a choice. Not when a spiny branch held the lacy back of her new blouse hostage. So far, any attempt to free herself had resulted in the sound of tearing, not to mention the strain it put on the buttons at the front of the delicate emerald green blouse she’d worn. One had already popped free, exposing more of her Victoria’s Secret assisted cleavage than she cared to share with the world. Dialing her cell phone had been hard enough. Attempting to rebutton her top was out of the question.
    “This is so embarrassing ,” she groaned.
    Her friend’s frown gave way to a smile. “I suppose there is a good side to this.”
    “And that would be?”
    “The fact that it’s dusk.”
    “What’s so great about that?”
    “It means you’re less noticeable up there. Another positive is that you chose a tree behind the strip club to climb down instead of one on the main street.”
    “I wouldn’t be that stupid.” Then again, she was dangling from a tree just outside of A Little Spice’s second floor ladies restroom. It didn’t get much worse than that.
    “I’m biting my tongue down here. You do realize that, don’t you?”
    “Smart girl,” she said, shifting slightly to get a better view of her friend through the finger-like branches. “Now which guy from your little black book is coming to our rescue?”
    “Your rescue,” her friend corrected as she peered up at her. “And the answer to your question would be none.”
    “What do you mean?” Kelsie’s hands ached from holding on so tight, as did her inner thighs, which were locked in a death grip around the branch beneath her. “You just said help is on the way.”
    “It is. I called 911.”
    Nanci’s announcement nearly had her toppling off the branch she was straddling. “You didn’t.”
    Silence.
    “Nanci, please tell me you didn’t.”
    “I did. Hmm...I wonder if Stud Muffin’s on duty.”
    Kelsie spewed out threats of murder, but they were drowned out by the whining of sirens as two fire trucks, a red car with a flashing light on its roof and an ambulance flew single file up the narrow alleyway, coming to a stop at the edge of the porno restaurant’s backyard.
    “Oh, hell.” Kelsie hung her head, resting her brow on the limb she was draped over. Please, God, don’t let Cole Maxwell be working today.

CHAPTER FIVE

    “More exciting than a cat I suppose,” Joe muttered to Cole as they pulled up behind A Little Spice.
    “I can’t believe we had to cut dinner short again to rescue some woman who got herself stuck in a tree.”
    “Tell me about it.”
    He looked toward the building. “What’s she doing up in that tree anyway?”
    Joe shrugged. “I’ve seen stranger.”
    True.
    Cole glanced out the ladder truck’s freshly washed window and caught sight of a tall, slender woman standing in the shadows cast by a large oak tree.
    “Maybe it’s a publicity stunt for the new strip club,” Stubby said over the headset from the back seat of the vehicle.
    “Strip club?” Joe repeated.
    “Not that I’ve been in it,” Stubby said in his own defense. “I’ve just heard rumors that’s what this place is now.”
    “ If so, a publicity stunt to draw in business wouldn’t surprise me a bit,” Cole replied. “Only one way to find out.” He reached for the passenger door handle.
    The three of them exited the Ladder truck, while the rest of their unit did the same, all making their way over to the woman waiting in the shadows.
    “Hurry,” she called out, waving them over. “My friend’s over here.”
    That voice. There was something very familiar about it. Too familiar.
    Cole stepped around Joe and groaned. Sure enough, it was Nanci with an ‘i’, Kelsie’s friend from the bar and grill. He didn’t even have to look up to know who the woman was in the tree above him.
    “Cole,” Nanci chirped, sounding a lot les s frantic than she had when she’d been flagging them over. “I’m so glad you’re on duty.”
    “Must be your lucky night,” he replied.
    “Not hers,” she said. Looking up into the tree, Nanci cupped her hands to her mouth and called out. “Kelsie, your knight in shining armor’s here.”
    There was a muffled groan