I stared at him. "I'm not doing that."

"I'm not giving you a choice." The gun pressed harder against my stomach. Cage certainly didn't look like he was kidding. I was already up on the ledge. He really did want me to jump. And for what? I didn't even get to settle a decade long score with Romeo. This entire night was turning out to be a mess. I really did manage to fuck everything up. And this time, it didn't even have a purpose.

Glancing down, I felt my head swirl. The drop was something around 500 feet. I was never going to survive a jump like that. People below looked like ants. As a gust of wind blew through, I felt my legs shake. Nothing but numbness crushed my chest and made me forget how to breathe. Carefully, I shifted myself around so that my back was to Cage. I couldn't stand looking at him.

"You're crazy." I whispered. Realization hit home hard. For one terrifying second, I felt Cage's hand replace the barrel of his gun. He still had a hold on my elbow. I almost wanted to jump and take him down with me. We'd fall together. The perfect death.

"Crazy kept me alive. And it's going to keep you alive, too." He said. I could barely hear Cage over the beating of my frantic heart. Somehow, his words were of some comfort. But really, how could anything be comforting when you're standing on the ledge of a fifty floored hospital building? "November, I need you to jump. We have one minute before that fire reaches the gunpowder."

Below, the firefighters arrived. They jumped down and began ushering people away from the building. "I can't survive a fall like that, Cage."

"If you don't jump in the next ten seconds, I will push you off this damn roof." Cage growled angrily.

I stared at the ground below. "You want me dead."

Somehow, that thought crushed me more than death ever could.

"No. I want you to jump." His hand suddenly left my back. To my surprise, Cage climbed up on the ledge with me. He carefully maneuvered himself besides me so that we were standing side by side, our arms touching. Cage slipped his fingers through mine and looked down. I recoiled at his touch but didn't move away. I couldn't, I was too afraid any movement would cause me to fall. Now that we were linked together, I was even more confused than before.

Cage held his gun out with two fingers. It wasn't pointed at anything. It hung for a moment, suspended five hundred feet in the cold air from his fingers. And then he let go of his gun so that it fell.

I watched as his gun hit the ground. It attracted the attention of a firefighter standing nearby. I couldn't see anything very clearly because of how high up the building was, but I noticed him look up to find the source of the gun. The firefighter noticed us standing there on the ledge and seemed to shout something to the others standing by. Suddenly, Cage's actions made sense.

Cage's hand was as clammy as mine. Our eyes met. Mine held terror. His held excitement. Cage Vickers was all sorts of fucked up, that much was definitely true. I just never realized to what extent his insanity went until we were about to jump 500 feet of a burning hospital building in Chicago.

"If we don't survive this-" Cage said. He looked at me and smiled. It was an honest smile. His fingers tightened around mine. "-if we don't survive this, just know that I am doing this for you. I'm doing this for you, November Jones. I can't die without letting you know something. I want you to know that I love you. I fell in love with you when I knew it was the last thing I should do. You're a saint and I'm a sinner. We don't work together, but at the same time, you and I are perfect. I am-" Cage's soft voice cracked. His careful composure that he kept up for the last ten years broke. "-the worst man on earth. I don't deserve you. But that won't stop me from loving you. If I'm going to destroy us both, I am happy to do it knowing it was for you. Thank you for making me human again....princess."

"I don't know how to love you, Cage." I had to force the words off my tongue. "Love, of all things. We could hate each other. We could kill each other. We could do all those things, but no. We had to fall in love. What a mess we are, Cage. You ruined my life and for that, I love you." A tear dropped before I could stop it. In a sniffling mess on top of a burning hospital building five hundred feet in the air, I confessed everything I ever wanted to tell Cage but never had the courage to until now. "If we're going to die, I would like to do it by asking one last thing from you."

Cage smiled. It was a brave smile. "Anything."

I swallowed. "I want you to kiss me."

"No." He said softly. "I want you to kiss me."

I leaned over and pressed my lips against his soft red ones. His mouth was cold from the night air. He tasted bitter, like the lingering trace of alcohol and forbidden affection. His hands wrapped around my waist, pulling me closer and closer all the while as we got nearer and nearer to the edge of the ledge. For one exhilarating moment, I let myself go. I let myself feel all the things I tried shoving down. I let myself be happier than I ever had been. For one perfect moment, everything was okay.

I didn't move away from Cage. He didn't let me go as the fearless movements caused gravity to take over. Cage twirled me around and on a foot wide ledge, it was an action that made my heart drop. My feet didn't land back on the cement ledge because there was nothing to land on.

And then, all of a sudden, we were falling.