Page 7 of Blocked Score

The club spans two stories inside, with a more laid-back bar area on the first floor and the second floor hosting the DJ and the dancefloor. When we walked up the stairway, I noticed a window in the second-floor hallway.

So, I decided to check out the alley behind the block and see if there was any way to reach it. Sure enough, a rickety old fire escape leads right to it.

That’s where I find myself now. I’m going to climb up this fire escape, hopefully shimmy open the window, break in, find my friend, and, sweetest of all, I’m going to beam the most pettily triumphant grin I can summon when I pass that big, stupid bouncer while walking back out the front door.

The satisfaction I imagine feeling at that moment fuels me to haul myself up the next rung of this death trap.

Tonight might be a clusterfuck, but I’ve always subscribed to the philosophy that a clusterfuck of a night is preferable to a boring one.

Though I reserve the right to reconsider that judgment if I do end up falling and breaking my neck.

I lift my left foot onto the next unsteady rung and go to push on it to haul myself up that much closer to the platform underneath the window, but my foot slips. My hands curl harder around the cold metal as a flash of panic races through me.

“Shit,” I bite out.

Steadying my breath, I return my foot to the ladder rung. But then I hear something that has me freeze.

“Guess itwasmeant to be.”

The mellow drawl sounds from the asphalt below me. For a split second, a new rush of panic pulses through my body as I imagine the police have stumbled on this scene that can’t look anything but criminal, and that I’m about to be booked for attempted breaking and entering.

But it only lasts that split second, because it doesn’t take any longer for me to recognize that voice.

A tingling sensation dances at the base of my spine, and even in this predicament, I can’t help but feel my lips tilt.

“Oh, hello, Lane,” I reply, my voice breezy and chipper; all the while, I’m on the verge of plummeting to my death, or at least my injury. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“Are you doing anything illegal up there? Should I call the police?”

“Yes, I am doing something illegal. But no, you shouldn’t call the police.”

I can hear a thoughtful hum rumble from his throat. “I don’t know. What if you’re breaking into someone’s house to murder them?”

I huff out a laugh. “I’m not doing anythingthatillegal! Do I seem capable of murder to you?”

Another low hum. I can feel his gaze sizing me up. “Yes,” he answers.

“Well I’m not!”

Now it’s a low chuckle that rumbles from his chest. The vibrations travel up to my ear and roll through me, settling low in my core.

“Wait,” he says. “Are you trying to get into Vortex? The nightclub?”

“I am,” I answer. “I was kicked out because?—”

I try to start climbing again while I tell Lane my story, but the fabric of my dress snags onto something on the metal fire escape rigging. As I push up with my foot, the side of my dressthat’s stuck pulls me back. The off-balance movement has my foot sliding off the rung, which only further tilts my equilibrium and makes me lose my grip.

Suddenly, my legs are flailing, my vision is tilting, and my dress pulls loose from what it’s snagged on—only thanks to the weight of my body tumbling backward as I fall to the ground.

It all happens too fast for me to even feel panic or fear. All I can do is tense my body, clench my jaw, and wait for the inevitable impact …

That doesn’t come.

Instead of falling smack onto the hard asphalt below, I drop into a mass that’s firm but comfortable. I keep my eyes shut for a couple beats, wondering if maybe it’s a trick my brain’s playing on me, a way to process the trauma of the fall. But when my lids flutter open, my stomach leaps into my throat.

Lane is holding me aloft, cradling me in his arms like I weigh no more than a pillow.

The realization is like a light switch flipping on inside my body. Heat ripples through me, a thrill shooting up and down my spine as my stomach flips. A warm, tight feeling coils low and deep in my center.

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