Page 81 of Privilege

Vale stiffens. But I give him an awkward hug. His wrists are in a zip tie behind his back.

“I’m so glad I found you, I want to dance.” I pout a little. Vale glares at the guard, who narrows his eyes.

“She was down here, man, I was just trying to find her,” Vale says with quiet authority.

“Yeah, she did go to the bathroom,” the band chimes in, supporting Vale.

The guard brings a knife from his belt and cuts the zip tie and Vale pulls me close. The guard doesn’t apologize.

“Stay down here.” He looks from Vale to me. “No more going upstairs.” He glares at the band.

“Sorry, of course. We didn’t know.” The leader of the band is conciliatory.

“Come on.” Vale leads me away onto the dance floor, which is less crowded without live music, and pulls me close.

“I found the indoor roof access, I think,” I tell him. “Above the fourth floor, a landing and a door, but it was locked. We need a key. I’m so sorry I couldn’t get back, the stairwell was locked and I couldn’t get through without a card.”

Vale visibly relaxes. “What did you do?”

“I came out the delivery entrance.”

He grins. “Okay. Well, here we are, but I think they’re watching us now.”

I let my eyes dart around the room and I see he’s right, the Brotherhood guards have their eyes on us.

“What are we going to do?” I muse. “How can we find the key and get up there?”

“We’ll have to use the outside access,” Vale says. “Come on, let’s take a look.”

We weave through the crowd and make our way outside, in time for a big, ragged cheer from the people crushed around the boxing ring. Vale and I slip over to the bench we sat on earlier and huddle together.

“There’s so many people,” I say, unsure.

“They can be distracted,” he tells me, glancing around, taking it in. “I think…” He trails off, then asks. “Do you think you could get up there by yourself? Climb to the roof and look for the laptop?”

“Of course.” I nod.

“Okay. I can distract them.” As he talks he slips the backpack off his shoulders.

I had expected us to work together: finding the rooftop office, breaking in, locating the correct device. But it looks like I’ll be doing it by myself.Maybe it’s better this way, I think. Maybe there’s a way I can leave directly once I have it.

I see my pants, my other clothes, in the backpack and resolve to change as soon as I can, especially if I’m climbing a ladder that leads up to the top of the building.

“What are you going to do?” I ask, feeling anxious. He’s not exactly a popular guy around here tonight.

“I’m going to get my workout in,” he says, grinning, and walks off, leaving me with the backpack. I wait a minute, watching him push through the crowd and talk to one of the guys standing near the corner of the ring.

He’s going to do something with the fight. As I’m looking over I hear the wet smack of a fist against a face and a big guy goes down in the ring, hitting the floor hard.

It jolts me, and I don’t wait a second longer. I hurry inside and escape into the first women’s bathroom I can find, changing into pants and pulling the dark leather jacket over my red shirt. I scrunch the skirt up and shove it into the backpack. I don’t ever want to wear that again, but Vale did bring it for me and I shouldn’t throw it away. I stuff my purse into the backpack, but I slip the paper from Ren into my pocket for safekeeping.

Now I work my way back outside, keeping my head down.

There’s no one in the ring, but the crowd is growing, quieter than before. I’m glad it’s twilight now. I definitely feel safer in these jeans with the dark coat. I am about to turn the corner to the back part of the building when two new guys duck under the ropes and into the ring and one of them is Vale.

Now I understand the growing crowd, every set of eyes on the ring. Vale’s got boxing gloves on and a big guard from the Brotherhood is pulling on his own gloves, grinning. They’ve stripped off their shirts and the other guy is as wide as a brick wall.

Vale is tall and trim, his arms and shoulders wrapped inmuscle. I falter, unable to leave without knowing what happens. Does Vale know how to box? What is he going to do, let that guy beat him up?

The announcer is introducing the new fight and playing up the rival militias, talking about Vale and the Forge. With all eyes on the ring, I tear myself away and scoot around the corner. I tighten the backpack’s straps, and prepare myself.

I’ll have to jump and grab onto the first rung to pull myself onto the ladder. I glance around rapidly, but there’s no one back here by the dumpsters. I bend my knees, launching myself in the air. Thank goodness for all my swimming and training back home.

My fingers brush the metal of the first rung, but I fall back before I can get a firm grasp on it. I crouch, readying myself, and spring again, preparing to grab as soon as I can grasp it. My fingers seize the rung and immediately I’m pulling, reaching for the rung above and tucking my body up. In a second I’m on the ladder, and I see that it truly is empty back here.

There’s a roar from around the corner. I can’t let myself be distracted. I look up, seeing the network of ladders that go up, up, above the fourth floor to the roof of the old factory building. I climb.

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