The Original Crowd (A Whole New Crowd 0.50)

“Well…yeah,” she said simply.

Tray leaned forward, propping his gorgeous muscled arms on the table, teasing me with a view of a tattoo peeking out from underneath his polo sleeve. I had a thing for tattoos. “Mandy says that you’re good at stealing stuff. We need something swiped.”

“No.”

“Taryn, why are you being so unbelievably difficult? Come on, you’re like a legend at this stuff. Mom and Dad had to attend conferences about this stuff just to prepare the family for you.”

I went cold.

Gasping, Mandy realized what she’d said.

Coolly, I murmured, “Sorry that your family had to learn how to thief-proof their home before their new defected adoptee moved in.”

“I didn’t mean it that way,” she scrambled, “I really didn’t, I’m sorry. Taryn—”

But I wasn’t listening. I had already stood and crossed swiftly out the door and down the hallway. Without thinking, I found myself in the parking lot, my car keys dangling from my fingers, but as I got inside and put the key in the ignition, I stopped myself. What was I doing? It was times like these—when I felt so alone—that I missed Brian Lanser.

The passenger door opened and Tray got inside. Shutting it, he leaned against it, his arms relaxed, hanging on the seat. “Going somewhere?”

“Get out,” I clipped out.

“Where we going?” he counted, grinning.

I couldn’t help it. I found myself checking him out. He really was gorgeous—he had startling hazel eyes, eyelashes that girls would kill for, and full plump lips.

He was a God blessed version of Brian Lanser. The difference was that Brian Lansers never got away with anything. They were hated just because they were associated with criminals. The Tray Evanses of the world pulled the exact same stunts and were worshiped. They were the most dangerous in my mind.

“Like what you see.”

“Oh, you got the package. We both know that, but you have shit for quality,” I drawled back, smirking.

“You think so?”

“All my life, I’ve dealt with boys like you. There’s no surprise there; you’re all the same.”

Leaning forward, his face slowly getting closer to mine, his breath teasing my skin, he whispered, “You think so.” Tilting his head slightly, his cheek grazed against mine.

I held firm. I had to, but I hated that I had to ignore the heat that spread through my body. I hated how I had to hold my breath so I wouldn’t jump across the seat and attack him.

I whispered back, “I know so.”

“Bet I could change your mind.”

“Bet you could…if I wanted you to. But,” I pulled away and said flatly, “I don’t.”

His eyes were laughing and the hazel color had darkened to an almost amber color.

“So get out,” I delivered smoothly.

He chuckled softly as he leaned against the door once again. “Listen…business only, okay?”

I was silent, regarding him suspiciously.

He continued, “Next week is homecoming and we play the Panthers from Pedlam.” Judging from my silence, he proceeded, “Anyway, last year they stole our game book and we got screwed. This year, it’s our turn.”

“You want me to steal their game book?”

“Mandy says you used to do this stuff. I respect that you don’t want to do it anymore, but we know that they’ve already been sniffing around campus. We caught a few of ‘em Friday night, they were trying to take our state championship flag from last year.”