The Original Crowd (A Whole New Crowd 0.50)

“Where’s the warehouse?” I asked.

“Taryn,” Tray spoke up, “you promised.”

“Where’s the warehouse?” I ignored him.

Gentley watched the exchange between us. I knew he was studying us, but he didn’t say anything.

Trent looked relieved.

“You’ll help?” he asked.

“Of course, but I’m not going in blind. And,” I glanced at Tray, “I’ll need to run it over with Tray, in private.”

Trent cursed. “When the hell do you ever have to run things by a guy? What the hell’s happened to you, Taryn? You’re like a shadow of the Taryn I know. You’ve changed. God knows, you’d never be caught dead dating someone like him—”

“And you better remember whose house you’re in.” Tray said quietly, a clear threat in his words. But it worked because Trent shut up immediately, glaring at us.

“What do you think is going on?” I asked, ignoring everything he just shot at me. That needed to be dealt with at another time, in a more private setting. Grayley was the only thing that mattered to me right now.

Trent hesitated, sharing a look with Gentley.

Tray remarked, poker face firmly in place, “Start talking or you can leave without Taryn’s help.”

Trent swallowed whatever he was going to say. I saw the words actually come up and have to be forced back down. After composing himself, he said, “It has to do with Jace. Brian’s death has to do with Jace.” He looked at me then, an apologetic note in those blue eyes. “Brian was coming to you with something about Jace. But he’d been missing for a few days before that. That’s when Grayley said he was going to go and find Brian. We found his car on the eastside, about a mile from Jace’s warehouse. We think he’s in the warehouse.”

“How do you know all this?”

“Because things have been wrong in Pedlam since you left,” Gentley spoke up now, resigned. He glanced warily to Tray and myself, but continued, “Your psycho ex has been off kilter, Grayley’s been acting like a nervous bitch, and your stone-head friend—he’s just been more whacked than normal.”

“What he’s trying to say,” Trent sent him a meaningful glare, “is that there’s been some shady shit going on at school. I’ve seen some of Jace’s guys in the school parking lot every day. That’s not cool. Brian’s always been violent, but a month before he died, he was showing up at school black and blue every day. Then Grayley suddenly started acting like he was on drugs or something. Things have just been off. But—”

Gentley stepped in and added, “After you guys broke into our school, things got worse. Security guards were added, like ten at

night. Kimberly tried to get into school one night because she left her homework and got ran off by some of the guards. Trent said they’re guys that work for your ex’s brother.”

“That true?” I asked Trent.

“Yeah. I went with her because she was so damn scared to even try. The fucking school is like an army base now. None of it makes sense.”

“Taryn,” Tray murmured, curling a hand around my wrist, he pulled me into a room. Shutting the door, he said, “What do you know that you haven’t told me? I need to know everything.”

“We got an entire week?” I joked, in a half-ass attempt. “I know what you know. That Brian was working with Galverson to compete with Jace. Jace and Galverson are running drugs. They built a new storage unit at Jace’s club. They’re running more than just drugs. And that Jace did something to get me out of Pedlam.”

“You sure the new unit is at Jace’s club?” Tray asked, frowning.

“What do you mean?”

“They had three guards when we broke in. Serious security. Now they have ten.”

Oh God. Cammy said the storage unit had been broke into and they needed more security.

“It’s the school,” I said, dazed. “It’s the school. They rebuilt it when I left. It’s why I left. Jace knew I could get in, that’s why he didn’t want me around Pedlam. He knew I’d get in and find something I wouldn’t like.”

“It’s good cover,” Tray remarked, pacing behind me. I could hear him thinking. “But they’d have to have another opening or it’d bring too much attention to their shipments. I’m betting it’s underground, but you can get in through the school. That’s why they added the extra guards. And we missed it when we went in because we weren’t looking. I wonder how far the second warehouse is from the school?”

“You think that might be their opening and it goes all the way to the school?”

“Maybe. Don’t you guys have a river that’s not far from school?”