A Whole New Crowd (A Whole New Crowd 1)

His head whipped up. “What? No. Why would you offer to do that?”

I shrugged, tucking the blueprints into my bag. “Because you’re a friend and Jace is family.”

“No. Don’t do that.” He frowned. “Aren’t you supposed to be leaving us behind? I mean, I heard that you had been told to stay away from Rawley.” He pointed to the blueprints in my bag. “Why do you need those? They renovated, but trust me, not much is different.”

I shrugged. He didn’t need to know any of that, but I asked, “I noticed they upped the security. Why? I meant to ask you that at Rickets’, but you know how that night went down.”

He sighed. “You’re not getting into trouble, are you? I have a hard time imagining that Brian or his brother would be happy about that.”

“Leave Jace to me.” I wanted to ask about Brian, but I wasn’t sure if I could handle hearing it so I bit my tongue. “I’ll be fine.” I lifted my arm and bounced the bag up and down. “I’m a cat burglar. We always land on our feet.”

He groaned. “You are so not funny. It’s painful.”

I had laughed. He had laughed, but the unease lingered. It was in the bottom of my gut, and I sensed it was with him too. Gray never questioned me when I asked for odd favors in the past. This has been the first time and knowing his father was back in town, that unease was mounting. Something else was going on in town.

Coming back to the present, I watched the guards change their positions. If my calculations were correct, they would change again in two hours for breaks. I didn’t want to be weaving through them when they would be moving around so I had to go now. Questions about Gray and his father were pushed to the back burner. Tray was waiting for me to deliver an entrance to the school and that was what I was going to do. So, with that thought, I grabbed my rope and began rappelling down the side of the building.

The window to an art room was always left open, so I snuck in that way. Then I used the vent shafts to crawl all the way to the security guards’ room. According to the blueprints, the camera room was their headquarters. I still couldn’t believe the school had a freaking camera system, but it was the obstacle for me to tackle. Figuring out why would be for later, after Tray and his friends did what they needed.

There was one guard sitting at the controls. I waited until the pizzas arrived. Tray promised to pay for them, put the drugs in them, and have Samuel deliver them wearing his old pizza delivery uniform. When the guard caught Samuel on the camera, he pushed his chair back and stood. “What the hell?” He was on the radio as he left the room. “Did you guys order pizza?”

I didn’t wait to hear their answer. I dropped to the ground and hurried to the cameras. I didn’t have long. Switching off the recording, I looped it so it would continue to play the earlier feed. By the time they caught it, I hoped the drugs would be ingested or Tray would be done with whatever they had planned. As soon as I hit the button and the screens filled again, I heard voices from the hallway and darted back into the bathroom. I was back up in the vent and screwing it into place when I heard someone say, “They delivered it by accident?”

“Yeah. That’s what the guy said.”

“We’re not supposed to eat anything we didn’t order.”

“Who cares? The kid said it’s already been paid for and he can’t find the right address.” His voice was muffled as he continued, “He said when they called, they could tell them it was already delivered.”

“Yeah.” Someone sighed in surrender. “Might as well.”

“Grab your slices and get back to your positions. Boss hired us for a reason.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Okay, heading out.”

Mission accomplished. Instead of leaving through the art room, I waited until the guards headed back to their spots and began to move. Cameras were taken care of so I dropped to the hallway and headed to the gymnasium. Tray said that’s where they wanted to get inside first. When I propped open the back door, I turned my small flashlight on twice.

Dressed in dark clothing, they came running from behind their cover, moving fast. As they filed past me, Tray stopped and grinned. His face was covered in camouflage and there went that same tightness in my chest. It was becoming annoying.

He asked, “Guards can’t see us?”

I shook my head. “Nope. You came in the right vantage point. It’s the blind spot from what I mapped out.”

“And they should be sleeping soon?”

I nodded. “Give them ten minutes. I can’t guarantee they all ate the pizza right away, but I heard two of them eating.”

He nodded, then frowned at me.

“What?”

“Not many would think or have the guts to drug a pizza.”

I shrugged. “The two people I call family, before Mandy’s family, are criminals. This is who I am.”

“Tray,” one of his friends whispered from inside the gym, “come on.”

His gaze dropped back to my lips, and he murmured, “Never thought I’d be hot for a criminal chick.”