The Original Crowd (A Whole New Crowd 0.50)

“Okay,” Brady remarked, nodding, “well, I’ll see you tomorrow. I might hit the pool early if you want to join me, Taryn.”

“Maybe.” But I knew I wouldn’t. I’d be lucky if I was even in school tomorrow at all.

When she left, Tray murmured quietly, for my ears only, “Ready to go?”

I met his eyes and we both knew I was—I’d been ready since this entire war had been declared.

I was pretty sure Brady wouldn’t have recognized me, if she saw me in that second. But Tray and I, we were in perfect accord.

Both of us were ready to end this. One way or another.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

You’d think that a person, staring across an open valley, knowing the odds of getting across and into the warehouse that stood high above everything else were not good…would feel something. Maybe fear. Maybe trepidation. Maybe hesitation. You’d think, right?

But no. A hell no.

I stood there. I stood standing above that valley, seeing the warehouse below me, and I felt strong. I felt good.

I was ready, maybe too ready.

The guards’ just had shift change, there was one every twelve hours on the dot with a break every four hours. The perimeter was easy enough to cross. It’d take me a little while to cover it without attracting too much notice, but it was dark out. That’d help. I was dressed all in black, same material as before. The way it melted around all my curves and had been rewarded with a soft groan from Tray.

Gentley had gotten his hands on the blueprints, I had no idea how he’d managed that. But he had. And Trent vouched for him, otherwise I wouldn’t have taken the prints. Of course, both of them had been plenty pissed when Tray informed them they wouldn’t be a part of it. I’d thought, for a brief second, that they’d come to blows. Either Trent and Tray. Or Gentley and Tray. If they went at it, I was ready to scram for the safe, and break inside of it to get the gun inside. But apparently Gentley calmed enough to keep in control. He’d held Trent back, but it hadn’t saved me from quite a few curses sent my way.

Tray ordered them out at that point.

My big protective boyfriend. Of course, he did have that scary lethal side to him that always helped.

The warehouse was protected by one outer wall made of wire. I’d grabbed some heavy-steel clippers for that. And the walls would be climbed with my hooks and grabs. I didn’t want to burden myself with too much and rope, complete with clanky karabiners would not work. Not for this job.

I started off, at a light trot, not fast enough to get noticed but enough to cover the ground efficiently. As I neared the wall, I pulled the clippers out and cut a hole out that was big enough for me to get through. The guards had moved back inside, so I quickly made work of the wall and was standing on the roof in no time.

Tray was right. Whatever was inside wasn’t valuable, otherwise it would’ve been a lot harder to get this close.

Slipping through a vent at the top, I fell lightly to the flooring below. It wasn’t too far for a jump and I landed gracefully on my feet, like always. Hugging the wall with my back, I crept down the hallway, quickly finding the guards inside. As I circled around them, nearly invisible to their line of sight, I headed to the basement.

It was an open warehouse inside and when I got to the main room, I was surprised.

It was empty. Completely and utterly empty.

Which sucked ass.

Swearing, I did a walk-about, making sure to cover every single corner, nook, and cranny. Any little thing would help us out. But there was one thing for sure that we got from this trip.

If this warehouse wasn’t being used, that meant everything was underneath the school.

And I already knew how to break into that building.

Something caught my eyes, I couldn’t tell you what, but I knelt in a far corner. Running my hand over the flooring, I realized something had been lodged just underneath the floor grating. Twisting my finger underneath the grating, I tried to pull the item out. My skin got snagged on the jagged edge, which brought some silent curses to mind, but I managed to maneuver the item out and realized, another surprise, it was a cellphone.

Correction: It was Grayley’s cell phone.

Pocketing it, not allowing myself to feel momentary hope, I finished scanning the rest of the room.

A big fat nothing.

Fuck.