The Original Crowd (50 page)

“Fuck you, man! I’m telling you we don’t need Taryn for this. We should leave before she gets here.”

Rounding the corner, I saw Trent shake his head. “Oh hell no, man. We can’t do this without Taryn. I’m telling you, we need her.”

“And I’m telling you we don’t,” Gentley shot back.

“You don’t need me for what?” I asked, feeling Tray behind me.

Gentley swore, raking a hand through his hair.

“Taryn.” Trent looked relieved. “We think we know where Grayley is, but we gotta move now.”

“No,” Tray spoke up, coming to stand beside me.

“Fuck you, man. This has nothing to do with you.”

“This does have to do with me.”

“Where do you think Grayley is?” I asked, my heart had started racing at Grayley’s name.

“Jace has another warehouse on the eastside. We found it last night, but it’s going to be a bitch to get into. We need you for that,” Trent explained, watching Tray intensely.

“Why are you here?” I asked Gentley.

“Because Gray’s a friend of mine, too.” He actually sounded sincere.

“You weren’t at the funeral.” I turned back to Trent.

“I was trying to find Grayley before we have one for him.” He cursed, pacing. I could see why Tray was tense—Trent looked like a caged animal: pissed and hungry. It was a side of Trent that I’d never seen before.

“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?”

“Yeah. Like a mile away.”

“I bet that’s the opening. They load whatever it is on boats and bring it in from the river. It’s a tunnel that goes from the school to the river, but they’re storing it underneath the school because it’s a perfect cover. Who’d think a school would be a storage unit for drugs and whatever else they’re smuggling.”

“You’re almost scary at how good you are,” I noted faintly.

Tray grinned, raking a hand through his hair. “I think like them. Dad trained me that way.”

“That’s…a little scary.”

“And your ex and your two friends have known what’s been going on. That’s why they lied to you, to really protect you.”

“Yeah.” I sighed.

Tray pulled me against him, anchoring his arms around my waist. Kissing my forehead, he murmured, “We’ve got most of it figured out, but we need more. We need to know what’s in that second warehouse. We need to know exactly what’s in the school and we need to know who Galverson’s contracting with because none of this would be happening unless it was really big. He wouldn’t chance it, not with what I’ve got on them. And we’ll need proof, stone-cold proof that can’t disappear or be killed.”

I burrowed closer against his shoulder.

“You still want to do this?” he asked. I felt him holding his breath.

Pulling back, I saw him searching my face. “Brian died, they’ve got Grayley, and they fucked with my life. I goddamn still want this.”

“Okay.” He kissed me hard and then let me go. Moving around, he walked back out to the room. “We’ll need blueprints. We’ll need twenty-four-seven surveillance. I want to know the guard shifts, I want to know the layout, I want to know what’s surrounding that warehouse before Taryn goes in. Or she’s not going in.”

“Who the fuck put you in charge?!” Trent growled.

“I did,” I spoke up, coming behind Tray. “I’m not doing anything without Tray’s okay.”

“Just like—” Trent began, pissed.

But Gentley cut him off. “If we get all that, will you go in?” He was looking at me, gauging my reaction.

“Yeah.”

“Okay,” he said simply, nodding, “we’ll get the stuff for you. I’ll have the guys set up tonight to watch ‘em.”

“The fuck we will,” Trent clipped out. “We need to go in now or Grayley may be dead.”

“Grayley’s my friend too, Trent. But I agree with Evans. I’m not going to send anyone in, even if she’s a bitch I could care less about, without knowing exactly what and who she may be running into.”

I frowned. Insult or compliment? Whatever. I moved past Tray. “I want in just as much as you, Trent. And I want Grayley alive, but I’m not going in blind. That would be suicide and you know it. Jace wouldn’t kill Grayley unless he absolutely had to. Because he knows that I’d go after him and I don’t think Jace would want that.”

“What’s go goddamn special about you?” Gentley asked, frowning. “I don’t get it. What can you do that others can’t?”

Trent laughed. “Fuck, Crisp, I’ve seen Taryn get into places that a fucking ghost couldn’t. If Jace doesn’t want her somewhere, Taryn can get in there. That’s why we need her.” But not Tray. No one said it, but everyone knew what he was thinking.

Tray stepped forward. “Get out and get that information. It’s the fastest way to get what you want. I’d suggest you get started right now.”

Gentley looked like he wanted to argue, but he clamped his mouth shut as he yanked Trent behind him, on the way out.

Tray followed, to make sure they actually left, leaving me alone in the basement.

I dropped onto one of the couches, briefly remembering when the room had been occupied with Tray’s friends. Tray’s and Mandy’s. The room seemed different now. Not so light and…easy. Everything was just tense now.

“Hey,” Tray said when he came back, “your friend is upstairs if you want to go and check on him.”

Holy hell—I’d forgotten about Props.

Standing unsteadily, I asked, “Where is he?”

“I stashed him in my dad’s old library. But he’s using all of his own equipment.”

“Okay.” Tray pulled me with him as I followed him in a daze; everything was overwhelming.

The library was huge. It looked half the size of a banquet hall with books lining two complete walls. In one corner was a huge mahogany desk, a fucking Best Buy display behind it. The computer and whatever else (I had no idea) looked all brand new. They probably were. Tray commented once that he doesn’t touch a lot of stuff in the house, not since his parents had left.

And I saw Props was hunched over his laptop, a bunch of little gadgets hooked up to his computer with lights blinking rapidly.

“Heya, Props.” I greeted.

He straightened, startled. “Hey.”

“Forget where you were?” I teased, but I saw he had. That was funny, at least in the sense of everything else going on.

“You owe me, huge!” he exclaimed, wheeling out from his computer. He grabbed up a pile of papers next to him. “I’ve got names, account numbers, passwords, and a pile of illegal jargon that could get me in the slammer. Holy shit—you owe me big time.”

“Well, I’ll get ya a hooker,” I said easily, straddling a chair next to him. “What do you got?”

“Like I said.” I heard the fear in his voice, but it was laced with excitement. The guy was a techno adrenalin junkie. I knew what adrenalin did to a person. He had absolutely no qualms with what he’d just gotten for me. He just liked to voice that he did, it was more socially appropriate. “I’ve got everything.”

As I took the papers, I gasped at what I saw.

Scrambling up, I cried out, “Tray, holy shit!”

Tray moved closer, studying the papers over my shoulders.

“Three Swiss accounts,” I said.

“Those are Galverson’s aliases,” Tray announced as he studied the papers. “Another two in the Cayman’s. Jace has four accounts on here, too. Along with—”He froze, standing absolutely still. Déjà vu crashed into my body, remembering the morning when Jace and Galverson had arrived to the house. The Tray I saw that morning was the same I was looking at now. I shivered.

“Along with what?” I asked, holding my breath.

“My dad. And a guy named Carl Broozer.”

“Who’s Carl Broozer?”

“A kingpin on the West coast.” Tray said flatly, his eyes were dead. “Galverson’s declared Pedlam as the highway intersection for drug-runs. It makes sense now.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Galverson wants my contacts. But he’s not worried because he knows I won’t say anything—he’s got my dad. But this deal must’ve been set up for at least a few years now. Jace is sitting smack dab on every black-market shipment that’s running across the nation. If Galverson’s in bed with Broozer and he has contacts in South America—”

I couldn’t comprehend whatever Tray was saying. I just knew it was enough to make him go pale at whatever conclusion he came to.

He fixed Props with a piercing stare, causing the kid to yelp before scurrying backwards on his chair. “You got all of this?”

“Yeah.” He gulped, the terror was evident in his voice. “Taryn said to follow everything back so I did.”

“And you didn’t leave any prints? None?”

“No. Hell no. I used a system that I just programmed this fall. It’s a ghost tracker. They won’t have any idea that I’ve been in there.”