Thief: The Scarab Beetle Series: #1 (The Academy) (8 page)

Raven opened his palm and smacked me right back on the arm, no hesitation. This was different than Marc’s, who did it lightly enough. Raven’s strike was just as hard as I did it to him.

I gasped at him and raised my arms up defensively. “Did you just hit a girl?”

“Don’t give me that double standard bullshit.” He raised his hands, making fists and hovering them in front of his own face in a blocking motion, mimicking me. “I let you get away with that first one, but if you’re going to keep hitting me, I’ll get you right back.”

“Bambi, Raven, cut it out.” Marc bent his knees, and climbed down off of the heater.

“Stop calling me Bambi.”

“You should have picked a better name,” Marc said. The corner of his mouth lifted, lighting up his blue and green eyes. “I think it’s adorable. You totally look like a little baby deer.”

“Bambi is a boy deer,” I said.

Raven laughed. He lunged at Marc, catching him around the neck, and swooped in, pecking him on the cheek. “‘Cause he’s got a thing for dick.”

My heart did a flip. A tattooed hunk just kissed tough Marc on the cheek. That was actually kind of hot.

Marc wrestled himself away from Raven. “Don’t make me sic Bambi on you.”

The front door to the apartment opened. My tall target walked in, followed by the nerdling Corey, and the cool looking one. Now that Corey and his doppelganger were next to each other, they were clearly related. Brothers, if not twins.

My target took one look at me, and went straight for the couch, landing his butt into the corner. He sat back, folding his arms over his chest, waiting. He wore a gray shirt that almost matched his eyes, and his jeans were dark.

Corey’s cerulean eyes lit up as he came in. His T-shirt was black, with Mario Bros written in orange blocks. He did a small wave at me and then addressed Marc. “Where’s bossman?”

“His door’s closed. Guess he’ll come out when he’s ready.”

There was shuffling as the space became crowded with all the new bodies. I circled the coffee table and then got turned around as Raven tried to get past me to get to the kitchen. I backed up and Raven walked away, but another pair of hands clasped me by the waist.

I sucked in a breath. “Sorry,” I said, trying to sidestep since I didn’t know where to stand.

“Watch where you’re going,” said the cool-looking brother. He kept his hands on my hips, guiding me sideways until I was out of the way. He locked his sad blue eyes on me. “You’re going to get run over.”

“You either need a bigger apartment or to get rid of this coffee table. It’s too big for the room.”

“I like the table.” He released my hips and headed to the kitchen. He redirected his attention to the group. “We downgraded mall security,” he said. “All wallets were accounted for. Found them at the food court.”

My insides vibrated. This was awkward enough, but he was just rattling this off as if I wasn’t standing here and didn’t have anything to do with it. I crossed my arms over my chest. “Why am I here?”

“Right,” Marc said. “Have a seat, Bambi.”

I wanted to stand, but my target made to scoot over for me, even though he was already in the corner. I felt obligated to sit, and did so next to him. Corey sat on the other side of me, until his brother came over, and nudged him in the leg. Corey slid down and his brother plopped down next to me.

I stuffed my arms under my breasts, glaring at Marc. Because of how close the guys next to me were, our thighs were touching. The tall one leaned over to give some more space. The cool doppelganger kept his close. I didn’t want to look like a dork with my legs crossed. I ended up settling for leaning forward with my elbows in my lap. Somehow this made for less direct contact.

“Bambi, this is Corey, Brandon,” he pointed to the twins. “And this is Kevin.” He motioned to the tall one. “Guys, this is Kayli.”

“I thought you called her Bambi?” Brandon asked.

“Yeah,” Corey said. “She told me her name was Bambi. Is that her preferred name? Is it Kayli or Bambi?”

“It’s not Bambi,” I said, tilting my head back and glaring at the ceiling. Couldn’t blame them too much. I did lie in the first place. “It’s Kayli.”

“Are you sure?” Brandon asked. “I don’t know. Maybe. You don’t look like a Bambi. Aren’t Bambi girls usually blond with a lot of pink? Like Candy or Bunny?”

Raven smirked. “Yeah, that sounds like her.”

I made a face, sticking my tongue out at Raven.

“Don’t sport it unless you plan to use it.” Raven stuck his tongue out, his eyes narrowing with intention. The ring on his lip protruded out.

“Enough,” Marc said, slicing his hand through the air as if to cut off the conversation. Marc sat on the coffee table facing the rest of us and Raven joined him. “There’s a house party tonight,” Marc said. He pointed toward the open window. “One of the downtown homes.”

I cocked my head. “You brought me here to tell me about a party?”

Marc held a hand out, palm facing me in a stopping motion. “Hang on. The guy we’re looking for will be there. He’s been leaving his home every night lately, coming back a little after dawn. He goes to an office downtown sometimes, but most of the time he’s prowling around in some of the rougher parts of town.”

“So?”

“We want to know what he’s up to.”

I raised my eyebrows, and glanced at Raven, who seemed more interested in tracing one of the tribal tattoos on his arm. I slid a glance at Corey, who had perked up and was listening. His brother had his arms crossed like mine, attentive. Kevin was in the same position. No one was objecting? “Why?” I asked. “Why do you care what he’s doing?”

Marc shrugged, the blue collared shirt he wore bulked up, revealing the broadness of his shoulders. “We’re curious.”

I did another sweep, glancing around the room. “This is a job? To satisfy your curiosity?”

Marc continued. “We need to slip into his office, find out what he’s doing and get out of there before anyone notices. There’s some suspicion that it might be chemical. The areas he’s been traveling at night are known to be local drug-ridden territories. We need to find out why this guy is so interested.”

“Why?” The guys all turned and looked at me but I couldn't stop my questions. “Why do you care? It’s his business. Are you going to steal his drug business? You want to find out so you can take over?”

“We just want to know what he’s up to, and make sure he’s not using his wealth to develop new drugs. We think he might be creating some,” Marc said. “He can do whatever he wants as long as he isn’t doing things like that.”

“But you don’t know for sure if he’s doing anything.”

Marc shrugged. “Do we wait for him to start working with local gang members and causing drug wars or do we check him out now and stop him ahead of time? I vote now before we have a mob-type gang war taking over the town.”

“But again, you don’t really know. You want to go figure out what he’s doing just to make sure he isn’t doing anything illegal?”

Marc nodded. He planted his elbows on his knees, tilting in. The way he leaned in, looking up at my face, with his one blue eye and one green eye lit up and the twitching smile playing on his lips made him look like an adorable puppy. “Please?”

“You want me to find out?” I asked. I jerked my head back, shaking it. “You’re crazy. What am I supposed to do? Just walk in there and say, ‘Hey! Heard you’ve got a secret drug in your basement. Can we go and check it out?’”

Raven laughed deeply. “Could give it a shot.”

Kevin rolled his eyes. “If she doesn’t want to do it, let her get out of here. We don’t really need her.”

“She’s our best shot right now,” Marc said. “Did you see her? Even you didn’t expect it. I might have missed it if I blinked.”

“Why don’t we get Luke?” Kevin asked. “What happened to that plan?”

“Luke’s busy,” Raven said. “Something about a new girl their team’s been helping out.”

“Yeah, that should tell you something. We’re not really supposed to work with a girl,” Kevin said.

I shot him a glare, and he met my eyes. If he wanted to tell me to go away, he could have told me himself instead of through the guys. I had to agree with him, though. At least someone outside of myself thought this was a crazy idea.

Brandon sat forward, looking at his buddy. “Let her decide for herself. It’s just one job.”

Kevin grunted. “I’m just saying, we should find another guy. This isn’t going to be worth it.”

“Don’t worry,” Marc said. “We’re all together on this. You won’t spend a lot of time with her. Mindy isn’t going to know.”

“I don’t like keeping secrets from her. We do that enough,” Kevin said.

I pressed a fingertip to my brow, sliding it back and forth to smooth it. They’d already lost me. Kevin had a girlfriend? I got that. But did he have to be mean about not letting me work for them? And they worked for someone, he just admitted it. If they weren’t supposed to work with girls, it meant someone established the rule. Who established the rules around here? The pieces were in front of me, I just needed more time to process. “Let me understand this right. Somehow my pinching wallets is going to help you guys figure out what this guy’s new nighttime habit is?”

“We need his security card,” Marc said. “He carries it in his wallet. You’re going to snag it, let us take it to his office and use it. We’ll bring it back, you drop it back into his pocket and no one knows the difference.”

“Wait, wait,” I said, sitting up, holding my hands out. “Pinching a wallet is one thing. I’m supposed to put it back?”

Marc nodded. “In his pocket.”

My mouth unhinged. “Why do I think this isn’t as simple as it sounds?”

“It is as simple as it sounds,” Marc said. “This is it. We go in, find out what’s going on and get back out. You and Brandon will stay at the party and make sure he stays there. We’ll take care of the rest.”

“So you were nagging at me for stealing wallets, and offering me a job to steal a wallet so you can steal his drugs?”

“We just want to look at what he’s doing. We don’t want to touch it.”

“Well, forgive me if I don’t believe you. Who in the world is curious enough to break in and look at something and not want to steal it, or use it, or whatever? What kind of job is this? How does this make money for you?”

“Don’t worry about that,” Marc said. “All we want is information.”

“What’s in it for me if I do?”

Marc pursed his lips, he glanced at his companions. Raven shrugged at him. Marc turned back to me. “You do us this favor, we’ll get you a job. A real one. We’ve already agreed to pay your rent for a month, but we’ll get you a job where you won’t have to steal wallets any more. You can get a real apartment, too.”

“Who would hire me?”

Marc tilted his head at me, as if surprised I would ask the question. “Pick a place.”

“What?”

“Where do you want to work?”

“You can’t just get me a job anywhere. I have to apply. And there’s interviews.”

Marc leaned in on me again. He reached out, dropping a hand on my knee, and stared me right in the face. “If you do this, help us, you can name the place you want to work, and I can guarantee you, you’ll have a job there. I can’t do the work for you, but you’ll have a job.”

I couldn’t believe this. I was sure I must have been dreaming. Maybe I thunked my head and was still back in the hotel room, just not having woken up yet. “How can I trust you?”

Marc flinched. He sighed, pulled out his phone from his back pocket. He dialed a number and held it out to me. “Talk to the manager at the hotel,” he said. “Ask him to confirm your room is reserved.”

“What?”

He held out the phone to me. I took it.

“Hello?” The voice was Colby. “Who is this?”

“It’s ... Kayli,” I said. Marc made hand gestures to me to keep going. “I was just calling to ask about the room—”

“Oh yeah. Yes, we got it for the next four weeks. Your room is reserved. Listen, I’m sorry I fussed at you before. I just ... you know how it is around here.”

“It’s fine,” I said, but I lost him after he said four weeks. I hadn’t even finished talking to these guys yet and they had already kept their first promise? I didn’t know how to respond to that. “Could you do me a favor, Colby?”

“Sure.”

“Can you tell my brother I may be a little late coming home today? And let him know that it was paid?”

“I’ll leave a note under the door.”

I hung up on Colby and turned back to Marc. “How did you do that? Why?”

“We told you we would,” Marc said, determination settling into his eyes. He needed me to believe this. “I’m not playing with you right now, Kayli. This is your chance to get out of the gutter before something bad happens to you. You’ve had a rough start, I get that. You went to a shitty downtown school, and got tossed around a lot. Your dad’s a drunk. Your mom’s dead. That’s fucked up. From what I understand, you take care of your brother, and you do your best. Well, here’s fate for you giving you a leg up. Pickpocket, but this time, do it for the good side. Work with us this one time, and I guarantee you, that you’ll never need to pickpocket again. You’ll always have a job. I’ll make sure.”

My heart thundered under my chest. I had a hard time controlling my breathing to look as cool as I was pretending to be. He could have been offering me solid gold. A job. I had no idea where to start with that. I was willing to take anything before.

I still wasn’t sure I believed it, but now that I could walk out of their apartment, and possibly never see them again and still had my rent paid for a month ... what would I do with the next month? What happened when Jack drank all the money I earned? Would I just start this endless cycle again? Maybe Marc was right. I didn’t want to steal forever. “I just need something until Wil gets into college,” I said. “If you know of anything ... I mean, as long as he can keep going to school. That’s all I need. I can take care of myself from there.”

Marc’s once intense smile softened. His eyes lit up. Raven next to him started smiling, too. When I glanced back at Corey and Brandon, they had the same stupid look. Kevin looked pleased.

I groaned, rolling my eyes. “Will you idiots stop grinning like that? Just tell me what I need to do.”