A Whole New Crowd

CHAPTER ONE

Six months later

“Taryn.”
I rolled my eyes at hearing my sister’s voice. She could yell all she wanted. I knew what she was going to ask and I wasn’t going to help her, so I kept going down the hallway. I had overheard her on the phone the night before. She wanted me to steal something. After taking Jace’s words to heart, this was my new beginning, so that meant no more stealing. It was something I would’ve done in my old life.
“Taryn,” Mandy shouted again. She was running now. The sound of her heels hitting the floor went from a normal *ter-clatter, to a constant staccato. I rolled my eyes. My sister was an idiot. No one should run when wearing high heels, at least those high heels—they arched halfway up her calves— but that was Mandy Parson. She wore high heels, clingy tank tops, miniskirts, and on some days, a cheerleading outfit.
She was one of those people.
I had been adopted into a family that was the opposite of everything I was—the God blessed rich kids. Mandy was the epitome of the perfect daughter: blonde, petite, smart, and popular by all accounts.
“Taryn, stop!”
I ignored her and opened my locker. Hearing her stumble to a halt, panting behind me, my eyebrows went up. “Thought you were in shape. All those late night activities with Devon, right?”
“I’m not here to talk about Devon.”
“I heard Devon hooked up with Stephanie Markswith at Brent’s party.”
She huffed. “Not gonna work, Taryn.” I turned and saw the twitch in her eye. She knew I was trying to distract her. Her eyebrows were fixed, bunched together, and her mouth was pressed in a flat line, but then it all changed. Her eyebrows shot up, and she let out a dramatic sigh. “There’s no chance he would hook up with her. No way.”
“Not what I heard.”
“She’s not suicidal.”
“She was drunk. I don’t think she was thinking sober.” I shut my locker and moved away.
Mandy latched onto my side. “The girl’s dead.”
I saw Stephanie turn the corner up ahead. Talk about perfect timing. “Better tell her that.”
Mandy didn’t say goodbye; she veered off in her direction.
I stopped to watch this. I had to. Stephanie spread a rumor that I stole a biology exam my first week at Rawley. It wasn’t true. She wanted revenge because her boyfriend had hit on me, but when I got called into the principal’s office, my history was pulled up. Being known as a thief and being associated with Brian and Jace Lanser hadn’t helped. I looked guilty and I got detention for two months with no chance to defend myself. They couldn’t prove it was me, but it didn’t matter. They didn’t need to prove it.
When I heard Mandy yell, “Stephanie!” a grin came over me.
Revenge could be sweet.
*

Tray Evans dropped into the seat opposite mine at lunch. I looked up and tensed. Tray was gorgeous with sandy blonde hair, striking hazel eyes, and a jaw that girls melted over. While my sister was in the crowd at the top, he was the top.
“Your sis preaches about your skills.”
“I don’t do that anymore.”
He narrowed his eyes.
I didn’t want to tangle with Tray Evans. He was smarter than people gave him credit for. He watched people like I did, and he held an insurmountable power in school. I had dealt with guys like him from my other schools. I was toned and I knew guys liked my body. I had dark eyes, long brown hair, and a set of lips that caused a guy to groan. I wasn’t boasting. This was fact. Guys found me sexy, which meant that I’ve dealt with my share of guys, all sorts from creepers to jocks. I knew how to deal with them, but Tray Evans was different. I had been aware of him since school started, but I relaxed when he didn’t seem to care about me at all. That time was up.
Still holding his gaze, a shiver wound its way up my spine. He wasn’t coming on to me, but it wouldn’t have mattered if he had. The way he was looking at me was like he could read me from the inside out. His eyes pierced through me, through my walls, right into me. No one had looked at me like this, even Brian.
I didn’t like it.
“Taryn!” Mandy landed in the seat next to mine. “Tray, hey!”
“Parson.” He nodded at her, still looking at me.
“Is it true?” Mandy asked. “Is the party at your place?”
A faint grin teased at the corner of his mouth. Without looking away from me, he answered, “Thinking about it.”
“Devon’s excited. It should be epic.”
I couldn’t watch him any longer. He was winning our stare-off so I turned to Mandy. “Why are you here?” She didn’t sit by me at lunch. I sat alone. That was my rule. After Stephanie’s rumor and when I was found guilty, she told everyone that I stole her boyfriend. Not true. I kneed him in the balls, but that hadn’t been added to the rumors. People had been welcoming until my new reputation had been spread around. Mandy was nice to me the whole time, but I knew it was causing a rift between her and her friends, so I made a decision. I went it alone.
“Come on, Taryn. We need your help.”
“You guys are coming to double-team me?” I glanced around and noticed the attention we were getting. If Mandy was at my table, it was a big deal, but with Tray Evans there too, people’s mouths were on the floor.
“Well…yeah.”
Tray leaned forward, propping his muscled arms on the table, teasing me with a view of a tattoo peeking out from underneath his polo sleeve. “Mandy says that you’re good at stealing stuff. She said you’re good at breaking into places too.”
“No.” I paled. That was even worse.
“Taryn, come on, you’re like a legend. Mom and Dad had to attend meetings about this stuff just to prepare the family for you.”
The way she said it felt like a dagger stabbing me in the heart. “Sorry that your family had to learn how to thief-proof their home before their new defected adoptee moved in.”
“I didn’t mean it that way. I really didn’t. Taryn—”
I wasn’t listening. I left and ignored how everyone’s heads turned to follow me as I went out the cafeteria door. Once in the hallway, I headed for the parking lot. I didn’t think, I just went. It wasn’t until I was in my car with the keys in the ignition that I stopped myself. What was I doing? I couldn’t skip school. That was the old Taryn. I had to be the new Taryn. A wave of longing came over me. I missed Brian. He would’ve understood from the way I walked that I needed to get away, but he wasn’t there anymore.
The passenger door opened and my heart stopped. Brian?—no—Tray. He smirked at me. “Going somewhere?”
“Get out.”
He laughed, getting in. “All I did was sit down at your table and ask you a question. I’m wracking my brain, trying to figure out what I’ve done to piss you off, but I can’t think of another time that we’ve even talked. Did I hit on you at some party and act like an a*shole?” He grinned. “If so, I apologize right now. It was probably because you’re hot and I was drunk.”
He sounded all nice now, but it was an act. Every alarm was going off inside of me. He was not this innocent guy. As I stared at him, I found myself checking him out. He really was gorgeous, with eyelashes that girls would kill for and full plump lips. His shirt had moved higher and I saw the tattoo again.
I had a thing for tattoos, and the sight of his tribal one had me squirming. It’d been a while since I had been with Brian. Shit. Brian. Tray Evans was the rich and blessed version of my ex-boyfriend. The difference was that the Brian Lansers of the world never got away with anything. They got in trouble just because they existed. The Tray Evans of the world pulled the same shit and were worshiped.
Dangerous. He was just dangerous in every way.
“Like what you see.”
I laughed softly. It hadn’t been a question. “You got the package. We both know that, but I doubt you have the quality.”
“You think so?”
“I’ve dealt with boys like you. You’re all the same.”
“Boys?” He flashed me a grin. “I’m all man. There’s no part of me that’s a boy anymore.” He leaned forward so his face was close to mine. He came in slow and his breath teased my skin. Then he tilted his head to the side and his cheek grazed against mine.
I held firm. I had to. He was testing me, seeing if I would flinch or melt. I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t give him any reaction because if I did, he’d win. I would be the weaker one. Heat spread through my body and I gritted my teeth. My body was betraying me. No one had gotten that kind of reaction from me, not even Brian when we first kissed, and that knowledge made me hate this guy.
I smirked at him, he was so close to me. “Good for you.”
His eyes were laughing and the hazel color darkened to an amber color.
“But I’m not interested.”
A low chuckle slipped from him, and he moved back. “Listen, business only, okay?” He paused, an eyebrow lifted. “Next week is homecoming and we play the Panthers from Pedlam. They stole our game book last year, and we got screwed. We lost the game, and we lost going to the championships because of it. Some of my friends didn’t get football scholarships.”
“You want me to steal their game book?”
“Mandy says you used to do this stuff. I respect that you don’t want to do it anymore, but we know that they’ve already been sniffing around campus. We caught a few of ‘em Friday night. They were trying to take our state championship flag from two years ago.”
“You don’t even play football. Why do you care?”
“Because this is my school. Those guys are my friends, and I take care of what’s mine.”
I frowned. “I know people from Pedlam.”
“You went to school there?”
“More than any others. I don’t know if I want to help you screw with a school that I used to consider mine.”
Tray sighed, rolling his eyes. “You’re Mandy’s sister. This is your school now, Taryn.”
That was the first time I’d heard him say my name, and I hated hearing it from him. I hated him. A whole host of emotions were unlocked. Memories seared through me and Brian’s voice, saying my name, was on repeat inside of my head.
I wanted it gone. I wanted him gone. “I’m not helping you.”
Tray Evans was in my car, but memories of Brian were overwhelming me. I didn’t want to remember him.
“What?”
“Get out.” My voice was rougher than it needed to be. I couldn’t help it.
“Fine.” He got out and shut the door. As he walked away, I tried to calm the storm he had unknowingly unleashed.
I missed him. I missed both of them.
*

I let myself inside the mansion, dropping my keys in the bowl beside the coat-rack. The place was just massive. I already knew no one was home. My parents—it was hard to think of them as parents; I had to keep reminding myself not to call them Shelly and Kevin in my mind—were gone to a medical conference. It wasn’t long until I learned that Kevin was rarely home. He was either on-call at the hospital or he was moon-lighting at a different hospital. When he wasn’t, he took Shelly with him for weekend conferences. When they both left, it was Mandy, Austin, and myself. A neighbor came over to check on us in the evenings. There’d been a few times when the neighbor slept over, but she always watched television in her room so we had the house to ourselves most of the time.
Grabbing a soda, I headed to the media room. It wasn’t long until I heard voices coming from the kitchen, and I groaned. Mandy’s friends’ voices. The gods of the gods.
I muttered, “Kill me now.”
“She’s down here.” Mandy bounced down the stairs and plopped next to me. Devon came in behind her and stood at the end of our couch, frowning at her. She beamed at me. “Hey!”
“Hey.” I frowned.
“Tray said you said no. A big fat no actually.”
I shook my head. I wasn’t going to deal with this from her. “No, Mandy.”
“Why not? This would be so easy for you.”
“What’s going on?” Jennica Kent asked, laughing as she sat on the couch opposite us. Tray and a few others came into the room. The only one missing was Amber Sethlers. She and Jennica were the two females at the top of the food chain.
I knew some about the others, Grant, Samuel, and I couldn’t name the third guy. There were enough rumors swirling about every one of them. One hated the other. They had all slept with each other at some point. I never cared. They were rumors. I could barely keep track of the ones about me. This was the social circle at the top, and they were in my media room, well, Mandy’s media room.
I wanted to run. I never mixed with Populars well.
“Leave her alone, Mandy. The girl said no.”
I glanced at Tray in surprise. I didn’t believe that he had backed down. “I’m not doing it. Wherever you want me to break into, I’m not doing it.”
“We’re not asking anymore.”
“Okay.” Mandy nodded. “We’ll figure something else out then.”
She bit her lip and glanced around the room to the others. The guys didn’t care about the conversation. Devon had taken the remote and turned the channel to a basketball game. Jennica was watching Tray, who was staring at me. The longer he did, the redder her face got. I didn’t look at him. I wasn’t going to step back into that dark hole. He was like a vortex, a very hot and lethal vortex, but I couldn’t stop myself from enjoying how upset she was becoming. Then she shot me a nasty look and I turned away, biting my lip. What was I doing? I needed to fit in, strip off my rebel ways, and assimilate into this pack.
I was screwed.
I glanced at Mandy. I should leave, but her hand went to my arm. Even though she hadn’t said anything, I felt that she wanted me to stay. Oh hell. I knew she wanted me to be friends with her friends, but I couldn’t. I belonged in the criminal crowd, not this one. This was a whole new crowd.
But…she was my sister and I was trying a new way. Going against my instincts, I tried to watch the game.
Mandy squeezed my arm.