Free Thief: The Scarab Beetle Series: #1 (The Academy) by C. L. Stone

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