Thief: The Scarab Beetle Series: #1 (The Academy) Read Free Page A

Despite what the cool guy was saying, this was clearly a security team, obvious in the confident way they approached me. Pretzel boy had taken the lead over the other two following him. His mismatched eyes zeroed in on me, the smile on his lips smug, satisfied. He’d caught his prey.
    But I had one more last trick. A dirty girl trick.
    “Rape!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
    The entire group of boys stopped dead, except Corey, who jumped a short step back.
    I took my chance. I ducked under the cool guy’s arm.
    “Wait,” pretzel boy called. “Bambi!”
    I didn’t stop. I felt the brush of the cool guy’s fingers swiping at my back, but he wasn’t fast enough. I darted down the hall toward the exit.
    An alarm didn’t sound. I was out in the parking lot and weaved amid the cars. Losing my breath. Losing my mind. Losing the boys.
    For now.

BETTER THAN A CARDBOARD BOX
    ––––––––
    T he short walk to the extended stay hotel was almost as terrifying. I was going nonstop to get there. Every couple of minutes, I checked over my shoulder at every passing car, any shadow, every bit of noise. My senses were in overdrive, paranoid that pretzel boy and his gang were following me.
    That was too close. Way too close. Someone must have noticed me hanging around more than usual, and had been ready for me. Now that I was away from the situation, I realized my mistake: the red jacket. The easy target, when it was still warm for early October.
    I’d been too greedy and too eager to hurry and get out of there. The setup should have been obvious, but I’d never been caught like that before. I’d been getting too lax with my targets. Maybe one too many wallets had been lifted at that mall in the last few weeks. I didn’t think I’d done that many, but there might have been more pickpockets there than just me.
    The problem was I only had the forty dollars, still short of what I needed. I only had tomorrow morning to find the rest or we’d get tossed out into the streets. The Citadel Mall had been an easy spot, full of tight corners and distractions. It was also close to the hotel we were living at, and closest to the Savannah highway in West Ashley. I wasn’t sure I had time to scout a new area, like one should do, when picking a new place to haunt. I needed time to figure out cameras and security routines.
    I turned the corner down the street, walking through the parking lot of the extended stay hotel, where rent was over two hundred dollars a week, and the place was usually always packed.
    A white utility service truck pulled up just as I crossed through an empty parking space. It took a spot near the staircase I was heading to. The window rolled down on the passenger side. An old man with a grizzly beard stuck his head out and catcalled at me. “Hey there, pretty girl. Staying here? Need a free room?”
    Ugh.
    I ignored him, and rushed for the stairwell. I skipped the steps two at a time and took my key out for Room 221B.
    “I’m home,” I called out the moment I had the door cracked open.
    “Kayli!” my brother called. He could usually hear when it was me.
    “Wil!” I called back, like I always did. I locked the door behind me, and turned from the short corridor to the wider hotel room.
    Wil was in the kitchenette. He waited by the coffee maker and emptied a packet of oatmeal into a coffee mug. “Where have you been?” He looked up, his green eyes covered by a pair of glasses meeting mine. His thin lips pursed as he studied my face. “You okay?”
    “Yeah,” I said, trying to slow my breathing and look casual. “Those jerk construction workers were just bugging me.”
    “Work ran late?”
    I checked the time on the clock over the microwave. Six was pretty late to get back if I wanted to be here before our old man got up. If I wasn’t, he’d root around for money, sometimes breaking things and sometimes finding our stash and taking it to go drink at the bar. “Yeah,” I said, avoiding his