by Lucy Smoke
A part of me wondered why he didn’t use a pseudonym, but then I realized it would probably have been a moot point. His parents were wealthy, someone would eventually recognize him if he continued to hang around or if the girls described him to someone back at the villa.
“It’s lovely to meet you,” Isador said, batting her eyelashes. I wanted to rip those eyelashes off and shove them down her throat. When Natalia stepped forward and Marv took her hand as well, I blinked at myself, shocked at my own thoughts. I didn’t own Marv. We weren’t dating. After what I had done with Bellamy, I had no right to my jealousy. Still, the little green monster remained as the girls made small talk with Marv for the next few minutes.
“Well, it was really wonderful meeting you ladies,” he said, “but I saw Harley and I couldn’t resist saying hi. Do you mind if I steal her away?”
“Oh, we’re supposed to be meeting at La Maison for dinner at five. Why don’t you join us?” Delilah offered.
“Oh, I couldn’t.” Marv waved his hands as he spoke. It was so unlike him that it took me a moment to realize he was playing a character. Just because he had to use his real name didn’t mean he had to be his real self. “I’m actually in town with Harley’s cousin.” He shot me a look that I knew the girls were watching. It was full of amusement and something sneakier, concern. “The jerk didn’t even tell me why we were hanging around here and I was getting bored. Had I known it was for Harley…” His words trailed off and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Marv was laying it on just a bit thick. One glance at the girls, though, and I knew it was working.
“Aw, how sweet.” Delilah turned big eyes on me. “Go with him, Harley. We’ll tell Mr. Wallace that Angel needed some extra time to fix your dress.”
Before I could accept or protest, Marv’s arm wound around my waist and he pulled me to his side. I practically saw the twins melt with wistfulness. “Thank you so much, Delilah,” Marv said graciously. “I promise, I will have her delivered to La Maison by 5 pm.”
Delilah and the twins nodded in turn as Marv began walking, tugging me along with his arm around my back. “Smile,” he whispered. I did so despite the incredible urge that was building within me to slap his hands away.
“What’s going on?” I whispered back.
“Not yet.” He turned his head and waved behind him at Delilah and the twins. When I craned my neck, I realized they were still standing in the same place and waving back excitedly.
“They’re going to tell everyone that they saw you,” I hissed as he turned a corner and urged me across a side street.
“It’s fine.”
I whipped my head to look up at him. “Why would it be fine?” I asked. “What happened to keeping a low profile?”
“Not yet,” he said as we entered what looked like a bed and breakfast. Was this where the guys had been staying? But no, we passed right through the lobby and the strangely empty kitchen and out the back door into an alley. How had he known there wouldn’t be anyone there to stop us? Or at least ask us what the hell we thought we were doing walking through someone’s place of business. The kitchen, at least, was private property, right?
Whatever it was, it didn’t matter anymore to my confused brain because the moment we cleared the alley I recognized the compact crossover car that Knix had rented from the airport to drive from Buffalo to Ms. Enders’ villa. Marv quickly opened the backdoor and urged me into the back before practically sprinting around to get into the front passenger seat. I froze as I was putting my seatbelt on when I realized who was driving. Bellamy flicked me a glance as Marv slid in and buckled up.
“What are you waiting for, Harlow?” Marv said. “Buckle up, come on, we gotta hurry and get you back soon.”
I finished clipping my seatbelt and then trained my gaze directly on him. “Why are you here?” I asked, deciding to ignore the riot of emotions cascading through my body at seeing Bellamy so soon after last night. “What’s happened?”
“We’re heading to the hotel,” Marv said. “Sorry, I know it was a shock to see me. You did really well though.”
“Why didn’t you text me and let me know what you were up to?” I finally directed my gaze to the back of Bellamy’s head, wondering why he hadn’t said anything the night before.
“We just sort of decided it this morning. We’ve got some new info and we need to debrief and update the group on everything. That includes you. Don’t worry, I was there when Knix went to talk to Ms. Enders’ the other day. She knows that I’m in the area. Knix is still playing the dutiful cousin. Ms. Enders even asked if I would be so kind as to come to the cotillion.”
“Fake cotillion,” I reminded him.
He shrugged. “Both Knix and I have been invited.”
I sighed and sat back against the leather interior of the car. Even though my muscles were tense from the shock of Marv showing up unannounced, it felt good to be back with the guys. Delilah and the twins had been great, and I had even enjoyed meeting Angel, but I missed being me. They all saw me as Harley Hampton – not Harlow Hampton.
“So,” Marv turned around and eyed me up and down, “how has it been? Are you okay?”
Bellamy grunted. Marv turned to him. “What?” he snapped.
“Let’s wait until we get to the hotel,” Bellamy said.
Marv frowned at Bellamy and my muscles tensed again, but neither said anything more. I watched the buildings fly by through the tinted windows. Though neither of them said as much, I could tell that Bellamy was avoiding the main street and staying clear of any areas that the other girls and people from the villa might be. The hotel was a short distance away, only about a ten-minute drive. When we arrived, Marv jumped out and immediately opened my door for me. I sighed as I descended onto the sidewalk. Soon enough, I would forget how to open my own doors.
I glanced up at the Hotel Charmisa, a tall, square, golden structure with glinting windows every few feet. Marv put a hand on the small of my back, urging me forward as the car rolled away. "Let's go," he said.
"What about Bellamy?" I turned to glance behind me as Marv pushed me through the glass front doors of the hotel.
"He's parking the car," Marv assured me. "He'll meet us up in the room."
I let Marv lead me towards the double elevators, not unlike the elevators that we had used when the guys had lived in the condos a few months ago. He pressed the button and I smirked as his foot tapped impatiently until the doors slid open. We stepped into the empty space and Marv pressed the button for the top floor. He noticed me watching and turned, pressing me back against the furthest wall. I gasped, my eyes widened as I looked up at him in shock.
"Are you really okay?" he asked, his eyes roving over me as if checking for visible injuries.
"I'm fine," I said with a sigh. I put my hands against his chest, but he refused to move back. "Marv..." I silently urged him with my eyes. "I'm fine, I promise. They've treated me just fine. I mean – the table manners and ballroom dancing lessons are torture, but other than that, it's been rainbows and sunshine."
His eyes darkened as he continued to stare down at me. I didn't know if he even heard me. If he did, he wasn't showing any signs of it. He pressed forward again, pushing me firmly against the wall. What was he doing? The buttons at the top of the elevator doors dinged as we slowly rose to the top.
"Marv?" I cursed my shaky voice, but I couldn't help it. My heart was racing. It beat in time with his – which I could feel through the fabric of both of our clothes, as close as he was.
"Sunshine..." he whispered, and his mouth descended. My eyes closed of their own volition as his lips touched mine. His were soft. They were like coming home, rubbing teasingly over the seam of my mouth. My lips parted, and I was the one who initiated further contact this time. I could have freaking kicked myself, dammit, but I couldn't help it.
Enticing, his scent enveloped me, and Marv slid both of his arms around my back, pulling me firmly into his chest. My head tilted to the side as his tongue tangled and dan
ced with mine. Was I breathing hard, or was he? Maybe we both were. My pulse thrummed in my veins, fast and expressive. Couldn't he understand how irresistible he was? I pressed against him, some part of me sought what I had felt the night before with Bellamy and when Marv's hands clasped me behind my legs and jerked me up, I felt it.
My feet left the ground and I wound my legs around his hips. One of his hands reached out and slapped against the emergency stop button. There was a loud noise, but it was drowned out under the feelings coursing through me as Marv pushed me back against the wall and kissed me like I was the last girl on Earth – the last woman on Earth. It felt like the entire world could end right then and there, and neither of us would have noticed.
Sparks of electricity danced under my skin everywhere his hands roamed. He cupped my sides, rolling downward, squeezing my ass. I gasped as he rubbed me between my thighs. Blinking my eyes open, my fuzzy vision cleared as I realized he was looking down at me. His eyes were animalistically dark – the normal, light gray darkened into a deep storm. It would have been scary if it hadn't been Marv, but it was Marv, and I knew he would never hurt me.
One of his hands rose and brushed back my hair as he stroked my face. "We can't do this here," he said through gritted teeth. "But soon, Sunshine."
I didn't reply, but he must have seen something in my face, because he nodded and put me down. I stood there for several shocked moments, confused by my own reactions as Marv reached over and hit a button to restart the elevator. As I adjusted my clothes and smoothed out my hair, I had to ask myself and not for the first time, what the hell was I thinking?
As I walked into the hotel room, I could swear the guys knew what Marv and I had done in the elevator. But it was obviously just my imagination because if they knew then one of them would have said something. Texas shot a smile my way over the mound of computers set out in front of him, on the table in the corner of the room. Knix paced back and forth in the space between the flat screen television and the twin, queen beds.
"Bell?" Knix asked when we entered, shooting the question to Marv.
"Parking the car. He'll–" Just as Marv was about to finish, the door beeped and opened again, and Bellamy stepped through, closing it quickly behind him.
"Good." Knix nodded his way. It didn't escape my notice that he barely spared me a glance until that point. When his eyes finally met mine, I realized something was very wrong. "Harlow, why don't you take a seat?"
I did as he asked, but as soon as I was seated on the bed, I couldn't keep quiet anymore. "What's happened?" I demanded.
Everyone else spread out; Bellamy against the wall, Marv on the bed with me – he put his hand on my back and I tensed. Bellamy and Knix both noticed, but neither said anything. Instead, Knix squared his shoulders and faced me. "There's been some new developments." I had figured as much, but had hoped that it wasn't anything major. With the gravity etched across Knix's face, I knew it was very serious.
"What's happened?" I asked again, grateful that my voice was steady.
Knix turned and it was then that I realized he had a remote control in his hand. He flicked on the television. "Texas," he prompted.
"Right!" Texas hit a few buttons from his computers and the screen of the television shifted, changing to what appeared to be lists of numbers scrolling past the screen. "Hold on," he said. "I'm bringing it up."
He scrolled a bit more. "There," he said, stopping. "So, it looks like Mr. Wallace has had some interesting transactions in his accounts. If you'll look at this–" Texas used the mouse icon to circle a rather large number, "every month, on the same day, someone deposits a couple thousand dollars in his account."
"It's not the same as what the girls are being blackmailed for," Knix said.
I turned my neck and craned up to look at him. "You know how much they're being blackmailed for?" I asked.
He paused for a moment as if deciding if he wanted to tell me. Then he sighed and nodded. "Marv has been in contact with Mr. Spencer continuously while we've been up here," he said. "And the man has noticed that, like clockwork, about 5K a month has been disappearing from different accounts. It took a few months for him to notice because sometimes it was from his wife's account, sometimes his stepdaughter’s, sometimes his and sometimes the house or business accounts."
"The stepdaughter is the one getting into those accounts?" I asked.
He nodded, but Marv was the one who answered. "He keeps all of his account information locked in a safe in his office. He hadn't realized it, but apparently Sarah found his passcode. She's been slowly siphoning money from each account to keep it quiet."
"She must be so scared," I said. I couldn't imagine it, having to steal from my own family just so someone wouldn't release pictures of a private...my thoughts immediately went to the word shame, but that wasn't right. These girls had no reason to feel shame. What had happened to them, if it had in fact happened, wasn't their fault.
Knix nodded. "We weren't able to track the money, but the money that shows up in Mr. Wallace's account occurs on the same day as when the money disappears from Mr. Spencer's various accounts."
"Okay...but..." My mind was working in overdrive. I stared hard at the numbers on the screen. "The money doesn't match up."
"The numbers, you mean?" Texas asked.
I nodded. "Yeah, you said that it's five thousand that she pays every month. He's only receiving two."
The screen scrolled down again. "Yes, but two days afterward, he receives another three thousand."
I shook my head. "No, that still doesn't make sense."
Knix watched me with intelligent eyes. "Why do you think that is?" he prompted. I think he already knew and he was urging me to figure it out on my own. Even when in the middle of a job, he was a teacher in every way. I sighed, shifting away from Marv as I sat further on the edge of the mattress.
"Sometimes companies will take a couple of dollars from an account for large payments and then a few days later, take the rest. But it's just a couple of dollars. I've never seen anyone take a couple of thousand and then a couple thousand more. Aside from that, we have established that Sarah isn't the only girl, right?" I looked to Marv for reaffirmation.
His hardened face told me I was right, but I waited for him to nod anyway. I turned back to Knix. "Then how much is he blackmailing the others? Is it the same amount? Is he changing it per family? There are a lot of questions that still need to be answered."
Despite the tension in the room, Knix smiled. "We need to get you into college at some point, Little Bit," he said with a wink before turning back to the TV. "But you're right. We still can't figure out where the rest of the money would be going. Texas is looking for other avenues of payment he might be seeking to keep his nose as clean as possible. Wallace certainly has the information he needs on these girls and their families. He has access to all of Ms. Enders' files and it was clear that she trusts him completely when Marv and I visited the villa."
I bit my lip, wanting to ask about it and why I hadn't seen them, but I kept my mouth closed and my thoughts to myself. They had probably been trying to keep a low profile. The only reason Marv had revealed himself today was because he had to. I bit a nail as Texas closed out the bank accounts window on the screen. I didn't even want to consider how illegal it might be to go through someone else's bank account information. I didn't want to ask how Texas had even gotten that information. Still, my eyes drifted over to him as his hands played across the keyboards behind his screens and wires. His head popped up once more.
"Okay, so here's the list of possible targets we've come up with," Texas said.
I returned my attention to the TV and read through them. Some of the names I didn't recognize, others – like Delilah, Natalia, and Isador – I definitely did.
"Okay," I said, "what's the plan then?"
"We're going to flush him out at the cotillion." Bellamy pushed away from the wall. Somehow, I had expected that and nodded. His jaw clenched, and I watched as he flick
ed a glance at my side before continuing. "Marv is going to escort you, and Knix will escort Delilah." That's why he looked so upset, I realized. There was nothing I could say. Even if I did know what to say, I certainly couldn't do it right here in front of the guys. I struggled to keep my gaze from falling to my lap. At some point, I knew, I needed to talk to the guys. I needed to tell them – Knix and Bellamy and Marv...maybe even Texas, he was part of the team as well. They all deserved to know what was going on. Maybe if I nipped whatever was happening between the guys and me in the bud sooner rather than later, it wouldn't explode in my face later.
With that resolved in my mind, I knew that right before a major operation wasn't the right time to bring it up. It would have to be later, when we all went home. Maybe as soon as we got home. Even with the riot of emotions inside my head, I listened intently as Bellamy and Knix explained the plan. My nerves were a mess and we were still a few days away from the cotillion. I knew it would catch up to me at any moment.
When Bellamy dropped Marv and I back off in the same place, behind the Pineville Bed and Breakfast, he leaned out the window and called me over once more as Marv headed for the back door of the building. I stood outside of the car, nervously wanting to chew on my lips and bite my fingernails as he opened the driver's side door and got out. His dark, soulful eyes looked down at me and I felt like he could see me stripped bare. All the way down to my fears.
"Are you okay?" he asked, lowering his voice. I nodded once. "I mean it, Sweetheart. About last night..."
"I'm fine," I said quickly and then with a rush of expelled breath I looked at my feet. "I mean, yeah, I'm embarrassed. I liked it...a lot. I've never...done that before, but things are complicated. I don't think we should have done what we did."
"I don't regret it," he said. "I don't want you to either."