by Lucy Smoke
“Put her down,” Knix ordered. Both of us blinked at the darkness of his tone and Texas quickly deposited me back on the couch.
“Sorry, boss, I was just trying to lighten the mood.”
Knix sighed, "I know, Tex, and normally I would appreciate that. But this has gotten a little bit more serious than a couple of missing persons. Let's focus."
"Shouldn't we actually go to the police now?" I asked. I looked around the room, frowning. It seemed obvious now that we were in over our heads. It was one thing to take on jobs for Iris. It was another to go looking for people we cared about. And then it was something completely different to involve ourselves with possible drug dealers.
"That would be the best option," Knix said, nodding. "And we would like to, but things aren't that simple."
"Why?" Marv asked, sounding just as confused as I was.
“Because Alex already went to them and the police can’t do anything,” Bellamy confessed. All eyes turned to him.
That didn’t make any sense. “What do you mean they can’t do anything?”
“They’ve been trying to get something on H. B. Holdings for several months, but there is no evidence of any connections to drugs,” Knix explained.
“Then how do you know they do?” Texas looked just as confused as me. Where were we going wrong? There was still so much that hadn’t been explained.
Knix held his hands up placatingly. “There has been speculation for years, but no substantial evidence. They work in the healthcare industry, so it’s only natural that they have access to medical grade drugs. There have been reports of those drugs disappearing or some of their drugs not working—to which a lot of people appeared to have had their pills swapped out for sugar pills or other substitutes.”
“Okay.” I nodded, looking down at my lap before glancing to Marv. “Do you still have that puzzle drawing?”
He blinked before nodding and pulled out the folded-up piece of paper from his pocket. I took it from him and unfolded it, laying it down and smoothing the edges on my lap. “Does anyone have a pen?” I held my hand out and a moment later, someone handed me one.
“What’s this?” Knix asked. At the same time, Bellamy shifted closer and peered over my shoulder as I scribbled some new notes.
“It’s something Marv came up with,” I said. “I’m trying to figure out how all of our puzzle pieces connect.”
I stared at the paper, noting the things we had discovered:
Josh is missing.
Erika is missing.
Erika prearranged her break.
H. B. Holdings owns Greenwood Rehab.
H. B. Holdings might be selling drugs.
I stopped on the drugs. Josh was a drug addict—that’s why he was in rehab. Josh was an addict in rehab for his drug addiction. If H.B. Holdings was selling their medical grade drugs on the side, but no one was catching them, then how were they doing it? And how did Erika fit in?
Erika had been acting strange the last time we met up and saw each other—the night we had gone to that dance club. It still didn't make a whole lot of sense for her to be hitting on guys and trying to get them to buy her drinks if she was still with Josh back then. Marv was right, if there was one advantage that we had, then it was that I knew Erika. I knew her well. She wouldn't cheat on Josh. That's just not who she was as a person. So, that begged the question, why had she been acting like that? She would have told me that she and Josh weren't together if they had broken up. No, she had made it seem like they were still together, and she was just in town to see me and have fun, but what if there had been an alternative reason.
It stung to think of my best friend as though she had been using me, and even as I put the pieces together that didn't really seem to be the case. I closed my eyes and tried to remember. That night wasn't a blur, it was very precise, but I was so focused on the girl in the bathroom that my memories of Erika were a bit fuzzy. What had she been doing when I came back from the bathroom? She had been surrounded by guys.
"Harlow?" Knix's voice sounded far away, and I ignored the question in his tone as I focused on trying to remember. I was close, so close I could practically taste it. What was I not remembering?
"She was..." Her hands, they hadn't been where they should have been. They were...Erika was—I got it. I looked up abruptly, startling those closest to me—Bellamy, Marv, and Texas all jerked back.
"Harlow?" Knix drew my attention.
"Erika needed money," I said. "She was stealing from the guys she was flirting with the night at the club." Marv's eyebrows shot up and Grayson frowned. "Are you sure?" Knix asked.
I shook my head. "Not like a hundred percent, but if she was stealing because she needed money then it was probably for Josh. She's a loyal girlfriend and, to my knowledge, at the time, they hadn't, or I guess, still haven't, broken up. So, it didn't make any sense to me why she was hitting on guys and enjoying them hitting on her so much. Plus, she was never really a club going person. I mean, for our graduation party we just took some of her parents' beers and camped out on the beach. We didn't even consider going to a party."
Grayson got a peculiar look in his eyes as he stared at me. "Do you have an idea?" I asked.
He stood slowly, stepping around Marv and reached down for the paper in my lap. "I think..." he trailed off, focusing on the puzzle drawing. "I think it does connect back to H. B. Holdings, then." He tapped the piece where H. B. Holdings had been written in the space. "And I think I know how they're selling their drugs without anyone knowing."
I gasped, standing abruptly. "Oh, my God!" It was right there! He was right. It was almost too obvious now.
"What?" Texas looked back and forth between Grayson and me.
"You're right!" I proclaimed. I probably shouldn't have been so excited—it wasn't a good thing, but we figured it out. I couldn't believe it.
"What?" Bellamy repeated Texas.
Together, Grayson and I turned towards the group. "They’re selling it to their patients," Grayson said. "Who better to sell to than addicts? They have a whole host of customers at their fingertips." Knix's eyes widened before he nodded. "That makes sense. When Joshua was admitted, he would have seemed like the perfect score for them." A dark cloud passed over Grayson's face and I put a palm on his arm, ignoring the way Marv looked at us with a dark frown and lowered brows. His lip curled in irritation, but he remained quiet.
"Hey," I said, "remember, it's not your fault. At least we figured it out. Let's just find a way to...um..." Actually, I didn't know what we were supposed to do next. I looked to Knix pleadingly.
He cleared his throat, catching on quickly. "We have to get evidence against them," he said firmly.
"That still doesn't explain why Erika and Josh went missing," Bellamy pointed out. Crap, he was right. But before I could panic, Texas came up with the perfect explanation.
"Josh doesn't actually have access to money, right?" he asked Grayson. Grayson nodded. "But they would have thought he did, so they might have sold to him on credit. If he and Erika were still together and she now knows about his problems, then maybe he opened up to her about it. You did say that she was loyal, Harlow; maybe Josh convinced her to help him pay."
"Would they have expected him to pay when he was being released?" Marv finally asked. "I mean it would make sense for him to be unable to pay if he was in the facility since it's pretty rare for patients to be given access to finances unless there are special circumstances."
Texas looked to Grayson. "When was Josh expected to be released?"
"This week," he answered.
Texas nodded. "Then it's expected that he knew his time to pay was coming up and he probably didn't have enough money."
"Do you think Erika went with him then?" I asked.
"Maybe," Texas said, sympathy clear in his dark brown eyes. "If she is, maybe she just didn't want to involve you," he suggested.
"Yeah," I said, "maybe."
Knix clapped loudly to regain our attention. "This
is good, guys. Good steps forward. Good work. Now, we just need to focus on each of our projects." He nodded to Bellamy. "Bellamy and I are still going to go undercover and try to ask around. If that is the case, then there may be a few employees there under the drug payroll." Knix turned his gaze to Grayson. “I want you and Texas to continue the search for Josh."
I raised my hand and Knix tilted his head in my direction. "Yes, Little Bit?"
When Grayson raised a brow at the nickname, I blushed but didn't say anything. I liked it, I wasn't ashamed of it. "Well, we were talking before about how Josh may have been forced to leave even though it looks like he left on his own. I wasn’t sure if anyone had told you or suggested it, but do you think we should keep that as a possibility?"
Knix scratched his jaw. "It’s a possibility," he conceded. "But for now, Texas and Grayson can assume that he left under his own ability and is not currently being held by someone else."
"What about Erika?" Texas asked.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
Texas blanched as if he regretted speaking, but it was too late, so he continued. "Well, if it's possible that Josh left because he was being forced to, then it's possible they used her to force him." He slid a glance my way, and whatever he saw on my face must have told him how much that idea scared me because he turned and took my hands. "Hey, don't worry—it's just a theory. Nothing is set in stone. She could be fine."
I nodded. "Yeah, you're right." I took a deep breath. Even though the mere idea of Erika being held against her will terrified me, I gave him a grateful smile and he nodded for Knix to continue.
"Well, as I was saying—let's just assume that they aren't being held against their will. Grayson and Texas, you're on Josh duty. Marv and Harlow—Erika duty."
Each one of us nodded, and as the guys moved on to other topics, such as who would sleep where, I kept wondering if Erika was really out there somewhere, on her own and just fine, or if someone was holding her against her will, possibly hurting her.
Chapter 9
Hey, Harlow! Wait up!" I turned as the sound of a familiar voice caught my attention. Blinking blurry eyes, I waited as Lizzie rushed to catch up with me. After last night's meeting, I had snuck back into the dorm room late and I was tired from lack of sleep.
Lizzie finally came to a stop next to me, but instead of leaping into whatever her reason for chasing me down was, she held up one finger and put her hands on her knees. "Just...need...a second..." she panted.
I yawned, covering my mouth and waited. Finally, with her chest still rising and falling much faster than usual, she stood up and brushed away a few pink strands of her hair before grasping my shoulders and staring into my face. I jerked back in shock, but she held steady.
"Okay, girl, that's it," she said. "I can't take it anymore. I have to know."
"Have to know what?" I stared at her—wide-eyed and worried.
"Which one of the guys is your boyfriend?" She shook me. "Come on, don't leave me hanging! Is it the hot blue-eyed playboy? The sweet one from yesterday or is it the skinnier one from lunch?" Lizzie pulled away and wagged her finger under my nose with a serious expression etched into her face. "Don't think I didn't notice. Are you stringing them along? The one from yesterday—Marv, right?—he all but admitted he wanted to be your boyfriend. And yeah, even though the playboy hit on me—" She paused amidst her tirade and flicked more pink hair over her shoulder. "Which I mean, who could blame him? But he didn't deny that you were his girl when I suggested it."
"Um..."
"So, come on, fess up. Which one are you dating?" she demanded.
I don't know what came over me. Maybe it was the mission, the worry, the new environment, the fact that I hadn't talked to or seen my mom in a couple of weeks or maybe it was the fact that Erika wasn't there and I felt like I really needed to talk to someone, a friend on the outside of all of it. She had always been the relationship expert and now that I finally needed her advice, she wasn't here. The truth came spilling out.
"I don't know," I confessed.
Lizzie blinked. "What do you mean, you don't know?"
I sucked in a hard breath. "They want me to choose between them and I don't know who I'm going to choose."
Her eyes rounded like saucers. "Oh, my God. Are you serious?"
I shook my head. "It's not just Marv or Texas. I, um, I have two other friends who want me to—who are interested in, um, a relationship."
"Wait a second. What about the playboy?" she demanded.
"Grayson?" I shook my head. "No, we really are just friends." She pursed her lips and looked at me skeptically.
"I promise!"
"Oh, I'm sure you believe that," she replied with a smirk. "But I can assure you, playboy is definitely interested. He may have seen this package of gorgeous, but I’m not in the market for a playboy." She paused and gestured down to herself. "But boy definitely only had eyes for you. He might play around, but girl, he's got the hots, too."
I groaned and covered my face with my hands. "No," I said. Not because I didn't believe it, but because if she was right then Grayson's interest only made this whole situation even more complicated. Ugh. I didn't do complicated. What was that thing I told the guys whenever they tried to tell me something was "too complicated to explain"? Oh yeah, "uncomplicate it." Well, that saying definitely did not apply here.
"Wow, though," Lizzie said. "That's a lot of interest. What are you gonna do?"
"I don't know," I moaned through my hands.
When I finally uncovered my face, roughly scrubbing my palms down my cheeks, Lizzie was looking at me with a mixture of awe and sympathy. And as if I couldn't already tell what her feelings were towards this, her next words clarified. "Wow," she repeated, "I honestly don't know if I'm jealous, impressed, or just plain sorry for you, girl."
I sighed. "You haven't even met Knix or Bellamy yet," I said. "They just got in last night."
She tilted her head to the side. "Who are they? Do they go here?" I shook my head. "Oh, um, no. They don't go here. They're, um, visiting for a little bit."
I cursed my stupid self. I mean, I assumed that Lizzie was innocent in our mission and probably wasn't even aware of what was going on—but it was better to be safe rather than sorry. And on the off chance someone came looking for me and found her, she wouldn't know anything. I had already questioned both her and Kelsey about whether or not they had known or seen Erika, but neither had.
"Well," Lizzie started, tapping one delicate finger against her lips. "Do you like any of them over the others?"
I shook my head. "No. They're all special to me."
"Which of them have you known the longest?" she asked.
"Well, we kinda all met around the same time."
She huffed. "Well, dang it. What about chemistry?"
"Chemistry?" I asked, confused.
She grinned at me. "Yeah, chemistry." She wiggled her hips suggestively. "You know—sexual healing and all that jazz. So, come on, which of them do you have the most chemistry with?"
"Uhh..." My cheeks heated under her expectant stare. I looked around and even though most people were already in class or not paying attention, I knew I didn't want to talk about this here. I reached forward, snagging her hand. "Can we talk somewhere privately?" I asked.
Her eyes widened, and a big smile spread across her lips. "Oh my God, you've already done it with one of them? Or more? Have you done it with more?"
"No!" I insisted. "I haven't—I'm not—" I cut myself off and huffed. "Please, can we just go somewhere else?"
She nodded. "The student center has study booths. No one will be there in the middle of the day and I don't wanna walk all the way back to the dorms because I have class in an hour, so let's go there."
I didn't care where we went as long as it was private, so I let Lizzie lead me to the student center. When we got to the study booth front desk, Lizzie grimaced and asked if I had my ID because she had forgotten hers and we apparently couldn't request one w
ithout it. Luckily, I had it tucked into the back of my phone case and I let the attendant swipe us in before we went back. We strolled down the rows and made sure that we got a booth in a row of empty neighboring stalls.
Almost as soon as I slid into my seat, she reached across the table and grabbed my hands. "Okay," she snapped, "spill. I want to know everything."
My phone pinged just as I opened my mouth, but I sighed and leaned down, clicking the ringer off before I addressed Lizzie. "It's difficult to explain," I began.
"What's difficult to explain?" she asked. "Either you did it with one of them or you didn't. So, which is it?"
"No, I haven't had sex with any of them," I answered.
She narrowed her eyes at me. "I sense a but in there. Do not leave me hanging. If there's a but and I don't get to the bottom of that but, then Lizzie is not gonna be a happy camper."
I raised my eyebrow at her third person dictation of herself before huffing out a breath. "Well, I mean, I've never..." I swallowed, "had sex before." I paused, waiting for a negative reaction. When she just sat there and waited for me to go on, I did. "I mean, not just with them, but I've never had sex with anyone before."
"Oh, honey, that's not a big deal. A lot of girls our age haven't." Lizzie waved her hand in front of her face. "The real question is do you want to?"
"Do I want to?" I repeated.
She nodded emphatically. "Do you want to have sex? And do you want to have sex with any of those guys?" I bit my lip, wondering if I should open up about what happened with Bellamy. My cheeks heated up once more. Her eyes zoned in on the telltale sign of my thoughts.
"Something did happen, didn't it?" Lizzie leaned forward until she was practically halfway over the table. "Come on, Harlow. I'm dying here. You have to tell me."
"Well, I mean, I—" I pulled back and pressed my spine against the booth wall. My heart thudded against my ribcage. To tell or not to tell, that was the question. The ultimate question.
Even though my lips froze on the words. I needed to say them. "I kissed them."