by Smoke, Lucy
He frowned when my words drifted off and I looked to the side, unsure how to continue. Knix was the most level headed of the guys and I knew he wouldn't react poorly, but he might still not be happy about Grayson contacting me.
"Harlow?" he prompted.
I huffed and rubbed the space between my eyebrows, feeling a headache starting to form. "I got a text message from Grayson earlier today, and I know Bellamy and Marv would be pissed, so I wanted to ask you about it."
"You talked to Bellamy about this already?"
"Not exactly..." I drifted. I sighed once more before coming back. "I got a text from Grayson and then I asked Bellamy why he didn't like him."
"But you didn't ask him about the text message?" Knix clarified.
I shook my head. "I just asked about his um...why he doesn't like him."
"And what did he say?"
I shrugged. "He didn't exactly answer me. He said you all used to be acquaintances or something like that. He told me I should ask you."
"Is that what you want to talk about?"
"Well, I'm curious, but I want to know if you would be okay if I met Grayson for lunch or something. He said he wanted to talk to me."
Knix stroked his stubbled chin as he debated for a moment. When he looked at me, his oceanic eyes pierced right through me. "Harlow, I'm not your father. I can't tell you what you can or can't do. I can make recommendations and suggestions, but you can always choose to ignore them. I'll admit that I'm wary of Grayson as well. He's not a good person through and through."
"What does that mean?" I asked. "He helped his brother when he needed him even though Josh didn't want his help."
"His brother, that's someone he feels responsible for," Knix said. "He's not exactly the kind of person to walk an elderly lady across the street or help a cat out of a tree."
I frowned. "Most people aren't like that," I pointed out.
"I know," he replied. "Grayson is just..." He grimaced and rubbed his hand down his entire face as if he was tired before dropping it to his desk to grip the edge.
"Grayson is?" I asked.
"Grayson is Grayson," Knix finished, as if that summed up everything. I frowned. Before I could say anything, though, he continued. "Do you remember when you stopped that fight a month ago? When you were still in school?"
"Yeah?"
"And how you asked Grayson to do something, but he didn't."
I nodded.
"That's the kind of person he is, Harlow. He's out for himself. Always."
"You don't want me to go see him," I said.
He shook his head. "He texted you for a reason. Marv and Bellamy don't like his interest in you. Texas tends to trust the group's instincts. I don't care for his interest either. So, no, I don't want you to go see him–not alone."
All the time, as he had been speaking, I had been gearing up for a fight, but at his last two words, I deflated like a torn balloon. "Oh." I debated. "I can't take Marv or Bellamy," I said.
"You won't have to," Knix said shifting away from his desk. He held out his hand to me and I took it, allowing him to help me up. "I'll take you to see him. I'm curious to know what he wants. He didn't give you any details?" I shook my head. "Hmmm, well, we can ask him when we see him." Knix placed his hand in the center of my lower back, the heat of his palm making me shiver. He led us toward the door and opened it. "Set up a meeting with him and let him know I'll be coming."
"He didn't want anyone coming with me," I said, recalling that tidbit. "Maybe you could sit away from us during lunch and just listen in?"
Knix shot me a disapproving look. "I'll be there, and I'll be very visible, Little Bit. There's no use in trying that. Grayson can be conniving and a tad irritating, but he's not stupid."
Something occurred to me as we moved down the hallway towards the living room and the staircase. I paused and turned to him. "Did he work for Iris? Does he?"
Knix sighed and pushed me, gently, across the living room in the direction of my bedroom. "Get some sleep, Little Bit. I'll see you bright and early for training tomorrow morning."
I sighed. From the expression on Knix’s face I knew there was no way I was getting an answer to that question tonight. I headed towards my bedroom but waited until Knix was up the stairs before I turned the knob. He waved goodnight to me over the balcony and I waved back before opening my door and stepping in. The sight that greeted me made me squeal as I took in the body on my bed. With a hand pressed to my chest, I glared at Marv.
"I told you I would be by later," he said with a smirk.
"I thought that meant you would wait for me to get back and knock instead of climbing into my bed to scare the living hell out of me," I snapped.
He shrugged from his position, his plain white shirt lifting as he did so, revealing a line of tanned skin above the waistband of his cotton pajama bottoms. I gulped, turning away to shake my head as I closed the door.
My room was the smallest in the house. I was more comfortable that way. The guys had tried to give me one of the larger rooms upstairs, but I had refused. This room was just fine. It was about the same size as my old room, but the furniture was different. Knix and Marv had put mine and my mom's stuff up in a storage unit – paid for a full year. At least I had time to figure stuff out.
My new room was painted in lavender hues, the walls a pale purple that matched the sheets on my bed. It was pushed into the corner next to a latch window. There were a decent five feet between the very edge of the bed's platform to the fold down desk Knix had built into the wall next to built-in bookshelves. All of my old books finally had a place of their own. Marv and Bellamy had taken it upon themselves to stock me up further. I smirked when I caught images of half-clothed women on the covers of trashy paperback romances. Obviously, they hadn't taken a look at the dark, suspense-filled mysteries I had grabbed from the library throw away bins if that was what they thought I liked. I left the books, though, I liked looking at full bookshelves.
I yawned as I walked over to the charger port on my desk to plug in my phone. Deciding to text Grayson in the morning and give him Knix's verdict, I turned towards Marv. "Do you mind waiting a few minutes?" I asked.
He quirked an eyebrow, and I rolled my eyes.
"I need to pee," I stated plainly. "And I want to brush my teeth."
He tapped the file in his hands. "I'm sufficiently entertained," he replied. "Take your time."
I popped into my private bathroom off the side of my room. Knix had made sure to add it, saying that living with four guys would be hard enough without having to share a bathroom with them. Marv, Bellamy, and Texas managed to share bathroom time between the full bathroom in the upstairs hallway and the full bathroom downstairs. Knix, too, had his own in the master bedroom.
I stepped into my bathroom and closed the door as I hurried about my business. I brushed my teeth and pulled my hair back into a braid that wouldn't get in my face if I tossed and turned in my sleep. When I exited, Marv was in much the same position. I strode to the desk and set my alarm for 8 am, whimpering as I did so. One thing I did not like about living with the guys was the fact that they tended to get up with the birds. They only had two settings, early and earlier. I didn't complain though. It wasn't like I didn't have enough to do. Plus, according to Texas, naps were good for you – it kept you from murdering people and spending the rest of your life in prison.
I flopped on the bed next to Marv and looked at him. He flipped his file closed and slid it over to me. I took it, got up, and placed it on my desk before returning to the bed. He sighed as I laid back down again.
"What's up with you?" I asked.
"It's been bothering me," he said, "what my mother was saying earlier today about the girls coming from the etiquette camp."
"Why?" I asked.
"I knew those girls," he said earnestly, his hazel gaze meeting mine with serious intent. "I know people change, but these girls...most of them have good families. They have a lot to live for. One of them...she..."<
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I reached forward and touched his arm. He clasped my hand and I let him. I laid my head on his chest and cuddled closer, trying to comfort him like he had comforted me a month ago when he had snuck into my room in the middle of the night. He sighed as I curled closer still holding his hand.
"She committed suicide," he finally managed to say. I turned my face into his shirt, but kept listening. "And it just doesn't make any sense. She had no history of depression or anything. Her parents are heartbroken. The note she left, it was just two words: 'I'm sorry.' That's it. She wasn't the kind of girl to do that–and I know that there's more to people than meets the eye. I know that there are people out there that hide their pain every day, and sometimes they're the ones you see smiling the most. But I knew her, Harlow, I knew her."
It broke my heart to see him so upset, his face so drawn and worried. I glanced behind me at the file. "Is that all there in the file?" I asked.
He nodded. "I saw her parents today, I had to ask–it was hard to see."
"When did you do that?"
"After you and Texas took off. I took one of the other cars. It's been months since their daughter...passed away. She did it last December, a few months after that etiquette camp. They're still devastated. They don't understand and neither do I."
"What about the other girls?" I asked.
Marv leaned up and looked at me before letting his head fall back with a thump onto the stack of pillows with a heavy sigh. "It's...they're messed up. Very different. I haven't spoken to their parents yet, but what information I could dredge up tells me that they're on the same path, just a little more outspoken about it. They've both been arrested, though none of the charges have stuck because...well..." He looked down at me a bit sheepishly. "Their parents are some of the wealthiest people in Charleston."
I nodded, unconcerned. I didn't judge him for it and I didn't judge them. Yeah, it wasn't fair but there wasn't really much I could do about it. I needed to focus my attention on what I could do. "Tell me about them," I urged.
He groaned. "I don't even know where to start."
"The beginning is usually the best place to start."
He smirked at me and wrapped one arm around my waist, cinching me to his side as he rolled the both of us over so that my back was facing the wall. "Smartass," he teased. Then his face fell back into its serious expression. "If it were only that easy. It seems that no one knows where it started. There's speculation from the families–like my mom–they connect what happened to the girls with the change in their activities. None of their new behaviors started up until they came back from that camp, but it could have already been in the works before they went. No one knows. And as much as I understand where the families are coming from, it's a little difficult to swallow the beliefs of grieving parents. They're looking for anyone to blame because it's hard to accept, sometimes, that there might not be anyone to blame."
I stroked his arm and pressed a soft kiss to his cloth covered chest. "You'll figure it out," I said with complete faith. "You're dedicated, and you know what you're doing."
"Knix isn't sure that we'll be able to officially investigate because...well, like he said at dinner, people change all of the time. It's not like there's someone hovering over these girls, forcing them to act the way that they do."
"Maybe you should sleep on it," I suggested. There was nothing else he could do tonight but worry over it and worrying too much wasn't healthy.
"Maybe you're right," he conceded.
I sighed when he released me and rolled over to sit up with his feet on the floor. "I'll see you tomorrow?" My statement turned into a question as Marv reached over his head and gripped the back of his shirt, tugging it upward and over the lithe muscles of his back. My mouth dried.
"What?" he asked, turning back around to grace me with a full-frontal view of his chest. I gulped, my face reddening as I jerked my gaze up to meet his.
"Uh...." Say something! I screamed at myself. I mentally slapped myself when all that slipped from my lips was another stupid, "Uh..."
"Turn over and scoot, I need some room." Marv motioned for me to move over. I did so numbly, watching as he lifted the sheets and climbed beneath. I blinked for a moment and realized that I was still on top of them. I struggled to move my legs all the way up to my chest as Marv pulled the sheets down for me to slip under alongside him. He reached up and hit the light switch above my bed that plunged my room into darkness before he turned and pulled me back into his arms, against his chest. Marv, the cuddle maniac, back again. Only, this time, he was shirtless. My heart rate sped up and I pressed my thighs together. Lord, help me.
I tried to get as comfortable as possible. But the hard chest at my back made my thoughts scatter. No matter how many times we slept in the same bed, Marv had that effect on me. Finally, as Marv’s breathing evened out, I relaxed enough to slip into sweet, oblivious sleep. Just as I did, though, I felt shifting and the slight press of lips to my temple. The scent of coffee – Marv's own personal obsession – filled my nostrils.
Chapter 5
I'm convinced that the guys are all aliens, born of the sun because they all rise together in as much the same disposition. I had never met so many morning people in my whole life – not even when I had worked full time at Alex’s Diner. When I was in school and working, the lack of sleep was a constant pain that I had to ignore or else there would be no peace of mind. But, dammit, it was summer time. I knew I had just graduated and all, but just one day to sleep in would have been nice.
Marv was already dressed and at the kitchen counter with the paper in one hand and a cup of black coffee in the other. He inhaled the smell of the bitter liquid before taking a long drawn out sip and smiled when he saw me enter. I narrowed my gaze at him as I strode through the kitchen in workout clothes with bags under my eyes. Texas was right. Naps were for people who wanted to keep living outside of prison. Promising myself as many naps as I wanted later was sometimes the only way that my body allowed me to get out of bed so early. I was getting spoiled.
Knix smiled at me over his shoulder, dressed in much the same fashion as he flipped an omelet onto a plate and slid it down the counter for me to pick up and take to the table. I nodded my thanks and sat down between Bellamy and Texas who both had their own plates piled high with omelets, bacon, and ham. I wrinkled my nose at the ham, but snagged a few slices of bacon for myself as well as the ketchup and orange juice carton.
"What's on the agenda for today?" I asked. "Other than getting my butt handed to me, yet again."
A round of chuckles surrounded me, and I grinned as I squirted ketchup over my omelet. Marv took a seat, wrinkling his nose at the red smear. I smiled and poured more.
"Jesus, Harlow," Texas was the first to speak up. "It looks like a crime scene on your plate, lighten up, will ya?"
I laughed and set the ketchup bottle aside before digging into my food. Thanks to Knix and Bellamy's cooking, I had gained a good five to ten pounds in the last month. I winced thinking about how tight my jeans were getting, but who was I to turn down good food? According to Texas, cheese and chocolate made the world go 'round. There were a lot of things Texas said that sounded weird at first, but, strangely enough, made sense.
Knix strode over and set his own plate down before taking a seat. "Well, if you've improved any, you might not be getting your butt handed to you today," he said with a smirk.
I rolled my eyes and stuffed a bite of egg in my mouth. "So says the one who regularly hands my butt back to me after kicking it thoroughly," I said after I swallowed.
Knix rolled back his shoulders and laughed. "Oh, don't worry, Little Bit, I'll give you a handicap."
"You always give me a handicap," I muttered as I shoveled another bite into my mouth.
"I'm heading out to do some more interviewing." Marv set his paper aside and looked down at the plate in front of him. He reached for his coffee and downed the rest, standing up to refill it.
Knix sighed, but didn't say anyt
hing. Texas, Bellamy, and I glanced between the two of them wondering what was off. I was the only one with the guts to say something. "What's wrong?"
Knix shot me a look, but didn't reply. Marv placed the carafe of coffee back onto its warmer and took a gulp before he turned back around and faced us. "I'm going as a family friend," he said, looking at Knix.
Knix closed his eyes and reopened them as he placed his silverware down on the table at either side of his plate. "I just don't want you to get your hopes up," he said. "If Alex says no, then that's it. We can't get involved."
"Why does Alex have such a say in what you guys do?" I asked.
Bellamy and Texas shared a look.
"Now's not the time, Little Bit. I'll tell you more later." Knix turned back to Marv. "Just try to keep it quiet and I'll talk to Alex today. I'm taking Harlow to lunch at the diner and I'll ask him about it then."
"You are?" When Knix gave me a look, I realized what he was saying. We would be meeting Grayson there. "Oh, right." I sank into my chair and shoved another bite in my mouth.
Marv nodded before retaking his seat. "If I wait until you get back from the diner, would it be alright if Harlow went?" Marv asked.
I looked up, across the table. Knix nodded towards me. "You'll have to ask her."
Marv's gaze turned in my direction.
"Sure," I said. "I can come."
With that Marv smiled and the tense atmosphere was broken. Texas began talking animatedly about a new phone application he had just found, and I smiled and teased him about being a nerd. He raised a brow at me, promising retribution in the future. By the end of breakfast, the sink was piled high with dishes and Bellamy, Texas, and Marv each helped clean away the morning's mess. I tried to stay and help, but each of them quirked a brow at me and smirked, shaking their heads and urging me outside.
Texas grinned, and I pouted. "Go get your ass handed to you, Little Bit," he teased.
I growled at him and flung one of the dish towels in his direction before turning around and stomping back to my room for my tennis shoes. Closing the door behind me, I snatched my shoes at the foot of my bed and sat down, pulling my phone out.