by Smoke, Lucy
Stepping outside, the warm air assaulted me. I hadn't realized how cold the air conditioning inside had been running until stepping outside felt like falling into a humid swamp. The fraternity's backyard lawn was immaculate despite the wavering guys attempting to toss tiny bean bags through holes carved into tilted boards. There was more than one couple in the midst of heavy make out sessions on both lawn furniture and the actual ground. Averting my eyes, I made my way through the small cliques of people standing around holding red solo cups like my own.
Just as I reached the guy with a light green polo shirt that had a horse logo on the breast and navy-blue pants, my ankle gave out and I went flying to the ground. My red solo cup flew out of my hands, splashing whatever the contents had been—a yellowish liquid—down his back. He jumped and whirled around.
"Ohmygosh!" I cried, quickly regaining my feet. "I'm so sorry!" I blinked big, innocent eyes up at him and grimaced as I touched his soaked sleeve. "That's so my fault," I said.
Mark lifted his arm and rubbed a hand through his dark hair as his oak-brown eyes met mine. He wasn't unattractive, but he certainly had nothing on any of the guys around him. In fact, he appeared to be the runt of the litter. While his friends appeared to be somewhere around six foot in height, he barely stood a few inches above me.
"Can I help you get a new shirt?" I asked, fluttering my eyes.
"Get it, boy!" One of the others snickered, shoving him in the arm.
Mark stumbled, a flush stealing across his cheeks and for a fleeting moment, I felt kind of bad about tricking him. But it wasn't like he was really an innocent college student. He worked for some pretty nasty people, and he certainly couldn't be trusted by his employers either if he was going behind their backs to talk to the police.
"Uh, yeah, sure," he said. I smiled brightly and wrapped a hand around his arm, ready to drag him away—as Grayson had told me to—before I could interrogate him.
"Hey, wait before you go," one of the guys—an older guy, by the looks of him, with crescent shadows under his gaunt face and a pallid complexion—stopped our retreat. "Do you have any candy with you?"
My brows lowered. What the heck? Candy? Why would he want...realization shocked me as a few others in the group began shifting from side to side, their eyes flicking back and forth between them. Mark appeared to straighten, his eyes sharpening into razors when just before he seemed like nothing more than a nerdy college kid who let his frat boyfriends fuck around with him. "We'll talk when I get back," he snapped, then he grabbed my arm and dragged me away from the group. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a familiar head of dark brown hair and steel gray eyes. Marv watched as Mark Kaval dragged me from the back lawn to the sliding glass doors and once again I was back inside with a guy I didn't know at my side, freezing as the air conditioning slid across my naked skin. I said I could handle this and I was bound to prove that I could.
Mark tugged me behind him, to the same staircase Marv had used earlier and up to the second floor. Once we reached the landing he pushed me into a door on the right and straight into a small bedroom with nothing more than a queen-sized bed and a few boxes.
"Alright, what do you want?" he demanded.
My eyes widened. "W-what do you mean?" I asked.
"I'm not fucking stupid," he snapped. "Girls like you wear heels like that all the time and you did not just fall against my back on accident." As he spoke, he moved around me—keeping his gaze trained on my form next to the bed. He pulled another shirt from one of the boxes and tossed it on the coverlet before dragging the one on his chest up and over his head.
"Girls like me?" I stepped back and smacked into the door, the wood rattling against my spine. I slipped my hand into my bra and pulled out my phone, keeping it in my palm just in case. “I don’t know what you mean.”
Mark grabbed his new shirt, threw it on, and moved towards me. My finger slid up to Knix's speed dial number when Mark snagged my wrist. My phone clattered to the floor as fear punched me in the gut. I was alone in a room with an unknown man who was most definitely a drug dealer. Sure, he looked a little slender and nerdy down at the party—like he couldn’t hurt a damn fly. But I hadn’t missed the muscles of his back and stomach when he had removed his shirt earlier. If he wanted to, I knew he could hurt me.
Mark's other hand landed next to my head. "Now," he said, "tell me the fucking truth. Who are you? And what do you want?" His dark eyes slid down my form and I sucked in a sharp breath.
I wished one of the guys was here with me. Where was Marv? Had he followed? What was I supposed to do now? Did I continue to follow through with the plan?
"Are you g-going to hurt me?" My breath rushed out of me in spurts and I couldn’t seem to draw enough air in. God, I hoped I didn’t pass out.
He frowned down at me and scowled. "No, I'm not gonna fucking hurt you. Just tell me what the fuck you want and who sent you?"
I swallowed, closing my eyes before quickly reopening them. "You work for H. B. Holdings," I said quickly before I could think better of it, "and there's a girl, Erika is her name. She's my best friend and they have her because her boyfriend owes them money and I know that you talk to the police about them—I know that you deal drugs for them—and I need to know what you know so that I can find her. I need to find her. Please help me."
Mark looked almost shocked, but not quite. It's like he wasn't sure what he thought I was going to say, but he wasn’t entirely surprised. "Joshua Caruso?" he asked, and I sighed in relief, nodding.
Mark backed away and, slowly, I bent down to pick up my phone. My heart was still racing a thousand miles per second, but at least the initial danger had passed...somewhat. When Mark remained quiet for a long, awkward moment, I decided to chance it again. "So, can you help me?"
Instead of answering, Mark moved closer and I slid away—inching along the empty wall. I moved away from the door as Mark stepped in front of it. My eyes widened as his hand closed around the knob and he jerked, causing Marv to tumble into the room—eyes angry, fists up. "No, please come in," Mark said, sarcasm heavy in his tone. "Make yourself at home."
Marv glared at Mark and I couldn't help but feel a tingle of relief at seeing him. Marv continued to keep him in his sights as he moved across the room, keeping himself between me and the other man before he finally reached me. "Are you okay?" he whispered as he got near. I nodded sharply.
With a snap of his wrist, Mark swung the door closed again and reclined against it as though he had all the time in the world and no desire to move from the only exit—other than the window over the bed that was surely many feet off the ground.
"Smart of you to get me alone," he said. "Someone must have helped you. Let me guess, you've got people in the house?"
Neither Marv nor I said anything. We didn't, but he didn't need to know that.
"If you want my help, you usually do that by opening your mouth and asking." Those ice cold, dark eyes slide over the both of us, his lip curling downward again.
Marv and I glanced at each other before turning back to the man watching us warily. "I asked," I said, proud of how steady my voice sounded and how I managed to keep my gaze trained on him. "So, what's your answer?"
Mark's scowl morphed into a smirk. "You want me to help your friend, is that right?"
I shook my head, though I did edge closer to Marv and he put his arm around my shoulders, drawing me in protectively. A fluttering of butterflies erupted in my stomach and I squashed them down.
"You don't have to do anything," I informed him. "You just have to tell us where H. B. Holdings might hold her until she signs their contract."
"She hasn't signed a contract yet?" he asked, confusion sliding over his face. "But you said that they picked her up as payment for her boyfriend's debt?"
I nodded. "Why? Is that bad?" I regretted the words immediately. Stupid question. Of course, it was bad. He looked at me as though he thought I was dumb, but oh well—I was stressed, could he really blame me?
&nb
sp; "Yeah, it's fucking bad," he snapped. "If they picked her up and she refuses to sign their damn contract, they're not gonna keep her around long. They're gonna take her out."
"Take her out out?" I squeaked, my hands reaching up and squeezing a fistful of Marv's shirt. Marv's hand clasped mine.
This was not happening. Never, in a million years, would I have predicted standing here in the middle of a frat party in a skimpy dress, trying to save my friend from being murdered or forced to sell herself with the help of a drug dealer. Nope. I definitely would not have guessed this.
"What do you mean?" Marv asked.
Mark rolled his eyes and strolled across the room, back towards the boxes. He reached into one closer to the floor and pulled out a few papers. "H. B. Holdings usually takes their girls out to scare them a bit." He paused to glance over his shoulder at me, lifting a brow. "On the water," he clarified. I wrinkled my nose. How was I supposed to know that? As if he could read my thoughts, Mark shook his head. "You must watch too many damn mafia movies."
The Godfather had been my brother's favorite movie when we were kids...I shook my head. "So, they'll take her out on a lake somewhere?" I asked.
He shook his head, going back to sift through the pile of papers he had pulled. The music from below pounded up through the floorboards, distracting me. "No, the ocean," he said.
I gaped at him. The ocean?! How the hell would we find them if that happened?
"When?" Marv asked. "Do you have a timeline of when they would do this? She's been with them for several days now."
Mark turned towards us, snagging what looked like a crinkled map, and smoothed it out against his upper thigh. "Then soon, if not within the next night or two," he said. "They probably shouldn't have waited this long to do it. She could already be out there for all I know."
"What do they do out there?" I can't help but inquire. "I mean, to scare the girls."
Mark slides a look my way. "What do you think they do?" he sneered.
Asshole.
I clenched my shaking hands into fists and watched as Mark handed Marv the map he had previously smoothed out. "I've done it a time or two before," the guy admitted, rubbing a tan hand through his hair as he looked over the map that Marv held out and open. I moved around them to see better. There were several red lines from places on land to different spots—some farther than others—that were circled.
"These are technically international waters," Mark explained. "They'll take her out at one of these spots."
Marv closed the map and then eyed Mark. "Thanks," he said. I looked between the two of them.
"That's it?" I asked. That couldn't be it.
Mark's eyes narrowed on Marv, proving me right. "Not quite."
"How much?" Marv asked.
Mark's eyes lowered, examining Marv up and down from his shoes to his shirt. But something about the way Mark's eyes lingered on Marv's shoulders and wrists put me off. It confused me. "Twenty-five," he said finally.
"Twenty-five hundred?" Marv blinked, shocked. "Done."
Mark's responding grin was ten times as confusing and even more off putting than the way he had analyzed Marv. As he shook his head, my stomach sank. "Not hundred. Twenty-five thousand."
I nearly swallowed my own tongue. My gaze swung to Marv. What were we going to do? There was no way he— “Done.” I blinked, sure I must have heard Marv wrong. But no, I didn’t. Marv reached into his back pocket—slowly, with Mark’s gaze zeroed in as if he was waiting for either of us to make a wrong move—to withdraw his cell phone and held it up. “I can transfer it from my phone,” he said. “I just need the account number.”
I continued to stare between the two of them as Mark relaxed marginally and a sly, wicked smile stole across his face. They exchanged the information as I remained rooted to the spot, wondering how I had gotten to this point. Twenty-five thousand dollars? I knew Marv was wealthy—I had seen his parents’ house, met his mother—but to have that much money available to transfer at a moment’s notice?
I left the frat house, Marv holding onto my arm with one hand and clutching the map with the other, feeling like I was in over my head. Maybe I was.
Chapter 17
The red light on my phone flashed. The car swung out of the empty spot that Knix had parked in after being kicked out of the party earlier, and headlights crossed over the front windows. The phone flashed again. Lizzie had called. She had texted. So had Kelsey, who had apparently gotten my number from Lizzie as well.
“You okay, Harlow?” Grayson looked over his shoulder at me from the front seat.
I shook my head, still reeling over the events of the evening and shaking as adrenaline coursed through me. “It’s over now.”
“How long were you alone in the room with him?” Knix asked me. “What did he do? What did he say?”
I sighed, scooting closer to the door and leaning my head against the glass. “I already told you everything that happened,” I replied. “I’m fine now.”
“You’re sure you’re okay?” Marv insisted, moving closer to me across the backseat.
I lifted my head and turned towards him. “I promise,” I assured him, flipping my gaze from his to Grayson and Knix’s. “I’m okay.” Grayson’s mouth firmed into a straight line, but he nodded and then turned back to face the front.
After several minutes of riding along in silence, I broke it. “So, what now?” I asked.
Marv and Knix exchanged looks in the rearview mirror. “We head out in the morning,” Knix said finally.
“We’re going after her?” I sat up straighter.
“Yes.”
I swallowed reflexively. This was good. Things were finally moving forward. Time to get Erika.
We arrived back at the duplex the guys had rented. It felt different walking in through the doors, knowing that it may well be my last night there.
"Are we sleeping in shifts again?" Texas asked as he came in right behind us.
Knix shook his head, pulling his phone from his pocket. "No shifts," he said, sharply. "Everyone sleeps tonight. We're heading to the docks tomorrow."
"The map?" I nodded towards the folded-up paper in Marv's hand. Marv nodded and handed it to me.
I spread it out across the living room floor, pushing unwanted furniture away as I stared at the red lines that marked the pathways H. B. Holdings’ boats had, or might have, taken. I pointed to a mark on the paper. All of the lines converged on only three spots so far. "Which one are we going to?" I asked.
Knix turned around, holding a finger to his lips as he held the phone to his ear with the other hand. "Yes, sir," he said. "Will do, sir."
All of us waited as he finished the phone call and hung up. He turned to us and ocean blue eyes met mine. "I'll know in the morning. Alex wants an image. He's sending other teams out."
Marv rolled to his feet. "Come on, Sunshine. Let's catch some sleep."
Texas yawned and reached for the map. He held it up and looked at it briefly. "I'll scan it with what I have here and send it to Alex," he determined.
Everyone else got up and dispersed. I could feel the waves of exhaustion pouring off them. They were pouring off me too. "Wait," Texas called quickly, just as I was about to follow Marv back to the bedrooms.
Already halfway turned, I paused and looked back. Texas bounded up to me and smacked a kiss on my lips lightly. "Just needed a boost. Good night, Spider Princess."
I blinked in pleasant surprise before rolling my eyes. "Pick one nickname," I muttered in reminder. "Just one."
I hesitated when I felt eyes on me. Craning my neck as I left the room, I realized that Knix, Bellamy, and Grayson all stared openly at Texas, then I realized why. None of them had ever kissed me in front of the others the way Texas just had. To Texas, it hadn't been a big deal. A simple form of affection, but they knew it went deeper. I went deeper with all of them. I strained my ears as I kept walking, hoping to continue to act casual despite my knowledge. There were no sounds of yelling, no fists bein
g thrown. Maybe casual was all it had been. It didn't feel like it though. Kissing any of them, no matter how chaste felt like an acknowledgment of my feelings—of our feelings.
Before I could settle my thoughts or even dive deep into Texas’ intentions behind the kiss, Marv called from inside one of the bedrooms. “Which side of the bed do you want?” he asked.
My mouth slid back open. I had seen Marv like this before—casual, half undressed, mussy-headed—but each time was like a swift kick in the stomach. He was, in a word, gorgeous. Lines along his abdomen defined the muscles there.
They don’t seem to mind me sleeping with one of them, my brain chose that exact moment to point out.
“Harlow?” Marv said again, and I jerked my gaze up from his abs and chest to his face, my own cheeks heating up. Caught red handed—now technically red-faced.
“Huh? Um, I mean…what?” I blinked, and then looked away, slowly bringing my hand up as I yawned. Maybe he would think it was sleepiness keeping me from answering him right away rather than my heated perusal of his body. The flush in my cheeks spread down to my neck. Damn it.
“I just wanted to know if you wanted a specific side,” Marv repeated.
“Oh, uh, it doesn’t really matter,” I said, pausing in the doorway of the room. “But isn’t it kind of cramped here, in the house? I could go back to the dorm and sleep so there’s more room for all of you.”
Marv shook his head, groaning. “No, God, no. Please come sleep with me tonight. I’ve gotten shit sleep since you’ve been staying in the dorms.”
“I don’t have anything to sleep in,” I said.
Putting his hands on his well-defined hips, Marv’s head lolled back and he stared at the ceiling. “I’ll give you something of mine to wear.” He straightened to look at me with pleading eyes. “Please stay? We have to leave early anyway.”
“I don’t know, Lizzie’s been calling—she’s probably wondering where I am.” Why was I arguing with him? Okay, maybe I did know why. That bed combined with Marv’s half naked body and the bathroom incident with Grayson were all converging on me.
