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Knix rubbed a napkin over his lips before he spoke. "Is this an intervention? I didn't think you had done anything so terrible – at least not yet – do you have something to tellus?"

I frowned, twisting my body so that I was facing the rest of the group and ignored his comments. "From what I can tell, you seem to be masquerading as some sort of college recruiting organization." I paused to take a breath. "That's obviously not thecase."

"What makes you say that?" Bellamy shook his head, laying his paper plate to the side before sitting forward. "I thought I was quite good at that job and wearehoping to recruityou."

"For what,exactly?"

Knix sighed. "Alright, Harlow," hesaid.

I bent my head back in his direction."You'll tell me?" Iasked.

"You're right," he agreed. "We aren't recruiting you directly for college. We're recruiting you for somethingelse."

"We need a girl with certain skills, of a specific disposition, and with the willingness to be trained," Texasinterrupted.

I stared across the living room at Texas as he swiveled towards us on one of the barstools. "What kind of skills? What kind ofdisposition?"

Knix shot Texas a look and Texas huffed, returning to hispizza.

"You came highly recommended," Knix replied."From the information we've gathered, we'vedetermined–"

"Wait, hold up." I raised both of my hands, palms facing out, in front of my chest. "First of all, who recommended me? And second of all, what 'information' are you talking about?" I narrowed my eyessuspiciously.

Someone groaned, but I couldn't tell who it was. Bellamy stuffed another slice of pizza into his mouth while Marv quirked a brow at me when I looked at him. Texas sulked over his ownplate.

"Idon't–"

"No, hold on," Knix cut me off with a raised hand of his own. I let mine drop. "Alex was the one who suggested you. I believe he wanted to recruit you on his own, but he's a bit overworked at themoment."

"He hasn't been by the diner as much as he used to," I agreed. That still didn't explain why and what Alex would have recruited mefor.

"As for the information that we've gathered…" He paused with another sigh. "We needed to make sure that we weren't getting into anything we couldn'thandle."

"So, you what?" I demanded. "Stalked me? Sent Bellamy to kidnap me from school with the intention to interrogate me?"Okay, maybe that was a little dramatic. Butstill…

"We ran a background check. School and medical and any possible police records checked." Texas' voice drifted closer as he stood and moved back into the living room area. "Your SAT and ACT scores – which were considerably good. I do wonder why you took them if you aren't going tocollege."

Feeling defensive, I straightened my back. "They were free because of my mom's lack of income and I thought if anything changed, then I'd need thosescores."

"You mean if you somehow found a way to go to college?" Knixasked.

I stared at mylap

"You could," Texas said, shrugging as he scooted a pizza box over on the coffee table and took a seat there. "If youwanted."

"So, you're the cyber stalker then?" I clarified. "Find everything you needed?" I addedsarcastically.

"Yup." He smiled, though the expression didn't reach his eyes. "That's me, the cyberstalker."

"And yes, we did find out what we needed to." Knix moved closer, picking up one of my hands and held it between his. He leaned closer, eyes meeting mine with a seriousness that startledme.

"You need us, Harlow. You need what we can offer you. All we want to do is help you. Think of this as an internship, a job opportunity or whatever you want. All you need to do is agree to work with us and you'll see that we can change things for you. Change them for thebetter."

"What do you need mefor?"

I was perplexed. I wasn't particularly strong or talented. I certainly didn't have the connections that Marv apparently did. I didn't have Texas' cyber stalking skills. I wasn't as large and imposing as Knix, or as sweet and intelligent as Bellamy. Why would they need me? They had said something about skills anddispositions.

"What kind of skills do you think I have?" I asked. "Why is my disposition soimportant?"


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