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? Doeshe?"
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 tomorrowmorning."
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 atMarv.
"I told you I would be by later," he said with asmirk.
"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," Isnapped.
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 thedoor.
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 stuffout.
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 fullbookshelves.
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?" Iasked.
He quirked an eyebrow, and I rolled myeyes.
"I need to pee," I stated plainly. "And I want to brush myteeth."
He tapped the file in his hands. "I'm sufficiently entertained," he replied. "Take yourtime."
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 masterbedroom.
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 didnotlike 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 inprison.
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 downagain.
"What's up with you?" Iasked.
"It's been bothering me," he said, "what my mother was saying earlier today about the girls coming from the etiquettecamp."
"Why?" Iasked.
"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..."
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 hishand.
"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, Iknewher."
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?" Iasked.
He nodded. "I saw her parents today, I had to ask–it was hard tosee."
"When did you dothat?"
"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 doI."
"What about the other girls?" Iasked.
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 inCharleston."
I nodded, unconcerned. I didn't judge him for it and I didn't judge them. Yea, 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," Iurged.
He groaned. "I don't even know where tostart."
"The beginning is usually the best place tostart."