My feet left the ground and I wound my legs around his hips. One of his hands reached out and slapped against the emergency stop button. There was a loud noise, but it was drowned out under the feelings coursing through me as Marv pushed me back against the wall and kissed me like I was the last girl on Earth – the last woman on Earth. It felt like the entire world could end right then and there, and neither of us would havenoticed.
Sparks of electricity danced under my skin everywhere his hands roamed. He cupped my sides, rolling downward, squeezing my ass. I gasped as he rubbed me between my thighs. Blinking my eyes open, my fuzzy vision cleared as I realized he was looking down at me. His eyes were animalistically dark – the normal, light gray darkened into a deep storm. It would have been scary if it hadn't been Marv, but it was Marv, and I knew he would never hurtme.
One of his hands rose and brushed back my hair as he stroked my face. "We can't do this here," he said through gritted teeth. "But soon,Sunshine."
I didn't reply, but he must have seen something in my face, because he nodded and put me down. I stood there for several shocked moments, confused by my own reactions as Marv reached over and hit a button to restart the elevator. As I adjusted my clothes and smoothed out my hair, I had to ask myself and not for the first time, what the hell was Ithinking?
* * *
As I walkedinto the hotel room, I could swear the guys knew what Marv and I had done in the elevator. But it was obviously just my imagination because if they knew then one of them would have said something. Texas shot a smile my way over the mound of computers set out in front of him, on the table in the corner of the room. Knix paced back and forth in the space between the flat screen television and the twin, queenbeds.
"Bell?" Knix asked when we entered, shooting the question toMarv.
"Parking the car. He'll–" Just as Marv was about to finish, the door beeped and opened again, and Bellamy stepped through, closing it quickly behindhim.
"Good." Knix nodded his way. It didn't escape my notice that he barely spared me a glance until that point. When his eyes finally met mine, I realized something was very wrong. "Harlow, why don't you take aseat?"
I did as he asked, but as soon as I was seated on the bed, I couldn't keep quiet anymore. "What's happened?" Idemanded.
Everyone else spread out; Bellamy against the wall, Marv on the bed with me – he put his hand on my back and I tensed. Bellamy and Knix both noticed, but neither said anything. Instead, Knix squared his shoulders and faced me. "There's been some new developments." I had figured as much, but had hoped that it wasn't anything major. With the gravity etched across Knix's face, I knew it was veryserious.
"What's happened?" I asked again, grateful that my voice wassteady.
Knix turned and it was then that I realized he had a remote control in his hand. He flicked on the television. "Texas," heprompted.
"Right!" Texas hit a few buttons from his computers and the screen of the television shifted, changing to what appeared to be lists of numbers scrolling past the screen. "Hold on," he said. "I'm bringing itup."
He scrolled a bit more. "There," he said, stopping. "So, it looks like Mr. Wallace has had some interesting transactions in his accounts. If you'll look at this–" Texas used the mouse icon to circle a rather large number, "every month, on the same day, someone deposits a couple thousand dollars in hisaccount."
"It's not the same as what the girls are being blackmailed for," Knixsaid.
I turned my neck and craned up to look at him. "You know how much they're being blackmailed for?" Iasked.
He paused for a moment as if deciding if he wanted to tell me. Then he sighed and nodded. "Marv has been in contact with Mr. Spencer continuously while we've been up here," he said. "And the man has noticed that, like clockwork, about 5K a month has been disappearing from different accounts. It took a few months for him to notice because sometimes it was from his wife's account, sometimes his stepdaughter’s, sometimes his and sometimes the house or businessaccounts."
"The stepdaughter is the one getting into those accounts?" Iasked.
He nodded, but Marv was the one who answered. "He keeps all of his account information locked in a safe in his office. He hadn't realized it, but apparently Sarah found his passcode. She's been slowly siphoning money from each account to keep itquiet."
"She must be so scared," I said. I couldn't imagine it, having to steal from my own family just so someone wouldn't release pictures of a private...my thoughts immediately went to the word shame, but that wasn't right. These girls had no reason to feel shame. What had happened to them, if it had in fact happened, wasn't theirfault.
Knix nodded. "We weren't able to track the money, but the money that shows up in Mr. Wallace's account occurs on the same day as when the money disappears from Mr. Spencer's variousaccounts."
"Okay...but..." My mind was working in overdrive. I stared hard at the numbers on the screen. "The money doesn't matchup."
"The numbers, you mean?" Texasasked.
I nodded. "Yea, you said that it's five thousand that she pays every month. He's only receivingtwo."
The screen scrolled down again. "Yes, but two days afterward, he receives another threethousand."
I shook my head. "No, that still doesn't makesense."
Knix watched me with intelligent eyes. "Why do you think that is?" he prompted. I think he already knew and he was urging me to figure it out on my own. Even when in the middle of a job, he was a teacher in every way. I sighed, shifting away from Marv as I sat further on the edge of themattress.
"Sometimes companies will take a couple of dollars from an account for large payments and then a few days later, take the rest. But it's just a couple of dollars. I've never seen anyone take a couple of thousand and then a couple thousand more. Aside from that, we have established that Sarah isn't the only girl, right?" I looked to Marv forreaffirmation.
His hardened face told me I was right, but I waited for him to nod anyway. I turned back to Knix. "Then how much is he blackmailing the others? Is it the same amount? Is he changing it per family? There are a lot of questions that still need to beanswered."