H. B. Holdings owns GreenwoodRehab.
H. B. Holdings might be sellingdrugs.
I stopped on the drugs. Josh was a drug addict—that’s why he was in rehab. Josh was an addict in rehab for his drug addiction. If H.B. Holdings was selling their medical grade drugs on the side, but no one was catching them, then how were they doing it? And how did Erika fitin?
Erika had been acting strange the last time we met up and saw each other—the night we had gone to that dance club. It still didn't make a whole lot of sense for her to be hitting on guys and trying to get them to buy her drinks if she was still with Josh back then. Marv was right, if there was one advantage that we had, then it was that I knew Erika. I knew her well. She wouldn't cheat on Josh. That's just not who she was as a person. So, that begged the question, why had she been acting like that? She would have told me that she and Josh weren't together if they had broken up. No, she had made it seem like they were still together, and she was just in town to see me and have fun, but what if there had been an alternativereason.
It stung to think of my best friend as though she had been using me, and even as I put the pieces together that didn't really seem to be the case. I closed my eyes and tried to remember. That night wasn't a blur, it was very precise, but I was so focused on the girl in the bathroom that my memories of Erika were a bit fuzzy. What had she been doing when I came back from the bathroom? She had been surrounded byguys.
"Harlow?" Knix's voice sounded far away, and I ignored the question in his tone as I focused on trying to remember. I was close, so close I could practically taste it. What was I notremembering?
"She was..." Her hands, they hadn't been where they should have been. They were...Erika was—I got it. I looked up abruptly, startling those closest to me—Bellamy, Marv, and Texas all jerkedback.
"Harlow?" Knix drew myattention.
"Erika needed money," I said. "She was stealing from the guys she was flirting with the night at the club." Marv's eyebrows shot up and Grayson frowned. "Are you sure?" Knixasked.
I shook my head. "Not like a hundred percent, but if she was stealing because she needed money then it was probably for Josh. She's a loyal girlfriend and, to my knowledge, at the time, they hadn't, or I guess, still haven't, broken up. So, it didn't make any sense to me why she was hitting on guys and enjoying them hitting on her so much. Plus, she was never really a club going person. I mean, for our graduation party we just took some of her parents' beers and camped out on the beach. We didn't even consider going to aparty."
Grayson got a peculiar look in his eyes as he stared at me. "Do you have an idea?" Iasked.
He stood slowly, stepping around Marv and reached down for the paper in my lap. "I think..." he trailed off, focusing on the puzzle drawing. "I think it does connect back to H. B. Holdings, then." He tapped the piece where H. B. Holdings had been written in the space. "And I think I know how they're selling their drugs without anyoneknowing."
I gasped, standing abruptly. "Oh, my God!" It was right there! He was right. It was almost too obviousnow.
"What?" Texas looked back and forth between Grayson andme.
"You're right!" I proclaimed. I probably shouldn't have been so excited—it wasn't a good thing, but we figured it out. I couldn't believeit.
"What?" Bellamy repeatedTexas.
Together, Grayson and I turned towards the group. "They’re selling it to their patients," Grayson said. "Who better to sell to than addicts? They have a whole host of customers at their fingertips." Knix's eyes widened before he nodded. "That makes sense. When Joshua was admitted, he would have seemed like the perfect score for them." A dark cloud passed over Grayson's face and I put a palm on his arm, ignoring the way Marv looked at us with a dark frown and lowered brows. His lip curled in irritation, but he remainedquiet.
"Hey," I said, "remember, it's not your fault. At least we figured it out. Let's just find a way to...um..." Actually, I didn't know what we were supposed to do next. I looked to Knixpleadingly.
He cleared his throat, catching on quickly. "We have to get evidence against them," he saidfirmly.
"That still doesn't explain why Erika and Josh went missing," Bellamy pointed out. Crap, he was right. But before I could panic, Texas came up with the perfectexplanation.
"Josh doesn't actually have access to money, right?" he asked Grayson. Grayson nodded. "But they would have thought he did, so they might have sold to him on credit. If he and Erika were still together and she now knows about his problems, then maybe he opened up to her about it. You did say that she was loyal, Harlow; maybe Josh convinced her to help himpay."
"Would they have expected him to pay when he was being released?" Marv finally asked. "I mean it would make sense for him to be unable to pay if he was in the facility since it's pretty rare for patients to be given access to finances unless there are specialcircumstances."
Texas looked to Grayson. "When was Josh expected to bereleased?"
"This week," heanswered.
Texas nodded. "Then it's expected that he knew his time to pay was coming up and he probably didn't have enoughmoney."
"Do you think Erika went with him then?" Iasked.
"Maybe," Texas said, sympathy clear in his dark brown eyes. "If she is, maybe she just didn't want to involve you," hesuggested.
"Yeah," I said, "maybe."
Knix clapped loudly to regain our attention. "This is good, guys. Good steps forward. Good work. Now, we just need to focus on each of our projects." He nodded to Bellamy. "Bellamy and I are still going to go undercover and try to ask around. If that is the case, then there may be a few employees there under the drug payroll." Knix turned his gaze to Grayson. “I want you and Texas to continue the search forJosh."
I raised my hand and Knix tilted his head in my direction. "Yes, LittleBit?"