“Baby? What’s wrong? Don’t worry, I know you’d never cheat on me. I just…I don’t want you looking at other women,okay?”
He put both hands up as if to ward me off. “Whoa, hold up there, dar—Harley. We’re notdating.”
“What?” I blinked, pushing confusion into my tone. “What do youmean?”
“Listen, you’re pretty and all, but I’m ahh…I’m not lookingfor—”
“Oh, don’t worry, I know you weren’t looking.” I smiled at him and moved closer, wrapping my arms around him in a hug—using the opportunity to steal another glance over his shoulder. Marv slipped in through the sliding glass doors and darted somewhereelse.
Kevin pushed me back. “N-no,” he said shakily. “What I’m saying isthat—”
“You want to take things slower?” I asked, raising my hand and pushing a finger against my lower lip. “Do you want to like hold hands and stuff first? I can dothat.”
He shakes his head. “No. No way. Idon’t—”
His denial was cut off as someone from farther in the house called out his name. Kevin exhaled and started backing away. “Listen, why don’t you, uh, find a friend to hang with. I’ve got stuff to do and um…people to see—have fun with the party.” Kevin turned his back and began striding away, muttering under his breath. This time I knew what I was hearing. I distinctly heard him say, “Crazy bitch,” and honestly, that was one of the best compliments I had ever been given by a strange, horny frat boy even if it was the onlyone.
As soon as Kevin was out of sight, I turned and found myself the subject of several interested parties. I felt eyes on me and it made my skin flush red hot. Ducking my head and feigning disappointment, I rushed from the room and found myself scrambling towards an open bathroom doorway. I closed the door behind me and flipped the lock before sliding my phone out of mybra.
Immediately, I was thankful that I had put the ringer on silent because there were already several calls and text messages from the guys. I ignored the messages and redialed Knix before putting the phone to my ear and pressing towards the back wall, as far from the door as possible. Even sequestered away, the music was incrediblyloud.
"Harlow," Knix's voice was tight and gruff. "What'shappening?"
"I'm fine," I said. "I got away from the guy at the front door. Marv made it out towards the backyard, but I don't know where he is now." I relayed the information as quickly as possible, hoping it would not only help him to calm down—because I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was not at all happy with how this party had fallen apart almost immediately—but so that he could tell me what to do next as well. I was here, practically on my own, and I wasfloundering.
"Where are you now?" hedemanded.
"First floor bathroom," I said, taking a glancearound.
I grimaced at the dark slime around the bottom edges of the toilet where the base met the floor, but there wasn't anywhere else to step. It was one of those half-bathrooms with only a toilet and a sink. I turned and noted that the window above the toilet looked out across the side yard. The house next door had light blue siding and all of the lights were turned off. Briefly, I wondered if anyone lived there, and if so, did they care about the obviously loud party going on at their neighbor's house. Living next to a frat house must have been hell—I was sure there was a movie out there about it orsomething.
"Okay, I'm going to hand you over to Texas," Knix said. "He has a layout of the house and he'll let you know how to getout."
"Out?" I pulled the phone away from my ear and checked the screen. Nope. I was definitely talking to Knix. I put the phone back to my ear. "What the hell do you mean by 'out'?" I asked sharply. I had not just been manhandled by a frat boy just to sneak out of here with no more information than we walked in with. "What about theinformant?"
"Let Marv handle it," Knix said. "If he can't find the informant then we'llregroup."
Fury lit up my insides. "No," I snapped. My hands shook, a fine tremble that echoed up my palms and into my arms. "No more regrouping. I'm not useless, Knix. Tell me what I can do. Send me a picture of the informant if you have to. If I'm in Iris, then I'min. I'm a part of this team, right?" I didn't even give him a second to think about contradicting me. I kept speaking even as my heart thundered in my ears. "Stop thinking about me as a girl you like for two seconds and start thinking about me as someone who can pull their own weight. Whether you realize it or not, I can be both. If you don't want to use me then there's no use in me even being here. Why would you bring me if you weren't going to use me?" I was panting by the time I finished my rant. When I realized what I had just said, I paused and held my breath for a long moment. But I wasn't wrong. Maybe I hadn't realized it until that moment, but that was exactly what they had been treating melike.
I got it. They liked me. Hell, I fucking liked them too. I loved them. And yeah, that made my chest clench and my throat close up, but that didn't give them the right to treat me like I was a child. They kept using kid gloves until I pushed them to stop and it needed to come to an end. Rightnow.
Knix blew out a breath and I heard the phone move away as he spoke in low tones to the others. I couldn't hear what he was saying, but when he was back, my heart jumped from my ribcage up into my esophagus, waiting for what the results of my blow up would bring. If he ordered me to come back anyway, I didn't know what I would do. If they couldn't trust me with this, how could I continue to work with them? How could I even consider a relationship with any ofthem?
I held mybreath.
"Little Bit..." His words slid through my ears and I squeezed my eyes closed. "Harlow." I swallowed against the emotion blocking myairways.
"Yeah?"
"Okay," he said. "You stay. I just had Bell text you an image of who you'll be looking for. We don't have a clear picture of the guy, it's from CCTV cameras, but hopefully, it'll give you a clear enough idea." He didn't sound happy, but he also didn't sound angry. Knix's voice was clearly resigned, but that was better than an absolute denial. Anything else, we could talk about and work through. I just needed a chance. As much as I cared about the guys, no matter who I was or what I had been through, I deserved that much atleast.
"What do I do when I find him?" Iasked.
"I'm going to hand you off to Grayson. He received information from Josh about this guy; he'll tell you how toapproach."
"Okay." Even though he couldn't see me, I found myself instinctivelynodding.
"AndHarlow?"