Chapter Seventeen
Harley
"Are you okay, Har?"
Scott and I were sitting together on a wooden bench under a towering pine tree. After Trevor had thrown all of the visitors except Scott and me out, talking about it seemed rather anticlimactic.
"Yeah. I think so." I scuffed the toe of my shoe in the dirt. "You don't think I'm faking it, do you?"
"I know you're not," Scott assured me, squeezing my hand. "If they'd known you as long as I have, they'd know it, too." He shifted on the bench, slipping his arm around my waist. "We'll get this all sorted out."
"Trevor seemed really mad."
Scott nodded. "I think Trevor's a kind of victim's advocate."
I nodded. That explained a lot. Of course, it didn't tell me how I was going to prove that I wasn't faking my memory loss. Then an epiphany hit. Maybe the people on the dating site were the key to finding out what had happened to me. I mean, I've heard of people being slipped drugs and crap like that. Maybe someone accidentally overdosed me.
The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. If I could just get my hands on those papers! Since I doubted that Scott would approve of my plan, I faked a big yawn.
"I think I'm going to go lie down for a bit."
"Oh. Okay." Scott looked at me a little oddly, making me wonder if I'd given myself away. When he stood and offered to walk me back to the guest house, I barely held back a sigh of relief.
I was shuffling through a stack of papers that had been left on the small dining table when the sound of the front door opening took me off guard. If Trevor had allowed Zade and the others back so soon it had to have been the shortest exile in history.
“Harley?” It was Levi’s voice calling my name. “Are you here?”
Crap! Somehow I’d completely missed the fact that Levi had been allowed to stay. And, of course, that was the exact moment that I located the papers I was looking for.
“Yeah, Levi,” I called back, quickly folding the pages together and stuffing them down the front of my pants. “I, uh, was just about to lie down.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Levi agreed, rounding the corner into the small breakfast nook. “That was pretty intense earlier. Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “I mean, it’s frustrating to be suspected of being a criminal, but I guess I can understand that it seems suspicious.” When Levi tried to smile, the light from the overhead fixtures glinted off the tears in his eyes. "Are you okay, Levi?"
"What? Yes, of course." He drew in a breath. "I probably just need to rest for a bit."
"I don't think you are," I disagreed slowly. "Why don't you sit down?" I crossed to sink and filled two cups with water, setting one in front of Levi.
"Thanks." Levi leaned back a little in his chair and sipped from his glass.
"What's wrong?" I managed a small laugh. "Besides the obvious, I mean."
Levi's matching smile warmed my heart a little. "Nothing you really need to worry about."
I raised my eyebrow and he sighed. "Okay. Other than my dumbass husband getting kicked off the property? The thing that's bothering me is how adamantly opposed he is to you and Scott being together."
"Why?"
When Levi shook his head, I suddenly caught his meaning. "Oh! Zade and Scott?" When Levi laughed, I cringed. "You don't mean… Zade and me?"
"Well, no. Not exactly, anyway," Levi assured me.
"You know there's nothing like that going on, right?"
"I do," Levi agreed. "It's just, well, complicated."
He finished his water and patted my shoulder on the way to put the glass in the sink. "I'm just being paranoid. I'm sure it'll be fine once he's back and all, but for now, that nap really does sound like a great idea."
I waited until Levi had retreated to his room to scamper off to my own room and close the door, wishing it had a lock. I carefully unfolded the papers and smoothed them out, gritting my teeth at each crinkling sound.
I read each string of messages carefully, but the first several were fairly benign. Polite greetings sent, all with a respectable photo attached. My responses were, well, a little less polite, if I was going to be honest. In fact, most were snotty at best and, sadly, self-centered in reality.
The last page was a departure from the rest, at least, as far as the approach of the other man. Where all the rest had been friendly and respectful, this one was, well, not.
It was pushy.
Aggressive.
Rude.
It was also the same page that I had been reading at the meeting when I began to shake. I wasn't sure why, but there was something about it that disturbed me.
Drawing in a calming breath, I studied the picture in the upper corner of the message box.
Where the others had been tasteful images of neatly dressed men, this man was nearly nude, raw, and a little intimidating.
The man was bare-chested with only the barest line of fabric visible at the very bottom of the picture to suggest that he was wearing anything at all. His hair was so closely cropped that it could have been anything from chestnut brown to black; all I could be sure of was that it was dark. His mud-colored eyes seemed a little smallish in his large, square head and his smile was really more of a grimace. His torso was oddly hair-free and covered with an alarming number of jet-black tattoos that seemed to be words but in a language that I didn't recognize.
The longer I stared at him, the more I noticed a tightening in my stomach that seemed to almost vibrate with unease. Somehow I knew that if anyone could tell me what had happened to me, this man could.
There was no name anywhere on the page, just a nickname of sorts – Lix-u-good - that I guessed was used to protect his privacy. Which, of course, was going to make it hard to track him down.
Unless…
I shook my head, trying to convince myself of just how terribly bad of an idea I was contemplating. It was definitely foolhardy, but how else was I supposed to get the answers that I needed?
I turned my attention back to the first page that I had set aside; the one that had my name and the picture that I knew was of me, even though I didn't actually recognize it the way I did the ones on Scott's computer. It had all of the information that I would need to log into my account and try to make contact with Lix-u-good.
The only thing I needed was a way to access the website.
There was only one person I knew that had the means to help me and I was pretty sure that asking Scott to let me use his laptop to hit on another man would be pushing my luck too far.
Like it or not, I was going to have to be creative. And, as much as I hated to risk hurting Scott, more than a little devious.
I waited until I heard Levi moving about in the bathroom, apparently having abandoned his nap for a shower, and then slipped out through the front door and into the comforting darkness.
It was only a short walk to the other side of the compound where Scott's van was parked. To my relief, it was dark. Instead of knocking, I took a deep breath and pulled up on the door handle, surprised when the door opened easily. My eyes were already accustomed to the darkness and in the tiny space it was a simple task to find Scott. The sight of him stretched out on the bed that we'd canoodled on earlier that night sent a tiny shiver down my spine. He was flat on his back and nude except for a towel that was barely managing to stay tucked around his waist. His chest rose and fell with his soft snores.
"Scott?" I said his name softly, not wanting to wake him if I could help it.
His lips curved into a smile and a sigh replaced one snore, but other than that, there was no indication that I was disturbing him.
Easing the laptop from its spot on the shelf, I sank down onto the floor and opened the lid, wincing as the bright light assaulted my eyes.
Well aware that I was working with stolen time, I hurriedly typed the website into the address bar and waited impatiently while the site loaded. From there it was an easy process to send a message to Lix-u-good.
Dear Lix, I began, using the greeting that I'd shortened his user ID to in our later communications. So sorry I missed our date. I was in an accident, but I'm better now. If you're still interested, I'll be at the mixer tomorrow at four – ready, willing, and eager to make it up to you!
Clicking the send button, I snuck a peek up at Scott, but he was still dead to the world. Closing the computer and returning it to the shelf, I tried to leave, but couldn’t seem to make myself walk out the door.
Instead, I was drawn closer to the bed.
A barely remembered sensation began to tingle at the base of my spine as I watched the man sleep. Even in the barely-there light, he was beautiful and my hand reached for him of its own accord. I hesitated briefly and continued, emboldened as I remembered the way he'd responded to my touch earlier. I tugged at the little scrap of fabric covering Scott's groin and let the sides fall open.
"Harley?" Scott's voice was thick with sleep.
"Yeah." I stared down at his naked body.
"What's wrong?" His long lashes drifted up and his blue-green eyes shone in the darkness.
I shook my head and then realized he might not be able to see me in the dark. "Nothing. I just missed you."
Scott reached one hand up and held it out to me. When I took it in mine, he drew me down onto the bed and wrapped me in his arms.
"Are you sure that you want this?"
"I really, really do."
Scott's response was a growl deep in his throat as he rolled me beneath him and lowered his lips to mine.