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“Those will help with the pain,” he said. Josh downed them in notime.
“Now,” Marv said, squatting down in front of Josh. “Let’s start with ourquestions.”
“I don’t know anything,” Joshsaid.
“Uh huh.” The way Marv said it made it obvious that he didn’t believe him. I didn’t believe himeither.
“Do you know where Erika is?” Iasked.
Josh stiffened before shaking his head. “No.”
“Are you lying?” Graysongrowled.
Josh lifted his head and seared his younger brother with a heated glare. If looks could kill… “I said no,” he repeated. “No amount of asking is gonna change the truth even if you do think I’mlying.”
“Okay, say you’re not lying,” Marvoffered.
“I’m not!” Joshsnapped.
Marv simply nodded. “Alright, you don’t know where Erika is. Did you know where shewas?”
With slow, jerky movements, Josh nodded. He turned his face down and stared at the stains on his knees. He was so vastly different from when I first saw him, dressed up and playing rich suitor in the garden on Sweratt Island. He had been a thief then. He was probably where Erika had picked up her new skills. I wondered if she even realized what this man had done to her—how he had changed her. Eventually, it was Texas who brokethrough.
“We can’t help you unless you tell us what happened. What happened to her, Josh? Why were you in that motel?” Texasasked.
Josh’s shoulders sagged as though a heavy weight had been placed upon them. He brought his hands up and rubbed them down his face roughly, stretching the muscles in his arms and back. He was so pale that the gauze wasn’t as striking against his skin as it likely would have been monthsbefore.
“We were hiding out,” Josh finally admitted. “I couldn’t do it. I-I couldn’t stop the cravings, man. You don’t know what it’s like.” His hands clenched down around his jaw as his muffled words came through the spaces between his fingers. “After the fucking detox they had me go to before I could even get in the center, it was fucking bad. Then there was this guy in the center, one of the nurses or something, I don’t know. He said that if I wanted I could take a little extra to ease the withdrawals, you know? And man, they were bad. I was shaking. I couldn’t sleep. I threw up.” He was shaking now, too, a fine tremble in his limbs and especially hishands.
I slid my eyes to the side, watching Grayson as Josh spoke. Grayson’s face remained as impassive as ever and I wondered just how much he felt under that thick mask ofhis.
“So, I said yeah, and I asked him what he wanted in return,” Josh continued. “He said I didn’t have to do anything right then, I could just have it—on good faith, you know? I didn’t realize until later that they didn’t realize I didn’t have money. By then, though, I was getting a regular supply. I was doing good, real good I thought. They had me in counseling and they said my tremors weren’t showing upanymore.”
“Shouldn’t they have been able to see you were fucking high?” Graysonsnapped.
“Remember what Knix said,” Texas replied quietly. “They were probably in on it and the contract workers that go in don’t know how to look for it, or they expect that everyone looks like addicts.” Josh was quiet as Texas turned back to him. “It’s okay,” Texas said. “Keepgoing.”
Josh raised his face from his hands and stared at his brother as he continued. “The nurse told me that I could pay when I got out and I realized that I wasn’t going to be ableto.”
Grayson scoffed. “Yeah, because you don’t have shit for brains and no moneyeither.”
“Grayson!” I couldn’t do this anymore. I’d had enough. Turning sharply, I wrapped a hand around his arm and pulled him from the room and into the hallway. He went begrudgingly, but he went. When we were out of earshot, I dropped his arm and spun on my heels, poking a finger in his chest. “You need tolay off,” I snapped. “I know you’re mad—hell, I don’t blame you. But we need the information that he has and if you can’t keep your mouth shut then maybe you should stay back here and let us questionhim.”
“I don’t trust him,Harlow.”
I shook my head. “I know,” I replied, “but right now, I don’t care. Now, can you keep quiet or are you staying back here?” Grayson and I faced off, one pair of electric blue eyes boring into me while I remainedunwavering.
“Fine.I’ll stayhere.”
“Good. You do that.” I circled around him and made my way back into the living room, my hands shaking in anger. If he wanted to sulk about it, he could do so well away fromme.
I got back to the living room and shook my head when Marv narrowed his eyes on the fact that I was alone. “Leave it,” I said. Marv looked like he wanted to argue but Texas jumped in prodding Josh to keeptalking.
“So, you were going to have to pay but didn’t havemoney?”
Josh blew out a breath. “Yeah, so I called Erika, told her I needed to leave. She wanted to know why and I…I couldn’t lie to her. I just told her everything.” Josh thunked his head back on the couch and stared up at the ceiling. “She told me it would be fine and she would take off the next semester and I could go to another rehab center and—” He cut himselfoff.
I moved across the room until I stood with my back against thewall.
