Page 60 of Allure
He looked down at the paper, knowing how easily he could get distracted if they kept talking about Syra. He tried to place where he had heard Horizon Inc. “Did you research this name before he came here?” he asked as he leaned forward and opened up a new window browser.
“No, as soon as Jamie had it, I ran right over here. She said she didn’t look into it and had to deal with something with her husband. Once she’s done, she’s going to call me back.”
Marco typed in the search engine and waited to see what links were generated. There were a few for church organizations and youth programs, but nothing stuck out to him as out of the ordinary.
Another dead end.
He went to close the browser when something caught his attention. He clicked the last link on the third page and waited until the webpage loaded. The sound of both his and Asli’s cell phone ringing had them cursing. It had been nonstop since the fires in Industrial City, and Marco had been tempted to keep his phone on silent, but he didn’t want to miss a call or text from Syra.
“Oh shit,” Asli’s voice was thick with worry, and Marco scrambled to find his phone. When he clicked the alert, he saw a picture of a missing woman flash across his screen. If she didn’t have blue eyes, he would have sworn he was looking at Syra.
Christina Benson might have resembled Syra—she made the comment herself—but Marco couldn’t see the similarities. This Lisa Mensa, however, could have been related given how closely their features resembled one another.
The hairs on the back of Marco’s neck stood up, and something close to dread filled his stomach. This didn’t feel right. Nothing about any of this was feeling right—not that a dead and missing woman was ever okay, but it was the nature behind it. People didn’t go missing in Lockwood. This area was relatively safe. If anyone ended up killed, it was an accident, nothing that equated to outright murder.
He tried to remember what he could about the details that surrounded Christina’s death. He knew she didn’t die from the fire; she’d been killed before her body was moved to the vacant building. She had marks on her neck, like she’d been strangled, and she had been badly beaten and brutally assaulted. He remembered the cops specifically thinking he had a relationship with Christina. They had seemed almost desperate for him to be guilty because someone had tipped them off that they had seen him with her numerous times, which made no sense. He didn’t know her or ever cross paths with her, and he had an alibi for each time he was supposed to have been with her, including the night of the fire.
“What’s going on in your head?” Asli pulled him from his thoughts. “You don’t think this is a coincidence, do you?”
It wasn’t. Too many things were happening at once for it to be random. These were all deliberate attacks, and he hated that he felt like Syra was somehow in the mix of things. “We never actually found out if Colton left Lockwood, right?” Marco didn’t think the man was smart enough to steal money from his company. Tearing down his properties and hurting women seemed right up his alley though.
“No. You think this is him?” Asli all but growled. His usual easy-going and happy face morphed into an anger he hadn’t seen on his friend in a long time. There was a reason he was the charmer and level-headed one out of the two of them; Asli had a temper that was dangerous when left off its leash.
“Maybe.” Marco hesitated. “There’s no love lost between us, and if the rumors weren’t exaggerated about him in college, I can only imagine how things have escalated for him when it comes to his violence against women. Which doesn’t make me feel good for numerous reasons, one of them being the way he was staring at Syra in Gregory’s.” He looked down at Lisa’s picture, a sick feeling churning in his gut. “Or how much these women look like her.”
Marco flexed his hand, regretting not bashing Colton’s face when he’d seen him leering at the coffee shop. It seemed like such a long time ago since Syra walked back into his life and told him working together would be a mistake. To think, if he was a better man, he would have let her go and sold the building outright to her and her friends.
But he was thankful he had no interest in being the better man or he wouldn’t have gotten to experience her again.
“If this is him, he has help.” Marco continued just as Evelyn burst through the doors with Jamie on her heels.
“We have a problem.” Evelyn and Jamie spoke at the same time as Marco’s phone rang.
He looked down to see that it was Syra calling, and he raced to answer it. “What’s wrong?” He and Asli were both on their feet, ready to move, until the sound of a news anchor filled his office. He tuned it out, trying to understand the words Syra was telling him.
“Wait, what? Slow down, what happened?” He looked at Asli who was already on the phone with Link telling him to pick the women up when Marco mouthed where they were.
“Boss,” Evelyn’s voice was laced with concern.
There was too much going on, and when he focused on what Syra was telling him, he heard the echo of a news anchor coming through on Evelyn’s phone.
It looks like the spotlight is back on Garrison Inc, and this time it’s a little more personal. It seems a sex tape of both owners and a mysterious woman have been making the headlines around the internet….
Marco dropped back into his chair, trying and failing to calm Syra down. This he could handle, unfortunately society still revered men when it came to sex. He knew this wouldn’t necessarily hurt him or the company. It might make some business associates a little wary but not enough that they pulled away. It was going to hurt Syra, though, if they found out it was her in the video. He didn’t want this touching her, ruining an experience that was only supposed to be meant for them.
“Asli is having Link pick you guys up. We’ll handle this, okay?” He didn’t feel confident, but for her he’d get to the bottom of this and fix it because there was no other choice.
Marco reluctantly hung up and dropped his phone on the desk. The motion jarred his computer screen awake, and he realized the website had finally loaded to reveal a real estate page. There wasn’t much to it. The most it had was a banner with the company name, and he scrolled all the way toward the bottom, cursing when he saw the name associated with the page. He realized why Horizon Inc sounded so familiar. It was the name of the fake business Colton set up for one of their college classes.
“I think we know for certain who these attacks are coming from. Though I don’t think he’s acting alone.”
It seemed like when things were finally going right, something inevitably went wrong. Delilah was watching the news unfold in real time surrounding Garrison Inc, and though both Marco and Asli promised their shit wouldn’t touch Sirens, it wasn’t looking like that was going to be the case. Not with this sex tape circulating. It was clear Asli and Marco were the ones on the video. What was strange was how whoever took the video seemed to purposely cut and edited it in a way that completely blocked Syra’s face out of the shots. No one knew who the female was between them, but the speculation had been endless.
“It makes me so angry that someone would not only violate their privacy but everyone else’s at Orchard Tree,” Raven snapped over the speakerphone. She had called as soon as the news reached her—apparently this wasn’t an issue that was confined to just Lockwood, which meant Syra’s sexcapades were everywhere. “How’s Syra doing?”
“Frustrated and visibly upset,” Delilah responded, feeling exhausted all of sudden. She’d been running on empty, doing her best to keep her mind occupied on pretty much everything else so she wasn’t so alone with her thoughts.
She offered to let Syra stay at her house, but Link had taken her back to Marco’s. It was just her, Kat who was using the restroom, and Raven watching—listening to the news play this story on a loop like it was the most important thing going on in the world. Not like they didn’t have a murder to solve or a missing person to find. Both women had looked suspiciously too close to Syra, and the need to keep her friend close and protected had almost made her force Syra to stay here.
