Page 43 of Gabriel
Ice cold dread shoots through my veins and I snap my gaze toward him.
“You don’t know that,” I snap, rejecting the idea immediately. That can’t be it. The thought alone makes bile rise in my throat.
A voice inside my head argues that maybe we do. I think back on everything I know about her. Everyone she’s mentioned or had any interactions with that I can think of, and my mind zeroes in on one person in particular.
Austin Holt. That fucker. Who did he cover for?
My mind is reeling.
After what Allie went through— “Fuck!” I spin away from my friends, hands fisted at my sides. “Fucking fuck! That sonovabitch.” I kick the pavement. How did I miss it? It was right there, standing in front of me this entire time. I know whatslimy bastards the guys Holt hangs with can be, but this— “I swear to god, I’m going to?—”
“Gabe!” Felix grips me by my shoulders and shakes me like he can knock some sense into me, but all it does is serve to piss me off more. “Calm the fuck down. What the hell are we missing here, man?”
How the fuck did I not see this? I asked him. Point blank. I asked the fucker if she was raped. I was joking. Sort of. But shit, the signs were all there. That asshole damn near spelled it out for me, but like the idiot I am, I ignored it.
He wanted me to doubt her. To think she was easy and asking for it. With all this #MeToo stuff in the media, it’s made a lot of dudes paranoid. I’ve never really understood why. It’s not hard to tell if a girl is into you or not, and if she says no, it’s fucking no. Plain and simple.
Holt tried to make it sound like it was revenge. Like Cecilia threw around accusations to get guys in trouble when they didn’t do anything wrong. He made her out to be a cleat chaser with a bruised ego.
But you can’t fake the reaction she’s having right now. Someone hurt her, and I’m betting Holt knows exactly who it is and he’s protecting the fucker anyway.
Felix gets in my face again, but I shove him away, needing a minute to wrap my head around this revelation.
“What the hell, man?”
I grit my teeth and stare at my two best friends, concern and confusion filling their expressions.
They need to know. I’m not going to let that asshole get away with this. If Julio is right. If someone r…ra—fuck. I can’t even say it. Goddammit. I’m so pissed with myself. I look to the girl who’s been consuming my thoughts since we first spoke in the hallway, and all I can think about is what she must be going through.
Has she told anyone? Has she tried to get help? How has she been coping with all of this?
By the look of her current freak out, she hasn’t been.
Shit.
I need Julio and Felix’s help for what comes next. They’ve always had my back. Whatever needs to be done, I know I can count on them. We’re ride or die.Familiato the bitter end.
“Holt knows.” My words are strained, anger still riding me in lightening hot waves. “Holt said she threw around rape allegations this summer to get some of his buddies in trouble.” I thought I had beef with him before when he acted like she was his, like he had a claim on her before practice today, but no. I pinch the bridge of my nose and count to ten. This isn’t petty jealousy. What he did — “I’m going to kill him. I swear to god. If I find out he had anything?—”
“What?!” Julio and Felix say in unison.
I clench my teeth. This is so fucked up.
Julio knows without me needing to say the words. “You think Holt knows who her rapist is? That he’s protecting him? Assuming we’re right in our assumption that that’s why she’s freaking out right now?” I can tell he doesn’t want to believe it. Hell, I don’t either. But it makes perfect fucking sense.
I nod. “Yeah. I do.”
“Holt can be a royal prick sometimes, but to be that loyal to someone…”
He’s not wrong. I love my boys. Would do anything for them and they’d do anything for me. But rape is a different story. Julio and Felix both have sisters. This kind of shit is inexcusable. I replay the entire conversation we had back in my head. He said she tried to get his buddies in trouble. But he also said she threw herself at him. He had her, too. Did he— The more I think about it, the more pieces start falling together.
A girl came forward a while back. I remember it being a big scandal for the Zeta Pi house. It was a few years ago and I don’t think anything ever came of it. Was Holt involved back then?
“You remember freshman year?” I ask.
Julio frowns and shakes his head. “What do you mean?”
“One of the Delta Chi girls accused someone in Zeta Pi of drugging her drink at a party. I don’t think it went anywhere, but I remember Holt and some of the others being pissed about it and spewing all sorts of shit back then in the locker room.”
