Page 64 of Gabriel
“Enough!” Julio roars and stabs a finger toward me. “Pull the stick out of your ass and pay fucking attention.” He turns to Felix. “And stop behaving like some blood thirsty chihuahua. It’s embarrassing.”
Felix’s jaw goes slack. “Did you just compare me to a fucking rodent of a dog?”
“If it looks like a duck and talks like a duck—“ Julio glares, daring Felix to argue. When he keeps his mouth closed, Julio looks back down at his notebook and gets back to the real problem at hand.
“If we find out who it is, step two will be to gather proof. Most people don’t stop at one. Chances are whoever hurt her has hurt other women before her or has done it again since. Cecilia has her reasons for keeping quiet, but if another girl comes forward, that might be enough.
Tearing out a sheet of paper, Julio rewrites the six names he’d written a check mark next to and hands it to Felix. “You do not talk to the guys about any of this, got it?”
Felix shakes the list in his hand. “If I can’t talk to the fuckers, why the hell are you giving me their names?”
“Because you’re going to talk to their girlfriends. Their friends. Their roommates. Anyone those six are close to who might know the shit they get up to.”
“Okay. Yeah. I’m down for that.”
“We do this smart.”
“Yeah. Yeah.” Felix waves him away, already scrolling through the contacts on his phone. Even without hitting anyone, he’s going to enjoy this.
“What do I do?”
“Nothing.”
I jerk back in surprise. “Nothing? What the hell do you mean, nothing?”
Felix snickers and heads for the front door. “Sucks to be you.” He grabs his helmet from the bench we keep by the door and throws back a wave. “I’ll catch you boys later. I’ve got some undercover work to do.”
“No fighting,” Julio calls out, but Felix either doesn’t hear or chooses to ignore him as he rushes out of the house, the door closing with a snick behind him.
Julio releases a sigh and steeples his fingers in front of him. “I swear he will be the reason I go gray in my twenties.” He’s not wrong. Felix will be the reason we all go gray. I don’t know how his mother survived eighteen years of him under her roof. And she’s got more still at home, just like him.
“Back to what you said. What do you mean, I do nothing?”
“You focus on your girl. Spend time with her. Help her feel safe. Let Felix and I figure this out.”
Not happening. “No way, man. I can’t just sit around?—“
“You’re not just sitting.” Julio’s eyes flash. He’s not quick to anger. Most of the time at least. But looking at him now, I can tell he’s riding that line. “You have the most important role to play here,” he tells me.
My face tells him how I feel about that.
He covers his face with one hand, leaving me to stare at the skull and roses inked into the back of his hand. “Your girl is hurting.”
Does he think I can’t see that?
“So the best thing, the most important thing, for you to do, is to be there for her.”
I will. I am. But that doesn’t mean I can’t do both. That I can’t help with this, too. The words to argue are on the tip of my tongue, but Julio knows me better than anyone and doesn’t give me even a second to voice them.
“There’s a chance we figure out who hurt her and nothing comes of it.”
I scoff. No way am I letting that happen.
“I’m serious, Gabe. You need to hear me.”
I wave a hand for him to continue, but it doesn’t matter what he says. I find out who hurt Cecilia and I make them pay. Enough said.
“Have you given any thought to her suicide attempt?” His expression is casual, like he’s asking about the weather and not Cecilia trying to end her own life. But despite his tone, I don’t miss the way his eyes track my expression, taking in every little detail as though he’s cataloging my reaction to contemplate for later.
