Page 62 of Gabriel
“So maybe it wasn’t as bad.”
Felix snorts but says nothing.
“Don’t assume that.” Julio leans forward and laces his fingers together. “Like I said, everyone handles their shit differently. We haven’t been around her enough to figure out her triggers, but she had a panic attack when the three of us approached that first day.”
“So, groups might be an issue?” Felix questions.
I don’t like the possibilities that leads to. “She was fine today.”
“She felt safe.” The way Julio says it, looking at me like I’m the reason for it, makes me sit taller in my seat. Until I remember one small detail.
“They’re on the team.” I’ve barely gotten the words out before Felix explodes to his feet.
“What!? Who?” he demands. “Benson? Was it him? I bet it was him. He’s such a slimy little shit.”
I need to head this off before Felix gets carried away. “I don’t know if it was him.” Though I can’t say I’d put it past him. Felix is right. Benson is a slimy little shit. But we don’t need Felixrunning off half cocked, beating the shit out of random players on the team. Coach would bench his ass, if not kick him off the team entirely. “It could be anyone on the team. She didn’t say, which is why you two need to help me figure it out.”
“You’re sure?” Julio asks.
“I am.”
“Then we check them all out,” Felix suggests.
Julio presses his tongue to his cheek. “It’s not Atticus.”
“No. Not Atticus.” I’m not inclined to rule anyone out without doing at least a little digging. That’s how mistakes are made, and bad people continue to get away with more bad shit. But Atticus Bennet bats for the other team. No one outside of this house knows that. But it’s enough to ease my own concerns and strike him from my list. He wouldn’t try to fuck Cecilia because he has no interest in what’s between her legs. But more than that, he’s genuinely a good guy. Young, and still has a lot to learn, but he grew up with shitty parents and still gives a shit about other people’s well-being. That kid wouldn’t hurt a fly. He even saves the fucking spiders in the house and moves them outside instead of smashing them beneath his boot. He has my respect—not for the spiders. I hate those creepy little assholes and I don’t care how harmless they are. All they’ll get out of me is a view of the bottom of my shoe.
But despite his affection for the eight legged monsters, Atticus Bennett is good people. Compassionate. Trustworthy. Loyal.
Which is more than I can say for some guys on the team. Most are nothing more than overgrown toddlers.
They get the chance to play college ball. Have a shot at going pro—something Julio, Felix, and I work our hardest to achieve every fucking day—but most of the guys on the team waste their potential. They’re blinded by parties and pissing contests.
They have four years here to carve the path for their futures. To be good enough for the MLS SuperDraft. To stand out. It’s not what you do on the field that matters. It’s everything you do leading up to it. Win or lose, your success is determined in the off season. In every minute and every hour you spend off the field and out of the gym.
“Who does that leave us with?” Felix paces the length of the living room. He doesn’t do well with inaction. If there’s a problem, he needs to fix it. Preferably with his fists. It’s helpful most of the time, but not for sensitive things like this.
If we want to keep him out of trouble, we need a plan. Something clear and actionable so we can point him in one direction and cut him loose. I scrub my hands over my face. Why does this have to be so complicated?
“There are twenty-eight players on the team if we count Hunt.” Julio’s face is pensive and I can all but see the gears turning in his head. He grabs a notebook from the coffee table. A pen from behind Felix’s ear?—
“Hey!”
—and scribbles down everyone’s name on the team, including ours. Thorough fucker.
“It’s safe to assume Hunt wasn’t involved, since he’s a late transfer.” He scratches the name from the list. “Subtracting him, Atticus, and the three of us,” he drags a line through our names next, “that leaves us with twenty-three possibilities if your assumption is right and he’s on the team.”
Cecilia didn’t say it word for word, but she might as well have. She knew what I’d think when she made her request. And I’m sure she never would have made it if she knew I’d act on the information. But that’s a problem for another day and I’m happy to pretend she let it slip, hoping I’d step in, figure it out, and save the day. Chicks believe in all that fairytale crap anyway, and thisis my chance to ride in like Prince Charming and prove to her I can keep her safe.
“How many of our teammates are Greeks?” Holt is involved. I can feel it. Either he was there or he found out after the fact and helped cover it up. Either way, I’d put money on whoever hurt Cecilia being a Greek. She used to party with them.Life is a party #ZetaPi…that’s what she posted on social before… before she tried to take her own life.Fuck.I hate thinking about that day.
“At least half.”
That’s more than I expected. “We start there. With the Greeks. If they’re all innocent?—”
Felix coughs into his fist. “How many pledged to Zeta Pi?”
Running his pen down the list, Julio places a check mark next to a handful of names. “Six.”
