Suncrest U did a study a while back that found less than six percent of reported rapes in the United States lead to an arrest. Less than one percent lead to a conviction. And only half a percent of those convictions result in jail time.
And that’s not even including the over sixty percent of rapes that aren’t even reported. Ones like mine.
It shouldn’t surprise me that Austin and his friends got away with what they did to me. I’m just another statistic. A silent, forgotten number that society couldn’t care less about.
Austin clicks his tongue, straightening as his smile sharpens with cruelty. “Keep it that way. Your boy is sniffing around my business. Get him to stop or—” He lets the threat hang in the air between us.
“I broke things off,” I tell him, hating the way that admission tastes on my tongue. My heart squeezes. Just thinking about Gabriel, about the look on his face when he told me he loved me, it twists something inside of me.
I look down at my chest, searching for the blood I know should be pouring out of my heart. It feels like someone’s stabbed a blade deep in my chest. There’s nothing there. But the pain is real. This ache. Austin found a way to take yet another thing from me.
He tilts his head, a curious glimmer in his eyes. “Trouble in paradise? Lover boy unable to—” He makes a crude motion with his hips, grinding into me. “—satisfy you?”
“Get off of me,” I shriek. Bracing both hands against Austin’s chest, I push with all my might.
He doesn’t even sway.
My breath seizes in my lungs. He’s too close. He’s going to … no. He can’t. He—Urgh!
A mocking chuckle pours out of him.
Fear skitters down my spine. I need to get out of here. But I can’t move. I can’t breathe. And I’m trapped between the wall and Austin’s body. My breathing grows labored, the sound loud in the near-empty hallways.
Where did everyone go? There were more people before. Did the bell ring and I somehow missed it?
“Is that what happened, Cece? Did you realize you need a real man to?—”
“Get the fuck away from her,” an all too familiar voice bites out. The next thing I know, Austin is thrown back away from me and slammed into the wall across from me. His body bounces off the wall, a small grunt hissing past his lips.
My eyes jerk to familiar pools of amber right before Gabriel tears his furious gaze away from mine, only to shove his face into Austin’s. “I told you to stay the fuck away from her,” Gabriel snarls, fists twisting into the collar of Austin’s polo shirt.
Gabriel looks two seconds away from punching Austin in the face, but he can’t.
Not here.
There’s too much at stake for him.
“Gabe—” I start.
“Or what?” Austin bites back. “Last I heard, she dumped your ass. So, why don’t you mind your own business?”
Gabriel’s nostrils flare and he draws his fist back, but before he can swing, I lunge for it. Wrapping my hands around his wrist, I pull down on his arm, praying he won’t shrug me off.
“He isn’t worth it,” I tell him, my voice pleading.
Austin’s grin widens. “You sure about that?” His eyes rake me up and down with clear interest as bile scorches the back of my throat.
The first bell rings, a shrill alarm reminding me to get to class. Only I can’t just walk away from this. Not knowing that as soon as I turn my back, Gabriel will punch Austin in the face. He’d happily be the one to deliver the first blow.
It’s what Austin wants. I can see it in his eyes. He wants Gabriel to punch him, which means he already knows the repercussions Gabriel will face.
I can’t let Gabriel throw his future down the drain. Austin’s parents are lawyers. They’ll go straight to the Dean’s office—guns blazing—and have Gabriel expelled.
Screw him.
Austin doesn’t deserve that satisfaction. He’s ruined enough lives as it is. I won’t let him destroy Gabriel’s.
“What’s it gonna be, Hererra?” Austin taunts. “You gonna defend your girl, or are you gonna walk away like a scared little bitch?”
