by Wild, Nikki
“None shall—” the frat boy began, smirking for a few moments before he realized that Richard had turned, taking the boy’s arm and twisting it hard behind his shoulder in an arm lock. The AEΩ goon screamed out, his deep, throaty voice suddenly reaching a falsetto pitch. “Fuck!”
Before we knew it, three other members of the fraternity were on top of us, two of them going for Richard while the remaining member took hold of my wrist and pulled me away from my stepbrother. I struggled against the frat boy holding my arm, his grip stronger than I had been expecting from some half-drunk rich boy. I heard him chuckle, a look in his eyes that I knew all too well.
Before he could pull me any closer to him, I stepped down hard onto his toes, driving the heel of my foot hard against his at the same moment as I yanked my arm away from his grip. The frat boy yowled, stepping backward in surprise. He stumbled back a few steps before falling right onto his ass on the porch.
I looked up just in time to see Richard punching one of the other AEΩ brothers right in the jaw, another doubled over and grabbing at his stomach. Out of anyone I knew that my brother could handle himself, but as I watched him do away with two of his attackers, I saw four more making their way up the stairs, a dark expression on their faces.
“Richard, we should go,” I called, backing away from the closing brothers and closer to my stepbrother.
“Go? But you only just arrived.”
I turned my head to quickly I might have given myself whiplash, taking another step closer to Richard as Michael stepped through the front door, a wicked smirk on his face. I felt like I was going to be sick, my mind unsure of whether to be afraid or enraged at what that monster had done to my best friend.
I heard Richard roar in anger, moving past my like a wild animal, his fist raised. But before he could even get close to Michael, four pairs of hands grabbed him and threw him to the ground.
“I wouldn’t, if I were you,” Michael said in his smug, cocky voice. “You’re a guest in our house, and assaulting your hosts is just so rude.”
Michael’s frat brothers laughed in a dim-witted chorus. My stomach turned as I watched him bask in their sheep-like admiration. This was the kind of thing that Michael loved, being the mastermind, the leader of “lesser men” as he called them. It made me sick just watching it.
“You know why we’re here, Michael,” I said. “We want the pictures back.”
“Pictures?” he asked, feigning innocence. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
“Cut the bullshit,” Richard snarled, slowly getting to his feet under the watch of four muscled college students. “You know what picture’s we’re talking about.”
Michael made a pleased sound in his throat, his smile only widening like some psychotic Cheshire cat. That smile made my skin crawl.
“We should discuss business inside,” Michael said, motioning for his henchmen to step back. “It’s far too crowded out here, I think.”
Richard and I begrudgingly followed Michael into the house, a troop of brothers following behind, their faces taking on a menacing expression. I didn’t like the way they looked at me, hungry like a pack of wild animals. Was that the look they’d given Becky before they’d raped her? I wanted to vomit at the thought.
We were lead into what appeared to be some kind of sitting room, a set of leather armchairs set right in front of a roaring fire. The entire room was lined with bookshelves, and it gave off a definite air of sophistication and class. If this room had been in any other place on Earth I might have honestly been in heaven.
“Close the doors, gentlemen,” Michael called to them, his tone almost patronizing. “We’d like some privacy.”
We heard the soft click of the double doors closing behind us as Michael began to pace leisurely in front of the fireplace.
“So, little Miss Becky told you about our little party the other night,” he said. “She’s such a naughty little slut. But not as naughty as the two of you, I think.”
He casually drew out his smartphone and began to swipe his thumb across the screen, moving it from left to right as he gave a sinister chuckle.
“The things you two have done to one another,” he said, shaking his head and clucking his tongue. “Most people wouldn’t dream of seeing things like this…. And to your own stepbrother no less, Jessica? It seems like you’re twice the slut Becky is.”
“Don’t you dare talk about her like that!” I said, clenching my fists. “You’re lucky I don’t report you for what you did to her.”
“Luck had nothing to do with it, Jessica,” he said, smiling so smugly as he turned his phone toward Richard and I, a picture of Becky on the screen, her hair a mess, her eyes half open. With a touch of his finger, the video began to play and Michael’s recorded voice rang out clearly.
“You want this, don’t you? Tell me you want to fuck me. Say it right to the camera,” Michael said over the speaker.
Becky’s eyes turned toward the camera, confusion plastered across her face.
“I want it,” she mumbled, blinking slowly.
“And there you have it,” Michael said, shutting off his phone. “I believe they call that consent.”
“You drugged her,” Richard growled. “That doesn’t count as consent.”
“Where’s your proof?” he asked, looking around as though it might be in the room with us. “Did little Miss Becky get herself tested? A rape kit? Drug screening?”
My stomach tightened. Becky had been too scared to step forward, afraid of the judgement and the persecution that came with being a victim of sexual assault. She didn’t want to be another statistic, another “slut.”
“And in regard to our business,” Michael laughed, “I’m going to be keeping these pictures right here on my phone where they’re nice and safe… and if I ever need you to do something, then I’ve got everything I need to make sure that you do it. After all, you wouldn’t want Mommy and Daddy finding out their precious little stepchildren are getting nasty together at college, do you?
“And I don’t think the coach will be too thrilled to find out that his star freshman quarterback likes to stick it to his family members, do you? Bad for publicity.”
I felt bile rising in my throat as the reality of Michael’s threat hit me like a ton of bricks. If he released those pictures—if our parents found out what the two of us were doing together—our lives would be ruined.
“Why shouldn’t I just take that fucking phone from you right now?” Richard asked, taking a step forward threateningly. Michael only let out another laugh.
“Because, Richard, those pictures aren’t just on my phone… they’re up there!” he said, pointing into the air above him. “Up in the Cloud, where they can be nice and safe in case something silly might happen to my phone. Isn’t technology grand?”
“You son of a bitch,” Richard growled.
“I can’t deny that,” Michael chuckled, “my mother is an enormous bitch. But that’s not the point here, is it? No, the point is that I’ve got proof of something that you don’t want the world to know about, and for the low, low price of whatever I want, it’ll stay that way—tucked away in my little corner of the internet, never to be seen again.”
“And if we say no you’ll release the pictures all over the internet,” I said, a crushing feeling of defeat crashing over me like a ton of bricks.
“Still as smart as ever,” Michael sneered, his tone mocking as he slipped his phone back into his pants pocket.
I turned toward Richard, hoping that he might have an answer to what was happening, some kind of clever trick he might be able to pull out on Michael that would save us both from both embarrassment and possible disownment from our parents. Richard’s life would be ruined and his college football career over before it even had a chance to really start.
“What do we do?” I asked, my voice low, though I knew Michael could hear every word. I could practically feel him gloating over both of our misfortune. He had us right under his th
umb—exactly where he wanted us with no foreseeable way out that didn’t ruin our lives.
“I don’t know, Jess,” he said, his eyes staring into the back of a high backed leather chair that Michael had taken to leaning on heavily. “I really don’t know.”
“Well, for starters, the two of you could get out,” Michael said, his voice filled with mocking cheer. “This is a house for the brothers of AEΩ, which neither one of you belong to. We pride ourselves on keeping out the garbage… though I could make an exception, if sweet little Jessica were willing to spread her legs a bit.”
Richard moved forward like a tiger about to jump in for the kill, his face a deep, dark red, his expression filled with rage. I barely had enough time to reach out and pull his arm back, stopping his just shy of slugging Michael right in the jaw.
“Don’t!” I shouted, looking right into Michael’s smirking face. “That’s what he wants.”
Richard’s body was so tense, each of his muscles ready to spring at a moment’s notice.
“He wants an excuse to leak those pictures,” I whispered, putting myself between the two of them. “We can’t give him a reason.”
“You are just so smart, Jessica,” Michael said, false admiration filling his voice. “You really should take her advice, Richard. After all, who knows how long something like fucking your own sister is going to follow you through life?”
“Let’s go,” I whispered, pushing against my stepbrother’s nearly frozen body. Slowly I felt him giving against my efforts until finally he moved back a step and turned. Richard didn’t say a single word, his jaw clenched shut the entire way out of the AEΩ house and out onto the street.
The silence was almost unnerving as I fell into step behind Richard, unsure exactly where either of us were going at first.
“You’re kinda scaring me, Richard,” I said, swallowing hard around the still present lump in my throat. “Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”
“My dorm,” he grunted, though he never turned his gaze back toward me as he walked.
“Why there?” I asked, my brow furrowing as I hurried to keep pace with him.
“We need to regroup and come up with some kind of plan.”
_ SIXTEEN _
Dick
“What now?” I groaned. “If we don’t get those pictures then we’re going to have that bastard looming over our heads for the rest of our time here. Those pictures are going to ruin us… especially if mom and dad find out.”
“I know,” she sighed, her head in her hands. “We are completely fucked.”
The two of us had gone back to my dorm after the confrontation with Michael at the fraternity to figure out what our next move would be. As it stood, Michael had the upper hand on us. The pictures themselves didn’t technically exist outside of his phone, though with the way things worked now, that meant that the pictures were also floating around in the Cloud, able to be retrieved regardless of whether that bastard’s phone was smashed. The only way to save ourselves was to find a way to delete those pictures from existence and hope Michael hadn’t been smart enough to make backups.
“There’s no way we can get those pictures,” I said, running a hand through my hair in frustration. “Not unless we suddenly learn how to hack into Michael’s phone. And I’m not sure if you noticed, but none of us are that good with computers.”
“I know that, Richard,” Jessica said, frowning at how upset I was getting. If these pictures got out, it would be the end of my football career, and I hardly believed that my dad would fund his son’s college if he knew what his step-daughter and I had been up to while we were away from home. “I probably know that just as well as you do.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, resting my face against my hands. “I’m just worried, that’s all. I don’t like being threatened, and I especially don’t like you being threatened, either. I just wish I had a solution, something that I could actually do to make all of this go away. But like I said, neither of us are that good with computers.”
I looked up from my hands just in time to see Jessica sit up suddenly, her eyebrows raised. It was like a light bulb had gone off over her head.
“What about Greg?”
“Greg?” I asked, frowning. “This is all Greg’s fault! Why would he help us?”
“I think we’re going to make him help us,” Jessica said, a smile creeping onto her lips. “Greg is a Computer Science major, and from what Becky kept saying about him, he’s like a Steve Wozniak-level genius. If we can convince him to help us, then we’ll be one step closer to being in the clear.”
“But the question is whether he will or not,” I pointed out again. “After what he’s already done? To us and to Becky? He’ll be lucky if I don’t beat the shit out of him when I see him.”
“You’ll just have to curb your violent nature,” Jess said as she pulled out her phone. “Becky ought to know what class he’s in right now. Once we know that, we can head straight over and persuade him.”
According to Becky, Greg would be held up in class for at least another hour, which gave us the time we needed to get ready and head all the way across campus and stake out the entrance to the building. It was late in the afternoon, the sun slowly sinking down toward the horizon when the time came for students to start streaming out from the doors to head off to who-knows-where.
I glanced down at Jessica’s phone to get another look at Greg’s picture. He was a mousy guy from what I could tell, with the typical nerdy look that I’d seen so many times back in high school. It was surprising a guy like that even had the balls to do what he did to Jessica and I. But that still left the matter of what had happened to Becky unattended.
“He should have been out here by now,” I said, arms crossed as the two of us sat on a bench near the computer science building’s double doors. “What if he didn’t go to class today?”
“We’ll stay for a little while longer, Richard,” she said exasperatedly, “then we can go look for him at his dorm. Becky was sure that he’d be here today.”
My impatience was beginning to wear on her, and I certainly didn’t blame her. I hated to wait on anything. I was the kind of person who needed to be moving and doing something to feel like I was making a difference, and sitting on a park bench sure as hell didn’t feel like I was getting anything done.
“I can go in and look for him,” I said, clenching and unclenching my fists anxiously. “Bring him outside and then we can talk to him more privately.”
“No,” Jessica said, waving the idea away, “we don’t want to start a scene in there. Let’s do this a little more subtly. If campus security sees you hassling some guy then you can kiss playing in the game goodbye.”
“Fine,” I muttered, turning my gaze back toward the entrance to the computer science building. “What if he runs?”
“Then we chase after him, obviously,” She said, glancing over at me as she took a drink from a bottle of water she’d stashed in her bag. “I don’t think that he’s going to put up much of a fight, especially by the looks of him. Becky said she he was a bit of a wimp.”
I nodded, glancing down at Greg’s picture again on the phone. Jessica was right, the guy barely looked like he could support his own weight, much less throw a punch. But I wasn’t sure that would stop me from making him regret drawing Becky into Michael’s clutches.
“I think that’s him,” Jessica said suddenly, drawing me out of my thoughts.
I looked up, scanning a crowd of students as they began flooding from the double doors. Class must have just let out and with the evening drawing closer it looked like everyone was eager to head back to their dorms. I almost didn’t see Greg at first among all of the passing faces, but it wasn’t until Jessica pointed him out that I finally locked my sights onto him. He had a dark red baseball cap on, pulled down over one side of his face, almost like he was trying to not be recognized, but doing a poor job of it.
“Let’s go,” I said, helping Jessica to her feet as we made our
way after Becky’s boyfriend.
Greg didn’t seem to know we were following behind him at first, his pace casual as he headed in the direction of the Student Union. I motioned for Jessica to get out in front of him while I stayed behind, hoping to catch him between the two of us, corner him before he got to someplace crowded.
Before long the crowd thinned and soon Greg was meandering along on the sidewalk, the street lamps flickering to life as he turned toward one of the on-campus dorms. This was going to be one of the only chances we’d have to get him alone. Jessica glanced back at me from in front of Greg, hoping for a signal—but only succeeded in drawing Greg’s attention behind him.
He might not have recognized Jessica from the back, but he certainly recognized me almost immediately. All at once his face flashed with both recognition and panic, freezing in place like a deer caught in headlights.