Chapter 19
Brodie
“What a stupid song.” I shook my head and took off toward the DJ to get him to play something else, but out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a barefooted Gabrielle being led away from the dance floor by that guy Jeff she’d been dancing with.
My hackles rose as tiny pinpricks stung the back of my neck when they disappeared into the woods.
I thought I should follow them, but then figured it was none of my business and began walking back to where Jackson and I had been talking.
Jackson was now dancing with Lena, so I stood watching, but I couldn’t get the picture of Gabrielle being pulled into the woods in her bare feet out of my mind.
My intuition might be wrong, but I didn’t like the way he’d been holding her on the dance floor, and it just didn’t seem like Gabrielle to go running off into the woods with some guy she hardly knew.
Not the way she’d acted a few nights ago, and not the way she’d slapped me when I’d tried to seduce her a year ago.
Deciding to let the song go and go with my gut, I headed toward the woodsy area.
Besides, I was curious as to where they were going, or more so, why—not that I wanted to spy or watch them if they were going to start making out or something—no, I had no intention of sticking around for that.
But I didn’t know this Jeff guy, and Jackson couldn’t tell me much about him.
Yeah, I’d seen him in the bar, and from the way I’d heard him talking, he didn’t seem the type Gabrielle would go for, but who was I to say?
I had no right to interfere, it wasn’t as if I were jealous or anything.
Gabrielle had made it perfectly clear that she wasn’t interested in me, but it didn’t seem right for him to be pulling her into the woods, especially in her bare feet.
I just wanted to make sure everything was all right.
As I got closer, a muffled scream came from farther within the thicket and I quickened my pace.
I heard the sound again, but this time it resembled more of a moan.
Could they be having sex? I slowed down, thinking I didn’t want to intrude, when I heard Jeff, say, “I told you to shut the fuck up. I guess I was wrong about you. It looks like I’m gonna have to hurt you, after all. ”
I took off running, swearing at myself for spending too much time debating the issue.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I yanked the asshole off Gabrielle, tossing him to the ground like he was nothing more than a sack of rice.
His dick waved like a stiff flag above the opened zipper of his pants.
I glanced at Gabrielle. She seemed to be out of it for a few seconds, but came to and rolled to her stomach in an effort to crawl away.
I wanted to help her up, cover her bare breasts, but I had no time before Jeff bounced back to his feet, tugging his dick into his pants and charging, head-butting me in the stomach.
I went flying backward with him landing on top of me.
I outweighed the son of a bitch by at least ten pounds, and was easily two or three inches taller, but the guy had muscle.
I found that out when his fist landed hard against my jaw, clipping my lower lip between his knuckles and my teeth.
The taste of copper coated my tongue. I shoved him off and swung with my right arm, clipping him in the left jaw.
He swung back and hit me in the same spot as he had before, this time the ring on his finger cutting my lip on the outside.
Ignoring the sting of the cut, I threw out my left arm, catching him in the stomach.
He stumbled back, but I didn’t waste any time before I sent another punch into his face, then another, and another, and another; not giving him a chance to reciprocate until he was finally down on the ground, barely crawling to get away.
I yanked him back up, ready to swing again, but the way he swayed, relying on my fisted hand around his shirt to steady himself, I realized he was out of it.
I let his limp body fall to the ground. He didn’t move.
Whimpering sobs came from Gabrielle as she sat on the ground, scattered among leaves and dirt.
Her once beautiful dress was torn and hung loosely down, exposing the breasts she tried to cover with her hands.
I took off my coat—something I had almost done earlier because of the heat, and was now grateful I hadn’t—and draped it around her shoulders.
She clutched it tightly together in front.
“Are you okay?” A stupid question, I supposed. Of course, she wasn’t; but she nodded.
“He … he was going to … rape me,” she stuttered.
Was?
Was, I repeated to myself. I’d never imagined that one simple little verb could bring such joy and relief to me. “I’m glad it was just was.”
She wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Is he dead?”
“No. The asswipe will live. Unfortunately.” I reached my hand out to her. “C’mon, we need to get you out of here and call the cops.”
“No. Wait.”
“For what?”
“I … I don’t want to spoil Lena’s wedding and honeymoon. She’ll never leave if she knows about this.”
I considered what she’d said, and for some reason, I agreed with her.
It wasn’t something I wanted my brother to have to think about either.
A moaning sound came from Jeff, and I got up and slugged him again, sending him back into unconsciousness.
I looked around, realized where we were.
Jackson and I had used to play in the woods close by when we were kids.
There was a tire swing hanging from a tree several yards away.
“Okay. Hold on. I’ll be right back.” I ran to the swing and untied a portion of the rope connecting the bottom of the swing to another piece of rope.
Our uncle had made it adjustable so we could move it higher and lower to accommodate longer legs.
The variable portion of rope was more than long enough for what I needed.
I brought it back to Jeff and dragged his body to a smaller tree.
I yanked his limp arms behind him and tied them together before securing the rest of the rope to the tree trunk.
“We’ll wait until after Lena and Jackson leave tonight and then call.
In the meantime, we can leave him here. He’ll be secure. ”
“I can’t go back to the reception. Not like this. And you, your lip is bleeding.”
“So is yours,” I said, skimming the bottom of her lip just below the cut with my thumb. “I’m sorry.” I sat down on the ground next to her, our backs leaning against a large boulder.
“You came just in time,” she whispered.
Thank God for that, I thought.
“How did you know he’d brought me out here to …? You know.”
“I didn’t. I mean, I didn’t know that’s why he brought you out here.
I saw you dancing with him, and the next thing I knew the two of you were running off to the woods.
I almost didn’t come. I figured you were going off for privacy and it was none of my business.
” Except, I’d been pissed about it, I recalled silently, but I didn’t need to tell her that.
In fact, a strong pang of jealously had swept over me at the sight of Gabrielle in the arms of that creep, swaying and laughing at his most-likely asinine jokes.
“But the more I thought about it, I didn’t like the way he appeared to be dragging you along, and when I noticed you were barefoot and your shoes were still at the edge of the dance floor, I thought something might be wrong.
I didn’t think you would run off to the woods without them on purpose.
I have to admit, curiosity got the best of me, so I decided to check things out.
There was something about that guy I didn’t like.
Even the way he was dancing with you set off alarm bells for me.
He’s new around here, and I’ve seen him in the bar a couple of times, but I still thought there was something a little bit off with him.
I didn’t think it was something like this though. ”
“Thank God for your intuition,” she mumbled.
“Well, I almost turned back. I didn’t want to come barging in to rescue you, only to find I was intruding on a very private moment.
Then I heard his low clenched threat, telling you to shut up or he was going to have to hurt you.
Sorry it took me so long to realize what was going on. Are you going to be okay?”
Her hands were shaking, but she managed a soft, “I think so. Mostly because you stopped him.”
Jeff moaned and opened his eyes. Shock covered his face at discovering his hands tied behind him, and he struggled under the restraints. He stopped the moment he noticed us sitting there. “What the fuck?”
Neither one of us said anything to him. Gabrielle just lowered her gaze to the ground and clutched the jacket tighter.
“You can’t keep me here!” Asswipe shouted.
“Wanna bet?” I said.
“Let me go or I’ll get you for assault and battery.”
“Excuse me? You’re going to press charges against me?” I laughed.
“Yeah. You snuck up on me and beat the crap out of me when we were in the heat of a very intimate moment, you jealous asshole.”
“You have a weird sense of what intimacy is,” I retorted. “I didn’t detect any intimacy happening. Seems to me, you needed a lesson on what the word ‘no’ means.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. She wanted it. Ask her.”
I wasn’t about to do that. There was no point. I shook my head and he continued. “The way she danced with me, her actions screamed ‘fuck me!’ Any guy would have done what I did.”
Gabrielle stood, walked over to him and slugged him in the same spot I’d pummeled his jaw to a pulp just a few minutes ago.
Then she spit in his face. I smiled. Her actions gave me more satisfaction than when I’d beat the crap out of him.
I suddenly had a newfound admiration for Gabrielle Demeres.
When she came back and sat next to me in the dirt, she pulled the jacket tight.
“How long do you think we need to wait?”
“Dunno. Not too long I’d guess. I think Lena and Jackson might be wrapping things up and getting ready to take off. Probably after they finish the last dance they were having before I followed you out here.”
“Lena’s going to wonder where I am.”
“Yep. Jackson will wonder where I’m at, too. I don’t know how we can avoid that.”
“Do you have your phone on you?”
“Yeah.”
“We can call Weezer, tell him what happened and he can make up some excuse for us.”
“That might work. What type of excuse?” I needed to ask. I knew what I would like to say. I’d tell him we were off getting to know each other better, but, of course, that would never fly with my brother as a good enough reason for missing his send off.
“I don’t know.”
She took my phone and dialed Weezer’s number.
“Hey, Weez.” She kept her voice amazingly steady and controlled.
“Could you do me a favor? … Yeah. Um …” she glanced at me.
“I left the party with Brodie. We went to get some more rice for people to throw. …Yeah. But … um … we got a flat tire on the way. Could you let Lena and Jackson know we won’t be there to say goodbye and tell them we’re really sorry?
” Silence ensued for a few seconds and she frowned.
“Everything is fine. Really. Don’t worry.
Tell them not to wait … I don’t know how long it will take.
… No, I don’t want them to miss their plane.
Tell her … just tell her I’m sorry and to have a great time. … Okay. Thanks.”
She pressed the end button and handed me back my phone. “I couldn’t bring myself to tell him the truth.”
I nodded. “You didn’t need to.”
“I don’t think he believed me though because he kept asking me if I was all right. He’ll make sure they know we’re okay and not to worry.”
I nodded again. “You did great.” I tried reassuring her. I was certain Weezer thought we were off having a good time together, and I really wished we were. Anything beat sitting in the dirt with bloody lips and torn clothes, staring at the likes of the perverted Jeff Adams.
We sat there for about an hour until finally the music stopped. I crept to the edge of the woods and saw that most of the guests were gone. I came back and sat next to Gabrielle. “I’m going to call the police now. Are you up for it?”
She closed her eyes briefly then opened them and took in a large breath of air. “Yeah. I’m ready.”
We didn’t have to wait too long for the cops to arrive.
I had told dispatch where we were, and as soon as they found us in the woods, Jeff began complaining and accusing me of assaulting him, denying all of the accusations Gabrielle made against him.
They took one look at Gabrielle then handcuffed Jeff and took him away.
The female officer asked Gabrielle a gazillion questions before they left, including the dreaded question: “Is a rape kit necessary?” Thank God the answer was no because he’d never gotten a chance.
They told Gabrielle she’d have to testify in court, and told me the same.
As we walked out from the woods, the music of crickets caught my attention and I remembered.
I’d never been one to pass up an opportunity, even given the circumstances. Maybe it wasn’t the right time, but I decided to seize the moment regardless. I draped my arm around Gabrielle’s shoulder and said, “That was supposed to be my dance, by the way.”