Forcing Gravity (41 page)

“He called a few times while you were sleeping and once when you were taking a bath,” Jase said. “I told him you were fine, and you’d give him a call this morning, but you might want to call him before he calls again. I think he’s afraid I’ve kidnapped you.”

I wondered when exactly Jase and Ethan had exchanged phone numbers.

“He still doesn’t trust you, does he?”

Jase shrugged. “I think he’s hated me for so long that it’ll take a while for him to come around, but I don’t thi
nk he has the same opinion of me
anymore.”

“
I’m glad
.
Thanks for
being understanding
.
”

W
hat I really meant was thanks for being ni
ce to Ethan. He was over
protective as hell
, but he was like a brother to me. I wanted them to get along. I wasn’t sure what Jase and I were, but I knew we were friends at the very least, so I wanted Ethan to like him.

“Just so we’re clear,” Jase said, and I could see the apprehension in his eyes, “you believe what I said, right? That I wasn’t involved in what happened to Amanda?”

“To be honest,
” I said slowly,
“
I had a hard time believing it in the first place, but Ethan wouldn’t lie about something like that, so I had no choice but to believe him.”

“I think Carter had him, and a lot
of
other people, believing I was involved when I wasn’t.”

“He was
the
guy who
named you
, wasn’t he
?”

Jase nodded. “Yeah, I think he was. I didn’t realize it until last night. I thought it was someone else, but I knew how pissed he was that I’d been talking to Amanda in her room. He
’d always
thought something was going on between us, and I think by adding my name to the list of guys who attacked her was his way of saying ‘fuck you’
.”

“Did he rape her
too
?” I asked, wanting to confirm
what I’d started to
wonder
.

“I
don’t know,” Jase said
. “
But after last night, it wouldn’t surprise me.
I’m pretty sure now Owen
was involved too
, even though he swore for years he wasn’t
.”

“I hate them
,” I said sincerely.

“Me too,” Jase agreed.
“
Carter especially, and more now than before.
T
hat was honestly the worst time in my life, and to know that it was him that put me
through it
, I don’t know, I mean, who does that?”

“Amanda
knows you weren’t involved
, right? I mean, I know she didn’t remember what happened, but does she know
you weren’t one of the guys
?”

Jase sighed. “At
first she thought I was involved, because I’d been arrested
. She’d
also
been drugged that night, so she had to rely on fuzzy memories, and the fact that I’d been in her room right before it happened didn’t help. B
ut then she started to remember bits and pieces from the night, and she remembe
red me leaving her room. She also had
some recollec
tion of the other guys, but
they were
just flashes of
memories, nothing concrete
. She’s still not sure what ex
actly happened to her
, but ye
ah, she knows I wasn’t involved
.
”

My stomached churned at that thought
of what she’d gone through
, and I knew
what happened to her easily could have happened to me. Maybe I wasn’t quite as over it as I wanted to be
. “Is she doing okay now?”

Jase
nodded. “She’s alright. She’s a sophomore at Berkley, and I talk to
her every now and then. Her fami
ly moved to Seattle soon after it happened, but we kept in touch. We were g
ood friends for a few years.
I
wanted to be sure she was okay. For years I felt guilty that I hadn’t stopped it from happening, but I realize now that I couldn’t have done anything
, especially if Ca
r
ter was involved. He was her boyfriend. She trusted him.
”

“You’re a good friend,” I said, thinking
how lucky Amanda was to have Jase
, and how lucky I was to know him
. “So how come no one ever found out. How come your name never got out and what happened wasn’t leaked to the press?”

I was shocked that with all the technology in today’s world that no one had ever linked him to that night. I knew he was incredibly lucky nothing had hit the media, but I remembered him saying his parents had worked to have what happened covered up.

Jase shook his head, as if remembering something unpleasant. “We were all minors, so our names were never released, and a lot of students were brought in for questioning about the rape, so it wasn’t easy to determine who was named. Charges we never officially filed against
me
,
and our lawyer did some things to make sure
someone would have to look pretty hard and dig pretty deep to find my name
linked to what happened
.”

“Jesus,” I hissed,
knowing something like that could have killed his career if the media had gotten ahold of it
.
“
Ethan told me two guys were charged with her rape. What happened to them
?”

Jase looked pained as he answered me.
“They’re still in jail from what I understand. They
were
tried
a
s adults and
give
n
the
maximum sentence. There was a lot of outrage
in the community
about what happened to Amanda, so people wanted to see them punished.”

“
I can’t believe Carter got away with it,” I said, shaking my head.

“I’m sure he’ll get what’s coming to him one of these days,” Jase said thoughtfully
, and I hoped he was right
.

“You didn’t like seeing me with him,” I recalled. “I
just thought you were
jealous.”

He shook his head. “I’ll admit, I wasn’t a big fan of seeing you with him, but I was more concerned. It’s why I kept an eye on you.
He was never the most upstanding of guys, so I wanted to be sure you were okay.
”

“I’m
so
glad you did
, but how did you
even
know I needed your help?
”

He shook his head and fisted
his hands. “When Owen approached me
about joining them
, he made it sound like it was going to be an orgy, but no matter how he sold
it,
I knew multiple guys wasn’t something you’d be into. I knew they were up to something shady, so I agreed to go with him.
I never thought I’d walk in on what I did, and
I’ve never been so glad I did something in my life.”

He shook his head a few times, as if trying to push the memory away.

“Logan, I knew you were upset with me and had this image of me
in your head
, but
at that point
, I
just
didn’t care. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to kill someone as much as I wanted to kill Carter Jackson
in the instant I saw him with you
, and only because I wanted to get you out of there did I not
beat him within an inch of his life
.”

Hearing the conviction in his voice,
I wanted so badly to walk around the table and slide into
Jase’s
lap, curl myself around him and get lost in the safeness and security I felt with him, but
after everything that
happened
between us
, and how I’d treated him, I wasn’t sure it would be welcome. Sure, he’d come to my
rescue, and he obviously cared a
b
o
ut me, but it didn’t mean he f
orgave me for pushing him away.

“Thank you,” I said instead. “I don’t know how I can ever repay you for what you did, Jase. I just – shit.” Tears pricked the backs of my eyes
again
, but I fought them back, not wanting to cry in front of him. “Just, thank you.”

“
I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” he said sincerely.

I leaned my head
against the back of the chair and let out a long, slow breath
, pushing the tears away
. “I just wish the whole thing had never happened.” I lifted my head to find him
still
watching me. “Can I use your phone? I want to call Ethan.”

“Sure,” he said, taking it from his pocket. He slid it across the table
to
me, and I went inside to call my best friend.

“God dammit, Lo, where are you?” Ethan hissed as soon as he realized it was me and not Jase.

“
Relax,
I’m at
Jase’s
house. You know that, E.”

I settled onto
Jase’s
cream-colored
couch, getting lost in the marshmallow feel of the cushions.

“I’m not going to fucking r
elax,” Ethan growled. “
Not after last night. Are you okay?”

“Yes,” I said definitively. “I’m fine, and we’re not talking about it again. Nothing happened.
But
please tell me you kicked Carter’s ass.”

Ethan let out a long sigh, and I knew he wasn’t going to move on from this very easily.

“By the time I left him writ
h
ing on the floor, he had a
busted lip, the beginnings of two
black eye
s
, a broken nose
and several cut
s on his ugly-ass face,” he deadpanned
.
“I think I broke some of his ribs too.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, come on, Ethan. I know that makes you happy. At least get a little excited that Mr. Abercrombie will be out of work for a while, and maybe you even did some permanent damage to his pretty face.”

“I guess,” he said, “but it won’t ever be enough.”

“Did you at least kick him in the balls for me?”

“Several times,” Ethan said firmly. “And I made sure to remind him each time that it was for you, and that if I ever heard of him touching another girl against her will a
gain, I would sever his nuts
.”

Holy crap!
Ethan wasn’t messing around.

“Yeah, and then I called the cops and told them Carter was serving minors, and they showed up as we were leaving, and I’m pretty sure his ass spent the night in jail.”

“Thank you for doing that.
Really.
It means a lot to me.”

“
You
mean a lot to me,” he countered. “I’m so fucking pissed off at him. I just wish I could erase what he did to you.”

Yeah, me too.

“Ethan
. I. Am. Fine. Seriously,” I insisted, working to convince him, as well as myself. “
I made a shitty decision, and I have to live with that, but hey, lesson learned. That is the last time I hang out alone with a guy I barely know.”

“You should apply that advice to who you’re currently with,” he mumbled.

“Ethan,” I cautioned. “I know Jase, pretty well, and I trust him. I need you to trust him,
too
. He’s not going to hurt me.”

“He’d better not,” Ethan grumbled.

“If he does, you have my permission to use your right hook on him, okay?”

“Don’t joke, Logan. I will kill anyone who hurts you, and that includes pretty-boy actors. I don’t care how famous he is.”

“Well neither do I,” I countered. Most of the time I forgot Jase was famous. That was his work life. It had nothing to do with the guy I knew. Well, maybe it did. The fact that he had enough pull to get Neiman Marcus and Sephora to allow his assistant to
come shopping
before the
y
even opened for the day
spoke to his status
. “Jase is a good guy – bottom line.”

“Fine,” Ethan said, and I could tell he didn’t want to talk about Jase anymore. “I have to meet with my project team for my ethics class. Call me later, okay?
I’ll stop by and give you your phone.”

“I’ll call you when
I
get home,” I promised and shook my head as I hung up the phone. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see
Jase standing in the doorway to the living room.