Page 31 of Heartbreak Kings
“All the more reason for us to take control of her,” Daniel mused. “It will impress them if we influence her into praising the campus instead of constantly reporting on her harassment. If we have her in hand.”
“Yeah, I’m still down with the plan if she’s into it—that’s not the problem here,” I sighed, poking at my eggs. I had barely eaten. “The problem is, Carmody is escalating, and even if he doesn’t have the power to mess with our positions, he can still cause all kinds of problems. Especially for Sabine.”
Marcus glanced up sharply at that. He had been digging into his stack of sausage patties like he was a grease addict who hadn’t had a fix in days, but now he set down his fork. “Shouldn’t we just lurk on those chat forums and watch what he’s planning, so we can head them off?”
I shook my head. “No, because they won’t be doing all their planning online. We’ve got to confront him in front of the other guys and make them at least understand that he’s way out of line and not serving Alpha Omega’s interests.”
Blake was staring at me, the little frown on his face telling me he thought I was out of line to be taking all this shit so seriously. But I didn’t know how else to take it. The alarm bells were ringing in my head just as loud as back when Dad had gone out drinking and I had known he would drive home drunk.
“Fine,” Blake agreed. “Confront Carmody in front of the others if you feel it is necessary.”
I stared back at him, then puffed out my cheeks, exasperated as I evaluated my fellow Gentlemen. “Can I get some backup, then?”
Nathaniel shrugged, back to eating. Daniel was frowning but said nothing. Blake wasn’t interested.
“I’ll go,” Marcus agreed, breaking the tense silence between us. “Even if it turns out to be nothing, I always love taking a piece out of that prick.”
I relaxed slightly. It wasn’t exactly a vote of confidence, but I would take it.
The picket lines around Sabine’s dorm building had thinned more as the weather had gotten colder and midterms had drawn near. It seemed like most guys had lost their taste for the argument against her being on campus, probably because she wasn’t exactly disruptive. If they had all minded their own business, she would have done the same. But Carmody was going to be there and, in the chat logs, had pressured the others into joining—or rejoining—him. This would be an excellent opportunity to see who exactly had listened to his rant. We couldn’t just knock them off the waiting list, but I could make sure they were on notice that Carmody was not a guy to be listening to over us.
“I don’t get why Blake isn’t taking this seriously,” I sighed as we walked toward the dorm. “I mean, the evidence is all there in black and white.”
“Well, you know Blake. The guy is convinced he can handle anything Carmody throws at us right off the bat. He thinks he doesn’t have to be proactive. Your gut may tell you differently, but he only listens to his own gut.” Marcus shoved his hands farther into his pockets, his breath puffing white. It wasn’t even October 1 yet, and early mornings had still been down near freezing for almost a week.
I wasn’t surprised that Blake’s own cousin was so open in his criticism. Marcus was usually diplomatic, but there was a tension between him and Blake that had always lingered. Marcus wanted reforms. Blake wanted to stick to tradition. But tradition and Carmody’s daddy were the reasons we hadn’t been able to get rid of Carmody yet, and just look where that was getting us.
“I just hope his ego doesn’t end up coming back to bite us,” I muttered. “Have you run into Sabine since Daniel talked to her?”
He smiled. “Nah, haven’t been lucky enough, and I wanted to give her more of a cool-off period before I started visiting her classes again. I felt like shit after that dinner.”
“Yeah, me too.” We reached the top of the hill, and I saw the small crowd gathered at the entrance to the dorm building. Only three guys had signs. The rest were just hanging out. But I could already see a fat, trench-coated figure soapboxing to them as they stood there.
How does that prick ever get anyone to listen to him?He had no charisma that I had ever seen. All he had was a big ego, a loud voice, and persistence. “You think he’s giving out free bags of weed to every guy who shows up?”
“That would make more sense than them just listening to him,” Marcus mused. “But I think he’s just saying shit out loud that some guys have been thinking. You notice how most of them are freshmen?”
“Yeah,” I sighed. I wasn’t too far grown out of my asshole days, and if I hadn’t been ahead of the curve, I wouldn’t be part of the inner circle. Many eighteen- to nineteen-year-old dudes were still maladjusted edge lords, and some were worse. “Guess he’s just appealing to his maturity level.”
“Yep.” I already knew Marcus wasn’t including me in that group. He was normally my closest friend among the five, and he knew what I was about.
When we got closer, I started hearing Carmody yelling hoarsely above the chatter of the small crowd. “We can’t rely on the administration to protect our interests. We can’t rely on fraternity leadership to protect our interests. She has to go, and if we want her gone, we have to act for ourselves!”
Nobody cheered or even yelled agreement, which reassured me a little. Some guys just kept talking, like they hadn’t even noticed his yelling.
“What are you suggesting we do, kill the poor girl?” Marcus called out, sounding darkly amused.
Carmody glanced up, his eyes going blank and his expression of righteous fury fading to uncertainty. And he answered, trying to play off as if he hadn’t just been stirring up people against us. “We keep the pressure on until she runs,” he insisted.
“What do you mean ‘we’?” I wanted to run up and punch him in his fat, ugly face, but I was sure the whiny fuck would press charges. “You’re down to five people out here. And you’re sure as fuck not telling any full-member Alpha Omegas what to do. You’re barely a fucking pledge.”
“Just because most of my supporters couldn’t make it,” he started, and Marcus laughed.
“Your supporters?” Marcus mocked. “Nobody’s here supporting you, buddy. The only thing you’ve got in common with these guys is that you don’t want a woman on campus.” I studied the guys’ dubious faces. “In fact, I’m not sure you even have that.”
“Yeah, asshole, and you’ve already been told that we’re handling it,” I added.
“Handling what, her tits?” Carmody retorted. All eyes turned to us as the crowd went quiet. “You’ve been taking her into the frat house to fuck her, haven’t you? You’ll let her get away with anything for a little pussy!”
