Things Made Right Read Online Free PDF Page B

told me she heard you’d disappeared from the party.” The girl glanced around. “Campus police wouldn’t do anything about it,” she said. “I waited too long. I went in three days later.” She stared down at her hands. “I don’t know if you’ll have any better luck than I did.”
    White-hot fury engulfed Loren. “Why didn’t they do anything about it?”
    She shrugged but didn’t meet Loren’s gaze. “Told me I should have been more careful what I drank.” She finally looked at Loren. “I didn’t drink. Just a soda. Which Walter got for me. That’s the last thing I remembered.”
    The white-hot lava turned to ice in Loren’s veins. That was exactly what the damn cop had told her, too. Verbatim. Ross hadn’t been allowed in the interview room with her. Hadn’t heard the guy say it.
    And she hadn’t told Ross or Emily that the cop had said it. “They didn’t say anyone else had reported anything.”
    “If Sgt. Lansing is the one who took your report, it probably got shredded the minute you walked out,” the girl bitterly said. “I looked into it. He’s friends with Kessling’s father. They went to school together. Apparently poor kids like us, we don’t get justice.”
    Loren made her way home after they finished talking. She was curled up in a ball and crying when Ross, who now had a key to their place, came in and found her an hour later.
    “What happened?” he asked, gathering her into his arms.
    She tearfully told him what Kelly had told her. And that Kelly had found out there were others.
    Many others.
    Most hadn’t reported it, terrified of the men carrying out their threat to rape them again.
    Several of them had dropped out.
    As Ross quietly listened, rocking her, gently tapping that comforting rhythm against her arm with his fingers, Loren realized the life she’d wanted for herself was over.
    She didn’t know what was in store for her, but she’d utterly lost faith in the system, had lost faith in most humans.
    Once Ross graduated, she’d likely lose him, too. At least his quiet, solid presence.
    There was no way she could make it through another semester without him. She didn’t even want to try.
    “I promise I’ll make this right, baby. I’m going to make this right. You have to trust me.”
    “They won’t do anything!” she said. “The cops don’t give a shit. And since it happened on campus, they have jurisdiction. If I try reporting it to the city cops, they’ll just pass it off and say they didn’t have enough evidence to proceed. They’ve won.”
    “No, they haven’t,” he quietly insisted. “And they won’t. I promise. Have faith in me, Loren, even if you can’t have faith in anyone or anything else.”
    As she settled into his arms to cry, she knew she did have faith in him.
    But that was about all she had left.
     
    * * * *
     
    The whispering voice near Loren’s ear scared the crap out of her, almost making her scream. “Just a little reminder that if you try to report us again, we’ll be back with worse.”
    She didn’t move, belatedly realizing she’d inadvertently isolated herself in a far corner of the library in one of the study carrels.
    By the time she made herself turn and look, she spotted the back of someone she suspected was Walter Kessling disappearing around one of the stacks.
    Hands trembling, Loren gathered her books and papers and raced for the elevator bank. She punched the call button several times and finally bolted through the stairwell door, running down the three flights of stairs to the lobby where she burst out into the entryway.
    From there, she ran home.
    That’s where Ross found her twenty minutes later when he arrived.
    “What happened?” he demanded when he got a look at her.
    She tried not to tell him at first, afraid for him. But when he finally ordered her to tell him, his mouth set in a grim line as he pulled her close and held her while she cried.
    “It’s okay, sweetheart,” he whispered. “I’m taking