Read Online The Sovereign Era (Book 2): Pilgrimage by Matthew Wayne Selznick - Free Book Online Page A

carried some genuine sympathy.
    “The lawyers,” I said. “My mother. The Sovereigns, I guess. I don’t think it did any of us any good—me or Byron’s folks.”
    “Is that why you called us?” Jason asked.
    I sighed and sat down on the edge of Mel’s bed. “No.”
    “Hold on.” Mel put the Golden Palominos on his record player to cover our conversation and keep his little sister from her occasional eavesdropping from the other side of the closed bedroom door. He held up an index finger until the dude from R.E.M. started singing. “Okay, boy. Go.”
    I mustered a small smile to acknowledge his pun on the first song. I sighed again and looked at my two best friends while Mel bounced down his bed.
    “I…found something out about Lina.”
    Jason’s jaw dropped. “No fuckin’ way. She’s cheating on you!”
    I frowned. “Way to go right to the worst possible thing, ever, Jase.”
    “Well, she’s always hanging out with that Sting wannabe…I dunno…”
    Carson. Jesus.
    “It’s not that,” I cut him off. “It’s something that happened a while ago. Before we knew her.”
    “What?” Mel’s dark eyes were steady on me.
    “Okay.” Another deep breath for me. “Okay, this is pretty shitty, and it’s…okay, look. She was almost raped.”
    “Dude!” Jason barked.
    “Almost…?” Mel would have looked calm to Jason, but I could smell his skin pop with a burst of adrenaline and testosterone.
    “Yeah. I guess this guy came really close—she was all wasted or whatever—but Crystal Dubois pulled him off of her.”
    “Fuck.”
    “Fuck yeah, fuck,” Jason echoed.
    Mel scratched at his chin like he expected to find his old scraggly beard there. “So…what happened?”
    “Nothing.” I chewed on the insides of my cheeks and exhaled through my nose. “That’s the problem. That’s why I needed to see you guys. Get your opinion.”
    Mel shook his head. “What do you mean, ‘nothing’?”
    “I mean, nothing. The guy who did it didn’t get in any trouble,” I said. “He’s still out there. He got away with it.”
    “Lina didn’t, like, press charges?” Jason looked indignant.
    “Nope.”
    “Why the fuck not?”
    I closed my eyes and struggled with what to tell these guys, how much to share. I shook my head, shrugged.
    “There’s…stuff. It happened pretty much right when Car’s parents were killed. The plane crash. That kinda overshadowed everything else.”
    Mel’s lips puckered, and he blew air. He never did learn to whistle. “Wow.”
    “Yeah.” Jason stared into space for a second before looking at me. “So—who is this asshole?”
    “Guy’s name is Eric Finn.” I looked at them both in turn. “Ring any bells?”
    “No,” said Mel.
    Jason shook his head. “So, you gonna turn him in, or what?”
    “Heh. Yeah. No.”
    “Why the fuck not?”
    “That, right there, is why I needed to talk to you guys,” I said. “Lina made me promise not to do anything about it.”
    Jason barked again. “What?”
    “It’s part of…” I realized these two didn’t know Lina was in therapy after the shit I’d dragged her through at the cabin last year. “It’s…personal. Stuff she’s trying to work through.”
    “Well,” Mel said, “okay, then.” He looked at me and crossed his arms across his chest.
    “It’s not right,” I said. “Fucker shouldn’t get away with it.”
    “Fuckin’ A,” Jason said.
    “But,” Mel said, “Lina wants you to let it go. Right?”
    “Yeah.” I looked at my hands. My fingers were curled and stiff. “But…it’s not fair. And it’s kinda driving me crazy.”
    “But,” Mel repeated, “Lina wants you to let it go, Nathan. Life sucks. What can you do?”
    “Fuck that,” Jason said. He looked at me. “Hey. What would you do, if you could?”
    His question broke down a door to a little room in my head I’d been keeping locked down. I stood up and paced a square of carpet. The words came spitting out.
    “Fuck with him. Scare the