“I wouldn't necessarily say that it's completely untrue though,” Antonio retorted with a small nod. “He is on the hockey team here, so he must have gotten training somewhere.”

“Yeah, and nothing says anger management better than full-contact sports that involve being able to beat the shit out of someone with items that could end up being classified as weapons if used incorrectly…” Gillian paused. “Or technically, correctly if you're trying to use it as a weapon…”

“Either way,” Christopher interjected, “it doesn't make it right, and it still makes him a danger. Even more so if he actually knows what he's doing...because while a weapon has the potential to be dangerous, it's the knowledge of the wielder that makes it so.”

Antonio couldn't argue with that. After all, knowledge was power. Knowledge also made people dangerous, even more than ignorance did. Shaking his head, he sighed, running a hand down his face. “What happened next? Is there anything else?” he asked, trying to bring the conversation back to the original topic at hand.

He had to know everything he could in order to proceed so that he could figure out the best way to protect Annabel and Mathias and Willem. There had to be some other sort of incriminating evidence-- Not that he would be able to present it to any authorities, because if they asked how he acquired the information, then he would end up getting into hot water. Not to mention that if Lukas found out that they knew any of this, then he would likely try to hurt them or silence them somehow. Lukas might even try to get Antonio sent back to Barcelona if he had the connections to make that possible. And Antonio knew that rich people always had connections.

Shaking his head, Christopher sighed. “There's not too much else that I can find. Just that he was able to transfer to a different private school after he left the school on good behavior. Other than that, there's just a few mentions of some verbal arguments that escalated and a couple of kids being hurt by Lukas in some hockey games. Those were written off as accidents due to the nature of the sport, though…”

“So we're screwed…” Gillian stated dully, tugging at his messy white hair. “We have nothing that we would be able to use against him, because everything is either being covered up or excused...or Lukas will find out we know and screw us up himself…”

Silence fell between the three friends. In a way, the knowledge they found out only felt like it was hindering them at this point. There was no clear path that Antonio could see for them to move forward. Anything that they tried to do against Lukas would just end up in some sort of catastrophe.

At the very least, they knew the type of person he was and that was confirmed, so they knew they had to be cautious. They didn't have the power or money to be able to do anything about it though. There wasn't anything that Antonio could see that he could do to change anything about the situation. In all honesty too, this didn't even give a complete picture of the story. There were always two sides to a story, after all.

All Antonio knew was that there was the possibility that Lukas was hurting Mathias based off of what Annabel could tell from what Willem said. Willem and Mathias were close friends and roommates so logically it would make sense for Mathias to end up opening up to Willem, if no one else. However, there was a chance that Willem's emotions, whatever they may be, could be making him biased in the situation because of how close he was to Mathias, or that Annabel had ended up misunderstanding what Willem had meant. There had never been any type of proof, to Antonio's knowledge, that Mathias had ever been physically hurt by Lukas. Emotionally, yes, but that was with any tumultuous relationship. However, if they added in what they just found out about Lukas's past, then that certainly did increase the probability of Mathias having been hurt.

How could they prove it though?

If Mathias hadn't already come out and mentioned that he was being hurt, then it didn't seem likely that he was going to any time soon. And if Willem knew, then that would mean that Mathias had sworn him to secrecy. For whatever reason that may have been.

There had to be something that Antonio was missing. There had to be some sort of information that they were lacking which would make everything clear, because for the moment, they were definitely at a roadblock on what to do.

Surprisingly, it was Gillian who broke the silence in order to offer a plan. “You know, I actually know a couple of the people on the hockey team, and the coach has been trying to get me to join for quite a while. If nothing else, I could go and join the hockey team in order to keep an eye on Mathias there and see how Lukas acts. Make sure nothing ends up happening and get evidence if something does.”

Christopher and Antonio shared a look of surprise, but it was Christopher that was the first to speak up. “Are you sure about this, Gil? You've always complained about how much that you've hated the cold and how much you never wanted to play hockey ever. Why the change?”

Gillian shrugged, standing up and brushing his clothes off as he began stretching. “Ja, that still holds true, but I'm thinking of it more as undercover work. You guys know how much I've always wanted to be an undercover operative. This will just end up being practice at infiltrating and getting close to the enemy. With what we just found out,” he dropped his arms to his sides, “we can't just sit by and wait for something to happen. We need evidence. Evidence that doesn't come from a database, because unfortunately with as corrupt as the law is, they don't want to look at what somebody did however many years ago. They want solid proof of the people doing whatever it was in that particular incident that they're being tried for. Which is stupid, but that's unfortunately how the law and judges work.”

Shaking his head, Christopher looked as though he was about to object, but Antonio simply placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. “No, Gil is right. We're going to need somebody on the inside to be able to do this. Somebody that we can trust, and I wouldn't necessarily feel comfortable with dragging anyone else into this mess. There's nobody outside of us three that should know about this. Too many people end up getting involved and we risk exposure and Lukas finding out that we know about his past. If he gets suspicious or any of this gets leaked, then we'll end up taking the fall. We have to proceed with the utmost of caution. You two are my best friends, mis amigos, and we have to do this right. I don't want either of you getting in trouble when I was the one that brought both of you into this. So if something does happen, I'm the one who shall take the fall. It's only right…” Antonio trailed off as Gillian and Christopher both began laughing.

“Mon ami,” Christopher began, patting Antonio's hand on his shoulder, “do not think that we will abandon you. If one of us falls, then we all fall together. That is what friends are for, non?”

“Yeah! All for one, and one for all,” Gillian agreed, a wide smile on his face as he placed a hand on Antonio's other shoulder. “We're going to see this through to the end. You're not going to get us to back out so easily.”

“You guys…” Antonio glanced between his friends, his heart swelling with joy and relief as he wiped his eyes to make sure there weren't any tears forming there. “You two really are the best.” It was a wonderful feeling to know that he wasn't alone throughout any of this, and he knew that with friends like them that he would never feel alone.

“We know,” they said at the same time, causing Antonio to chuckle.

“Anyways, it's past noon, so we should probably go and find something to eat, and we can start discussing the details of our plans later tonight, just so that we can have a better idea of how this will all pan out,” Christopher stated, closing the laptop and storing it back in its place in his bag before standing up and stretching.

“Right,” Antonio agreed as they all gathered up what things they had brought with them and started down the sidewalk.

“Well, I know that the first thing that needs to be done is that I need to go and try to find the hockey coach. That way I can start talking to him about joining the team--” Gillian started before he was cut off by a feminine voice that spoke up behind them, causing him to let out a high-pitched shriek.