I turn my attention back to Shane. He laughs, shaking his head. “It doesn’t fucking matter. None of it fucking matters anymore.” Then he turns and walks away, and Cole allows it.
Cole jumps out of the passenger car door, bringing me out of that memory, and I get out as well, though much slower. I pop the hatch to my Range Rover when the guys near us.
Shane looks at me and then at Cole, narrowing his eyes, and I hold in a sigh. I don’t even think they’ve spoken to one another since that day at the hospital five months ago.
“Why did you bring him?” Cole asks, not even bothering to hide his hatred for Shane.
Bennett opens his mouth to speak, but Shane is the one who answers. “I got a message too.”
I scratch the back of my head. This can’t be happening. “From—”
“Evan Scott,” he interrupts me. “It was in a three-way chat with Bennett.”
“You didn’t mention he was in the chat.” I look at Bennett.
“Yeah, well, my mind wasn’t completely alert when I was woken up in the middle of the night.” He glares at Cole. “After I was hung up on, I looked at it again and saw where Shane was also involved in the message, and I called him. Told him the same thing I was ordered to do, which was ‘pack a bag and get his ass to the airport.’”
I grab their luggage and place them in the back and then slam it shut before we all crawl into the SUV. Silence fills the inside of the car, and I can’t take it, so I turn up the radio. “Can’t Go to Hell” by Sin Shake Sin plays.
“So, what …?” Shane begins to ask, but Cole reaches forward and turns it up louder to drown him out.
I take a quick look at Shane in the rearview mirror, and his eyes are glaring holes into the back of Cole’s head.
This should be fun.
We walk into Cole and Austin’s house. “You’re at the end of the hall.” Cole gestures to Bennett. “You’re on the couch,” he tells Shane, not bothering to look at him.
“Don’t you have four bedrooms?” he asks.
“I’m in the other one upstairs,” I answer him. It’s been months since I’ve spoken to Shane. The last time was the night he got into it with Cole at the hospital.
He frowns. “You’re living here?”
“Isn’t that what he just said?” Cole snaps.
Shane drops his duffle bag to the tile floor in the entryway. The motion makes Austin’s damn Halloween ghost go off.
Here we go.
“What is your problem?” he snaps at Cole.
Cole takes it as an invitation and doesn’t waste a second. He’s just waiting to beat the shit out of someone. “You are my problem!” He growls, getting in his face. They’re nose to nose. “I don’t trust you here! Around Austin.”
Shane snorts. “That’s rich. Out of the four of us in this room, you and Deke are the ones whose body count are the highest when it comes to our dead friends. And he’s fucking living here!”
“I trust him.” Cole growls.
“He’d kill Austin without a thought if you told him to.”
Cole goes to punch him, but I push his chest, knocking him out of the way. “Okay!” I say, stepping between them. “Can we at least limit the bloodshed to outside? I don’t want Austin killing me when she comes home to find blood everywhere,” I joke.
No one laughs.
“Come on, Shane.” Bennett slaps him on the back and pulls him out of the entryway, grabbing his bag up off the tile.
Cole goes to walk up the stairs, but I stop him. He looks at me over his shoulder. “It doesn’t hurt to have numbers on our side,” I tell him.
“It only helps if you know they’re with you and not against you.”
I feel a pain in my chest for him. “No one is gonna touch her, Cole. I promise.” He says nothing. “You know I would protect her, right?” Austin is like the little sister I never had. Shelby was always the big sister, and we’re close, but Austin is just different. She’s just like us. Not afraid to get her hands dirty. Where Shelby would run and hide, Austin would jump to be out in the front. And I think that’s what scares Cole the most. He can’t hold her back if she decides to dive in.
He finally nods, and with that, he turns and walks up the stairs.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
DEKE
LATER THAT EVENING, we find ourselves sitting in the Range Rover once again. I’m driving down the darkened road as Cole’s cell rings through the silence. He picks it up out of the cupholder and lets out a long breath before he hits answer and places it to his ear.
“Hello?” There’s a pause. “It’ll be late.” Another pause. “Don’t wait up. Love you.” Then he hangs up.
I slide my eyes over to him and see that he holds down the power button until it shuts off completely, and then he tosses it back into the cupholder. “Cole—”
“Drop it,” he interrupts me coldly.
My hands tighten on the steering wheel, and I clamp my jaw to keep from telling him he’s making a fucking mistake. Pushing away Austin is not the answer, but we all deal with our demons differently. And Cole is going to do whatever the fuck he wants.
My phone dings, and I take a quick glance at it. My eyes dart to Cole when I see it’s from Austin. “I need to get gas,” I say suddenly, needing to pull over so I can read it.
Cole waves his hand in the air, and the guys mumble an okay from the back seat as if I was asking permission. I wasn’t. Pulling into the nearest gas station, I put it in park and get out, taking my phone with me. I begin to fill up my SUV when I open the message.
Austin: I don’t know what’s up with Cole, but you need to figure it out and tell me what I can do. It’s getting worse.
I run a hand through my hair and let out a sigh.
Me: I’m working on it.
Austin: Are you with him right now? He’s turned his phone off.
Me: Yes, I’m with him.
I top off my tank, and no one questions the fact that I only pumped ten dollars in gas. Or the fact that I just filled up this morning on the way home from the airport.
Twenty minutes later, we pull up to the cabin, and I shut the car off. My lights continue to shine on the little house that the address brought us to at Lake Travis.
“Sure this is it?” Shane asks.
Cole doesn’t answer. He just opens the door and gets out. I make sure to grab my gun out of the center console and tuck it into the back of my jeans. Who knows what kind of situation we are walking into? I’m not going to go unarmed. And I know that Cole isn’t either. Since the police kept his gun for evidence back in Collins, he’s gotten a new one, and he never goes anywhere without it. I’m not sure about Shane or Bennett. I doubt they’re armed, though, since they flew in today and wouldn’t have been able to carry a gun on the plane with them.
Walking up the five steps, Cole picks up the small flowerpot and grabs the single key. The message we had received told us it would be there. Cole opens the door; it creaks as we step in.
I reach over and flip the single switch on the wall, and it lights up the room. It’s not bad for a cabin. A brown leather couch sits in the middle of the room. It has various photos on the walls of the lake that it overlooks, and a TV hangs on the wall. It has a musty smell to it, letting us know it hasn’t been lived in for a while.
Cole walks farther into the small house, and I shut the door behind me.
I follow him into the kitchen, and we all come to a stop. In the middle of the kitchen table sits a glass bowl, just like the one we used to draw our dares from. My heart starts to pound in my chest when I see a folded-up piece of paper inside it.
“Shit!” Bennett hisses softly.
Cole walks over to the table and removes the paper from the bowl. Unfolding it, he looks down at it for a few long seconds. Then he wads it up in his fisted hand and throws it to the floor. “Goddammit!”
“What does it say?” Bennett asks.
Shane just stands there, staring at it on the floor.
I pick
it up and swallow when I see it’s been typed. Smart fucker.
“First, there was eight. Then there was five. But you chose to add one more. Now you’ve killed one of your own. Putting you back to where you were before. What would you do if you lost any more?” I read it out loud.
Then our names are typed one by one, but Eli, Landen, Maddox, and Kellan have a black line through theirs. Then Austin is after that. Her name is also marked out but in red. And below hers, the last name is Demi. Typed black letters but with no line.
What the fuck …?
“Cole …”
He reaches up and grabs the glass bowl off the table and throws it into the nearest wall, shattering the glass.
We all stand silently, and Bennett grabs the crinkled-up paper from my hand and his shakes as he reads over it.
Cole places his fisted hands on the table and leans over. His shirt sleeves strain against his taut muscles, and he’s breathing heavily.
Shane shakes his head, clearing his foggy mind, and takes the letter from Bennett. He swallows nervously as he too reads over it. “Cole …” He starts.
But Cole doesn’t allow him to finish. He spins around and shoves Shane’s back into the closest wall. “Whoa!” Shane throws his hands up in the air. “What the fuck, man?”
Cole grips Shane’s shirt. His eyes murderous, and I’m just waiting for him to punch him. Cole loves to handle his problems with his fists. But instead, he takes in a deep breath as though he’s trying to calm himself. “If anything happens to her, you’re the first one I’m going to kill. Do you understand me?”
Shane’s eyes narrow on him. “I wouldn’t …”
“Do you understand?” Cole yells in his face.
He gives Cole a curt nod. “Understood.”
“Who the hell is Demi?” Bennett asks, looking over the paper again.
Cole lets go of Shane and answers. “Deke’s new fuck buddy.”
“I’m not screwing her.” I sigh. I just dream about killing her. No big deal.
Shane brushes his hand down his shirt. “You’re fucking Becky’s little sister?” He obviously remembers her.
“No.” I growl. “It’s not like that. And she’s with Seth.”
Cole snorts.
The rest stare at me with hard jaws and narrowed eyes.
“What?” I snap, not in the mood to play some game with a new psychopath.
“What all does she know?” Shane asks.
“Noth …” My words stop when I realize that’s a lie.
“Fuck!” Shane growls. Throwing his hands up in the air, he knows I’ve run my mouth.
“What does she know, Deke?” Bennett asks, stepping forward.
“Enough.” I growl.
“How much is enough?” Bennett snaps.
Cole begins to pace with his head down. Shane drops into a seat at the table and places his head in his hands.
“She knows I’ve killed five people,” I admit.
“Of course, she does,” Shane mumbles to himself. I’m about to let Cole knock the shit out of him.
“Why the fuck does she know that?” Bennett shouts.
“After Cole told me that Becky was driving the car when the accident happened, I confronted her at her house and told Becky what I had done. I was pissed. My intentions were to scare her. Demi overheard us talking …” I pause when his eyes widen.
Cole has stopped pacing, and Shane is looking up at me from the table with the same look Bennett is giving me.
“What?” I ask again. “Quit looking at me like that and use your fucking words.”
“Becky was driving?” Shane asks breathlessly and then looks at Cole. “Becky was driving the night our friends died?”
Fuck!
Cole says nothing, and Bennett takes a step back from me, running his hands through his hair. He looks stressed but not surprised. “You knew she was driving,” I accuse him.
We all suspected that Cole wasn’t driving. We thought he was covering for Eli, but he wasn’t. Cole took the fall for Becky. I thought Austin and I were the only ones who knew that.
Silence fills the room. And his eyes drop to the floor. “Bennett?” Still, he looks down. His body rigid. My heavy breathing fills the small room, and I take a step closer to him. “Did you know she was fucking Eli too?” I demand.
Bennett says nothing, but I hear the small gasp from Shane. He obviously didn’t know. Glad I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know that information. “Bennett?” I shout.
Lifting his head, his eyes finally meet mine. “I had my suspicions. But no, I didn’t know for sure. And when I confronted Eli earlier that week, he denied it.” He looks over at Cole, who stands leaning perfectly still against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. “I saw her that night … of the accident.” He swallows nervously. “The girl I was hooking up with was hanging with Becky. I drove them to the party and she had me drop her off next to Cole’s car. I thought she was sleeping with him.” I run a hand through my hair. “But then I realized Cole was with Eli, and I knew. I just knew she was there for him.” His eyes meet mine, and they soften. “Thirty minutes later, you called me.”
I sit in my parents’ living room. My father stands, glaring at me in his ten-thousand-dollar suit. His graying hair slicked back and hands in the pockets of his black dress pants. He stands at six foot four, two inches taller than me, but I’d take him in a fight any day. He’s strong but slow. Sitting in an office with a girl on her knees sucking you off will do that to you.
I lean back, placing my arms along the back of the couch, and ask. “Are we done here? I have plans tonight.” Being the smartass kid he raised me to be.
His jaw clenches, and I bite back my smile. “No, we are not done! And no, you are not going anywhere tonight.”
The guys and I had a swim meet earlier, and of course, he missed it. He was too busy to attend were his exact words, but the second I walked in the door, he decided he had time to spare for a chat.
Just then my phone rings, and I reach into my pocket to get it.
“Deke, don’t you fucking …”
“Hey, sis.” I answer, looking up at him, and he shuts his mouth once he knows it’s Shelby and not one of the guys wanting to know why I’m not at the party yet. “What’s up?”
“Deke …” She sniffs.
I lean forward. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“It’s Cole …” She begins to sob.
I jump to my feet. “What is it?” I demand. He and some of our friends went to a party tonight. I was supposed to meet them there, but my dad cornered me on the way out and said we needed to talk about my future. “Shelby?” I snap.
“He’s here, Deke. At the hospital. They were in a wreck …” She pauses. “Maddox, Eli, and Landen …” She sobs. “Didn’t make it.”
I run out of my parents’ house while my father yells my name. Jumping in my SUV, I fly to the hospital. But on my way, I call Bennett.
“Kinda busy, Deke,” he answers breathlessly, on the third ring.
Tears burn my eyes, and I try to take a calming breath while I drive twenty over the speed limit. “I’m headed to the hospital.” I swallow the lump in my throat. “Shelby called me … Cole and the guys were in a wreck.”
“What? A wreck? What are you talking about?” he asks in a rush, and then I hear movement from his end. Sounds like he’s getting dressed. “Is he? Are they …?”
“Cole is the only one …” I blink, and a tear runs down my face. Fuck, I can’t catch my breath. “They’re dead, Bennett,” I say and choke on the words. “They’re all dead. And she didn’t say Cole was in the clear.”
He’s silent for a long moment. When he finally speaks, I can hear that he, too, is having problems getting his emotions under control. “What about her … is she …?” He pauses.
“Who?” I ask, and he doesn’t answer. I pull into the hospital parking lot. “Shelby called me and said that Cole was brought in. But Eli, Landen, and Maddox didn’t make
it. She didn’t mention a she.” Cole didn’t say anything about going out with a girl tonight, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t pick one up along the way.
“Deke …”
“She didn’t mention a girl,” I shout, interrupting him. “I don’t know who you’re talking about, Bennett. But I just got to the hospital.” I pull into a parking spot and shut off my Range Rover. “I’ll see you when you get here.” Then I hang up before he can go on about some fucking chick.
I rub the bridge of my nose. “The girl was Becky.” I nod to myself. “Everyone seemed to know except me.”
“I didn’t know shit!” Shane snaps.
“I’m gonna tell you both what I told Deke, and that is none of it fucking matters.” Cole finally speaks. He points at the paper in Shane’s hand. “Someone is trying to fuck with us.”
Shane lifts his chin. “What are we gonna do about it?”
“Whatever we need to,” I answer.
“It doesn’t make sense, though. Why is Demi’s name on there?” Bennett sighs.
“She knows. Maybe she set this up, and that’s why her name is on it,” Shane offers.
Cole shakes his head. “That would be too obvious. She would be the first person we suspected.”
“Does she know you’re Evan Scott?” Bennett asks me.
I try to think back to what all I said to Becky when I stood in her bedroom three months ago.
I take the stairs two at a time and knock on her bedroom door. “I said not right now, Demi …” She yanks the door open but stops when she sees it’s me.
“Hey,” I say gently.
She has her blond hair up in a high ponytail and is wearing my Hollywood Undead T-shirt from the concert I went to last summer with the guys, a pair of skinny jeans, and pink high heels. My cock instantly hardens. She knows what it does to me when she wears my clothes.
“What do you want, Deke?” she demands before looking out in the hallway to see if we are alone. Her arms cross over her chest, and those big blue eyes narrow on me—just like her sister. Both Holt women seem to hate me today. This house is like a motherfucking ice castle—cold. “Or should I call you Evan Scott?”
If You Dare (Dare Series Book 3) Page 14