DARE SERIES COLLECTION

by Tessier, Shantel

  All this time, Cole thought it was an accident.

  “I told you all of this in confidence,” she barks at him.

  He ignores her, staring right at me. “Then she called 911 and said she heard her fall down the stairs. As if she cared about her pathetic life.” He shakes his head.

  “No!” I say slowly. “Cole said she fell and died in surgery due to complications.”

  He laughs. “Cole only knows what Celeste told him.”

  She had gone to his school and pulled him out of class. Told Cole that his father had called her and said his mother passed …

  She grabs his sleeve and starts to yank on it. He doesn’t budge, and his brown eyes don’t leave mine. “She waited thirty minutes before she called for help. Lilly was delivered in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Betty was dead by the time they arrived at the hospital.”

  I look at her with wide eyes, hoping for her to give me some sign that he is lying. That he’s being the Kellan I know and trying to mind fuck me. But she starts pounding her fists into his arm. “You son of a bitch!” she shouts at him.

  He reaches out and grabs her arm. “And now you’re gonna see history repeat itself.” He pulls her across the grand foyer, and I stay planted where I’m at, trying to wrap my head around all of this. He starts dragging her up the stairs, and when she cries out, it pulls me out of my trance.

  I run up after them and grab her free arm. Kellan spins around at the top of the stairs and pulls a gun out of the back of his jeans and points it at me. My stomach drops as I stare into the barrel. I throw my hands up in the air, my breathing picking up.

  “Back up!” he orders.

  I take one step at a time, slowly descending the stairs backward and swallow. What the hell is he doing? I feel my phone in my back pocket and go to grab it, planning to call 911.

  “Keep them up!” he snaps, and I flinch at his tone.

  “Okay, okay, okay,” I say, and my voice shakes.

  “See …” He goes on. “Celeste is pregnant.” She starts to sob. “With my child.” He rolls his eyes. “After getting Betty pregnant, Bruce had that situation fixed so it would never happen again. That rules him out. And I’m the only other guy you’ve fucked, right, baby?” he asks, pressing the gun to her temple.

  She sobs but nods her head.

  He goes on, satisfied with her answer. “And just like Bruce and Liam, I don’t want a child. But unlike them, I plan on doing something about it.”

  “Please, Kellan,” she begs. “I love you.” She sobs.

  He smiles. “You were nothing to me.” Then he shoves her forward. And she falls down the long staircase like a ragdoll. I run over to her as she hits the marble floor and slide on my knees to her side. Her head is tilted to the side and blood pours from her nose and mouth. I feel for a pulse, but there’s nothing.

  “You killed her.” I begin chest compressions. I’ve never done it before, but I’ve seen enough medical shows to have an idea.

  He comes down the stairs slowly, looking at me strangely.

  “You killed her,” I cry out, stopping to pull my cell out to call the police.

  “You are trying to save her? She killed the love of your life’s mother. Who just happened to be your half-sister’s mother as well.”

  “She’s pregnant,” I say frantically. My hands shake uncontrollably. “The baby didn’t do anything to you.”

  “Oh, but it will. That’s why it’s got to go.” He grabs my hair and yanks me back from her. My cell falls to the floor. I twist and turn in his grip as he drags me across the marble floor in the grand foyer.

  He yanks me to my feet, and I’m gasping for a breath when he slams my back into the wall. He wraps his hands around my throat and leans in. “You’ve been playing a game all along, Austin, but it’s been my game. My rules. And now it’s over.” He shoves me away, and I slide on my knees, hitting the floor once again. When I turn around, he has a knife in his hand. He twirls it around. “Cole has always been fascinated with blood. And I gotta say, I didn’t understand it until I watched him smear it with his hands all over your skin.”

  What? Smear it over my skin? The night in the cemetery. “How did you …?” I trail off at his laugh.

  “Celeste called me when you arrived. I had Shane and Bennett take me back to my car. By the time I got back up there, Cole and Deke were already playing with you. I stood back and watched you all night. I knew you were perfect for me the moment I saw you light Jeff on fire.”

  Someone had been watching me after all.

  He takes a step toward me, and I crawl back until I hit the side of the staircase. Celeste’s body lying only feet from me. Her eyes still open as more blood covers the floor. “Then, when you stole the car with Cole, I tipped the cops off. I have them all in my pocket, after all. My uncle is the chief. I wanted you to get caught.”

  “Why?” I demand.

  “Because if you were locked up, he couldn’t have you.”

  “But you hated me … you tried to kick me out of the group …”

  “All part of my plan. Every time I pushed you away, Cole pulled you closer.” He smiles. “And Celeste played along so well. See, I told her the final dare. Killing Bruce. She wanted the guys and me to kill him, and then she wanted me to kill you and Cole and run off into the sunset with her and Lilly.” He snorts. “All the lies she told Cole.” He chuckles. “You. It was so fucking perfect.”

  “You sick bastard,” I spit out.

  He chuckles. “He and I are the same, Austin. We both used you however we wanted.”

  I shake my head. “Cole would never hurt me. Not now.” Lie. He’s hurting me right now. He left me. All because he thought my father was a threat. But he wasn’t. Kellan was the one all along.

  “You’re right,” he agrees with a sigh. “He wouldn’t harm a hair on your head. But I’m gonna paint these walls with your blood.” He gives me a sinister smile. “After all, his favorite color is red.” He lunges for me, and I crawl away before jumping to my feet. But he’s faster. “Little bitch!” he snaps, reaching out and grabbing my ankle, causing me to trip. I cry out when my face hits the marble floor. Pain explodes behind my eyes. I’m flipped over onto my back, and he straddles me. He drops his knife, and it hits the floor with a clank and then his hands go around my neck. He cuts off my air.

  “I wanted Bruce to take care of you,” he growls. “Just like I wanted him to kill Cole when I drove his car to fuck his wife.” He laughs at that. “But I’ll just have to do it myself. In case you just recorded me killing Celeste.”

  I try to push him off, tear his hands free, but he’s too strong. I try arching my neck to get in a breath, but it gives him better access to tighten his grip.

  “My only regret is that I won’t get to fuck you.” He sighs as I try to buck him off. “Because I listened to the recording of Cole fucking you inside that bathroom, Austin.” I try to claw at his face, but his reach is longer. Making my hands only touch air. “I got off on it so many times, imagining it was you and me.”

  Dots form in my vision as my body grows heavy. My arms fall to my side, and something cold touches my fingers.

  It’s the knife.

  I wrap my hand around the rough handle and shove it into his side. He immediately releases my throat as he screams out.

  I suck in a ragged breath, my throat burning. He falls back onto his ass as he looks at the knife sticking out of his side in horror. I begin to cough.

  “FUCK!” he screams, throwing his head back.

  I get up to my feet and run to the kitchen where there is a landline. I pick it up with bloody, shaking hands and dial Cole’s number.

  He answers on the first ring. “Hello?”

  “Cole!” I choke out his name. My voice is now rough and my entire body is shaking uncontrollably.

  “Austin! What’s wrong?” he demands. I hear Deke’s voice in the background.

  I burst into tears and begin to tell him Kellan is here. Any other girl wou
ld call the cops. But since I know Kellan has them in his pocket, they’re out.

  “Slow down, sweetheart. I can’t understand a thing you’re saying.”

  “He’s here!” I scream out. “Kellan’s at my father’s house. He killed Celeste!”

  “I’m on my way …” The line goes dead.

  I turn to see Kellan leaning up against the countertop, the cord from the wall in his hand. The knife still in his side.

  I should have yanked it out.

  Made him bleed out faster. Even now, his face is pale, and he’s hunched over. Blood covers his clothes and there’s a puddle where he stands.

  He gives me a bloody smile. “He’s not gonna make it.” Lifting the gun, he fires.

  EPILOGUE

  COLE

  Twelve years later

  IT’S THE USUAL cloudy day in Collins, Oregon. Any second, the clouds are going to open up and pour down rain. I miss it here. This town had a lot of demons, but it was quiet at times. You never get that in Texas. There are always people no matter where you go. And the traffic—it drives me mad sometimes.

  I kneel and place the bouquet of yellow flowers on the grave. They’re the only ones at this cemetery. Not much has changed. The dead are still forgotten at the top of this hill. I come back to visit twice a year. Every Christmas and on her birthday. I wish I could come more, but work isn’t slow by any means. Running a law firm isn’t an easy feat. Even if you have Deke Biggs as your partner. But I make sure to come and tell her that I miss her. How much I loved her. How I wish she could see Lilly grow up. She’s going to turn eighteen this year, and I just can’t wrap my head around it.

  I turn around, giving the grave my back and look down the hill at the house that was torn down years ago. The Lowes estate was demolished after Bruce was arrested on three counts of manslaughter. We were supposed to kill him, but like I once told Austin—plans change. And that’s exactly what happened when Deke and I showed up to the house after she called me that night.

  My phone rings, and I look down to see it’s the Lowes residence. I answer, expecting it to be Celeste. “Hello?”

  “Cole!” Austin’s strangled voice calls out my name.

  I jump up from the couch in the clubhouse. “Austin! What’s wrong?” I demand.

  “What’s going on?” Deke asks, also standing.

  She starts to cry uncontrollably, and I can’t understand a thing she is trying to say. “Slow down, sweetheart. I can’t understand a thing you’re saying.”

  “He’s here!” she screams. “Kellan’s at my father’s house. He killed Celeste!”

  “I’m on my way …” The line goes dead.

  Deke and I pull into the driveway in record time and jump out of my car. He’s already called 911 on our way. I burst through the front door and don’t even bother giving Celeste’s lifeless body a second of attention, knowing she’s already dead.

  “Austin?” I yell out, pulling my gun out of the back of my jeans. “Austin?” I shout, running down the hallway.

  I follow a blood trail into the kitchen and come to a stop when I see Kellan leaning against the countertop. He chuckles when he sees me, but it causes him to cough. A knife sticks out of his side.

  My eyes look at the wall ahead of me, and it’s also covered in blood. Austin’s blood. She lies on the floor on her side. I run to her.

  “Austin?” I choke on her name, brushing her hair from her face. The smell of the blood so strong it causes bile to rise, but I swallow it down.

  “What the fuck?” Deke gasps, entering the kitchen.

  “Take him!” I call out.

  “She needs help,” he says, looking down at her body with narrowed eyes. There’s so much blood I don’t know where it’s coming from.

  “Take him!” I bark. “Help is on their way.” I turn my attention back to her, and I hear Kellan grunt as Deke drags him out to the car. Taking him where the cops will never find him. He’s not dead yet, but once I’m done with him, he’ll wish he was.

  Austin’s eyes are closed, and her body lies limp. “Please, baby,” I beg. “I can’t lose you.” My throat tightens. I feel her neck for a pulse, and I feel nothing.

  My heart stops, and I drag her away from the wall to the center of the kitchen floor. I begin CPR.

  The guys and I called off the last dare. Bruce didn’t need to die. We had enough evidence on the laptop that Austin had Shane steal to prove Bruce had three people killed. I never did find out why he tried to kill me. Deke thinks he wanted me dead so Celeste could have Lilly. I always knew she wished Lilly was hers, but that didn’t make sense to me. Bruce never wanted kids. Why would he want Lilly then? I reminded Deke that some people are just evil. They do things just because of the simple fact that they can. I should know. Look at what I put Austin through.

  Bruce was arrested three days after I found Austin dead on his kitchen floor, and his conviction gives him no chance of parole. He’ll spend the rest of his miserable life in a cell wondering how in the hell he got caught. Trying to figure out how four teenage boys and his teenage daughter managed to fuck him. It wasn’t the original plan, but it was good enough for me.

  Kellan, on the other hand, begged for his life. I told him outside the clubhouse the night that I found Austin’s cell in his car that I was going to kill him with my bare hands, and I did just that. I hated that he was already almost dead when we found him, but a part of me, a very big part, was proud of what Austin did. She fought. She did what I knew she was capable of.

  And as for her mom and stepdad? Austin never came out and asked me, but I didn’t have to tell her—I took care of them. Deke helped me. We made it quick for her mother, but her stepdad suffered. He also cried like the little bitch he was. Their bodies will never be found. Or missed.

  After I found Austin lying there in her own blood with no pulse, I just wanted to move on. Put all the dares and deaths behind me. After I killed Kellan, I no longer had a need for blood. To kill. Once again, she had changed me.

  I twirl the wedding ring on my left hand as I turn back to face the grave. I look over it with a sad smile and let out a long breath. “I’ll be back to visit soon. I love and miss you,” I say and then give it my back.

  I walk down the hill, passing the spot where it all began. Where I found the gorgeous brunette spying on my friends and me, and I smile. That was so long ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday.

  I come to the bottom of the hill and see the black lifted Chevy come into view. The passenger door opens, and a little boy jumps out—my five-year-old son. “Daddy!” he says, running to me.

  I open my arms and pick him up. “Hey, buddy. Ready to go home?” I ask him.

  He nods. “Mommy is hungry.”

  I laugh at that. “Mommy is always hungry.” Setting him back down on his feet, I look up to see my wife slowly getting out of the truck.

  “We should have driven my car,” she whines, rubbing her growing belly and aching back. “You can’t expect me to get up and out of this monster at six months pregnant. She’s really active today.”

  I chuckle, stepping to her. My hand sliding into her hair. “Have I told you that you look gorgeous today and that I love you?”

  “I’m a whale,” she whines.

  I kiss her red painted lips. “You’re a shark, sweetheart.”

  She pulls away, and her green eyes search mine. “Are you okay?” she asks, and her eyes go to the top of the hill.

  I nod. “I said what I needed to.”

  “I wish Lilly could have made it,” she says, and tears start to form in her eyes. I still find her beautiful when she cries. And she does that a lot with this pregnancy.

  “Me too. Maybe next time.”

  She nods and looks over at our son who is digging in the dirt. “Come on, Eli,” she calls out, and he dusts off his hands and runs over to her.

  I turn and look back over the hill where my mother was buried long ago. I used to ask myself why I survived that car crash. And then one ni
ght, I found a girl in a cemetery and all my questions were answered.

  I’ve never been a religious man, but I prayed that night I found her on the kitchen floor, and for some reason, God answered them and gave her back to me. Gave me another chance at living. Because without her, I wouldn’t have survived.

  It’s been two months since she was released from the hospital, and we’ve officially moved into the place we call home in Texas. She sits with Becky at our kitchen table. Her morning hair a mess and no makeup on her face. I’ve never seen her more beautiful.

  Becky looks up at me, and her words trail off.

  Austin looks over her shoulder at me, and a smile spreads across her face when her eyes meet mine. But it drops when I don’t return it. “You’re up to something.”

  “Aren’t I always?” I ask with a straight face.

  Her eyes narrow on me. “Cole …”

  When I kneel on one knee, her words cut off and those dark green eyes widen in surprise. “Cole,” she whispers my name.

  “Austin Anne Lowes,” I begin and tears well up in her eyes. I open the box, and she gasps when she sees the princess cut red ruby sitting on a platinum band. I take it from the black velvet box and hold it up to her. There’s nothing for me to say. The ring says it all.

  She takes it from my hand and reads the three words I had engraved on the inside of the band—I dare you.

  I used to think that I was going to go to hell. And that thought hasn’t changed. One day, I’ll have to pay for my sins, but as I watch my pregnant wife hug and kiss our son, I realize I’m okay with that. Because my life right now is heaven on earth.

  PLAYLIST

  Three Days Grace – “Right Left Wrong”

  Urbanstep, Micah Martin – “Throne”