Project Vela – “Everything You Hate”
Zayde Wolf – “Born Ready”
Boy Epic – “Scars”
Chase Atlantic – “DEVILISH”
Tommee Profitt, Jung Youth – “Only One King”
Hollywood Undead – “Riot”
No Reserve – “What You Deserve”
Bohnes – “12 Rounds”
Dark Signal – “Build You Back”
Chase Atlantic – “Into It”
PROLOGUE
COLE
I’M COLE FUCKING Reynolds.
Dark.
Evil.
Fucked up.
A part of me has always been this way. And that part of me will never change. Some would call that too much damage. Others would just say I’m an asshole. I’m not sure which one I really am anymore. But does it matter?
Not one fucking bit.
Have you ever heard someone say that one moment defines a person’s life? If you say no, I’ll know you’re a fucking liar, like so many others out there.
Well, let me tell you this, the people who say there is “one” defining moment are fucking morons. If you believe there is just one, you are a dumbass too. I’ve had two such defining moments in my life. And I’m only eighteen.
I was twelve the first time.
Tears roll down my face while I stand inside the cold and silent room. It’s got a couch on either side that sits three people and a round table in the right corner with a phone on it. That’s it. No bed and no mother. They said they were taking me to the hospital to see her.
“Where is she?” I demand. “I wanna see my mother.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Cole,” Celeste, my mother’s friend suggests, rubbing my back.
I pull away from her. “That isn’t for you to decide.”
“Cole—”
“She’s right.” A man in a white coat interrupts her, entering the room. He shuts the door and comes to a stop before us. “Seeing your mother won’t bring her back.” My heart pounds at his words. “And I don’t think this is how she wants you to remember her.”
“I don’t care what you think.” I spin around, giving him my back to face Celeste again. She can’t be gone. This isn’t happening. I don’t believe it! I don’t believe them! Celeste said she didn’t make it through surgery. “Where is my father?”
“On his way.” She sniffs.
“I want to talk to him. Now!”
She nods quickly. “I’ll call him.” Stepping out of the room, Celeste leaves me and the doctor alone.
I start to pace the small room. My hands fist down by my sides. This isn’t happening. She’s not dead. I shake my head. I just saw her this morning. When she dropped me off at school, she told me she had some errands to run and would pick me up after swim practice. At no point did she say she wouldn’t return. Nor did she say that she would leave me alone with my father. I can’t … I need her.
A hand on my shoulder makes me jump back. Angrily, I lift my hands and wipe the tears from my cheeks when I look up at him. “Don’t touch me!”
He doesn’t seem to be affected by my anger. He probably deals with people like me all the time. “Would you like to see your sister?”
And just like that, my mind races. I thought the baby was dead too. I remember Celeste mentioned something about blood loss. She said there had been an accident … “Is she okay?” My voice shakes. I can’t take any more bad news.
He nods once. “I can show her to you.”
Following him out of the room, I take a quick look around the cold and quiet hospital hall for Celeste but don’t see her anywhere. As we travel farther down the hallway, the soft voices grow louder. We come up to a nurses’ station and then turn right down a new hall. He comes to a stop in front of a window, and I see rows of babies wrapped in blankets lying in little beds.
“Second row. Third from the right,” he informs me as he places his finger to the glass, pointing her out.
She’s screaming. Her little mouth opens, body shaking and face flushed. She’s angry. Just like me. “What’s wrong with her?” I demand.
“Nothing. She’s perfectly fine. Babies cry.”
“She wants Mom,” I choke out. “She needs Mom.” Tears sting my eyes, and I fist my hands on the glass.
“I’m sorry, Cole,” he whispers, placing his hands on my shoulders. “I know it hurts, and it will for a while, but your sister needs you to be strong. For both of you.”
He’s right. Does he know what kind of man my father is? Most know in this town, but none do anything about it. I’m all she has. “What’s her name?” I swallow the lump in my throat.
“She doesn’t have one.”
I turn to look up at him. “Lilly.” The name comes out of my mouth without thought. I know my father won’t care enough to take the time to give her a name. Everything regarding her is up to me now. And I don’t remember my mother ever talking about what she wanted to name her.
“What?” he asks, frowning at me.
I look back over at my baby sister who continues to cry at the top of her lungs. My chest is tight, and my hands are balled into fists. I want to hold her. Take care of her. “Lilly. Our mother’s favorite flowers were lilies.”
I’ll never forget the way our lives changed that day. My mother was dead. A little sister in a world that no child should have to be in. I wanted to be stronger. I wanted to grow up and rule the world that my father thought he owned. Even the devil can fall. All he needs is someone willing to push him. And I was that man.
I walk into the house with my baby sister in my arms. She has her little eyes closed because she sleeps a lot. My father hasn’t even looked at her once. He arrived at the hospital, spoke to my mother’s doctor, and then left. I refused to leave until Lilly could. Celeste brought me clothes and blankets. I slept in two chairs out in the waiting room. School and swimming be damned. Nothing else matters anymore except for Lilly. She is now the most important thing in my life.
“Blanche?” my father calls out.
My nanny comes running down the hall into the grand foyer. “Yes, sir?”
“Take the baby. I need to speak with Cole,” he orders. I’m surprised he didn’t change her name just because he can. Lilly Grace Reynolds is what they wrote on her birth certificate because I told them to, and he signed it without a second glance.
She nods and holds her hands out for her. I don’t let her go.
“Cole,” he growls.
“I’m just going to change her,” she assures me with a nod.
My eyes go from hers to my father’s, and he sighs heavily. I gently hand Lilly over to her, and my arms instantly grow cold at the loss of this little girl I need to protect. If I don’t, she’ll end up dead like our mother.
“We need to have a conversation man to man,” my father states, giving me his back. “My office.”
I straighten my shoulders and follow him down the hallway and into his office. The same one where I saw my mother tell him that Bruce Lowes had raped her and she was pregnant. That was months ago, but it seems like ages. He should have protected her, but instead, he called her broken and put his hands on her. I’ve wanted him to suffer ever since then.
“Shut the door,” he orders, sitting down in his chair.
I do as he says and walk to the front of his desk. “I have nothing to say to you,” I state.
“Watch your tone, boy,” he growls.
“Fu—”
I don’t even get the word out before he’s reaching over his desk and dragging me across it. I knock off his computer and papers and scream out in surprise. He slams my back into the wall with his hands on my shirt, pinning me in place. His face is red with anger as he lowers it to mine.
“Do you want me to send your ungrateful ass off to boarding school?” he shouts. “Like Deke’s father did to him? Huh?” He shakes me, and I try to fight him off, but he’s too strong. “Do you want me to send you away and never let you co
me back? Because I can fucking do that, Cole! I can do whatever the fuck I damn well want! No one’s here to stop me.”
Without thought, I punch him in the side of the head. He lets go of me long enough to backhand me across the face, sending me sprawling onto his office floor. I taste blood as I make my way up to all fours on the hardwood. I’ve never hit him before, but it’s not the first time he’s hit me.
He chuckles, standing over me. “You think you can beat me, son?” I don’t answer. “You may have the boys at school afraid of you, but don’t forget who runs this house,” he growls, “and who owns you. I can take everything away from you in a matter of seconds.” It’s almost the exact same thing he said to my mother.
I look up to see him standing before me breathing heavily. “Are you gonna kill me?” I ask, tasting the blood in my mouth. I want to make him bleed. I want him to know what it feels like to have nothing left. “Like you did Mom?”
He throws his head back and laughs out loud. “I didn’t kill your mother.”
I get up onto my knees and wipe the blood from my chin with the back of my hand. “You gonna try and tell me that you loved her?”
“No,” he answers simply and kneels down before me. “You’re not a stupid kid, Cole. You’re a lot smarter than the others give you credit for.”
“I know you killed her!” I scream as tears sting my eyes. He did it! He had to. There is no other explanation as to why she’s not here. With me. With my sister.
“Why would I do that?” He tilts his head. “You think I wanna raise you and your bastard sister on my own?” He chuckles.
“Then Bruce did it,” I growl. Someone killed her. She didn’t just fall and die. I don’t believe it. I won’t believe it.
He stands and straightens his black tie. “Bruce may have not wanted the child either, but he wouldn’t murder her for it.”
My nostrils flare at that statement. “I’ll find out the truth.”
He smiles. “Go ahead and prove me wrong, Cole.”
CHAPTER ONE
DEKE
Sixteen years old
I SIT IN the basement of Bennett’s parents’ house. His father is out of town on a business trip and took his mother with him. So, as usual, we decided to throw a party.
I take a hit from my cigarette and lean back into the couch, blowing it out. Bennett’s parents don’t ever come down here, so we’ve made it our hangout. At the Reynolds’ house, we hang in the game room. At my parents’, we party in the pool house. We have a designated room no matter where we go.
The couch sits back against the wall with a glass coffee table in the center and a large TV on the wall in front of us. The mini bar over to the right is fully stocked. It’s got soft gray carpet and white walls with matching wooden beams.
Bennett’s parents are the coolest out of all my friends. When my father kicked me out of the house last year, they let me stay here. I crashed at Cole’s for a few days until Liam found me and called my father.
Fucker!
He’s never cared much for me. Actually, Liam Reynolds doesn’t care much for anyone. Never once did Bennett’s mother ask me what I did to deserve it. She did my laundry. Fixed me breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She’s the kind of mother every kid dreams of. I could have stayed at my sister’s, but she was in nursing school and dating some punk I hated, so crashing at her place would have been like living with my father.
“Where’s Cole?” Eli asks as he comes down the stairs to my left and plops down on the couch.
I nod toward the only door down here, silently answering Eli’s question while “Right Left Wrong” by Three Days Grace filters down into the room from above.
“He’s been in there for a while,” Kellan growls, glaring at the closed door. “Wonder what the fuck he’s doing.”
“Well, he didn’t go in there alone, so of course, he’s gonna take his time.” I take another drag from my cigarette.
Eli smiles. “Who is he in there with?”
“I don’t know,” I lie.
I know exactly who he’s with, but I’m going to wait and let them all see for themselves. Especially since the chick he took in there was the same girl Kellan fucked last night. Natasha Grey. The new girl at our school this year. She’s had her eye on Cole since day one, but he’s never given her much attention until tonight. Three beers and a Jack and Coke loosened him up enough to take her to the closet, I guess. Especially when she came down here pulling her dress up and practically throwing herself at him. I think he was more bored than anything. And she was just … there.
“Yeah, well …” Kellan checks the time on his phone. “He needs to hurry up if we’re gonna draw tonight.”
I snort. “Where do you have to be?” We never draw on Saturday anyway. It’s always on a Sunday. And we can’t leave the party because this is Bennett’s house, and like a hundred people are in this mansion right now. Not counting the kids already passed out on the lawn.
“I almost got suspended for my dare last month. I’m not even allowed to be here. My mom will shit if she finds out I snuck out,” Kellan growls before taking a sip of his beer.
Eli throws his head back, laughing. “Can’t believe you got caught breaking into the school. That was stupid as fuck, man. What were you trying to do?”
I take another drag, and Kellan’s jaw tightens. “Seriously?” His dark eyes grow big as he glares at Eli. “You dared me to change my grades. I needed into Mr. Wilson’s computer to do that.”
“I could have done that without having to break in,” Bennett informs him, finally speaking. He’s been typing away on his phone for the past five minutes over in the recliner. Every now and then, I watch him adjust his hard dick. He’s enjoying whatever pussy shots some girl is sending him.
Eli knew that Bennett could change them when he gave Kellan the dare.
But it didn’t matter. Kellan has been bitching for weeks about his grades, and Coach has even been hounding him to get them up, or he was going to be in deep shit, so Eli dared him to change them. He drew the dare and had to do it on his own. That’s just how the rules are. I won’t lie and say we weren’t surprised by the dare because we were. Normally, anything school related is off limits. But Eli has had this fuck-you-world attitude lately. I think Cole’s need to push the limits in everything he does is starting to rub off on him.
The song changes to “Throne” by Urbanstep, Micah Martin as the door swings open to the storage closet.
Cole steps out. He’s zipping up his jeans, still dressed in his white T-shirt, when Natasha darts out from behind him. Her short blond hair has that freshly fucked look to it from his hands gripping it. She’s panting as her chest rises and falls quickly under her black dress. But other than that, she looks like she didn’t even take it off.
“You’re slacking, Cole,” Eli muses, looking over the girl and noticing the lack of evidence that he fucked her.
I’ve been in the same room with him while he fucked a girl—her clothes were ripped, and she couldn’t even walk afterward.
Cole snorts, and my eyes fall to her knees to see the carpet burns on them before she darts up the stairs, avoiding eye contact with any of us. When she went in there with him, I was the only one sitting down here with Cole. Now there are an extra four sets of eyes.
Plopping down beside me, he leans over, picks up the pack of cigarettes from the round table, and lights one up. Then he sits back and closes his eyes, taking a long drag, the end of the cigarette burning red.
“How was she?” Eli asks him with a smirk.
Cole pulls the cigarette away and blows out a puff of smoke. “The fact that I was in there for more than twenty minutes should say enough,” he answers dryly.
We all chuckle.
Kellan stands. “You know I fucked her just last night, right?” he asks, his voice hardening.
The room falls silent. Cole turns toward him with a look of boredom on his face. “Yes. And that’s why the only thing my dick touched was her mouth.�
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Eli snorts while taking a drink of his beer. His hand quickly wipes off the liquid that runs down his chin.
Kellan fists his hands down by his side but doesn’t say anything else about the girl. Instead, he changes the subject because he knows it’s pointless. She means nothing to Cole.
“Are we gonna draw tonight or what? Not all of us have parents who don’t give a shit where we are.”
Cole’s blue eyes narrow on him, and I think he’s about to tell Kellan to piss off. Instead, he brings the cigarette to his lips and takes another long drag. Blowing it out as though he has all the time in the world, he remains quiet.
Kellan has a problem with Cole. I’m not sure when it started or why, but I know he’s jealous. There are eight of us on the swim team who are what our school calls sharks. We dominate the pool and this town. Even though we’re only sixteen, the upperclassmen fear us because we’ve beat up our fair share of juniors and seniors. That’s one thing about us—when we decide to do something, we make sure we win.
“If you need to leave, then leave,” Cole finally tells him, looking away, clearly dismissing him.
Kellan’s jaw tightens.
“Come on, man?” Eli pats the seat next to him. “Sit down. Tell your mother that you stayed with me tonight. Aimee will cover for you.” He holds up his full drink in offering.
Kellan lets out a sigh and falls down onto the seat beside him. He throws it back.
Cole takes another drag from the cigarette and then pulls his cell out of his pocket.
Bennett jumps up from the recliner and runs up the stairs. Probably to go jack off or something. Either that or the girl he’s been texting just arrived.
“Where are Landen and Maddox?” Shane asks.
He’s been extremely quiet tonight. He and Kellan are tight. When one is pouting, so is the other one. I always joke that they share the same menstrual cycle.
“They are in a bedroom upstairs somewhere fucking the twins,” Eli answers.
“Do you think they trade?” Shane wonders curiously. “Like fuck each other’s girlfriends? I wonder if everything is the same?”
DARE SERIES COLLECTION Page 38