DARE SERIES COLLECTION

by Tessier, Shantel

  “No.” She shakes her head. “I saw it posted on Evan Scott’s page.”

  He says nothing. Bennett pretends to be more interested in the ceiling suddenly. I hold in a sigh. This isn’t going to end well, and we don’t have time for this shit.

  “Deke!” She stands, getting aggravated and tosses his jacket to the hospital floor. “Austin asked me if I knew you had posted it, and I said you didn’t. When she argued that you confessed to recording it, I said you must have sent it to someone else to upload. So how can you delete it?”

  His jaw sharpens.

  She takes in a deep breath. “Deke …”

  “I’m Evan Scott.” He drops the bomb.

  She just stares at him. Her wide blue eyes are in shock at first, but you can see the anger take over her features. She bites down on her bottom lip, probably to keep from yelling at him inside the quiet waiting area. She may be in love with Deke Biggs, but Becky doesn’t know the real him. No one knows the real GWS.

  I wonder what he would think of her if he knew her secret. The only thing is that I’m a part of that secret too.

  He stands, pocketing his phone. “Becky …”

  She spins around and storms out the double doors, and he goes running after her.

  I look at Bennett. “Make sure that video is nowhere to be found.” Deke didn’t get it done.

  He nods once and pulls his phone out. “And the other one? The first one of you two when we threw that party …?”

  “Make it disappear too.” I want no trace of her on social media. “Hack into her account and delete it.” She may hate me for it when she wakes up, but it is what’s best for her.

  Word has gotten out about Kellan being the one who shot her, not me. It’s been all over the news. They have a manhunt out to find him. I turned the TV in the waiting room off hours ago because I couldn’t watch it anymore. They had taken a picture from her Facebook and plastered it along with the story all over Collins.

  Teenage boy sleeping with best friend’s girlfriend and her stepmom. One woman dead and the other in critical condition. No suspects currently in custody.

  I almost threw my chair at the TV when I saw that headline. News spreads fast in a town like this, and they always twist the story, no matter how much they have to lie to do it.

  I know firsthand what they will do.

  I had laid in the hospital bed hooked up to machines with my left wrist handcuffed to the railing. They acted like I was going to get up and run out of there after the car wreck. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. I didn’t understand just how badly I was injured until I went to stand. The paramedics had ripped Eli from my arms and helped me to my feet only for me to collapse. I couldn’t breathe. My legs no longer worked, my vision was blurry, and my head began to pound.

  They called the headache I got after my car crash a post-traumatic headache, and it was crippling. They said that the adrenaline rush caused it to delay. That was just one of the things wrong with me. They said I had a collapsed lung as well. I woke up hours later in the hospital to the TV playing in my room.

  “Three teenage boys dead after allegedly drunk driving.” The reporter stands in the middle of the street, my car still upside down. The flashing lights from all the police vehicles, fire trucks, and paramedics light up the night around her.

  “One witness stated that she saw them leave the party where they had been previously drinking all evening. It’s not clear if they were road racing …”

  I close my eyes and try to take a deep breath, but it hurts. Everything hurts.

  “Cole?”

  I open my heavy eyes to see my father burst into my room. His eyes narrow on me, and an officer enters behind him. It may be the middle of the night, but he’s dressed like he just closed a multimillion-dollar deal. “Release him.”

  “Mr. Reynolds, I don’t think …”

  “Release him right now!” he barks.

  The officer unlocks my left wrist. I’m pretty sure they would have cuffed my right wrist if my arm wasn’t in a sling from surgery. They said surgery isn’t usually needed for a broken collarbone, but the way it broke required screws. My now free hand falls to my side. I don’t even have the strength to hold it up. The meds make me sluggish but don’t mask the pain.

  “Sir, your son is under arrest. Once he’s discharged, I will transport him to the police station for booking.”

  My father steps up to him, and the officer swallows nervously. “Make this go away, or you will.”

  The officer narrows his eyes on my father and goes to open his mouth, but the door opens, and my father’s longtime best friend, Detective Monroe, enters my room. My eyes begin to get heavy. “Officer Lawrence, you may leave.”

  “But …”

  “You’re done here,” Detective Monroe barks.

  I blink, watching the young guy stomp out of my room like a child not getting his way. I try to keep my eyes open, but my heavy lids won’t stay up. The drugs they give me knock me out for hours at a time, which is fine. All the TV channels are reporting on my dead friends, and how there should have been four bodies, not three. I can’t help but agree with them.

  “You know this isn’t what it seems,” my father snaps.

  My eyes close, unable to remain open anymore.

  “Liam, Cole gave a statement …”

  I try to open them, but they refuse to cooperate.

  “I don’t give a fuck what he said. Fucking fix it, or you will find yourself without a fucking job!”

  Then everything goes black.

  “Cole?”

  I blink, jumping to my feet when I see Shelby standing before me. “Can I see her?” I ask in a rush.

  She nods and looks at Bennett. “Austin has been moved up to ICU, which is on the fifth floor.” Then she looks back at me. “I can get you in her room, but just you for now. There is a waiting area up there, though, so your friends can wait there if they want.”

  Bennett and I follow her up to the ICU. I send Deke a quick message because he never returned after chasing Becky out of the waiting room.

  We drop Bennett off in the waiting area, and then I follow her through a new set of doors. A nurses’ station sits in the middle of the circular room with individual rooms surrounding it. Shelby and I come to a stop, and she turns to face me.

  “I just want you to be prepared.”

  “For what?” My stomach drops.

  Her blue eyes search my face. “She will have a tube down her throat. One in her chest and an IV in her arm.” She places a hand on my shoulder. “She doesn’t look like the Austin you know.”

  Anything is better than her lying on her father’s kitchen floor dead. As long as she’s fighting, that’s all I care about.

  She opens the door, and I step into the cold room. It’s small. The sound of the beeping coming from her machines bounces off the sterile walls. Seeing her lying there in the bed, I realize Shelby was right. I don’t recognize her. She looks pale. Bruises cover her once flawless skin from when Kellan slammed her head into the marble floor and choked her. I didn’t see them earlier, but she was covered in so much blood. Now that they have cleaned her, everything is visible.

  I walk over and sit down in the chair beside her bed. “When will she wake up?” I ask roughly.

  “We have her in a drug-induced coma.”

  “Why?” I swallow over the lump in my throat.

  “She has cerebral edema or swelling of the brain. She’s receiving medication in her IV to reduce it. We will monitor her, and once it goes down, we will wean her off the sedation.”

  My chest tightens, and my words come out as a whisper. “And if it doesn’t?”

  She doesn’t answer. Instead, she pats my shoulder and then walks out, leaving me alone with her.

  I grab Austin’s cold hand. It’s so small in mine. I lift it and kiss her knuckles, and it reminds me of that morning on the steps of the church. How much I hated her then. How much I wanted to see her broken. And look at her now. I alm
ost killed her. I want her to open her eyes and tell me to go to hell, but I’m already there. I’ve been there for a month now while she paraded around with Myers. He didn’t deserve her, but neither did I. That doesn’t stop me from loving her, though. I’m still being a selfish prick. I want her. I need her. She must live. For me.

  The worst part about it is that she saw this coming. She knew all along that I was going to hurt her that night in my father’s game room when I threw her that party. When I blackmailed her into joining the group.

  She straightens her red sweater, and I love that she wore it for me. “But you don’t have a choice about joining us,” I tell her.

  She stomps her foot. “Why does it matter so much to you?”

  Because we need you. “You’ll have fun.”

  “I’ll get arrested. Possibly die.”

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart,” I whisper, blinking a couple of times. “I just need you to wake up.” I run my free hand over her forehead. It’s the only place that I can really touch on her face because there’s tape over her cheeks to keep the ventilator in place. “Just wake …” A knot forms in my throat, and I try to swallow it. “And I’ll take care of you.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  COLE

  IT’S BEEN THREE days since the shooting, and I haven’t left the hospital. Shelby kicks me out of Austin’s room during the night, but I never make it past the waiting area. I brush my teeth in the bathroom and splash some water on my face and call it good. I’m starting to smell and am exhausted, but I’m not going home. Blanche takes care of Lilly, and I talk to her on FaceTime several times a day. Even Becky goes over and sees her for me. Last night, she took Lilly out for ice cream.

  I sit in her small window with my feet propped up on the windowsill, looking over Collins. You can’t see much from here. The hospital sits on the back side of town on a cliff, facing the ocean. I’ve never really stopped to appreciate how pretty the landscape is or how it goes as far as the eye can see. It reminds me of Austin. Gorgeous to the view, but you don’t know just how dark it can get. How deep it can go. She surprised me with every turn, fought me with everything she had, and I loved it. I had thought I could take this scared little girl and turn her into my own personal game, but she ended up turning the tables on me and made me fall in love with her. She made me need her more than she ever needed me, and I hate that I couldn’t admit that to her sooner.

  “It’s done,” Bennett announces, entering her room and my thoughts. Shelby started letting our friends come back into her room yesterday. As long as we stay quiet and don’t cause any problems, we won’t get kicked out during the day.

  I look over at him. “All of them?”

  He nods. “The original recordings have been erased, but you know if some pervert saved them to his phone and uploads them later, I can’t help that.” My eyes narrow on him. “But I’ll keep my eyes open. Have you watched the news?” He changes the subject.

  I shake my head. I refuse to turn the TV on.

  He walks over, picks up the remote to the bed, and hits the button for the TV that hangs on the wall. “The news broke an hour ago.”

  I look up at it to see multiple officers leading Bruce out of his office downtown with his wrists cuffed behind his back. He’s dressed in one of his ten thousand-dollar suits and walking with his head down. I’d like to see him buy his way out of this one. Officers and cop cars swarm the streets along with the media.

  “Why did you kill those kids?” one reporter asks, shoving a microphone into his face. “Did you know that Cole Reynolds was in that car?” another asks.

  Of course, he did. It was my car we were in.

  “Did you know that your wife was having an affair with the underage boy?” another asks. “He still hasn’t been found. Did you kill him too?”

  The reporters have run with this story in all different directions. It’s worked more in our favor than we had hoped.

  “And what about your business partners? Jeff and Jerrold?”

  The town knows Jerrold is dead. They said his death was accidental. But they’ll never find Jeff’s body. Austin took care of that for us. The town just speculates that Jeff’s embezzlement of JJ’s Properties has caused him to run off.

  Still sitting in the windowsill, I bow my head and run my hands through my hair. I’m exhausted. You don’t get any sleep in hospitals. Austin still hasn’t woken up, and Shelby quit giving me updates. They come and wheel her out for tests periodically, but no matter how many questions I ask, she just responds with, “These things take time.”

  “Have you been to see your daughter?” one reporter asks Bruce as the officer places a hand on his head and puts him in the back of a police car. “I hear the cops want to question her …”

  “Turn it off,” I order roughly, and then silence comes over the room.

  I look up when the door opens, and I shoot to my feet when my father enters her room. His shoulders are pulled back, and his nose is in the air. Shelby follows behind him.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” I demand. He hasn’t tried to contact me once since he pulled me out of the interrogation room. And neither have the police.

  He straightens his tie. He wears his usual expensive Armani suit and a scowl on his face. They go hand in hand.

  “Cole, I’m sorry—”

  “For what?” I interrupt Shelby and ask again. “What the fuck are you doing?” Why is he here? He doesn’t care about Austin. Hell, he doesn’t even care about me.

  He looks over at Austin lying in her bed still hooked up to the machines that help her stay alive. “I just wanted to check on her …”

  “Bullshit!” I snap, making my way over to the end of her bed and blocking his view of her.

  He reaches into his suit jacket and pulls out a folded piece of paper and hands it to Shelby. She swallows nervously. My heart begins to beat rapidly.

  “Since Bruce Lowes has been arrested, he has made me power of attorney over Austin.”

  My heart stops completely at his words. “That’s illegal.” It has to be. “She’s over eighteen and not a relative of yours.” I’m not an attorney, but I know enough to know he’s a lying piece of shit. “And he’s in jail, not dead.” If anything, the doctors would decide her care. Not her father’s best friend.

  He smirks and rips the paper from her hands. “Leave us,” he orders, and Shelby all but runs out of the room. Bennett stays, waiting for my instructions. I nod to him, and he follows, leaving us alone.

  “What are you doing?” I demand.

  He calmly walks over to the only chair that was once by her bed but has been moved up against the wall. He sits down in it and places his right ankle on his left knee. “I spoke to Bruce earlier before he was arrested. He informed me that she may not make it.”

  “You expect me to believe that he cares enough about her health to call up here and check on her status?” I don’t let him answer. “And he’s wrong. She’s going to be fine.” I lie because I need it to be true. More than anything in this world.

  He smiles. “His friends aren’t limited to the police force of Collins, son.”

  I hate when he calls me son. Who the hell does Bruce know in this hospital? Are they a threat to her? Will he pay them to hurt her further? To fuck up her care and make it look like an accident?

  “Just like you. You’re very lucky you have Shelby here, or you wouldn’t know shit about her care. Or be allowed in this room.”

  I grind my teeth, hating to hear the truth. “What is it that you want? Did Bruce send you?”

  Who knows what that bastard is up to now. He must know that the laptop came from me. I was arrested, and then three days later, Bruce was arrested due to evidence on a laptop that he knew was stolen. I think he was onto us all along. Writing Austin a check from one of the accounts we had drained wasn’t a subtle hint. The question is why didn’t he act faster? Or maybe this was his plan. Hell, for all we know, the bastard was paying Kellan to take out his wife and daught
er.

  Liam looks back at her lying in bed. “For a while, I thought she was mine.”

  “What are you talking about?” I ask, rubbing my temples. I need some fucking sleep. Or some laps in a pool. They always help me relax.

  “Austin.”

  My eyes snap to his, and I snort, not surprised to hear he slept with that druggie. I always knew he was never faithful to my mother.

  When he smiles up at me, it’s full of appreciation. And it makes me tense. “You are so much like me, Cole.”

  “I’m nothing like you,” I growl.

  He stands and adjusts his suit jacket. “I used your mother too. Just like you used Austin.” My heart begins to pound, and my breathing picks up. “I must admit it took her longer to fall in love with you, though.”

  “You don’t know anything about Austin and me,” I decide to say. I don’t even know how she feels about me. I never told her I loved her. I never even treated her like I loved her. All I did was control her and then push her away. She should hate me. I deserve that.

  He gives a soft laugh. “You can’t possibly think that I don’t know what you and your friends were doing? You weren’t secretive about your plans for her. Hell, even Bruce saw it.”

  My chest tightens. No one even tried to stop me. No one tried to intervene and save her.

  He sighs. “But then you went and fell in love with her too. Disappointing me once again.”

  I smile at that. “Like father, like son.”

  Instead of showing his anger, he looks over my swollen and busted knuckles. Shelby has tried to care for them several times, saying I need stitches, but I keep blowing her off. They’ll heal over time. They always do.

  He leans in to whisper, “I imagine her mother will never be found. Like Kellan. And Jeff.” My jaw clenches, and he laughs. “You guys think you own this town? That you were the only sharks in these waters?” He shakes his head. “Who do you think taught you how to kill? How to hunt?” He gives me a threatening smile, and it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “Don’t get me wrong. I am proud of you, son. You’ve done well for yourself. And you did me a favor by getting rid of Bruce.”