Her eyes narrow on mine. “Yes.”
Fuck, I’d love to shove her to her knees right here and now and have her show me. But I don’t plan on touching Demi. Ever.
I smirk and pull away from her. “Go home.” I reach over and open my bedroom door. “I don’t play with little girls.” Her hands fist, and I don’t miss the marks that the zip tie left from me binding her wrists behind her back. I wonder how long it took her to find a pair of scissors and get free. It couldn’t have been easy. I should have stayed and watched the show.
“You had no problem playing at Silence,” she growls.
“That’s because I thought you were your sister. I would have never touched you otherwise.” I’ve never thought of Demi sexually in any way. And even though my cock is hard, that doesn’t mean I’ll do anything about it. I have some restraint.
“And last night?” she grinds out.
I give her a smug smile and lean up against the open door. “That was to teach you a lesson, princess.”
Now she’s the one who smiles, and it makes her look like the evil fucking bitch I know she is. She steps into me, and her bright blue eyes light up with excitement when they meet mine. When she places her small, soft hands on my bare chest, I tense. “Want me to teach you something?” She leans up on her tiptoes and places her lips by my ear. Her breath skims over my skin, and I bite the inside of my fucking cheek to keep from growling.
I should push her away, but I’m afraid if I place my hands on her, I’ll be throwing her onto the bed and not out the door where she belongs.
“I know all your secrets, Deke …” Her hands run down my chest and stomach. I think she’s gonna pull down my sweatpants, but instead, she taps my hard dick, making me jump.
I grip both of her wrists in my hand, and she hisses in a breath at the sensitive skin. My eyes narrow down at her. “Are you threatening me, Demi?” I call her by her first name ’cause I’m no longer playing.
“Maybe.” She runs her tongue over her bottom lip seductively. “What would you do to keep my mouth shut?”
It’s the same question she asked me at Silence. And my first thought is to tape that motherfucker shut. I should throw her on my bed, tie her hands behind her back, and gag her. That’ll show her what kind of guy I can be. But I have a feeling it’ll just turn her on. She’s pushing me to see just how far I’ll go.
And it’s working.
My blood begins to boil. I don’t know what all Demi heard me say to Becky those two nights in her room, but I’m not about to let this bitch think she can play me. Pretending to be Becky was fucked up, but to threaten me is the dumbest thing she could do.
I lean down, and whisper, “You think you’re being cute, Demi, but believe me when I say I have no fucking limits when it comes to protecting myself.” I pull back, and the smile has dropped off her face. “Don’t fuck with me because you won’t survive it.” What the guys and I did to Kellan was not a fucking game! And it no longer involves just me and what’s left of the GWS. Austin was a part of that as well, and I’m not taking that chance. I will protect my sister just as I will protect my brothers. And that’s all she could possibly know.
“Are you threatening me?” she asks, tensing.
“Absolutely!” I growl.
She rips her hands from my hold. “Don’t threaten me, Deke.” Her blue eyes glare up at mine. “I keep telling you that I’m nothing like my fucking sister. I’m not going to fall to my knees to suck your cock while begging you to love me. And I’m sure as hell not afraid of you.”
DEMI
I storm out of his bedroom and down the stairs. I all but run out of the house and make my way over to my black Audi R8. I yank the door open and fall into the driver’s seat. When I start it, “Trouble” by Valerie Broussard blares through my speakers. I look up to see Deke standing at the front door. He has his right hand in the front pocket of his sweatpants and his left clenching the doorframe. His completely rigid body shows off his bulging biceps and six-pack. He’s too perfect for my sister.
I smile at him. This fucker thinks he can scare me, but he’s wrong. I look away, throw the car in gear, and take off, squealing my tires.
I adjust myself in my seat and tighten my hand on the steering wheel as his words turn in my head.
Don’t fuck with me because you won’t survive it.
He thinks he’s fucking God and holds that much power. It makes me think that is why my sister hasn’t done anything about it. Maybe he said something to her that I didn’t hear that night. Or since then. I don’t know how often they speak. I know Becky’s only friend in this town is Austin, and Deke lives with her and Cole, so they have to see each other on the regular.
I jump on the highway and head toward my mother’s house as the song changes to “Down” by Seven Day Sleep. I cut into traffic and ignore the guy who blows his horn at me and hit the gas. I’ve got shit to do.
Thirty minutes later, I’m pulling up to my mother’s gate, and it opens. I get out and enter the house. I take the left staircase and barge into Becky’s room. Her walls are a beige color. Her peach comforter and white sheets lie wadded at the end of her bed, unlike my room that I keep clean at all times. She has clothes thrown on the floor and draped over her computer desk by the windows. I almost trip over a shoe, making my way over to her walk-in closet. I start ripping the boxes open that she brought with her from Collins. She left quite a bit back at our dad’s, so I know whatever she did bring is important to her.
One is full of sweaters. I shove it to the side and pick another one. I rip it open to find a backpack and school shit. “Goddammit.” I hiss and push it aside as well. Then I come to a third box. I rip it open, and there’s a black and white notebook in it. I pick it up and flip through the pages. It’s a journal.
Funny. My sister has never kept one before. That I know of.
I go back to the very front and look at the first page.
He hit me today.
Not the first time. But it hurt like all the others.
He tried to put his hand up my skirt. I pushed him away, and he slapped me across the face. My mother saw the whole thing and all but shoved some weed in my hand and then pushed me out the front door.
I can’t wait to get the fuck out of here. I’m going to go live with my father. I’m not sure how that will be much better, but at least I know he’ll ignore me rather than touch me.
I flip the pages and then stop on a new one that has HELL scribbled across the top. Whose is this? My sister has horrible handwriting. I remember my dad used to make her erase her homework and rewrite it until it was readable. Whoever wrote this has beautiful handwriting. The cursive is easy to read. My sister’s looks like chicken scratch.
The devil doesn’t come to you as an ugly monster with fire breathing out of his ears. No. He is sent wrapped in a breathtaking smile and pretty eyes that can see to your soul.
Cole Reynolds is what was sent to me.
He is ugly on the inside but pretty to look at. He just dropped me off from Shelby’s house. He had her stitch up my arm. That he cut while in the cemetery last night. Where I watched him and four of his friends kill a guy.
“Shit.” I hiss. This is Austin’s. Why the hell does Becky have it?
He caught me watching them. He cut my arm without a thought and then placed the bloody knife in the body. Said if I turned him in, I’d go down with them. The fucker is too smart for his own good, but what he doesn’t know is that I’m better.
I burned that motherfucking body and then took a hammer to what bones remained before scattering the ashes into the ocean. They can try to pin it on me all they want. I won’t lie down and let some punk ass kids take what little life I have away from me. I’m gonna record every little thing I hear and see from now on. Consequences if I get caught, be damned.
“Holy fuck.” I like Austin more already. How did she end up being friends with my sister?
But my other problem is his friend Deke. He’s the only other o
ne who knows I saw them. He wanted to shoot me right then and there, but Cole stopped him. What will they do when they tell the others? I’m not sure, but I know I won’t quit fighting them.
“Demi?”
“Shit!” I hiss when I hear Becky’s voice shout out my name, followed by the front door shutting.
I shove all the boxes closed and push them up against the wall. Then I cram the notebook into the back of my jeans and run out of her closet. I get out into the hall and see she’s down in the grand foyer placing her purse on the glass table and a small suitcase down by her feet. Where the hell has she been?
“Demi?”
I duck and run across the walkway that overlooks the foyer and into my room. I yank the notebook from my jeans and shove it into my backpack that sits next to my bed as my bedroom door flies opens.
“I’ve been hollering at you!” she barks.
I stand straight and spin to face her. “What?”
Her blue eyes look me up and down as I breathe heavily. Crossing her arms over her chest, she takes in my skinny jeans, black top, and matching heels. I never dress like this. It’s just not my thing. Not even for Seth. He doesn’t give a fuck what I wear, and I never have either. But Deke noticed. Just as I wanted him to.
“What were you doing?”
“Nothing,” I lie. “What do you want, Becky?”
She pushes her right hip out in a typical Becky stance. “Austin and I are going to take Lilly to the movies in about an hour. She told me to invite you.” She rolls her eyes.
“You’re inviting me?” I can’t hide my surprise. And why does Austin want me to go? She just saw me at her house not even an hour ago. She could be setting me up. I don’t want Becky to know I was there. Not yet. If Austin says something, I can play it off. Make up some bullshit about how I’m trying to protect Becky from Deke. Austin would believe it. I can be convincing. But my sister? Since when do I give a shit what she thinks?
She has nothing to say to my previous question.
I smile. Clearly, she didn’t think it was a good idea to ask me. That just made my mind up. “I’d love to.”
She turns, exits my room, and slams the door shut. I plop down on my bed and look down at my backpack. I have a feeling that Austin Lowes just gave me all the information that I need to scare the shit out of Deke.
CHAPTER EIGHT
BECKY
AUSTIN HAS DECIDED she wants to be friends with my little sister. Just fucking fantastic.
I can’t ignore it. It was on the tip of my tongue to lie and tell Austin that Demi had something to do. Or make up something about how my sister doesn’t like her. But that would just cause more problems, and as much as I can’t stand this new Mommy Austin, she is my only friend. And my only way to stay close to Deke.
If I push Austin away, then my chances with Deke go from low to nonexistent. Cole isn’t gonna be my friend or invite me over. So instead, I said I’d love to ask my sister to come hang out with us. It’s a movie. Not like I gotta talk to her for hours.
We enter the theater, and I see Austin at the concessions with Lilly. And I think back to the day Austin had that bomb dropped on her. The day she found out that Cole’s half-sister is also her half-sister.
Seven months ago
“I don’t …” she trails off. “Why would my dad want to hurt Cole?”
Cole stares at her but remains silent as he sits on the couch in their clubhouse. She stands next to me, and I silently cry. Deke filled me in on the way here about why Cole skipped school today. He found out that the car accident was no accident. The brakes had been tampered with. I almost fainted. Cole has kept my secret for so long. This was it. He’s going to out me right here and now that I was with them. That I was driving.
It’s going to ruin everything!
“We don’t know for sure, but we have a guess.” Deke sighs.
“Which is?” she asks.
“Lilly,” Deke answers.
Her frown deepens, and even I have a moment of confusion. What are they talking about? What does Cole’s little sister have to do with this?
She looks at Cole. “Why would he want to hurt you because of Lilly?”
But Deke is the one who answers her, running a hand through his hair. “Because Lilly is Bruce’s daughter.”
Bruce as in Bruce Lowes? Austin’s father? Holy fucking shit! Cole’s sister is somehow Austin’s sister too? I never knew this.
“Your mom and my dad had an affair?” Austin asks, trying to do the math in her head. Her dad and her stepmom have been married for ten years now. Lilly is six.
He fists his hands, and his jaw sharpens. “No.”
“Then how do you explain …?”
“Bruce fucking raped her,” he interrupts Austin.
That’s when things changed. She took on a new role of mother, and the rest was history. It was as if Lilly filled this hole that she didn’t even know she had. And her blackmailed relationship with Cole took a jump off the deep end. She walked out of that clubhouse with her head held high even though she had tears in her eyes. I was proud to call her my friend, even if she didn’t know my commitment to her wasn’t real.
I would betray her more than once. And even now, she would push me away if she knew the truth. What I’ve done. How much I’ve lied. Hell, I wouldn’t even be friends with me. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to turn myself in willingly. You don’t see any of the GWS shouting from the rooftops about all the illegal shit they’ve done. Why should I? They shouldn’t be the only ones who can cover their own asses. And that’s why Deke and I belong to one another. We are one and the same.
I’ve just gotta remind him of that.
I pull my cell out of my pocket and send a quick text to him.
Me: Can I see you this weekend? We need to talk.
Sometimes you gotta swallow your pride, or a dick. And for Deke, I’ll do either.
It vibrates immediately. My heart begins to pound when I see it’s from him.
Deke: Sure.
Sure? What the hell kind of response is that? I take a quick look to see if my sister is watching me, but her eyes are on Austin and Lilly standing at the concession stand.
Me: I miss you too.
I read over the text three times and then decide to delete it. He had told me he missed me while we stood in the kitchen of Austin’s house. I didn’t tell him then, but now isn’t a good time. Instead, I write:
Me: Can’t wait to see you.
I watch him read it, and my heart pounds in anticipation to see how he responds. But after several seconds, I know he won’t when I don’t see those three dots jumping around. Then I look up at his activity, and it shows he was active one minute ago.
And it does nothing for my already sour mood.
He used to be the first one to text me in the morning and the last one to message me good night. And we’ll get back there. I just gotta do what I did before—show him what I want him to see. The good girl who fell in love with him.
DEMI
“How about Skittles?” Austin asks Lilly as we come up behind them.
She shakes her head, blond curls bouncing.
“Hmm, okay, how about M&M’s?”
She shakes her head again.
“How about all of them?” Becky announces, and Austin turns around.
“Hey.” She smiles at us. “Demi, I’m glad you were able to come.”
I just nod at her.
“I thought you and Cole had plans tonight?” Becky asks her when she puts Lilly down.
“We did, but something came up,” she answers.
I look over her while she talks to my sister. Austin is pretty in that whole I-don’t-know-it way. Her dark brown hair is down and a little wavy as though she let it air dry and didn’t bother to straighten or curl it. It’s so long that it drapes over her chest, almost reaching her belly button. Her makeup isn’t caked on like my sister’s, but she doesn’t seem to need much. She has dark green eyes and a diamond stud in her
nose. She reaches up to push some hair behind her ear and I run my eyes over her right arm, looking for what she had mentioned in her journal. And I see it. It’s faint, but it’s there if you know what you’re looking for. A cut about three inches long across her forearm. The very cut that Cole gave her that first night in the cemetery.
“Demi?”
I blink and look up at her eyes. “Hmm?”
She gives me a soft smile. “Do you want something?”
“Yeah.” I look up at the menu.
“What would you like?” She turns, giving me her back to face the man who patiently waits for her order.
“Oh, I can get it—”
“Nonsense,” she interrupts me. “I’ll get it. I owe you anyway. You got my gummies the other night at Silence. What do you want?” She begins to order for her and Lilly.
I scan the menu, and say, “A large Coke ICEE. Please.”
Lilly grabs my hand and looks up at me. Her brown eyes wide in excitement. “That’s Austin’s and my favorite.”
“So what did Cole have to do?” my sister asks, being a nosy bitch as she pops a piece of popcorn in her mouth from the bucket the cashier just placed on the counter.
“He didn’t say, and I didn’t ask. Deke called him, and he said he had to go.”
I stiffen. Is she gonna rat me out that I was just there earlier tonight when her and Cole were leaving?
“I’m sure it has to do with swimming. Or maybe their classes.” Austin shrugs.
And I try to slow my racing heart.
My sister looks at me, and I swallow nervously, looking away from her. Austin may not have told on me, but did Deke? Did he call Cole the moment I left to tell him that I know his secrets? That I threatened to out them? Fuck, Cole cut Austin’s arm, so I wonder what the hell he would do to me if he knew I had the power to destroy them? Plus, Austin mentioned in her journal that Deke wanted to shoot her. I wasn’t all that afraid of Deke until after I read that. Cole always had that I’ll kill you and store your dead body in my basement kind of vibe. If they worked together, I’m sure my body would never be found.
“Here, Lilly.” Austin hands her a small ICEE. “Don’t drop it, okay?”
DARE SERIES COLLECTION Page 64