DARE SERIES COLLECTION

by Tessier, Shantel

  I sit on my stool and watch them take their place on the mini dance floor. There’s no grinding. Nothing to show that he once used her for his own sick game. He makes love to her out there. Slow and sweet. He holds her to him and kisses her while they dance to their own song. It’s beautiful.

  I realize I want that. The fighting. The passion. The love. I want someone to love me so much that I make them crazy. Anything less would be boring. Lifting my hand to my throat, I flinch when I realize that’s exactly what Deke and I have. I wanted him to fuck me, and now I want him to love me.

  Spinning around, I hold up two fingers to the bartender. “Vodka,” I state. I’ve had enough of that cinnamon shit.

  “Here you are.” He sets them down.

  “Thanks,” I mumble as a man slides onto Austin’s seat. I look over to see a new set of blue eyes. Ones that make my breath quicken and my thighs tighten.

  Fuck!

  “If you’re here to force me to leave, I’ll make a scene.” Not a good idea on my part since I’m underage, but he doesn’t wanna push me on this.

  Deke shakes his head. “We’ll go when you’re ready.”

  “We?”

  He nods once.

  “Waiting for me to get drunk before you try to kill me this time?” I ask. He doesn’t answer.

  I reach out for the shots and throw one back. Tears sting my eyes, and I hold up two fingers for more. I’m gonna do exactly what Austin said—drink this fucking day away.

  I hear him release a sigh. “Demi …”

  “Don’t.” I choke on the single word.

  I swallow the knot that has formed in my throat. My fake boyfriend tried to rape me because he said he had to. Cole and Deke mentioned that I’m on some list. And Deke has taken it upon himself to babysit me. But just thirty minutes ago, he wanted to kill me. Hell, maybe he still does. Why not drink myself into a coma tonight?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  DEKE

  “HEY, WE’RE GONNA head home,” Cole announces, coming up to me.

  I look over at Austin, and she sways even though he has an arm over her shoulders. The girls probably got quite a few shots before we got here, and that was over an hour ago.

  “Okay. We’ll see you guys back at the house.”

  Austin steps up to me. “Don’t you dare—”

  “I’m not going to hurt her,” I interrupt her. “I promise.”

  She looks like she wants to argue, but Cole doesn’t give her the chance. He pulls her away and out the front door.

  “What’s the damage?” I ask William, the bartender.

  “The brunette had a tab open. The guy already covered it, Deke.” The guy knows me by name. I come here when I want to drink alone. The music isn’t too loud, so you can actually hear yourself think. No one bothers you.

  I let out a sigh and look over at Demi sitting next to me, staring down at an empty shot glass. She hasn’t spoken to me since I arrived. Not that I blame her. I throw down a hundred anyway. “Let’s go, princess.”

  She doesn’t argue as I help her to her feet and out to my Range Rover. Cole and I drove together so he could drive Austin’s car back. I buckle her into the passenger seat. Getting in, I start it. I avoid the highway and take the backroads.

  She’s notices. “You’re going the wrong way.”

  “We’re just taking the long way.” I’m giving Cole and Austin time alone to dish out whatever issues they’ve got going on right now. And I know they’ll do that in their bed.

  He acted like he wasn’t mad at her when we arrived at the bar, but when we entered the house to find them gone, he was furious. He tried calling, and she ignored it. I instantly knew she was paying him back for the night we went to the cabin, and he turned his phone off. He was not happy. But no surprise, he has a tracker on her car. She has no clue. After she bought her Range Rover, he took it to have her windows tinted and had them add a tracker. He’s so paranoid of something happening to her. Of losing her. It just happened to come in handy tonight.

  “Giving Austin and Cole some time together,” I tell her.

  “Can you keep a secret?” she asks.

  She has no idea. “Yes.”

  “She’s worried he’ll get bored with her.”

  I snort. “That’ll never happen.”

  “You and I know that, but Becky got in her head.” She sighs. “That bitch gets in everyone’s head.”

  Can’t argue that. But I say, “That’s just the alcohol talking.” Referring to Austin.

  “What’s that saying? A drunk man’s thoughts are a sober man’s words. Wait …” She pauses, her drunk self having to think about it. “A drunk man’s words … are a sober man’s thoughts.”

  I smile. “Oh yeah? What are your drunk words?” I’ve never been around her drunk before. She was tipsy at her Halloween party and the other night, but nowhere near gone like this. I watched her have six shots on top of what she had before we got there.

  “I’ve got all kinds of secrets.”

  I arch a brow. “The ones you say you know about me?” Which I now know came from Austin’s journal.

  “No. Everyone else,” she whispers.

  I frown. “Like what?”

  Her head falls to the side, and she looks at me. “I know more than you think.”

  “Whatcha got?” I ask. She can’t know much.

  “I know that Becky lost her virginity to Shane.”

  “What?”

  She closes her eyes and nods. “Yep. She was acting weird for a couple of days, and I was in her closet looking for a shirt of mine that went missing. I heard her enter her room on the phone. She was crying. Told Shane that she had been bleeding for two days and it wouldn’t stop. He asked what the fuck was he supposed to do about it?” She laughs. “That was when I realized a girl’s virginity didn’t mean anything. Which is crazy, right? We’re told it’s supposed to be special. You’re supposed to give it to someone you love.” Her drunk laughter grows. “Such bullshit.”

  I shift in my seat ’cause I didn’t make anything about her first time special. “What was the second?” I ask, fully taking advantage of her intoxicated state.

  “When my sister drugged me and didn’t care if I got raped.”

  What? “When the fuck did this happen?” I growl.

  “You were there.” She gives me a smile, and that’s how I know she drank too much. ’Cause nothing about what she is about to tell me could be anything worth smiling about. Her eyes are still closed. “The beach party. You handed me a bottle of vodka. That was actually my first drink. Anyway, Cole took it from me, and I wanted to leave. So I went over to tell David I was going to wait in the car, but he told Becky to make me a drink. After that, I ran into Eli, and I left with him. He took me to the cemetery. But then I started feeling weird, and I couldn’t open my eyes. He tasted my drink and said I had been drugged.” My hands tighten on the steering wheel. “How was I supposed to know it didn’t taste right? I hadn’t had a drink before that night. Anyway, he had to carry me to his car. Then he took me to his house where I got sick. The next morning, my sister showed up to get me, and when he confronted her about it, she said she and Maxwell did it. He called her a bitch and said that he could have raped me. That’s when we learned that was their plan all along. That bitch knew I was a virgin. She didn’t fucking care.”

  I come to a red light and clear my throat. “Demi …”

  “That’s one of the reasons I slept with you.”

  I look over at her, and her head falls toward me, and her pretty blue eyes look up into mine. The same ones I watched the life slowly drain out of while I choked her earlier. I hate that I hurt her. Now that I know the truth of how much shit she has been through. It seems someone is always wanting to hurt her.

  “I know I lied to you. Tricked you. We set you up. But …” She licks her lips. “I wanted you to take it, Deke. Don’t think for one second that I didn’t want you.”

  I hate how much I like the sound of that. But I
find myself saying, “I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  I reach out and cup her face. For wanting to kill you. For fucking you? My list just seems to keep growing, but I pick. “Your first time should have been different …”

  She snorts. “I didn’t want different. And I don’t regret it.” She closes her eyes.

  I watch her lips part slightly and her chest rise and fall slowly. She’s so drunk, she won’t be with me much longer. But I still have questions. “If Eli knew what she did to you, then why did he fuck her?”

  “I lied about that too the other night. On the back porch.”

  “What?”

  “He never slept with her.” She yawns, and I know I’m losing her.

  “Demi?”

  “Hmm?”

  “What do you mean he never slept with her?” Cole told me that they were sleeping together. He wouldn’t lie to me.

  “He faked it.”

  “How do you fake fucking someone?” I growl.

  “He set her up. For you … just like I set you up.” She’s beginning to mumble her words.

  “You’re not making any sense, princess.”

  She digs into the pocket of her jeans and produces her cell phone. She goes to hand it to me but drops it to the floor. “It’s all on our FB chat,” she manages to say before she passes out on me.

  DEMI

  Sophomore year

  “This is a horrible idea,” I say, grabbing Eli’s arm.

  “It’ll be fine.”

  “Please don’t go,” I beg him.

  He runs a hand down his face and lets out a sigh. He’s clearly getting pissy with me. His phone dings, and he looks down at it. “It’s Deke.”

  “What did he say?”

  “His father wants to talk to him, so he won’t be at the party, but he’ll meet up with us afterward.”

  “See, this may not even work.”

  He cups my face with both of his warm hands. Brown eyes staring into mine. “It will. I promise you.”

  I don’t understand how he thinks my sister will fall for this shit. She’ll see right through him. She won’t risk her secret relationship with Deke. She keeps saying that she and David are on a break right now, but I’m not sure how much I believe that since her phone seems to go off a hundred times a day, and I know it’s David.

  His cell rings this time, and I get a quick look to see it reads Cole. Eli answers it. “Hey, man. I’m about to leave.” He nods to himself. “Okay, I’ll meet you there. Then we can all ride with you.” He hangs up and gives me his attention once again. “I’ll see you in a few hours.” He kisses my forehead and then walks out of his front door.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  DEKE

  I PULL UP to the house and carry a passed-out Demi inside. It’s quiet, letting me know that Austin and Cole are already asleep. Opening my door, I lie her on my bed and undo her jeans before sliding them down her legs. Then I’m removing her shirt. I leave her in her bra and underwear and make my way back out to my SUV. I open the passenger side door and pick up her phone off the floormat.

  Going back inside the house, I grab the pack of cigarettes out of the drawer and make my way out back. Cole is in the pool.

  “Thought you’d be asleep,” I say, sitting down.

  Standing in the shallow end, he gives me a clear view of his bare chest and all the red scratch marks along his stomach and sides. I bet his back matches. That is why I took the long way home. No telling what Austin looks like at the moment.

  “I just got out here,” he tells me.

  I lean forward. “So I found out some interesting stuff tonight.”

  “I think that’s an understatement.”

  He’s talking about the Demi situation and Evan Scott. I sigh. “Other stuff.”

  He arches a brow. “Like what?”

  She asked me if I could keep a secret, and I will keep what she said about Austin to myself. But the other stuff I need to talk to Cole about. “Demi filled me in on all kinds of information.”

  “Do you believe her?”

  I nod. “I do.”

  “Does it have to do with anything regarding Seth and Evan Scott?”

  My jaw tightens, but I shake my head. “No. But some of it has to do with Eli.”

  “What about him?” He frowns.

  I sit back in my seat. “She claims he was not sleeping with Becky.”

  “Well, I didn’t see him physically fuck her, but I did see them all over each other,” he states. “And he acted like he had been when I confronted him about it.”

  I hold up her phone. “She said everything I need to know is on here.”

  He gets out of the pool and dries off before sitting down in the seat beside me. I open her Facebook app and search his name. None of us ever deactivated it after he passed. It was like erasing too many good memories when we were a team. When there were eight sharks and not five. And it wasn’t much time after that that his sister was killed. There was no one else to take it down besides her.

  I click on his page and go to message him. Their conversation pops up.

  “Scroll up,” Cole orders.

  I do as he says and then stop when I see the date of the night of the car wreck. It didn’t take long since this was the last conversation they had. Cole begins to read it out loud.

  Eli: I might have oversold it.

  Demi: What does that mean?

  Eli: Cole is pissed at me. I thought he was gonna knock me out right then and there. He’s probably already messaged Deke.

  Demi: What did you do?

  Eli: I kissed her. A lot. Acted like I was already fucking her.

  Cole lets out a sigh from beside me before he continues.

  Eli: Demi?

  She doesn’t respond.

  Eli: I had to do it.

  Again, nothing from her.

  Eli: I’m sorry, baby.

  Baby? Just how much were they seeing each other? He never mentioned her to us. I knew he had a thing for her, but I didn’t think it was anything serious.

  Ten minutes later, she texts him back.

  Demi: I hate this.

  Eli: Me too.

  Demi: I don’t understand why you couldn’t have just told him what kind of person she is. What she did to me.

  Eli: Sometimes words aren’t enough. I know him, and he’d confront her. Her being the vindictive bitch she is will cry and lie her way out of it. He’ll fall for it. Not ’cause he’s stupid, but because he is in love with her.

  Demi: Are you going to sleep with her?

  Eli: Fuck no! Cole, Landen, and Maddox now know. That’s enough.

  Demi: Why is she doing it? Why would she jeopardize what she and Deke have for you?

  Eli: She’s pissed at him. I overheard Cole telling Maddox at the party earlier that Deke hooked up with Kaitlin last weekend. Becky hates her. So, she’s willing to spread her legs for his best friend. In her eyes, it’s retaliation.

  Demi: Your friends are gonna hate you. Think you backstabbed him.

  Eli: Yeah. But maybe eventually, he’ll understand.

  Demi: Will I see you tonight?

  Eli: Yes. Cole is going to go fuck some girl. Not sure what Maddox and Landen have going on. Once I figure out what I’m doing, I’ll call you, baby.

  Then there’s a thirty-minute gap before all messages turn one-sided. And they’re all pretty much the same thing.

  Demi: How did it go?

  Demi: I keep calling.

  Demi: It’s going straight to voicemail.

  I exit out of it and shut down the screen. Leaning back, I run a hand over my face.

  “I should have never said a fucking word to you about it.” Cole growls.

  “I’m glad you did,” I tell him, trying to reassure him that he did the right thing.

  “Why the fuck didn’t he tell me the truth?”

  I could ask the same thing. Why did he choose to parade Becky around, knowing that I would be pissed at him? He knows I wo
uld have broken his nose over her. I can’t say if he was wrong or right about me believing him if he had just told me what kind of girl she was. Would I have believed him? I was in love with her. Or so I thought. Definitely obsessed. I guess in a way I do understand ’cause I would have cut her off right then and there for fucking my best friend. That was a line I wouldn’t allow her to come back from. “We’ll never know.” I sigh.

  “Fuck, what else do we not know?” he asks.

  That’s a loaded question that I don’t even want to get into right now. Too much shit has happened to dig any further tonight. I look at the cigarettes and no longer want one.

  “Do you think it’s a coincidence that we got in a fight with Peter and his friend over Demi about how they would share her and then Seth tries to rape her? Saying he had no choice?” he asks.

  I’ve thought about it. “How would they know about what we’ve done? How would they know Evan Scott is me?”

  “Becky,” he answers and shrugs “She’s pissed at Demi. I don’t think that any of us should underestimate what she’s capable of doing.”

  Isn’t that the truth. “Maybe we should pay them a visit?”

  “I think so.” He nods. “And Seth?”

  I just give him a smile, and he chuckles.

  Standing up, I go to walk inside when I hear a phone beep. I turn back to look at Cole, and he shakes his head. “Wasn’t mine. It’s upstairs.”

  I look down at mine. Nothing. Then I open Demi’s, thankful she doesn’t have a passcode on hers. “It’s from Evan Scott.” I growl.

  Cole comes over to me, and I open the PM.

  Evan Scott: You should have let him fuck you. It would have been far less painful than what’s to come.

  “Fuck!” Cole hisses. “Guess whoever it is knows that Seth didn’t succeed tonight.”

  “What the fuck?” I bark out.

  I type back.

  Demi: Try to touch her … If you dare.

  Cole runs his hands over his wet hair, and I fist mine. “This fucker …” I screenshot the message and then back out of it. I go to my old spam page and block it. Then I go to our GWS PM and drop the screenshot.