I pull out my cell and try calling him, but it rings several times before his voicemail finally picks up. I put the SUV in gear and pull out of their driveway as my phone rings. It’s Cole calling me back.
“Hey, man. What’s up?” I answer.
I hear his tires squealing, letting me know he’s left wherever he was. Probably with Austin. “Austin’s mother is in town. With her new husband.”
“Okay,” I say slowly.
He takes in a deep breath. I know absolutely nothing about her mother or stepdad, or anything about her life before she moved here to Collins three months ago. “They were waiting for Austin when we walked into Bruce’s house.”
“And?”
“And they need to be taken care of,” he answers.
“Where do you want me to meet you?” I ask without hesitation, knowing he has a plan. Cole always has one. And I’ll help him take care of whoever has fucked him over. Or in this case, it sounds like they have fucked over Austin.
We found them hiding out at the cheapest hotel in Collins. But it was in the middle of the day, so we decided on a plan, then he spent the afternoon with Austin and Lilly at the zoo. I went to the docks where our fathers once kept their yachts. There was an abandoned warehouse back there where they used to load and unload the shipping containers. They built a new one on the other side of town but hadn’t demolished this one yet, so no one was ever here.
I laid down a blue tarp in the office to get it ready.
Later that evening, after they left the zoo, I went over to the clubhouse and picked up Cole, and we sat outside the hotel room and waited.
We had our duffel bags with us. We rarely left home without them. Cole knocked on the door like they were expecting us, and a man answered. Cole shoved the door into his face, knocking him into the room. I entered and slammed it shut. Cole was already on the man, so I grabbed the woman and had her face down on the bed before she could even scream. I placed duct tape over her mouth and then tied her hands and feet together with it as well before I threw a hood over her head. Cole did the same to the man. We took them back to the docks I had been at earlier in the day and carried them into the office.
We didn’t play with them for very long. Cole fucked up the man pretty good with his fists, then took his knife and cut off the guy’s dick while he was still alive. I didn’t know what these people had done, but it was clear they had pissed him the fuck off. They were both druggies. I had grabbed their bathroom bag from their hotel and found a syringe and some heroin in it. After I heated it up into liquid, I shot it into her. I’m not sure if she died from the drugs I gave her or the fact that I never removed the tape from her mouth and she choked on her own vomit. It didn’t matter. They both died. We killed them.
After they were both dead, we stood there in that office. Cole had told me that Austin’s stepdad had touched her. Sexually. The first time she was ten. It was then that I realized just how much he loved her. And how far I would go to protect his girl for him. She was one of us—a shark—and we protect our own. No matter what.
“Well.” Demi’s mother clears her throat. “I hope you wait a while before you get married. Finish school—”
“We’re thinking January,” Austin interrupts her.
Two months from now.
“That’s awesome,” Demi says with a big smile on her face. “I’ve always wondered why couples have long-drawn-out engagements. If you love each other, why not do it sooner?”
Angelica does not share her daughter’s excitement. You would think this is me and Demi wanting to tie the knot.
“Have you found a venue already?” Angelica asks. Now she’s just being nosy. “Not sure you will have much luck on availability with such short notice.”
“Oh, we already know.” Austin smiles, looking over at Cole. “An abandoned cemetery.”
Demi’s mother chokes on her fucking slimy snail.
“It’s where we first met,” she adds.
Cole reaches out and takes her hand. He brings her knuckles to his lips and kisses them softly. “Whatever you want, sweetheart.”
Demi has her elbows on the table, her chin in her hands, and she looks at them wistfully. And I realize that I will do anything to keep that look on her face. It’s crazy how pissed off she used to always look. She hated the world. Now she’s always smiling at me. And laughing. Fuck, that laugh. I tickle her just to hear it. I toss her over my shoulder to hear her squeal my name. And I lie awake at night to watch her sleep. I wonder what it would have been like if I would have picked her instead of Becky. I never even looked at Demi. She was once nonexistent to me. Just like she was to everyone else. But I see her now. And she’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
DEMI
“That didn’t go too bad.” Austin laughs as we enter their house.
I told my mother after dinner that I was staying with Austin tonight. I didn’t think that she knew Deke lived with them, and when she didn’t tell me no, then I was positive she didn’t know.
“It could have gone worse.” I agree.
I’ll have to listen to it tomorrow. About how much of her life she is throwing away to marry a man who can leave her at any given moment. My mother believes a woman should pay her own way, unless you’re Becky. Well, then a career doesn’t matter.
I make my way upstairs to Deke’s room. I’m removing my shirt when he enters. He walks into his bathroom, and I quickly finish getting undressed before crawling underneath his cool covers. Seconds later, he walks out and does the same, but he leaves his black boxers on.
I frown over at him as he turns the light off. I wouldn’t say I’m addicted to sex, but that is definitely a bonus when it comes to him.
He shifts onto his side and pulls me into him. “Ride home with me for Thanksgiving.”
Not the conversation I thought we were going to have, but I say, “Okay.”
We all decided last weekend to go home for Thanksgiving. He wants to spend it with Shelby, and I want to see my father. Cole and Austin are also going back. Shelby told them they could stay at her house with Lilly since Cole doesn’t speak to his dad and Austin’s father’s house isn’t in any condition to live in at the moment. She told me the other day that after she was shot, and her stepmother was killed there, no one has cleaned up the house. Her father went to prison, and it was just abandoned.
He kisses my forehead, and I hear his phone ring. It’s been going off nonstop the last few days. “Who keeps calling you?” I ask.
“Shane.”
I pull away from him and sit up. “Why are you ignoring him?”
He reaches up and pulls me down to lie next to him. “It’s nothing. I’ll call him tomorrow.”
He’s lying, but I don’t question it.
“Have you heard from my sister?”
I feel his body stiffen against mine. “No. why?”
“My mother probably called her after we left her house.”
“Hey.” He pushes my hair from my face. “Who cares?”
“I do. My mother wants you with her.” I growl.
He gives me a smile. “I’m with you, Demi.”
We haven’t had the we’re exclusive talk. I just figured it’s a given at this point. I haven’t seen anyone else, and he spends every free second he has with me.
“Yeah, but …”
“Shh,” he says, pressing his lips gently to mine. “You’re mine, and I’m yours. Neither Becky nor your mother are going to change that.”
“Promise?” I ask, biting my bottom lip. My mother can be very persuasive. And relentless. That’s where my sister gets it from.
His phone rings again. He sighs, rolling over, and shuts it off. He turns back to face me. “Promise.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
BECKY
I SIT ON the kitchen counter at a kid’s parent’s house in Collins. My legs swing back and forth, hitting the cabinets. People crowd around drinking, smoking, and high on whatever drugs they’ve ingested to get th
rough the night. I understand it. Wish I could do it. Feel numb. But no matter what I do, it won’t fix how I feel.
“Deke came over tonight. He, Austin, and Cole had dinner with us. He’s dating your sister.” My mother had told me during a phone call last week.
I tried to brush it off by telling her that I was done with him. I laughed it off that they belonged together. But after I hung up, I cried. I laid in my bed and sobbed. Mainly because of what he did to me. But also that he’s with her. They’ve made it official. They wanted it to get back to me.
After he and the sharks cut me, I sat on my bedroom floor with a bottle of vodka, and I drank the entire thing until the pain subsided and the skin was numb. It hurt like fucking hell. I eventually passed out.
I woke up, knowing I needed a plan. I can’t win him back. That’s long gone. Now I want to kill them both. All the GWS.
“What are you doing here?” Shane demands, coming to stand in front of me.
I don’t answer. He’ll die slow and painfully. He betrayed me! Why didn’t they carve his neck up? Because he has a dick? Or maybe it’s because he has murdered with them. He knows too much about them for them to turn on him.
A brunette I’ve never seen before clings to his side.
“Hi,” she says with a tilt of her head, her high ponytail pulling her hair back tightly. “I’m Brynn.” She introduces herself like I give a fuck.
Her gray eyes twinkle at me. She’s too bubbly. Too fucking annoying. She’s dressed in a pair of skinny jeans with a pair of black heels, and a black and white shirt that hugs her small frame.
I instantly hate her.
She reminds me of myself. Back before the sharks ruined everything I had.
He whispers something in her ear, and she bites her lip before nodding like the good little slave she is. They all have one. Each of them feeds off a helpless, willing victim. Fulfilling their need for sex and blood. He pulls away from her, and she turns, all but bouncing away.
He reaches up and pushes my blond hair behind me ear. I slap his hand away. He lost the right to touch me when he told one of my secrets. I wonder if he knows the other.
What would he do if I told them what I know? What would Deke do if he knew about Bennett? That’s why I went to the clubhouse the other day. To blackmail Bennett. Boy, did that plan backfire on me. They always seem to.
“Becky, you gotta get over it,” he says.
I place my hand on his chest and push him away from me. He backs up, and I jump off the counter, almost tripping over my own heels.
“Whoa.” He reaches out for me, but I shove him away.
“Leave me alone.”
He doesn’t know what it’s like to love someone who you don’t really know. To have that one person betray you in the worst possible way.
None of them do—the GWS. They’re all just a group of spoiled-ass rich boys who have always been allowed to do whatever the fuck they want. In a town of people who either fear them or take payment from their parents to look the other way.
I always thought they were harmless.
Stupid girl.
I, of all people, should know that nothing is what it seems.
I fake a lot of shit. I learned it from my mother. Angelica Lawrence is the perfect model for a broken soul under flawless makeup and a fake-as-shit smile. People will only see what you show them is her motto.
I know I’m a hypocrite.
A liar.
A slut.
I’m what everyone whispers behind my back. I’ve never had any real friends. Not until Austin Lowes came along, and I was even forced into that friendship. But I managed to fuck that one up too.
I thought I could outsmart all of them. Thought I could play them at their own game. Told myself I could keep up with the lies and wouldn’t get caught.
Turns out, I was wrong.
The worst part? Deke has always had a part of me, since the first time he kissed me on a hot and sunny day by the football field of Collins High. After he took my breath away, he gave me his back and walked away. I let him go. Even then, I knew I couldn’t keep him. Not much later, he was standing in front of me again. It didn’t matter that I was unavailable at the time. No one tells Deke Biggs no. He wanted me, and I swore I could use him for popularity. To get into a crowd that could make me more than the spineless bitch I was. I would use him the way he and his friends used others. But I promised myself I would not fall for him like all the dick-whipped girls in our school.
Fuck, I fell to my knees so fast. Like I was a sinner in church who was shown the light and needed to repent.
But instead of forgiveness, I got burned alive at the stake.
It was bound to happen. No one lies and gets away with it like the GWS. There was a frenzy of them and only one of me. I was never a shark. It was a loan. I played nice with Cole’s girlfriend, Austin, while fucking his best friend—I was supposed to get a pass.
Instead, I got fucked without the benefits of the actual orgasm. Well, I guess I can’t say that. Deke knows his way around a woman’s body. But it’s not like the bastard hadn’t had any practice. I may not have been innocent, but I didn’t have half the experience he did. He flashed his pretty blue eyes and panty-dropping smile at me, and I was gone. Just like all the others before me. And the ones to come after me.
I never had a fucking chance. Just like everyone else who goes up against any of them, failure was my only option. They come together and rip you to shreds before you can even blink. Then they step back and watch you bleed to your death. They find a sick pleasure in watching you wither in pain. They thrive on it. Feed off it.
They’ve always liked to play a little game of dare. They may have called it quits, but I’m about to call their bluff. And what’s a game if not everyone plays?
I’m gonna show them that Becky Holt can play just as ruthlessly. Deke Biggs is my target, and he’ll never see me coming. I’m gonna put on my makeup and my mother’s smile. I don’t care who you are—no man can resist a painted face and scandalous dress with a pair of heels as tall as the sky.
He may be a shark, but I’m about to show him that the bait can be just as threatening.
“Becky?” A hand grips my upper arm and spins me around.
“Get the fuck off me, Shane,” I snap.
He grips the back of my neck, and I cry out as he shoves me through a door into a room. He lets go and I bend over, my hand flying to the back of my neck over the cuts he just grabbed. Tears fill my eyes, and my breathing has hitched.
“Listen.” He grips my hair and yanks my head back. “You belong to us, Becky. Do you understand that?”
“Fuck you,” I hiss.
He lets go of my hair and cups my face with both of his hands. I bare my teeth, ready to bite him if need be. “You think I want you?” he asks, arching his dark brows in amusement.
“Are you saying you don’t?” I growl.
“If you’re doing this to piss off Deke, it won’t work. He doesn’t care about you anymore, Becky.” He leans and whispers. “Those cuts were a warning, baby, to always watch your back. You never know when we’ll be there.” He lets go of me. “You’re lucky to still be alive. So enjoy your life and go fuck someone who doesn’t know what kind of whore you really are.” With that, he pulls away and walks out the room. I exit behind him and see him find the brunette standing by the wall with two drinks in her hands. She hands him one and sips from the other.
I fist my hands and turn, storming out the back door of the house, but I run into a hard body. “Sorry …” I look up and gasp.
A hand slaps over my mouth, and I’m pushed up to the side of the house. He takes his free hand and places a finger over his lips, silently telling me to be quiet. Then removes his hand.
“What are you doing here?” I whisper, looking around to make sure no one is looking our way. “No one can see you.”
He gives me a soft smile as his hand grips the hem of my shirt before sliding underneath it. “I needed to see you,
baby.” Then his lips land on mine.
DEKE
It’s officially Thanksgiving, and we are back at Collins for the week. We had planned on flying but then decided we wanted to have access to vehicles. My father has plenty to go around, but I’m still not talking to that fucker. And same thing goes with Cole’s father. It took us two days to make the thirty-hour drive. We had to stop and stay the night in Utah and watched Lilly swim in the indoor pool with the girls. Things seem to be going pretty good lately. Cole is on edge again, though. He hasn’t told Austin what all he knows. That wouldn’t bother the old Cole, but it’s eating the new one alive. I think he’s afraid to tell her just how deep her friend’s betrayal ran. And I think the fact that we’re back here in Collins adds to that.
“Are you glad to be back?” Demi asks from the passenger seat.
“Yes,” I answer, pulling up to my sister’s house. I haven’t spoken to her in a few hours. We’re a little ahead of our scheduled time to arrive.
I frown when I see a white SUV parked in the driveway that I know all too well. I exit my Range Rover and walk inside with Demi right behind me. “Sis?” I call out.
I walk down the hallway and turn to enter the kitchen, thinking I’ll find her at the table, but she’s not there. “Shelby?” I yell this time.
“Deke?” She answers from behind me.
I turn to see her standing in the hallway with a dark gray towel wrapped around herself. Her blond hair, wet and sticking to her bare shoulders. She still has some soap on her face. “What are you doing?” I ask.
“I was in the shower.” She smooths her hand down the towel and looks over to Demi who comes to stand next to me. She swallows nervously. “You guys are early.”
I narrow my eyes on her neck. She has a couple of marks that resemble hickeys. What the fuck? I’ve never seen hickeys on my sister before. “Is that a problem?”
“No,” She laughs like I told a joke and changes the subject. “Are you hungry? Want me to make you something …”
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