“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. I continue.
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 because 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 would 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 because 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.
Bennett reads it immediately. Seconds later, my cell rings. I place it on speakerphone. “Hello?”
“What the fuck is going on?” he demands. “And what does he mean by let him fuck her? Who?”
“Seth.” I growl.
“Her boyfriend?” he asks.
“He’s not her boyfriend,” Cole answers. “He’s gay. She’s his cover.”
“Oh, well that changes things.”
“There’s more.” I sigh.
“What is it?” he asks, sounding irritated. Aren’t we all?
“The cabin on Lake Travis …” I start.
“Yeah?”
“His parents own it.”
A long silence follows my words.
When he finally speaks, he sighs. “Hang on. I’m gonna call and wake up Shane. We all need to be in on this conversation.”
DEMI
Sophomore year
I pace my bedroom at my father’s house. I’ve called Eli a hundred times by now, but it keeps going straight to voicemail. And I don’t know why he would turn his phone off. His Facebook says he hasn’t been active in over thirty minutes. I dial it again.
“Come on … pick up. Pick up.”
“Hey, you’ve reached Eli. Leave me a message …”
I yank the phone from my ear and scream out of frustration. I told him not to do it. That it was fucking stupid! He should have listened to me. I hope Deke didn’t catch them …
My bedroom door flies open, and I spin around to see my sister running in. Her blond hair is a tangled mess. Her crop top and shorts are covered in dirt and blood. Her makeup is streaked from tears.
“Becky? What the hell?” I ask.
She’s sobbing. Her bottom lip trembling. I stay where I am, not sure what the hell is going on. “Where’s Eli?” I ask, looking behind her. Is this some trick she talked him into? It can’t be. He wouldn’t do that to me. He may be ignoring my phone calls, but at least I know she’s here and no longer with him.
“Help me.” She sobs, falling to her knees in the middle of my room.
“What the hell happened to you?” I ask, watching the blood and dirt get on my white rug.
“There was an accident.” She swallows. “The car flipped. Cole …”
I fall to my knees before her. “What?” I grip her tear-streaked face and force her to look up at me. “What do you mean an accident?”
“I … I think I killed them.” She begins to rock back and forth. “He told me to run.”
“Who told you to run?” My hands begin to shake.
“Cole.” She bends over, cradling her stomach. “I told him I was pregnant, and he told me to run.”
I know she’s not pregnant. She was in my bathroom just last weekend borrowing tampons. My eyes look over her body, and I see scratch marks on her thighs and arms. I blink, running a hand through my hair. “Who do you think you killed, Becky?”
“Landen.” She sobs. “Maddox and Eli.” My heart stops. “Cole kept hollering for them, but none of them answered.”
I fall back onto my ass, trying to comprehend what she just said.
“I went back.” She nods to herself. “Cole was sitting in the ditch with Eli in his arms … He wasn’t breathing.” Her shaking hands grip her cell. The screen is shattered. “I called the cops.” Dropping the phone to my floor, she buries her busted face in her hands.
It begins to ring, and I pick it up to see David light up the busted screen. “Why is David calling you …?”
She snatches it from my hands.
Present
I open my eyes and roll out of bed. I trip over a pair of shoes but manage to make it to the bathroom door. Turning on the light, I blink rapidly and then decide to just pee in the dark. Once done, I wash my hands and pick up the mouthwash to try to get rid of this god-awful taste in my mouth. And it’s not the vodka. It’s cinnamon. That damn Fireball Austin had me drinking.
I exit the bathroom and make my way back to Deke’s bed. It’s still dark out; the clock on his nightstand says a little after three a.m. He lies on the right side, closest to the door. The covers sit low on his hips, showing me his smooth chest and impressive six-pack. His right hand lies on his chest while his other is behind his head.
I come to a stop and just watch him sleep. I told him too much last night. I remember running my mouth while in his SUV on our way back here. A part of me wanted to get it out. To purge everything that is Collins, Oregon. There were so many lies and so much deceit in that town. No one was who they said they were. Not even Deke.
I blamed my sister for killing Eli. I still blame her. And I blame Eli for thinking of that stupid plan. If she hadn’t gone, maybe the timing would have been different. Maybe he would have survived.
Did I love him?
I thought I did. But I didn’t really know him. He said that I didn’t deserve to be someone’s secret, but that’s exactly what I was. No one knew about us. Or what I thought we were.
I went to his funeral, and I watched the town mourn a kid who was loved by some and hated by most. I saw him differently, but he was still a GWS to everyone else, and the town didn’t like the sharks. Parents and most of the city wanted Cole’s head on a fucking stake for what happened. His father threw a lot of money at the city to make sure the law didn’t touch his son, but he too was more than what the town thought. They thought Cole was driving a car drunk after leaving a party with his friends. He took the blame for the accident and covered for my sister. You know how many times I wanted to out her sorry ass? She had lied to him about being pregnant. What kind of woman does that? She begged me to stay quiet. I did, knowing I’d be able to use it against her, but then Deke came along and threatened her when he also realized she had lied to Cole. Cole might not have known that Becky lied about being pregnant, but Deke did. And he was far scarier than I was capable of being.
You know what they say—all secrets come out eventually.
Deke shifts and turns onto his side. I crawl into the bed and cuddle up against him. He reaches out and pulls me into him. I inhale his scent and close my eyes. His hand glides up my back, and I kiss his chest.
“You better stop that,” he mumbles.
I smile and do it again.
“Demi …”
“I don’t want to,” I whisper.
His hand comes up to my hair, and he grips it in his fingers. Then he dips his face to the crook of my neck. “How do you feel?”
“Horny,” I answer. And still a little drunk.
He lets out a growl that makes his chest vibrate against mine.
I shove the covers off us and push on his chest. He rolls onto his back, and I get up to straddle him. His hands go to my hips, and he tugs on the lace of my thong. “What are you doing, Demi?”
“You,” I answer, biting my lip.
His hands slide up my sides and to my chest. I arch my back and throw my head back, closing my eyes and just soak in the feel of his hands. It’s nice to have someone touch you. Want you. Even if he wants to kill you. It makes things much more exciting. I should have pursued Deke a long time ago.
“Not with your underwear on, you’re not.” He growls.
“Then take them off me,” I tease.
I squeal as he to
sses me down beside him and positions himself between my legs. His hands grip my panties, and he pulls them down my thighs before tossing them to the floor.
He leans down, his lips close to mine, and he runs his fingers over the cut on my cheek. “I’m gonna kill him.”
My heart begins to pound at his words. “Why?” I can’t help but ask.
His blue eyes move from the cut to my eyes. His jaw sharpens when he says. “Because he touched you. And I am the only man allowed to touch you.”
I hate that my chest tightens at his words. That someone actually cares for me. But I say, “You mean hurt me?”
His face grows serious, and he lets out a long breath. “I’m sorry,” he whispers.
“Are you?” I challenge him. That’s not the answer I wanted.
“Of course. I shouldn’t have …”
“It’s okay,” I wrap my legs around his hips.
“It’s not.”
“I wanted to push you the other night.” Shut up drunk, Demi.
He frowns.
I don’t fucking listen to myself. “When I lied to you on the back porch, I wanted to push you to see what you could do.”
His hard and smooth chest rises and falls as he sucks in a long breath. “Why?”
I run my hands up his chiseled abs, ready to lay it all out. Deke loved the lie that was Becky. I keep saying I’m not her. So if he is going to like me, he’s going to fall for the real me. “Because your darkness turns me on.” I watch to see if his expression changes, but it doesn’t. “She wanted to tame you. I want to see what you can do. I wanna see the real you. All of you. I know I could never win against you, Deke, but I don’t want you to hide. Not from me.”
He sits there between my legs not saying a word, and my heart begins to race. Bringing up my sister while we’re lying in bed naked together probably wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had, but I feel like she’s always lingering around us anyway. Like a dark cloud just waiting to pour down on us.
“You’ve seen the real me,” he finally says, and his eyes drop to my neck.
“And I’m still here.” I give him a drunken smile.
His jaw sharpens. “I could have killed you …” He pauses and sighs. “I can’t promise that I won’t hurt you again.”
If You Dare (Dare Series Book 3) Page 28
