“It was just sitting in here. Waiting on you?” I question.
He nods. “It was in the glass bowl. On the table.”
“Fuck!” Cole growls.
“So why tell us about it now?” I rip the fucker to pieces and throw them in the trash.
“Well, ’cause now I think it was Becky who gave it to me,” he answers.
Cole shakes his head. “She didn’t know anything. And why leave it in the bowl? People knew we did dares but not specifics.”
“That’s not true,” I argue. “He said he received it after we left for Texas. Becky got Austin’s journal while Austin was still in the hospital. We waited three months after she was shot before we moved.”
Cole nods once and growls. “So the bitch has been playing us for six months now? And none of us saw it?”
“The letter has to be for me.” Shane speaks.
We all turn to face him. “What makes you think that?” Cole asks him.
He squares his shoulders and takes a deep breath. “Because … I know some secrets. Some that would totally change how this night is going to go. And that letter was threatening me to keep my mouth shut.”
I frown. “I don’t understand, Shane.”
“We all have secrets,” Cole grunts. “Why you specifically?”
“I know something that you guys don’t. And if I told on the person who I’m guessing sent me that letter, I would also be implicating myself.” His eyes go to Cole, and I stiffen at the challenge in his eyes.
What the fuck does he know? And why hasn’t he told us?
Cole takes a step forward, closing the distance between them. “Just what in the fuck do you know, Shane?”
And with that, he informs us of something he should have told us a long time ago. With each word, the room grows smaller. Colder. I watch Cole’s body tighten, his fists clench, and his breathing picks up. I cuss, Bennett kicks the table. Shane was right. Tonight is going to go differently than we had planned, but I have no problem adjusting it accordingly.
BECKY
I sit at my father’s kitchen table eating a piece of pie. He’s out of town for the week so I have the house to myself. It’s actually nice to be alone. I’ve always had to share. My school. My space. My car. My father made me take Demi everywhere. I was so fucking happy once she turned sixteen and could drive herself to school. I should have told my mom to let her stay here while I moved to Texas by myself.
Finishing off the pie, I place the plate in the sink and make my way upstairs. The thunder shakes the walls, and I hear the rain pick up. Typical Collins. This place is such a downer.
I enter my room and fall onto my bed. I close my eyes and let out a sigh. But they snap open when I hear a noise. “Hello?” I call out, looking outside my room but see nothing.
I remove my shirt. Tossing it onto the bed, I undo my jeans and push them down my legs. Standing in a black bra and matching thong, I enter my bathroom to take a bath. I need to relax. My entire body has been tight for days. I’ve been in a bad mood. Nothing has been going right, and I don’t like that.
I hear another sound and walk back into my bedroom. “Hello?” I ask again. Silence follows. My clock on my nightstand shows it’s a little after midnight. The thunder rattles the walls again and lightning flashes, lighting up my room. I shrug it off, knowing it must be a tree branch hitting my window or something.
My phone rings on my bed, and I look down to see Deke written across the screen. My heart begins to race with excitement.
“Hey?” I try to say calmly, but my high pitch gives me away. I turn, placing my back to the door and bounce toward the windows. The falling rain making visibility nonexistent. “What are you …?”
“Do you miss me, Becky?” he asks in greeting.
A cold chill runs up my spine at his tone. There was nothing affectionate about it. Just cold. Detached. “Of course, … I …”
“What if I said I wanted to see you?”
I swallow, and the hairs on my neck rise. “Deke.” I give a nervous laugh. “What do you mean? I, uh, I’d love to see you, but you’re too far away.” Thank God. He sounds like a serial killer calling his next victim. He’s probably drunk and playing some sick game with me.
“What if I told you I’m here?”
I whip around to face my bedroom door, my chest rising and falling quickly. “In Collins?” My voice shakes.
He gives a dark chuckle, and my stomach drops as I watch a man dressed in black jeans and a black hoodie move to stand in the doorway of my bedroom. His blue eyes look me up and down, taking in my half-naked body, but he shows no sign of interest. When they reach mine, I hear him whisper in my ear. “Your bedroom.”
I drop the phone and run into my en suite bathroom. I slam the door shut and lock it. He begins to pound on it from the outside. “Stop,” I cry as I press my hands up against it, knowing he’s fucking with me. If he wanted in, that lock wouldn’t stop him. “Deke, please …”
The banging stops, and I flip on the light before taking a step back from the door. Tears sting my eyes and my body shakes. What the fuck is he doing here? In Collins? My bedroom?
Other than my heavy breathing, silence now fills the room. I still hold my hands out in front of me as I take another step back and bump into a hard surface. I gasp, spinning around only to come face-to-face with Cole Reynolds.
They tricked me.
The phone call was to distract me, allowing Cole into my bathroom. Where Deke knew I’d run. He had been covering the door, there was no other escape option for me. His emotionless blue eyes stare down at me. Cole has this way of making you feel cold deep down in your bones. Like death coming to collect your soul. He’s come to drag me to hell. To make me pay for my sins. My breath hitches and my heart hammers in my chest. “Cole …”
He grips my hair and shoves my face into my bathroom mirror. Pain explodes behind my eyes. The impact takes my breath away. He yanks me back and shoves me away from him so hard that I slide across the countertop, knocking off my beauty supplies in the process. I hit the tile floor on my side as my shaking hands come up to shield my bloody and busted face. I sob into them, and it just intensifies the pounding in my face.
Cole opens the door, and I get up on my hands and knees, crawling away from them. “Fucking bastard,” I cry. He’s a fucking psycho.
Deke enters followed by Shane and then Bennett. I begin to shake. They’re gonna kill me. Right here. In my bathroom. “Fuck you guys! All of you!” I shout.
“You like to play, Becky? So do we.” Deke speaks, dropping a black duffel bag to his feet.
Shane gives me a cruel smile and kneels by the bag. Slowly, he unzips it. “Sorry, Becky. I ratted you out.”
My chest tightens. “I don’t know what you’re talking about …”
“But you do.” He nods. “Kellan had told me ...”
“No, no, no, no,” I chant.
“And you knew that I knew … How long did you expect me to keep that secret?”
Now it all makes sense. That’s why Cole slammed my face into the mirror. Because that’s exactly what Kellan did to Austin. The night I helped him break into the Lowes house.
Eight months ago
Austin walks into the kitchen and grabs the Fireball off the counter and takes a sip from the bottle. Her birthday party has been in full swing for over an hour now. She’s already pretty drunk. I’m sober as shit.
“What the hell was that?” I demand, running up next to her. I just stood in her father’s game room where she told the sharks that she has insurance on them. Whatever the fuck that means.
“Me putting them in their place,” she says and tips it back again.
I sigh. “What do you have on them?”
“Enough.”
I roll my eyes. “That’s not what I asked, Austin.”
She takes another drink as Deke walks into the kitchen, and I tense. What the fuck have they been up to? I know Cole is playing a game with Austin, but I didn’t know they w
ere all playing with her. Now I know everyone is involved.
He comes over to us, his eyes on mine. “We’re leaving, babe,” he says, and I watch Cole storm past the kitchen and out the front door.
She takes another drink.
“I’m staying again tonight,” I tell him. I stayed last night as well to bring in her birthday.
He nods, already knowing that. Then he looks at Austin. He opens his mouth to speak and then closes it.
“What?” she snaps.
He just shakes his head. “Nothing.” Then gives me a kiss before he turns and leaves.
“You can go with him if you want,” she offers.
I shake my head. “Absolutely not. I’m your only friend, remember?” I give her a smile before taking the bottle from her hand. All the girls hate her ’cause of Cole and all the boys want her ’cause of him as well. She’s fucked either way. “Someone has to watch over you.”
She rolls her eyes and sighs in disappointment. I can tell he’s ruined her birthday. Things have been tense since we stood at the clubhouse and he confessed that her father raped his mother and she has a half-sister.
I place my hand on hers and give her a reassuring smile. “You should give him a chance.”
“Some people don’t deserve a chance,”
“Austin—”
“I don’t wanna talk about it,” she interrupts me. “Can we just get drunk?”
I chuckle, handing her back the bottle. “Drink up, birthday girl.” She tosses it back, and I look over in time to see Kellan walk by. He stops, then looks at me and jerks his head. “I’ll be right back,” I tell her.
She waves me off.
Exiting the kitchen, I walk down the hallway to a half bath. Kellan shuts the door behind us. “What do you want?” I ask; he and I aren’t friends. I put him in the same category as Cole. Fucking evil.
He takes the phone from my hand and begins to mess with the keys. “I want you to text me later after the party is over.”
I snort. “Why would I do that?”
He hands me back my phone to see he entered his number into it. “Because if you don’t.” He steps into me. “I’ll tell Deke what you’re really doing with him.”
My eyes narrow up at him. “I don’t know …”
“I’m not stupid, Becky. I see everything.” I swallow. “I know everything.”
“It’s not what you think.”
He gives me a slow smile, his brown eyes looking me up and down. He reaches up and pushes some hair behind my ear, and my heart hammers in my chest. “It’s exactly what I think. Now are you going to let me in, or am I going to go to Deke?”
This can’t be happening. He can’t go to Deke. Deke can’t find out what I’ve been doing. He’ll destroy me. He’ll make school a living hell for me. “What are you gonna do?”
“I just want her phone.”
“I’ll get it for you,” I offer.
“No.” He shakes his head. “I want to get it.”
“But why?”
“Because I wanna know if Austin is full of shit, or if she really does have insurance on that phone.”
“What was she talking about?” I ask. “What kind of trouble could she get you guys in?”
“The kind that will get all of us sharks thrown in jail.” He leans in, and whispers, “For life.”
I swallow nervously. “She wouldn’t. Cole …”
“She is pissed at Cole right now. Believe me when I say she’ll turn his ass in without a second thought after everything he’s done to her.”
“But …”
“Becky?” A hand pounds on the bathroom door, and I jump at Austin’s voice. “What are you doing in there?’
“I’ll … I’ll be right out.” I holler.
He quirks his brow at me, and I take in a deep breath and nod. He just wants her phone. I can handle that. Then I exit out of the bathroom, closing the door behind me. She holds her bottle of Fireball in one hand and her other sits on her hip. “Let’s get fucked.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
DEKE
“AFTER COLE KNOCKED out Kellan’s car window with a bat and found Austin’s phone the day after her birthday party, I called and asked him what the fuck he was doing. And how the hell he got into the house. He told me Becky helped him …”
“What the fuck, man?” I bark. She was supposed to be her best friend.
“Why would she help him?” Cole snaps.
“I don’t know.” Shane throws up his hands. “That’s all I know. He never went into detail, and I didn’t get the chance to ask. Just that he needed whatever insurance she had on her phone, and Becky was willing to help him. And he was pissed that you caught him.”
I remember what Shane told us just hours ago at the clubhouse. He stands and hands me two bundles of rope from the bag.
“Please,” she sobs. “I’m sorry.”
“Not yet.”
I walk over to her, and she begins to scream. She kicks her legs out and starts flinging her arms. I grip her ankle, yank her across the tile on her side and flip her on to her stomach. I fall to the floor and straddle her hips. I yank her hands behind her back and wrap the first bundle of rope around her wrists, tying them tightly together.
“Deke! Please … please don’t do this …”
“Someone shut her up,” I order.
Shane drops in front of her with the bag and pulls out a roll of duct tape. He yanks a washcloth off the side of the counter.
“Please …”
He shoves it in her mouth and then tears off a piece of tape and slaps it over her face. Once I’m happy with her wrists, I move off her and grab both her legs. I secure them with the second rope and then connect the remaining rope, hog-tying her in the middle of her bathroom floor.
I stand and turn to face Cole and Bennett. They are looking down at her phone that they got from her room. “Well?” I ask.
Moment of truth, Becky. Let’s see what’s in store for you tonight.
Cole holds up her phone, and sure enough, he’s found where she had two Facebook apps and one was signed in as Evan Scott. And she sent a message to Seth this morning. I read it out loud.
Evan Scott: I’ll give you one more chance. Either you fuck the bitch, or you’re fucked.
Shane laughs. “The problem with that, Becky, is that we have Seth’s phone. We took if after we were done having fun with him last night.”
“I didn’t think you had it in you, Becky. Good for you for proving me wrong.”
Shane pushes her over onto her side and slides a towel underneath her. She struggles in her restraints and sobs behind the tape over her mouth. Once he’s done and places her back on her stomach, I straddle her upper back, almost sitting on her shoulders so I don’t break her restrained arms. Taking a hand full of her blond hair, I grip it and yank her head back and place her phone in front of her face. “You wanna be a shark, baby?” She sobs while her body shakes uncontrollably. I lean down, whispering in her ear, “Well, welcome to the group.”
I hold out my right hand, and Cole places the knife in it. I gather up all her hair in my fist and hold it out to Shane who still kneels in front of me at her head. “Hold it,” I order.
He pushes her forehead to the tile, holding her head down for me at an odd angle to expose the back of her neck. Then he places her head between his knees, making escape impossible. I take the knife and carve a tally mark along the soft skin right below her hairline. About an inch long. She screams into the gag as her body shakes and her skin breaks. The blood runs down the side of her neck onto the towel beneath her.
Then I hold it out, and Cole takes it. He carves another tally mark next to mine. Shane goes, and then Bennett does his. One by one, we each make our mark on her. A reminder that we fucking own her. That no matter what she does, or who she fucks, she belongs to us.
I reach my left hand out, and Bennett places the can of hair spray in it. I take the end of the towel and wipe it across the back of her neck. She whimp
ers as I smear the blood to see the four cuts and then spray the hair spray over them to help with the bleeding. I don’t want her to bleed to death. Just experience the excruciating pain that she deserves. I toss the can to the side once satisfied.
Cole takes the lighter that Shane pulls out of the bag and runs the knife through the flame, heating it before passing it back to me. I lay it across the lines to cauterize them. And her body fights mine while her muffled screams fill the bathroom.
Then Shane hands me the powder, and I dump it on there to seal what the knife didn’t get.
Getting up off her, she immediately rolls onto her side. Her eyes are closed as snot, tears, and blood cover her face. She lies at our feet with nothing but a bra and thong on. Her chest heaves, and she sobs behind her gag.
I kneel beside her and rip it off before shoving my fingers in her mouth to remove the washcloth.
“I will murder you,” she sneers. “Fucking murder you for this! All of you sorry bastards. Austin and my sister ...”
I grip her chin. “No. You won’t. Because if you try anything, and I mean anything, I will hurt you.”
Tears run down her face, smearing her once perfect makeup along with snot and drool. Her blue eyes narrow on me. “You … can’t kill me.” She sucks in a breath. “I’m not one of those fucking bastards Austin wrote about in her journal.” She sniffs. “You won’t get away with this ...”
I smile at her. “You’re right. You’re not.” I can’t kill her. Too many questions will be left unanswered. “But I can make you mine, Becky. I can make you wish you were dead. Every second of every day. From the outside, everyone will think we are in love and happy. No one will know what I do to you behind closed doors. When we’re all alone.” I run my free hand down her bloody neck and feel her pulse race. “How I’ll fuck you. How I’ll beat you. Starve you. Don’t underestimate how fucking evil I can be. And how little you mean to me.” I stand.
“I … hate … you …” She sobs.
If You Dare (Dare Series Book 3) Page 31
