“About you and Cole.”
I don’t respond to that because she has no idea what is going on between us. And she doesn’t need to know.
Running a hand through her hair, she takes a step farther into my room. “I’m sorry that Cole hurt you.”
“He didn’t do it.”
“Austin, I know you think he loves you, but he doesn’t.” She shakes her head as she looks me up and down as if I’m not good enough for him.
“This has nothing to do with love,” I grind out.
Her brown eyes soften, and her look turns to pity. “You were lucky this time. But next time …”
“Kellan did this to me,” I say, pointing at my face, unable to listen to this anymore.
She shakes her head. “No. He wouldn’t do that.”
Unbelievable. “Cole found my phone in Kellan’s car.”
Her hands fist. “If Cole found your phone in his car, then it was because Cole planted it there.”
“Jesus.” I hiss. “He has you brainwashed.”
“Kellan is trying to help you. Cole wants to hurt you,” she shouts, finding her anger. “That’s why Kellan wants you out of the group. He’s mad at you, but he’s trying to protect you in the long run.”
I shake my head at her words. She says Kellan wants me out of the group. But when Cole tried to get me thrown out, Kellan was the only one who wanted me to stay. So, either Kellan hasn’t filled her in on what’s going on or he’s lying to her. “You have no clue what you are talking about,” I say, not wanting to argue with her.
“You don’t know what Cole is capable of.”
Oh, I do! “Apparently, I don’t know what any of you are capable of because I would have never thought you’d call out my boyfriend’s name while you fucked his friend,” I snap.
Her eyes darken, and her lips thin. She takes a step toward me. “Don’t push me, Austin.”
“What are you gonna do, Celeste? Ship me back to my mom’s? I’m eighteen now. You can kick me out, but then you’d have to explain to my father why I no longer live in his house.” I smile. “And I don’t think you want him to know about Kellan, do you?”
“You little bitch!” she snaps.
“Why did you bring me here?” I ask, ignoring her anger. “You guys are all full of secrets and lies. So why bring in someone who has the power to expose you all?”
She gives a dark laugh. “You don’t hold that kind of power.”
I take a step toward her. “I’ve got more than you.”
She lets out a growl and spins around. Storming out, she slams my door behind her, not giving me an answer.
_______________
“Lilly?” I call out, entering Cole’s father’s house an hour later. After he left and I had my not so productive talk with Celeste, I relaxed in a long shower and took my time getting ready.
“She’s in her room,” a woman with jet black hair and just as dark eyes says. Blanche is always smiling.
“How is Sophia doing?” I ask about her daughter.
Blanche and I have become close the past couple of weeks. I found out that she has been with the family since before Lilly was born. She used to help take care of Cole as well.
“She’s doing well. She made the choir at church,” she answers with pride.
“That’s awesome. Tell her congratulations.”
She nods, and I make my way upstairs. I open her door and step into her pink room. “Lilly?” I call out.
“In here.” I hear her across the hall.
I walk into Cole’s room. “Where at?” I ask with a chuckle, wondering if we are playing hide and seek.
“Here,” her little voice calls out.
I find her in his large walk-in closet, sitting on the floor. “What are you doing in here?” I ask, sitting down next to her.
“I can’t find Hippo.”
Her favorite stuffed bunny. “Where did you have him last?” Doubt it was in Cole’s closet.
“I gave it to Cole to wash.” She pouts. “I spilled milk on him.”
“Maybe he’s down in the laundry room,” I offer.
“Maybe,” she says as tears spring to her brown eyes.
I get up on my hands and knees. “Here, I’ll help you look in here first. Okay? Then we will go downstairs and look.” I pat her knee as a tear runs down her face. “We’ll find him.”
I look around the closet, not really knowing where it could be. It’s pretty clean. Not like a lot of things are lying on the floor that it could be hiding under.
My eyes catch sight of a brown box sitting back in the corner. It doesn’t have anything written on it, but it looks out of place. I reach out for it and then pull my hand back, biting my lip. Shouldn’t snoop. As far as I know, there’s some little black book in there with all the girls he’s ever slept with. That’s one thing I don’t want to find.
“I tried calling him,” she says, her voice still soft.
“How about I try?” Leaving the box alone, I pull out my new phone and press call on Shark.
It begins to ring, and after the fifth time, it goes to voicemail. “You’ve reached Cole …” I hang up and look at her. “He’ll call us back.”
She hangs her head and stands up. “I’m gonna check my room again.”
I stand too and go to follow her, but the box gets my attention again. Looking back over my shoulder, I make sure Lilly is gone and bend down, removing the lid.
It’s full of pictures. I pull a stack out and look through them. They’re of Cole when he was younger. He looks around Lilly’s age. He’s swimming in an indoor pool. There are some of him sitting at a kitchen table with boys his age all around him. I linger on the other kids to see if I recognize them as the guys in the group. I’m not sure how long they have all been friends. In the next one, he is leaning over, blowing out a number seven candle. I shuffle through a few more but stop when I come to one with him and an older blonde. She’s pretty. Dark blue eyes and a kind smile. She stands next to him with a proud smile on her face, and he holds a gold medal around his neck. A swimming pool in the background. This must be his mother. And for some reason, she looks familiar. I go through a couple of more and come to a stop at a picture of Cole, along with three other boys and one girl. The boys are smiling, one mid laugh, but the girl is not happy. She has her arms crossed over her chest and a scowl on her face. Her right hip is pushed out, and her green eyes are narrowed as she glares at the camera.
“Don’t let her play,” the boy says to the other one.
“I don’t wanna play with you anyway,” I say, reaching out and shoving the boy with the blue eyes.
He growls and shoves me back, pushing me down onto my butt. They laugh at me before they turn around and walk off.
It’s me! The girl in the picture is me! I remember now. My father had a get-together with his friends, and I was the only girl there, and the boys wouldn’t let me play their stupid game.
“I don’t wanna play with her,” the little boy says with his lips pulled back.
“Cole, that’s not very nice,” the pretty blonde says, bending down to our level.
“So, she poured my juice out, Momma,” he whines.
“That’s because you threw dirt at me,” I say.
“Cole Ethan Reynolds,” she scolds. “You tell her you’re sorry right now.”
He crosses his arms over his chest. “Sorry,” he growls.
She pats his back and nods her head at him. “Now you play nice.”
He watches her walk off, and then he turns back to face me. “I’m not sorry.”
“You will be,” I tell him.
His blue eyes narrow on me. “No, I won’t.” He yanks the Barbie out of my hand and rips her head off and then throws her head down into the dirt, stepping on it. Then he tosses her body out to the grass. “Have fun playing with that now.”
I place the picture in my back pocket with a smile on my face. Even back then, Cole Reynolds was a pain in my ass.
“I found Hi
ppo!” Lilly says excitedly, bouncing back into the closet. She hugs him tightly to her chest, wearing a big smile on her face.
“Ready to go?” I ask.
She nods happily and reaches out for me. I pick her up in my arms and kiss her soft cheek. “Let’s get going then, princess.”
I pull up to the clubhouse and see Cole’s car is parked outside. Lilly and I walk in hand in hand, and he stands from the couch. “Hello, girls,” he says, holding his arms out. Lilly runs to him, and he picks her up, giving him a hug.
“I thought I lost Hippo,” she tells him.
“What? I had put him on your bed,” he tells her with a frown.
She nods. “I found him on the floor.”
“He must have fallen off.”
Lilly hugs him as I look him over. Earlier, he was dressed in blue jeans and a white long-sleeve t-shirt. Now he’s dressed in a short sleeve black t-shirt and his black jeans. His hair is damp as if he just got out of the shower.
He sets her down, and his eyes meet mine. “Ready to go?” he asks, stepping into me.
My eyes search him for a hint of where he went or what he did. But his stare gives nothing away. He never does. “If you are,” I answer.
He nods. “I am.”
Then he takes my hand, and I look down at them to see his knuckles busted and dried blood. “Cole …”
“Shh,” he whispers against my lips. His eyes go back and forth between mine. “What did I tell you, sweetheart?”
I frown. What did he tell me? “When?”
He smiles softly at me. “That time I came and saw you and you were swimming in the pool.”
“That no one would ever touch me again,” I say, remembering it.
He nods, sliding a hand in my hair. “That was a promise I’ll never break, Austin.” Then he kisses me gently.
When he pulls away, I pull the picture out of my back pocket. I hold it against my chest so he can’t see it just yet. “I went through the box in your closet.”
His eyes meet mine, and he tilts his head in confusion. “Box …?”
“The one hiding in the corner. And I found something.”
“What is it?”
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
COLE
SHE TURNS THE picture around, and I look down at it to see Deke, Eli, Bennett, and me. We were young. No older than seven. Maybe eight. There’s a girl in the picture. We’re all smiling, and Deke is laughing. The little girl looks pissed. She has her brown hair up in a ponytail, and her green eyes are narrowed in anger at the camera.
I look up at her and then back down at the picture. “Who …?” My eyes shoot back to hers, and she smiles at me.
I turn around, walking away from the girl that my mommy is making me play with.
We don’t want her here.
I had to play with her yesterday too without my friends, and we swam. She wouldn’t stop talking about dolls.
I fist my hands. My mommy made me apologize. But I’m not sorry. She wasted my juice. And she ripped Deke’s shirt when she yanked on it earlier while we played tag. Celeste made us play with her.
“Cole?” Deke calls out to me from the swing set.
I go to walk over to him, but I’m shoved to the ground. “Hey!” I turn over onto my back to look up at the girl.
She points her finger down at me. “You ruined my doll!” she screams.
“Austin?” my daddy’s best friend, Bruce, hollers at her as he comes over to us. “Did you just shove him?”
She crosses her arms over her chest. “He ruined my Barbie.” She huffs.
He lets out a growl and then grabs her by her arm. She cries out, and he lowers his face down to hers. He says something to her and then yanks her away. She softly cries as he drags her back into the house.
“That was you.” I say, looking at her wide-eyed.
She nods once, smiling. “That was me. You owe me a Barbie, by the way.”
I step into her and cup her cheek. The smile drops off her face. She was there in my closet all those years. I never looked at those pictures. My mother had them in her and my father’s closet. After she died, he threw all her stuff out so his whores wouldn’t see it, but I kept that box. I never got into it because it was too painful to see them. There are some of my mom and me, and I hated that I would never have any to show to Lilly of them together. I almost burned them so many times. “I owe you a lot of things.” I say honestly, and she frowns. Bruce had yanked her into the house that day, and I never saw her again. He had shipped her back to her mom’s. Back then, I was thankful. We hated her. She was a girl. We thought they had cooties and couldn’t play with us. But what if I hadn’t gotten her in trouble? Would she have stayed with Bruce and Celeste? If so, her mother’s sick boyfriend would have never touched her. Hit her. She would have found out about Lilly eventually, and I would have had her all along.
“Cole?” She gets my attention. I blink. “I’m sorry if you’re mad that I went through your box …”
“I’m not mad.” Far from it. I lean in and kiss her.
_______________
Things were different after I quit the group. Austin and I seemed to be in our own little world all the time. We spent every moment we could together and with Lilly. She and Becky brought Lilly to our meets. Blanche cut back, and Austin took her to school and picked her up.
We hung all over each other at school, but that was nothing new. It was just no longer for show. It was because we just wanted to touch one another. Kiss one another. She spent nights at my father’s house. He never said a word about it and neither did Celeste. I think she’s going through some midlife crisis. Even at her young age. Kellan’s drinking a lot and fucking his way through the high school. So my guess is that whatever they had is on the rocks.
“So, you girls ready for tomorrow night?” Deke asks them as we sit at our table in the cafeteria.
Austin nods, and Becky smiles. “What are we gonna do afterward?” she asks.
I place my arm over Austin’s shoulders. “I don’t know about you guys, but we are going back to the clubhouse.” We’ve spent a lot of time there lately, and I have never been happier that I bought that run-down barn.
Becky frowns. “You can’t not party on prom night.”
“Oh, we’re gonna party,” I say, leaning over and burying my face into Austin’s neck.
Austin chuckles and pushes me away. “I agree with Becky. There are a ton of parties going on. We should go to one.”
“Why would I go to a party with people I don’t even like when I can spend the evening alone with you?” I am completely obsessed with Austin Lowes. Pathetic, right? But I wasn’t all that surprised when I was finally able to admit it to myself. The whole damn school knows it too. Good thing I don’t give a fuck what anyone thinks.
“Because it’s our senior prom, and that’s what we do,” Becky answers.
I look at Deke. “Help me out.”
“I already told Becky we can do whatever she wants to do,” he says, leaning back in his chair.
I sigh. “Pathetic.”
Austin hits me in the ribs, and I grunt like it hurt. “I think it’s sweet that he puts her wants first.”
I smile. “We both know that I always give you what you want first.”
“Cole!” she snaps, making us all laugh.
“Fine,” I say, throwing up my hands. “We can go to a party.” Becky claps excitedly. “But you’re staying the night with me.”
She leans over, kissing my lips softly. “I guess. Since you asked nicely and all.”
I grip the back of her neck. “You love that I don’t ask.” Then I kiss her how I want. Possessively.
“Cole?”
I pull away and look up to see Bennett and Shane sitting down at the table. I guess you can say we made up, but we’re still not how we were. “What’s up?” I ask.
“I was just doing some research, and it seems that Bruce has bought out Jerrold and Jeff’s company.”
“How
is that possible?” Austin asks. “They’re dead.”
He nods. “Yes, but it seems that Jerrold had sold Bruce Jeff’s shares after he went missing.”
“How are we just finding this out?” Deke asks. “Jeff has been dead for three months. Jerrold a little over a month.”
“I’m not sure why it took him so long to take over but …” He pauses.
“But what?” I ask.
“I liquidated all of his accounts. Bruce has to know that the money is gone. When I was done with it, there was nothing left.”
“Can he trace it back to you?” Austin asks, worried.
He shakes his head. “I covered my tracks, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be suspicious. Especially given how Jerrold died.”
Jerrold’s death was ruled a tragic accident. Tragic, my ass! But Austin’s father was still suspicious. Too many things were happening to people who he was doing business with. I have no doubt that he will eventually start to connect the dots. But we will be long gone by then.
“So what do we do?” she asks him.
“I’m still doing my homework. At the moment, there is nothing we can do. I just wanted to let you all know.” He nods. I look over at Austin and open my mouth when he speaks again. “Can I talk to you, Cole?” He gets up, not even waiting for my reply.
“I’ll be right back.” I sigh and get up, following him out of the cafeteria and into the empty hall. “What is it?” I ask when I see him leaning against a locker.
“The final dare.”
“What about it?”
“We need to do it.”
“No—”
“Just hear me out,” he interrupts me.
“Austin is no longer a pawn in this game,” I growl. “I won’t use her to get back at Bruce.” Then I turn my back to him and start to walk back into the cafeteria.
“He’s gonna kill her.”
I come to a stop and spin back around to face him. “Bennett …”
“We both know what he is capable of. And how much he hates you.” He runs a hand through his hair. “Everyone in this city knows that you love Austin.”
I swallow at that. I no longer deny it, but we still haven’t said it. We’ve only got less than a month of school left, and then she is moving with me to Texas. Her agreeing to that was better than hearing the words I love you. After all, they’re just words. Her actions say more than they could ever mean.
DARE SERIES COLLECTION Page 34
