Kellan knew this would only end one way. Even if Cole had to track him down, the outcome would have been the same.
Death.
And I was going to help my best friend achieve that goal. No matter what I had to do to make it happen. Because we’re sharks. And what do sharks do? They kill.
“Deke …?”
“No, Bennett, it’s not.”
CHAPTER TWO
COLE
I STAND IN my bathroom at the clubhouse, clenching the edge of the porcelain sink with my head hanging down. My heart pounds, and my breathing is labored as I rock back and forth silently. My jaw is clenched so tight that my teeth ache. My shoulder throbs and my muscles scream in agony.
“Cole?” I hear Deke call out for me.
I ignore him. The darkness is too thick. The evil too strong. But my mind is silent. Like the calm before the storm. So much rage, it’s clouding my vision. And the fear has seeped into my bones, weighing me down. I lost her. Once again, I couldn’t save someone that I love.
“Please … no …” My words are broken. My chest constricting.
Red.
It’s the only color I see.
So much blood.
Everywhere.
She’s drowning in it.
“Austin!” I demand desperately as if she’s going to hear me. As if she hasn’t already given up and left me alone in this hell people call life.
The heels of my palms push into her chest. Too hard. I’m hurting her. I’m always hurting her. But I can’t stop. Not now. The damage is done, and I’m committed to bringing her back. “Come on, sweetheart. Please …” I beg her.
Her arms lie out to her side, palms facing the ceiling. Her head is tilted to the left, eyes shut, while her body lies in a pool of blood that continues to get larger by the second on Bruce’s marble kitchen floor.
“You can’t do this to me!” I push harder and hear a cracking sound, but I don’t stop. “You’re mine!” I remind her. Her body jerks from my harsh movements. “Austin!” I scream her name so loud that my dry throat burns. “Baby … please …”
“Cole? Man, they’re gonna be here any second,” Deke calls out from downstairs. “We need to get ready …”
I push off the sink and punch my black framed bathroom mirror. It shatters, resembling a spiderweb. Blood instantly runs down the back of my already busted knuckles. I grit my teeth and punch it again. The already broken glass cuts me even more, but I don’t feel it. I could walk through fire right now and not feel the fucking burn.
I reach out and shove all my shit and hers off the countertop next to me, making it crash to the floor. Tired of looking at it. She left shit here before our breakup the morning after prom, and I’ve kept it all. Like she was going to come back to me. Now they’re just reminders that she may leave me for good.
“Cole!”
“WHAT?” I roar, spinning around to the open bathroom door where Deke stands glaring at me, ignoring the mess I’ve made. He’s used to it.
“They’re on their way.”
At the mention of the police, I hear the faint sound of their sirens.
He looks me up and down. “You need to put a shirt on.” Then he walks out of the bathroom and goes to my bag stuffed under the bed.
After we left Kellan’s body with Bennett, we came back here and showered. We had to. His blood covered both of us. And I also had Austin’s on me from trying to revive her. Deke burned what we had on earlier in a barrel out back, and then I washed and put some fresh jeans on. That’s as far as I’ve made it.
Deke pops back into the bathroom and tosses me a plain black T-shirt.
“Austin …?” A knot gets lodged in my throat just saying her name. “Is she …?”
“Still in surgery,” he answers, looking down at his phone before I can even finish my question.
I shove on my shirt, ignoring my throbbing shoulder as the sirens grow louder. His eyes meet mine, and he sighs. “She’s gonna be okay.”
He didn’t see her. He didn’t sit there and beg her to survive like I did. She was nothing but a beautiful shell that I once wanted to break. Destroy. If she will just fight for me, I’ll love her more than any man ever could. Broken and all. Because I’m not sure she can come back from this. Even if she survives, she may never be the Austin I fell in love with. “Bennett?” I ask, changing the subject.
“It’s done. And he’ll probably beat you there,” he answers as the sirens grow louder, letting us know they have arrived.
I fist my throbbing hands down by my side, and Deke notices. “You can’t fight the police, Cole.”
I’m not done. My body craves more, vibrating with anger. Revenge. Killing Kellan wasn’t enough. “I need …”
“Cole?” he snaps and walks up to me. “If you need a fight, fucking hit me right here and now. Get it over with. Because I cannot have you fight the police and go down for resisting arrest. Or assault and battery against a police officer. That’s not the plan. And I can’t get you out of that.”
“Plans change.”
He punches me in the face, knocking me back into the shower door. Blood instantly pours from my nose, and my face begins to throb. I right myself and fist my hands, ready to punch him back.
“If you go to jail and she dies, what will you do then, Cole?” he yells at me, running out of patience. “Huh?” He lowers his voice and arches a brow at me. “What will you do if you don’t get to say goodbye?”
His words throw me back into my memory from just hours ago. When I thought goodbye was all she left me with.
“AUSTIN!” I shout, shaking her. How long have I been here? How long have I been trying to bring her back to me? I can’t give up. Every muscle I have is tight. My throat burns.
I’m yanked back and shoved to the side. My back hits the bloodstained wall, and I look to see the paramedics surround her. They fall to their knees, dropping their bags. Digging into them, they grab their supplies.
“Cole?”
I look up and see a set of brown eyes belonging to Derek James. The same ones from the night of the car wreck when he found me sitting in a ditch with my best friend dead in my arms.
“Cole, what happened? Did you shoot this woman?” His eyes fall to my gun that sits in a pool of her blood.
I had planned on shooting Kellan, but I learned a long time ago that plans don’t mean shit. She was dead on Bruce’s kitchen floor. Killing Kellan didn’t fucking matter at that second.
I stare at him in a daze. Shoot her? Why would I …? Because I’m Cole Reynolds. I destroy. I fucking take light from life and replace it with darkness. At first, I wanted to destroy her! Then I just wanted to save her!
You killed her! You didn’t pull the trigger, but you left her. All alone and unprotected, my head screams.
It’s my fault.
They cut her shirt off, and my breath gets caught in my lungs. What little skin isn’t covered in blood is turning blue. One paramedic begins compressions while another holds pressure on the wound.
My chest tightens, and a tear runs down my face. I reach out to her. “Please …”
“Cole!” Derek growls my name, grabbing my shoulders and pulling me back.
This time when my eyes meet his, they narrow. “I love her. I was trying to save her.”
“What’s it gonna be?” Deke holds his fists up and smiles at me.
“Police.” They pound on the clubhouse door. “Open up, Cole!” We hear them call out from downstairs. “Don’t make us come in and get you!”
I lower my hands, and he does the same, the smile no longer on his face. “Stick to the plan, Cole. And you’ll be with her soon enough.”
CHAPTER THREE
DEKE
I STAND BACK and watch as Cole exits the clubhouse. We normally avoid the police, but given our current situation, it isn’t an option.
This wasn’t some dare we had planned down to the second, so we improvised. And it will work out. I just have to pray he doesn’t fuck it up. Cole
can be a loose cannon, and now is not the time for him to blow the fuck up.
I turn and begin to run up the stairs to clean his bathroom and grab a few things before I meet him at the police station, but my phone rings. Coming to a stop halfway up the stairs, I pull it out, hoping it’s my sister to give me some good news about Austin. But I see it’s Becky.
I answer, “Hey, babe, I can’t talk right now—”
“Is it true?” she interrupts me in a panic.
“What?”
“Is it true?” she shouts in my ear, and then she begins to sob.
“Baby, what are you …?”
“It’s all over the news,” she cries. “Did Cole shoot Austin?”
“No.” I run a hand through my hair. Fuck! We thought we would have more time. “Of course not.”
“They said they have him in custody.”
Shit! Did the police come with reporters? I didn’t step outside, so I didn’t see what all was going on out there. As far as the police are concerned, I’m not involved, and I’m also not here. Cole’s car is the only one parked outside. We stashed mine back in the woods behind the clubhouse. The odds of them entering with a warrant were high, but I didn’t think they were going to go that far this soon. They think they have this case in the bag. Boy, are they going to be disappointed. “They do, but it’s not true.”
She sniffs. “What?”
I sigh. “I can’t explain it right now. I’m in the middle of something.”
“Deke …”
“Head to the hospital, okay? There’s something I gotta do, and then I’ll meet you there.”
I hear some commotion and then her car beeping, letting me know she’s getting into it. “Okay,” she says in a small voice.
“Shelby is working. If you speak to her, call me.”
“I will …”
I hang up. Just as I go to put it away, it rings again. “Hello?” I snap.
“Deke, man. It’s already all over the news,” Bennett informs me.
“I know. Becky just called and told me.”
“Shane called me, but I ignored it. I gotta tell him something. What if he just shows up at the hospital? I don’t want Cole kicking his ass and getting arrested twice tonight.”
I turn and jog back down the steps. “Ignore him.”
Cole and Shane were never the closest, but the tension grew between them once Austin entered our group four months ago. Shane was really close with Kellan, so I’m not sure which side Shane would pick right now. Even if he knew Kellan shot Austin, he’d be pissed at Cole for killing Kellan. And Bennett has already disposed of one body tonight; I don’t want him to have to do another one.
“What about Cole?” he asks. “Even with the evidence, they may still hold him. Especially with Kellan missing.”
I pick up Cole’s car keys off the table and run out the front door. Jumping into his car, I start it. “I’m headed to the precinct now. I called Jacob while Cole was in the shower, and he’s going to meet us there.” My father and Cole’s dad use the same attorney, and this isn’t the first time I’ve called him in the middle of the night.
“Okay. I’m almost there, so I will see you in a minute.”
I hang up, shift the car into gear, and throw gravel as I spin it around and speed down the long driveway. “Everything You Hate,” by Project Vela plays through the speakers.
When the phone rings again, cutting the song short, I growl, “This better be my sister.” But when I look down to see the number lighting up on my phone, I slam on the brakes, bringing the car to a stop in the middle of the driveway. Dust billows out from under the tires from the gravel. I let it ring a few more times and take a deep breath before answering.
Fuck!
“Hello?”
“Why in the fuck was my son just arrested for murder? And how in the hell are you involved?” Liam Reynolds snaps in my ear.
CHAPTER FOUR
COLE
I SIT IN a hard chair in a cold and silent room. They brought me in for questioning and want to pin me for murder. But for the wrong person. My hands are still cuffed behind my back. I barely made it out the front door of the clubhouse before they had me face down in the gravel with their knees in my back while cuffing me. They threw me into the back of a squad car. I don’t expect special treatment, but I don’t think keeping my wrists cuffed for questioning is protocol. Then they brought me in here and left me. To sit. All alone. There’s no clock on the walls, but I can hear every second slowly tick by in my mind like nails on a chalkboard. They think leaving me alone with my thoughts will make me nervous and I’ll want to confess to them. They can go to hell.
I look around for any cameras but don’t see any. And there’s also no two-way mirrors, letting me know that no one is looking in on me. We’ll be completely alone.
They think I killed Celeste and shot Austin, and I can see how they came to that conclusion. But things aren’t always what they seem. And they’re about to find that out.
The door opens, and Detective Monroe enters with a file in his hand and a bag in his other. “Cole Reynolds. It’s been a while.”
I show indifference although I want to knock his head off. I should be at the hospital waiting to see Austin, not here with this dipshit.
He pulls the only other chair out and sits down in it across from me, slapping the file on the metal table along with the clear bag marked evidence with red tape. It’s my gun. It’s covered in her blood as well. The one I left behind in Bruce’s house after the paramedics took Austin. I wasn’t thinking clearly.
Obviously.
When they loaded her into the ambulance, I noticed my car was still in her father’s driveway, so I called Deke to find out where in the hell he took Kellan. When he told me the cemetery, I just turned and ran around the house to the back and up the hill.
Monroe crosses his arms over his chest and sits back, staring at me. Waiting for me to speak. He’s trying to intimidate me into a confession he’ll never get. I have something better to give him, and it will be here shortly.
“Why were you at the Lowes’ residence to begin with?” he asks. “Were you there to fuck your girlfriend or her stepmom?”
My eyes narrow on him at the mention of fucking Austin. I pull on the cuffs and feel my skin scrape more than it already has.
He glares at me in return, waiting for an answer. When he doesn’t get one, he continues. “I called Bruce Lowes to inform him of his wife’s death and daughter’s condition. He proceeded to tell me that he caught you fucking his wife months ago.”
That motherfucker! I clamp my mouth shut so I don’t tell this guy to go to fucking hell! It doesn’t matter if he thinks I’ve slept with Celeste or not. I have proof of my innocence coming. And nothing else matters.
He picks up the clear evidence bag and looks at the gun in it. “Word is Austin isn’t doing well. Spoke to the hospital about ten minutes ago and got an update on her condition. She’s coded twice while in surgery.”
My breathing picks up at his words, and my heart pounds. A lump forms in my throat that I can’t seem to swallow. I can’t lose her. Not now. Not after all I put her through. She will survive. She has to. For me!
He smirks as his gray eyes look over at the bag in his hand. “I always thought I’d get you for murder. Just never thought it’d be a woman who you offed.”
I jump to my feet at his words. Not sure why. There’s nowhere for me to go. He jumps to his as well. I open my mouth to speak, but the door flies open. We both turn our heads to look at the young rent-a-cop who enters. He graduated a couple of years before me from Collins High. He was on the varsity football team. He hated me. I fucked his girlfriend. Well, her mouth anyway. Not sure if he still feels that way, though. It’s not like he married her.
He had big dreams to play college ball, but he blew his knee out, then never left this good-for-nothing town. His father is also Liam’s friend. My father has all the law in his pocket, but all wealthy criminals do.
“This was just delivered, sir.” He holds out the laptop.
Right on time. Just like Bennett promised.
Monroe ignores it. “Bag it for evidence, Daniels. I’ll look at it later. I’m in the middle of an investigation!”
“This is part of the investigation,” he grinds out.
The detective yanks it from his grasp, places it on the table, and opens it up. “What am I looking for?” he orders.
Trenten silently pushes a few buttons on the computer, and they both read over the information on Jerrold’s laptop. Bennett wiped it clean. Well, he wiped anything that could get any of us in trouble.
“Is this … is this true?” Monroe whispers while his eyes scan it quickly.
“Yes, sir.” Trenten nods and then presses a few more buttons. “Here are the bank statements …” he trails off.
I remain standing, my hands still cuffed and fisted. When I really want to jump across this table and headbutt him. But Deke was right, that fucking bastard. I need to be with her. And I can’t do that from prison.
“Son of a bitch.” Monroe hisses and looks at me. “How long have you known this?” he demands.
I remain silent. That’s all the information right there that he needs to prove that Bruce paid Jeff to tamper with the brakes on my car, causing the wreck that killed three of my friends. And I’ve got copies just in case something happens to these. And if I have to, I’ll go to the press with my information.
Obviously, when this shit shows up the moment I’m wanted for murdering the wife of the man who murdered my best friends, it isn’t a coincidence.
“So this was about revenge on Bruce?” he fishes. “This had nothing to do with his wife or daughter.”
We figured they would think this. That’s why the laptop isn’t the only thing that Bennett handed over to the police. Well, he planted it. Can’t make it look too obvious. If only he knew how little Bruce loved his wife and daughter, they wouldn’t come to that conclusion. He probably has a big life insurance policy on Celeste. And he would have paid someone to take Austin off his hands.
DARE SERIES COLLECTION Page 40
