“Maybe that’s what he was waiting on,” the guy jokes.
“I know I’d share if she was mine. I’ll take that sweet ass while you take her mouth.”
And I’ve heard all I need to know. What the fuck has Seth been telling his friends? She was a fucking virgin, so I know they haven’t done much. Hell, he’s never even eaten her out. And I saw the way she looked at my cock. She’d never seen one before. What makes these guys think that he would share her?
I stand and turn to face him, but Cole grabs my upper arm. “Don’t.”
I look over at him and growl. “What if it was Austin?”
He lets go of my arm and nods. “I got your back.”
“Fuck that mouth, I want her pussy …”
I step forward, gripping the guy’s hair, and I rip him from where he sits on the bench and shove him headfirst into the lockers.
_______________
“What the hell happened?” Coach snaps as we all gather in his office.
I only got a few punches in before he came running into the locker room and broke it up. The bastards got off lucky.
“They jumped us,” Peter barks.
I snort. Fucking rats. I place my bloody hands behind my back and step forward. “They were discussing in much detail how they planned to, for lack of a better word, fuck a girl. At the same time. A girl who I know, Coach. And I didn’t feel comfortable listening to their derogatory comments. Especially since she is underage.”
Coach’s face instantly goes red. Our fathers taught us to do our research so before I took the scholarship at the University of Texas, I did some on Coach here. He has three sons and once had a daughter. She was an all-star athlete. Head cheerleader, played soccer, softball and ran track. One Saturday morning, she left her parents’ house for a run. They called the police three hours later when she didn’t return. Two days later, they found her body twenty feet off the running path. She was completely naked. The man had sexually assaulted her and strangled her with a shoelace. He pulled it so tight that it was still embedded in her neck. She was only a junior in high school. The report went on to say that her boyfriend told the police to look at Rodger Simmons, a swimmer at UT, because he had been calling and harassing her. I knew I wanted to come here when I read that he left town and never returned. Never to be heard from again. Of course, Coach was a suspect in his disappearance, but it’s all about what you can prove, not what you think. That’s why he’s here with us, and Rodger’s rotting corpse was never found.
“Coach …” Braden begins.
“Shut the fuck up!” he orders, placing his fisted hands on his desk and leaning over. “If you want to keep your scholarships, you will not breathe a word of it to anyone. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Coach,” we all answer in unison.
“Get the hell out,” he snaps.
We all turn to exit, but he stops us. “Except for Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Biggs.”
Cole and I turn back around, and he points at the two seats in front of his desk. “Sit.”
We do as we’re told.
He walks behind his desk and picks up two manila envelopes. “I’ve read your files, boys. And I didn’t like what I saw.” He looks at Cole. “You were arrested back in Collins for shooting your girlfriend and killing her stepmother.”
I watch Cole’s body go rigid out of the corner of my eye, and he grips the armrest on his chair. He still only wears his jeans. He didn’t have time to put a shirt on when I started throwing punches, and he jumped in.
“I was taken in for questioning, Coach. And released after proof of my innocence was found.”
“Ah, yes. And the friend of yours who committed the crime has never been seen again.” If I’m not mistaken, I would say Coach looks at him with pride. It takes a lot of planning and patience these days to kill a man and not get caught. If only he knew we did it by the seat of our pants and within minutes after we found him with Austin’s body. Sometimes you just have to work with what you got. Then he looks at me. “I have no doubt you helped him.” He quirks a brow.
I just cross my arms over my chest, and he nods once as if he understands that my loyalty lies with Cole.
He goes on. “Your father shipped you off to boarding school at the age of ten.” My teeth grind. “Wanna tell me why they kicked you out after three months?”
“They said I was unteachable,” I answer honestly. “And they believed I was possessed.”
Cole chuckles, and I smile. It’s the truth. My father sent me to an all-boys boarding school in Switzerland. I found him in the kitchen with his hand around my mother’s throat, and I ran at him with a knife. After he beat the shit out of me, he shipped me away. The man was afraid I was gonna kill him in his sleep. My mom begged me not to. It wasn’t until years later, once I was older, that I understood why she was with him and put up with his shit—money. Bitch loves money as much as he loves having his options of pussy.
They had it out for me the moment I arrived at the boarding school, so I had to live up to my reputation, of course. I played a few pranks here and there, which all landed me in deep water. But the final straw was when I beat the shit out of three boys at once in the boys’ bathroom. It didn’t matter that they jumped me, and I kicked their ass. They kicked my ass out. Even my father’s money couldn’t keep me there. They had a no tolerance rule and told him I was the spawn of Satan. If they only knew how true that was.
He gives us his back and looks out his floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooks the courtyard of the university. “Your accolades spoke higher than your behaviors.” He spins back around and stares at both of us. “Don’t make me regret giving you both this chance.”
“Yes, Coach,” we both say.
He nods and sits down in his chair. “Go home, boys, and come back tomorrow ready to swim until your muscles ache to the point you’ll have to crawl out of the pool.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
DEMI
“THAT MOTHERFUCKER DESERVED more than a broken nose.”
I sit on the couch next to Austin sipping on a new bottle of wine when we hear Deke’s voice.
“Then let’s go pay him a visit tonight,” Cole offers.
“I should go,” I say. Standing, I grab my phone to get an Uber. I wasn’t thinking about how I was gonna get home after I finished my second glass. I’ve been here for over three hours. I colored some pictures with Lilly before Austin put her to bed, and then we sat down to talk, and time just got away from us.
“You can go if you want, but this is my house too, and you’re more than welcome here,” she states before walking out of the living room. “What the hell happened?” I hear Austin gasp.
I make my way into the kitchen to see Cole standing at the fridge and Deke in front of an open drawer.
“Some guys were talking shit about Demi,” Deke answers. “Me and Cole broke some shit.”
“What?” I ask, taking a step into the kitchen.
Everyone turns to face me. Deke’s jaw sharpens, and Cole runs a hand through his hair. Deke looks at Austin as though he expects her to explain my presence. As if I’m not welcome here. She doesn’t.
“What?” I ask again. “Who was talking about me?”
Deke ignores me as he reaches into the open drawer and pulls out a pack of cigarettes. Slamming it shut, he stomps out of the kitchen.
“Cole?” Austin demands.
He arches a brow. “Oh, now you’re talking to me?” He realizes his fuckup the moment the words are out of his mouth and looks away from her.
“Fuck you, Cole,” she growls and goes to leave as well, but he grabs her by the upper arm, preventing her escape.
“A guy on the swim team was talking about him and another fucking Demi.” He looks at me. “At the same time.”
I frown. Who the hell at the University of Texas would know me? “Do I know them?” Maybe they meant another Demi.
He lets go of her and shrugs. “They didn’t seem to know you very well. One mentioned that
you were over at his house last night with Seth.”
“Ahh,” I say, remembering that Seth did tell me that when he introduced us last night. I didn’t pay much attention. “Seth knows him through his sister. Last night was my first time to meet him.”
“Well, I wouldn’t go back there if I was you,” he warns.
“Noted.” I nod.
“Did you get suspended?” Austin asks through gritted teeth.
He snorts. “Hell no. Coach yelled at us and then told us to go home. He can’t afford to lose us.” He looks at me after answering her. “You need to figure out whatever the fuck you and Deke have going on.”
“It’s nothing.” I just needed to use him one time.
“I’ve known Deke all of my life, and he wouldn’t have jeopardized his scholarship for a girl he didn’t give two fucks about.” Then he looks down at his future wife. I can see the regret flash across his face for just a short second before it disappears. “May I talk to you?” When she doesn’t answer, he adds, “Upstairs.” Then he too exits the kitchen, not waiting for a response or giving her any room to protest, leaving me and Austin alone.
“I’m gonna go—”
“No,” she interrupts me and turns to the fridge. Opening the door, she pulls out a half-full bottle of wine. We finished off the first one earlier. “Here.” She holds it out to me. “Cole is right. You and Deke need to talk this out. And you are more than welcome to spend the night in the spare bedroom.”
I arch a brow. “And you and Cole?”
She sighs heavily. “I’m going to go upstairs and talk it out too.”
I walk out of the sliding glass door to find him sitting in a lounge chair. His head back, eyes closed, and a cigarette between his lips. He lifts his right hand and removes it before letting out a puff of smoke. My eyes catch sight of his busted knuckles. There’s dried blood on them.
“Gonna tell me why you hit a guy because of me?” I ask.
His eyes spring open and meet mine. He doesn’t say anything, but I choose to stay instead of letting him intimidate me. I walk around his chair and fall into the one beside him. His eyes follow my movements before landing on the pool.
I remove the cork and take a big sip of the wine, trying to fight the shiver that runs through me. It’s cold out here.
We sit in silence, and I wrap my arms around my chest. “Austin thinks I love you,” I say, trying to get some kind of response out of him. Maybe shock him. I wanna see that Deke I saw that night at Silence. Confused and hot as fuck.
He just laughs and takes another drag. “Austin doesn’t know you.”
I smile at myself.
“Not like I do,” he adds like the smartass he is.
The smile drops off my face. “What does that mean?”
He looks over at me. “You don’t love anyone but yourself.”
His words feel like a knife to my chest. He couldn’t be more wrong. I take another drink from the bottle and say the one thing I’ve never said out loud. Not even to the boy I wanted. “I loved Eli.”
DEKE
I laugh, shaking my head in disbelief. Of course, she did. “And you’re pissed off because he didn’t love you back.”
“You know nothing.” She growls.
“He was my best friend. I know enough.”
“You didn’t know he was fucking your girlfriend.”
My entire body stiffens, and I look over at her. She has a smug smile on her face. A look of total satisfaction. Becky wasn’t my girlfriend at the time. She was my secret. She was not only fucking me, but also David and Eli. I knew she got around, but I didn’t know she was that big of a whore. How could I have? It’s not like I followed her around everywhere or went through her phone. I believed her when she said she loved me and that I was the one she wanted to be with, but it was complicated, and we needed to wait. I hate that I believed her, but more importantly, I hate that everyone seemed to know but me.
“Guess he still picked her over you in the end,” I say to hurt her, not really knowing what she and Eli had. It obviously wasn’t sexual. I knew he liked Demi because I always saw him looking at her and secretly talking to her, but being the girl Becky is, she won.
She jumps to her feet and comes to stand before me. I look up at her and take a drag from my cigarette. She knocks it out of my mouth and to the ground before stepping on it. Then she leans forward, placing her face in front of mine.
“And if he wouldn’t have died, she would have picked him over you,” she states. “You were second best, Deke. To David. To Eli. To every other guy she’s ever spread her legs for. How does that feel?”
I want to throw her into the pool in front of me and drown her mouthy fucking ass. But what will that solve? I’m with Cole. I’m tired of having to hide bodies. I left Collins to forget the terrors and run from my demons. I backed his need for revenge one hundred percent because Eli was my friend too, and he and his dead sister deserved revenge, but look where it left me. I lost Becky. The girl I thought I was gonna spend the rest of my life with. I lost a friendship I thought could never be broken. And I hate it that Eli’s dead. I want to call him up. Scream at him. Punch him. And then tell him he can have her. If that’s what he wanted, I wouldn’t have fought him. You don’t fight your friends over trash.
“It must sting to know that she never loved you the way you loved her,” she continues.
And I’ve had enough. Reaching out, I grab her shirt and yank her toward me so hard that she falls onto my lap. She gasps, placing her hands on my chest to push her stiff body from mine. “How do you feel about being second best, princess?” I ask, wrapping one hand around the back of her neck and the other around her waist, not giving her the chance to get away from me. Leaning in, I whisper, “I’m sure it hurt when you found out you’ll never be her.”
I pull back and see angry tears in her blue eyes. Moving my hand around her neck, I trail my fingers softly down over her collarbone and push her blond hair back from her shoulder, noticing that her hickeys are gone. I have an urge to lean in and give her more just because I can.
She bares her perfectly straight teeth at me. I remember when she had braces during her freshman year. I thought it was strange. Her teeth were already straight, but her mother made her get them anyway. You can never be perfect enough for Angelica Holt. “I don’t want to be her, Deke.”
I bite back a snarky comment at her words and look over her pouty lips and sad blue eyes. I think it’s the first real thing she’s ever said to me. “Then what is it you want?”
She closes her eyes and lets out a long breath. The fruity smell of her wine hits my face. “It doesn’t matter what I want. It never has.”
I don’t like her answer. It makes me want to give her everything. And that’s a rabbit hole I can’t go down. “Why are you with Seth?” I change the subject.
“Why did you defend me tonight?” she counters.
I sigh, and she arches a brow. We’re at a standstill. Neither one of us wants to answer.
Her body relaxes on top of mine, and her hands come up to my chest. I’ve got a direct line of sight to hers, and I move my hands to her narrow hips. My fingers dig into her jeans, and it takes everything in me not to move them against mine. To feel her grind against me. Just the thought makes my cock start to harden.
She licks her pouty, nude painted lips. “If I asked you to forget who I am for one night, could you do it?”
“Why would I wanna forget who you are?” I ask confused by her question.
“I don’t wanna be Becky. But I also don’t wanna be Demi,” she answers honestly.
“Who do you wanna be?”
“Someone who matters,” she whispers, dropping her head to stare at my shirt.
Letting go of her hips, I grip her chin and lift her head, so she must look at me. “Demi Holt matters to me,” I say, and I hate that the words are true. I thought she was a Becky mini-me, but she’s nothing like her. Demi pushes me. She wakes up a part of me that I didn’t thi
nk I wanted again.
“What if she’s not behind it?” Cole had asked me.
“Then I’ll protect her.” It’s not even a question. I’d do whatever I have to do to protect her from whoever thinks they can go toe to toe with us. But if she’s behind it … I’ll also do what has to be done.
“Forget it.” She goes to push away from me, but I hold my grip on her.
“Demi …”
“I don’t need your lies,” she snaps.
I cradle her face in my hands and pull her lips to mine. She doesn’t hesitate before opening for me. Her tongue enters my mouth, and mine meets hers. Exploring her mouth as if it’s never been there before. Wanting to know her sweet taste. Savoring it. Knowing that I may have to hurt her eventually. I wanna drink her in. Swallow her whole.
Her hips begin to grind, rubbing her jeans on my hard dick, and I moan, tilting her head to the side to allow me to deepen the kiss. She moans, opening up for me as if she belongs to me. And I take from her.
I pull away, and she pants. “Does that feel like a fucking lie?” I demand.
Her heavy eyes open, and they search mine for what I don’t know. Licking her wet lips, she replies roughly, “It doesn’t feel like the truth.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
DEMI
I LIED TO him. Again. He has no clue what Eli and Becky were doing, but I do. I’m the only person who knows what was really going on, but I can’t tell him. Not now. I won’t allow her to ruin another day of my life. I don’t want to have to think of her, or Eli, or his death. I want Deke.
Austin thinks I love him, and honestly, I’m not sure she’s a hundred percent wrong. What is love anyway? All the movies tell you that it’s sweet and romantic, but it’s such bullshit. Cole and Austin are proof of that. You don’t always need hearts and flowers to prove you love someone. Sometimes you need each other’s names carved in blood.
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