“Is she gonna be okay?” I ask my sister as she stands.
“Yes. She needs to be admitted, but she’s gonna be fine.”
I look around to see David still unconscious, now lying on his stomach with his hands cuffed behind his back. We’ve got to finish this. “I can’t go just yet.”
She nods understanding. “Help me get her to my car. I’ll take her in and stay with her.”
“Watch her,” I order Shane, referring to Becky.
“She’s not going anywhere,” he promises.
I lean down and pick up Demi in my arms and carry her out of the house to my sister’s car. “I’ll be up there as soon as I can.”
When I go to walk back inside, she grips my upper arm. “Deke?”
I turn to face her. “Don’t, Shelby.” I don’t have time to listen to her tell me not to hurt them. Not to kill them after what they were going to do. When will it end? When will this all stop? I have to make sure Demi is never in this situation again. And Austin too. We may be sharks, but we protect the people we love.
“Don’t get caught,” she says, surprising me. Then she turns and gets in her car, driving off.
I enter the house and make my way to the kitchen. Cole, Austin, and Bennett are all standing by the fridge. “You guys ready?” I ask.
Cole nods along with Bennett.
“What are we gonna do?” Austin asks with her arms crossed over her chest. She’s pissed and has every right to be. This was her best friend at one time.
Cole looks over at her, and I wait for him to tell her there is no we, but instead, he surprises me by telling her. “End it.”
DEKE
The five of us stand on top of the hill at the back of the cemetery behind the Lowes estate. The sun has officially set, making the night cold, but it’s stopped snowing once again. My shirt is still in my back pocket, but thankfully, Austin found cases of bottled water in the garage so I was able to wash the piss off me.
Maxwell’s body lies in a shallow grave that Cole and Bennett dug for him. David eventually woke up, but Cole placed tape over his mouth so we haven’t had to listen to him cuss us or beg for his life. At this point, it doesn’t matter.
Becky kneels on the ground next to Shane. He has his hand fisted in her hair so she can’t get up and run away. She hasn’t said one word. She sobs to herself. I’m pretty sure she’s officially broken. She has tried so many times to hurt the ones she loves that she’s just given up.
But she has always been good at pretending. So he holds a gun to her head with his free hand just in case.
Cole rips the tape off David’s face. He sucks in a deep breath. “You motherfuckers …”
“Why did you do it?” I ask. He never liked us, but the feeling was mutual.
His eyes go to Becky, and she bows her head in shame.
“Don’t tell me this was because I fucked her while you guys were dating.” Why else would he want to hurt Demi? He was always nice to her from what I remember. Becky talked about it all the time. How he would make her bring her around to hang out with them. She loved that I never forced us to be around her. Why would I? I didn’t like her then.
He snorts. “Like I gave a shit that you fucked her.”
Becky flinches at his words.
“Then why?” Cole demands, gripping his hair and yanking his head back.
He lets out rough laugh. “You guys really don’t know, do you?”
None of us answer him.
“Tell him, baby.”
She sobs with her head down.
“Tell him all the times you let him touch you and then came crawling to me about how awful they were.”
I tilt my head to the side.
“Or how we laughed when you told Cole you were pregnant, and he fucking believed you.” His laughter grows. “That he let you go …”
“What? You lied about being pregnant?” Austin snaps and turns to Cole. “Did you know this?”
“Doesn’t matter,” he answers.
“It does to fucking matter,” she snaps and walks over to Becky. She slaps her across the face so hard, it knocks her over into the snow. “You fucking bitch …” She jumps on top of her.
Cole wraps an arm around her waist and yanks her off her. She kicks her feet out before he sets her down. She’s breathing heavy and trying to push him away. “It doesn’t matter, sweetheart.”
Her mouth falls open. “How can you say that?” Her eyes fill with tears. “She lied to you. Everything you went through—”
“Nothing regarding her matters,” he interrupts her softly. Pulling her into him, he pushes her wild brown hair behind her ear.
“You guys are sicker than I thought.” David speaks. “Becky let me read your journal, Austin. Gotta say, Cole, I was jealous at how much she let you abuse her and still fuck her.”
“Stop,” Becky cries.
“And that video …” He whistles, looking her up and down.
This time, it’s Cole who throws a punch. Right into his face.
“Well, well, well, he’s telling us all of your secrets.” I smile.
“I know she wanted to pay you all back for how you used her in your own sick games,” David shouts, getting angry before spitting blood into the snow from Cole’s punch.
“Game?” I ask. I loved her. I never used her. Cole did when Austin came into the picture, but that didn’t happen until after the car wreck …
“Why were you even with them that night?” Austin demands. Her thoughts mimicking mine. “Why were you with Eli?”
Becky doesn’t answer, and neither does David. I arch a brow at him. He’s willing to throw her under the bus but doesn’t want to implicate himself as well.
I look at Cole and nod. He steps away from Austin, grabs his knife from his pocket, and flips it open. He steps behind David and places the knife to his neck. Cole doesn’t say a word as he drags the blade down the side of his neck. David screams, and Becky tries to crawl to him, but Shane prevents her with his hand in her hair. “Stop! Stop! I’ll tell you!” she cries. “Please, just stop.”
Cole brings the blade to a stop but doesn’t remove it from his neck. David is panting as blood runs down his neck to cover his shirt.
“We took Demi to a party at the beach. I … drugged her for Maxwell. But she ended up leaving with Eli, and when I went to pick her up the next morning, he wouldn’t let her leave with me ’cause he found out what we had done.” She sniffs.
Demi had told me this story when she was drunk the night Cole and I found the girls at the bar. But I don’t think she told me everything. This is my chance to find out.
“How?” I demand.
“David had given her his phone to use ’cause she left hers back at the house. When she passed out with Eli, he went through it and found our chats about our plans …” she cries, shaking her head. “Eli threatened him … David and I staged a separation, and I met up with them later on that night. He thought I was just trying to piss you off for sleeping with Kaitlin.”
That’s why Eli told me I could do better. He knew exactly what kind of woman she was. I wish he would have just told me. I’m not sure I would have listened, but I wish he would have tried. Instead, I thought the worst and have hated him when I should be thanking him. He saved Demi. He stood up for her. I’m glad she had someone in her life to do that, and I’m proud to say that he was one of my best friends.
“Becky!” David yells at her. Cole digs the knife into his throat again, silencing him.
Becky sucks in a long breath as fresh tears run down her face. “David thought that Eli was gonna go to the cops. Or send the sharks after him for what we did to her. He told me to seduce him. The night of the party, I was to get Eli away from the sharks and bring him to a secluded location where David and Maxwell were going to make sure he couldn’t speak.”
Cole steps away from David, and he growls at her. “Fuck! You bitch! I never heard you tell me no! You wanted him silenced just as much as I did.”
&n
bsp; “Then the wreck happened, and I panicked …” she cries. “After I went home to Demi, I met up with David, and his father stitched up my wound …”
His father is a doctor at the hospital where Shelby works. Now it all makes sense. Becky had told me that she cut it while at the lake. I never second-guessed her.
“They fucking deserved it! You all deserved to be in that car!” David shouts.
“We all get what we deserve.” I nod my head and pull the matches out of my back pocket. Done with all of this. I don’t have the time for this shit.
Cole reaches down and grabs the can of gasoline sitting next to him that we found in the garage of the Lowes house.
“What the fuck?” David barks.
Cole throws the gasoline onto him.
I nod my head to Shane, and he grips the back of Becky’s neck where we cut her. Yanking her head up, forcing her to watch. “Do you love him?” he asks her.
It’s the same thing she had asked me regarding Demi. I know what he’s getting at.
“Yes.” She sobs. “Please just let us go. I won’t talk … He won’t talk …”
“We’re not afraid of you talking, baby.” He smiles down at her, and her body wracks with a sob. “This is what happens to those who fuck with the sharks.” She whimpers. “You can’t beat us, Becky. No one can.”
“Deke—” She cries my name, about to beg me.
I interrupt her, no longer caring. “I’ve heard that burning to death is a painful way to die.” I strike the match on the side of the box. “I hope it’s true.” Then I toss it on David.
He screams out as the flames lick his body. Falling to his side, he rolls, and Cole grabs Austin to pull her farther away from the flames.
Becky leans forward, screaming out into the cold night as she watches the only guy she ever truly loved burn to death. And I feel nothing for her. For him.
There are times I wonder how we got here.
Evil.
Ruthless.
But then I remember that we started playing the game a long time ago and that turned into real life. And life is a fucking mess. It’s bloody. If you want to survive, you fight. And just because I’m not afraid to die doesn’t mean I’m ready to give up living. I’ve finally found a girl who I know will accept me for me. Love me for me. And I’m not ready to give her up yet.
DEKE
The guys and I stand around Austin as she kneels on the snow-covered ground, pounding away on the guys’ smoldering bodies with a hammer. She has a lot of pent-up aggression after everything they have done. The cold air smells like burnt flesh, and Cole stands next to me, watching her with pride and lust. I’m pretty sure if me and the rest of guys weren’t here with Becky, he would fuck her right here and now.
She wipes the sweat off her still blood-covered forehead and stands. “Done,” she states.
“Now what?” Shane asks.
“Scoop up the remaining ashes and throw them over the cliff.” She lifts her chin over to the right where the ocean hits the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. “Get rid of everything. The grass will show where the fire was, but by the time winter is over, it shouldn’t be that noticeable.” Then she looks at me. “Where are their phones?”
“I have them,” Cole answers, removing them from his pockets.
She takes them from him before throwing them to the ground. Then she walks over to Shane who still has Becky on her knees. “Where is your phone?” Austin demands.
Becky sobs, and Shane pushes her forward by the back of her neck, leaning down and ripping it from her back pocket. He hands it to Austin.
“What are you doing?” Shane asks her.
“Gotta get rid of everything.” She looks up at Cole and snaps her fingers, ordering, “Knife.” Once it’s in her hands, she continues. “Who knows how much they shared through texts? Messenger?” Then starts pushing buttons on the phone. “I’m going to uninstall the messenger and Facebook app.” We all stand silently as she does all three.
Then she begins to beat the shit out of them with her hammer.
Once she’s done, she picks up a fishing net that she also found in the garage of her father’s house and begins to cut it in three sperate pieces. “Hand me a few pieces from that broken headstone,” she orders Bennett.
He does so without hesitation, then looks at Cole, and he just shrugs. He’s just as much in the dark as the rest of us.
She lays the three pieces of fishing net down on the ground and then places a phone and a part of the headstone in each one. Then she ties them all off. Standing up, she walks over to the cliff and throws them over. Turning back to us, she places her hands on her hips. “If the police go looking for the guys, they will be able to pin their last location using their phones. But without the evidence, they don’t have shit. And even if for some insane reason they manage to find one of their phones, they won’t be able to get anything off it after it’s been sitting at the bottom of the ocean. After I took a hammer to them.”
We all just stand there staring at her in shock that she thought of that. She’s one hell of a shark, and I’m glad she’s on our side. I’m not sure how many of us could have beat her had she not fallen in love with Cole and joined us.
Shane chuckles to himself. “I knew you’d do well at a challenge.”
“I love you,” Cole says, pulling her into him and giving her a long kiss.
I turn away from them and pull my cell out of my pocket to call my sister. “Hello?” she answers.
“How is she?” I ask immediately.
“She’s doing well. She’s awake …”
“I wanna talk to her.”
“One second.”
“Hey?”
I let out a long breath, at the sound of her soft voice. “Hey, princess. How do you feel?”
“I’m okay. Just tired.”
I run a hand down my face, feeling my shoulders loosen. “Listen … I want to come see you, but …”
“It’s okay, Deke. Is Austin okay?”
“Yeah.”
I look up at my friends and watch them toss the ashes of the sorry bastards who hurt my girls over the cliff, and my chest tightens for what they’ve been through. And how it could have ended if not for Cole and that damn tracker. How long would they have been missing before we realized it? Would we have thought to check the Lowes house? I hate that the answers are no. “I’ll be there as soon as I can,” I promise her.
After we found Austin shot, Cole didn’t get to go to the hospital right away either. He had stuff he had to take care of first, and that’s exactly what I have to do now.
“I’ll be here. Shelby said she’s gonna stay with me. And she’s called my dad. He’s here as well. Just stepped out for some coffee.”
“What does he know?” I ask, wanting to know what we’re up against. I didn’t kill Becky because it would be too hard to explain why she hasn’t been seen or phoned home. But the sharks will see to it that she pays. Plus, I once told Demi that people don’t have to die to stop living.
“That I passed out and hit my head on the way down.”
I frown. “And he believed that?”
“He looked skeptical until Shelby showed him my chart.”
I let out a sigh. “Let me talk to her again. I’ll see you soon.”
We say our goodbyes, and then my sister is back on the line. “Thank you,” I tell her.
“No need to thank me. Just do what you gotta do, and we’ll see you once you’re done.”
“Ready?” I ask, pocketing my phone.
“Yes,” Austin answers, slapping her hands together to knock off what was left of the ashes. “What about their wallets?” she asks. “We don’t wanna put those with their phones. It all needs to be separated.”
Agreeing with her, I pat my back pocket that doesn’t hold my shirt. I’ve got both of them. “We plant the wallets in the glovebox of the Maserati, then drive it about an hour out of town and put it in a river with the windows rolled down. If it’s ever found,
the cops will think they drowned and washed downstream,” I answer.
It’s the best option we have, given our timeframe. This isn’t our first rodeo committing murder, but every time is a different situation.
“I’m taking you to the hospital,” Cole tells her.
She looks up at him. “I’m fine, Cole.”
He fists his hands down by his side at her refusal. “You have a pretty good size knot on your head. You may have a concussion—”
“Let’s get this over with,” she interrupts him. “It’ll be daylight soon, and I need to go get Lilly once we’re done.” She places her hands in the front pockets of her now filthy skinny jeans and starts walking down the hill, not giving him a second to argue.
“What are we doing with her?” Bennett asks, looking down at Becky. “We can’t leave loose ends lying around.”
Becky begins to rock back and forth; her hands still tied behind her back.
I walk over to her and kneel. Gripping her face, I force her to look up at me. “I’m not gonna kill you, Becky.” She whimpers. “Death would be too easy for you. No, instead, I’m gonna spare your miserable, pathetic life.” My fingers tighten, gripping her cheeks. “Instead, you will watch your sister get the love that you always wanted.” Her bloodshot eyes widen. “You’ve already seen me fall in love with her. And you’ll live to watch me marry her and her have my children. You’ll watch her be everything you wanted to be.”
I release her, stand, and look at Shane. “She belongs to us, but at this point, you’re the only one who will touch her.”
Cole has Austin, I have Demi, and Bennett has my sister. Shane is the only one who can get any use out of her. So she’s all his.
He gives me a smile, and I turn and walk down the hill back toward the house and Austin. She was right. It’s time to get this shit wrapped up.
EPILOGUE
DEMI
DEKE AND THE rest of the sharks killed David and Maxwell. I wish I could say he killed my sister too, but he told me that death was too easy for her, and I understood what he meant. The more I thought about it, the more I understood his decision. She’ll have to forever watch us together. She’ll watch us live happily in love. Get married. Have children. I love Deke Biggs, and I don’t plan on going anywhere without him.
DARE SERIES COLLECTION Page 89
