If You Dare (Dare 3)

“What the hell are you doing?” Cole demands.

“What I should have done a long time ago,” she answers, still holding the lighter to it even though it’s already up in flames.

“What the fuck, Austin?” He snatches it from her hands and turns on the faucet, putting it out.

“I told her to burn it.” She reaches for it, but he holds her back with his other arm. “And she didn’t. And she lied to me. Told me she didn’t read it. Fucking bitch.” She’s shouting, and her fists shake. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Austin this pissed. And we’ve put her through some very sketchy situations in the past.

“Who?” I ask, confused by what the hell is in that notebook and why she wants to burn it.

She looks at me as if she’s just realized I’m also in the room. “Becky.”

I frown. “What’s in it?”

She opens her mouth, but her phone begins to ring. She pulls it out of her pocket, looks at it, and then silences it. “Fuck!” she shouts.

Cole turns off the water and drops the now soaked notebook into the sink. He places his hands on her shoulders and looks down at her with concern in his eyes. “Sweetheart, what’s going on?” he asks softly as though he’s talking to a child.

She takes a deep breath, trying to calm herself. “I went to go see Demi, to tell her that she could talk to me, and she had my journal. When I was in the hospital, I asked Becky to burn it. I didn’t want you finding it,” she tells him. “But she kept it. She read it. She told me that you read it.” She pokes him in the chest. “And neither one of you ever told me. Then she tried to tell me that I’m with you for money.” She pushes Cole away with disgust. “Like I give a fuck about that shit.” She starts pacing the kitchen. “Then she began to tell me that the only reason I fell in love with you was pretty much because I was broken and enjoyed abuse.”

Oh, shit. I can’t believe Becky would say that to her.

He runs a hand through his hair nervously. “Austin—”

“I slapped her,” she interrupts Cole.

My eyes widen. “What?”

She looks back at me. “And I told her that she is not welcome here.”

“Austin …”

She ignores Cole and walks over to me. Her green eyes have tears in them, but I can’t tell if they’re from sadness or anger. She licks her lips and the look on her pretty face makes me think she’s about to break down and sob. “I’m sorry, Deke, but I cannot forgive this. I will never tell you who you can and can’t date, but she’s not allowed back in my house.”

“Sweetheart?” Cole steps up behind her.

She spins around and looks up at him. He opens his mouth to speak, but whatever he sees written on her face makes him pause. He reaches out to cup her face, and she shoves him away. “How could you?” she asks, and her voice breaks.

“I—”

“No,” she interrupts him. “That was private. You had no right.” Then she turns and storms back out of the kitchen just as fast as she entered, but I don’t miss the tears running down her face.

“What the hell is in that damn thing?” I ask.

Cole runs his hand down his face, releasing a sigh. “Things her stepdad did to her. And everything we did to her. From the point she saw us on New Year’s night committing murder in the cemetery up until the night before Kellan shot her.”

Fuck! No wonder she’s mad. “You told her you only read a few pages.” Had he been lying?

“I read enough,” he says through gritted teeth, knowing none of it was pretty. “I gotta go talk to her.”

“Good luck,” I offer, thinking he may be the thing she sets on fire.

He slaps me on the back as he exits. “Austin will forgive me. You’re the one who needs luck. Two women equally hate you at the moment.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

DEMI

SETH BRINGS HIS car to a stop in front of my mother’s house. “You okay?” he asks.

I nod my heavy head. “Yep.”

He chuckles. “Need me to carry you upstairs and put you to bed?”

I snort. “I didn’t drink that much.”

“I know, but you also haven’t eaten anything.”

I open the door and look over at him. “I’m fine.”

“Okay. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” I crawl out and turn to shut the door, but he speaks. “Don’t let her get to you,” he tells me.

“I won’t …”

“She’s pissed. Just lost her best friend and her boyfriend.”

I snort. “You don’t know them like I do.” After what went down with my sister and Austin, my sister left. I’m sure she went running to Deke. Begging him to love her from her knees. I’m sure he promised her the world since he owes her for fucking up and sleeping with me. He probably told her we were drunk. Or he thought I was her. Who knows what he said and what she’ll believe?