My phone rings on my bed, and I look down to see Deke written across the screen. My heart begins to race with excitement.
“Hey?” I try to say calmly, but my high pitch gives me away. I turn, placing my back to the door and bounce toward the windows. The falling rain making visibility nonexistent. “What are you …?”
“Do you miss me, Becky?” he asks in greeting.
A cold chill runs up my spine at his tone. There was nothing affectionate about it. Just cold. Detached. “Of course, … I …”
“What if I said I wanted to see you?”
I swallow, and the hairs on my neck rise. “Deke.” I give a nervous laugh. “What do you mean? I, uh, I’d love to see you, but you’re too far away.” Thank God. He sounds like a serial killer calling his next victim. He’s probably drunk and playing some sick game with me.
“What if I told you I’m here?”
I whip around to face my bedroom door, my chest rising and falling quickly. “In Collins?” My voice shakes.
He gives a dark chuckle, and my stomach drops as I watch a man dressed in black jeans and a black hoodie move to stand in the doorway of my bedroom. His blue eyes look me up and down, taking in my half-naked body, but he shows no sign of interest. When they reach mine, I hear him whisper in my ear. “Your bedroom.”
I drop the phone and run into my en suite bathroom. I slam the door shut and lock it. He begins to pound on it from the outside. “Stop,” I cry as I press my hands up against it, knowing he’s fucking with me. If he wanted in, that lock wouldn’t stop him. “Deke, please …”
The banging stops, and I flip on the light before taking a step back from the door. Tears sting my eyes and my body shakes. What the fuck is he doing here? In Collins? My bedroom?
Other than my heavy breathing, silence now fills the room. I still hold my hands out in front of me as I take another step back and bump into a hard surface. I gasp, spinning around only to come face-to-face with Cole Reynolds.
They tricked me.
The phone call was to distract me, allowing Cole into my bathroom. Where Deke knew I’d run. He had been covering the door, there was no other escape option for me. His emotionless blue eyes stare down at me. Cole has this way of making you feel cold deep down in your bones. Like death coming to collect your soul. He’s come to drag me to hell. To make me pay for my sins. My breath hitches and my heart hammers in my chest. “Cole …”
He grips my hair and shoves my face into my bathroom mirror. Pain explodes behind my eyes. The impact takes my breath away. He yanks me back and shoves me away from him so hard that I slide across the countertop, knocking off my beauty supplies in the process. I hit the tile floor on my side as my shaking hands come up to shield my bloody and busted face. I sob into them, and it just intensifies the pounding in my face.
Cole opens the door, and I get up on my hands and knees, crawling away from them. “Fucking bastard,” I cry. He’s a fucking psycho.
Deke enters followed by Shane and then Bennett. I begin to shake. They’re gonna kill me. Right here. In my bathroom. “Fuck you guys! All of you!” I shout.
“You like to play, Becky? So do we.” Deke speaks, dropping a black duffel bag to his feet.
Shane gives me a cruel smile and kneels by the bag. Slowly, he unzips it. “Sorry, Becky. I ratted you out.”
My chest tightens. “I don’t know what you’re talking about …”
“But you do.” He nods. “Kellan had told me …”
“No, no, no, no,” I chant.
“And you knew that I knew … How long did you expect me to keep that secret?”
Now it all makes sense. That’s why Cole slammed my face into the mirror. Because that’s exactly what Kellan did to Austin. The night I helped him break into the Lowes house.
Eight months ago
Austin walks into the kitchen and grabs the Fireball off the counter and takes a sip from the bottle. Her birthday party has been in full swing for over an hour now. She’s already pretty drunk. I’m sober as shit.
“What the hell was that?” I demand, running up next to her. I just stood in her father’s game room where she told the sharks that she has insurance on them. Whatever the fuck that means.
“Me putting them in their place,” she says and tips it back again.
I sigh. “What do you have on them?”
“Enough.”
I roll my eyes. “That’s not what I asked, Austin.”