I lie in Becky’s bed at her father’s house watching a movie when my cell alerts me of a message.
“Who is it?” Becky asks.
“It’s from Cole.” I open it up.
Cole: You busy?
Me: I’m with Becky. What’s up?
Cole: I have something that needs to be taken care of.
Me: I can be ready whenever.
Cole: Give me five.
“I gotta go,” I say, getting out of her bed.
“What?” She jumps up. “You just got here.”
I grab my black leather jacket off the back of her chair. “Cole needs me.”
She comes over to me, and I refrain from sighing because I can tell she’s pissed. “Cole always needs you.”
“Don’t,” I warn, walking over to her door.
“Deke.” She grabs my hand. “What does he need?”
I don’t answer. “I’ll come back.”
“When?” she demands.
“When I’m done,” I say and exit her room. I walk down the stairs and out the front door. As I jump into my Range Rover, I see her sister pull up. She comes to an abrupt stop and jumps out. She all but runs to the front door and shoves it open before storming inside. Maybe I got out just in time.
I pull out my cell and try calling him, but it rings several times before his voicemail finally picks up. I put the SUV in gear and pull out of their driveway as my phone rings. It’s Cole calling me back.
“Hey, man. What’s up?” I answer.
I hear his tires squealing, letting me know he’s left wherever he was. Probably with Austin. “Austin’s mother is in town. With her new husband.”
“Okay,” I say slowly.
He takes in a deep breath. I know absolutely nothing about her mother or stepdad, or anything about her life before she moved here to Collins three months ago. “They were waiting for Austin when we walked into Bruce’s house.”
“And?”
“And they need to be taken care of,” he answers.
“Where do you want me to meet you?” I ask without hesitation, knowing he has a plan. Cole always has one. And I’ll help him take care of whoever has fucked him over. Or in this case, it sounds like they have fucked over Austin.
We found them hiding out at the cheapest hotel in Collins. But it was in the middle of the day, so we decided on a plan, then he spent the afternoon with Austin and Lilly at the zoo. I went to the docks where our fathers once kept their yachts. There was an abandoned warehouse back there where they used to load and unload the shipping containers. They built a new one on the other side of town but hadn’t demolished this one yet, so no one was ever here.
I laid down a blue tarp in the office to get it ready.
Later that evening, after they left the zoo, I went over to the clubhouse and picked up Cole, and we sat outside the hotel room and waited.
We had our duffel bags with us. We rarely left home without them. Cole knocked on the door like they were expecting us, and a man answered. Cole shoved the door into his face, knocking him into the room. I entered and slammed it shut. Cole was already on the man, so I grabbed the woman and had her face down on the bed before she could even scream. I placed duct tape over her mouth and then tied her hands and feet together with it as well before I threw a hood over her head. Cole did the same to the man. We took them back to the docks I had been at earlier in the day and carried them into the office.
We didn’t play with them for very long. Cole fucked up the man pretty good with his fists, then took his knife and cut off the guy’s dick while he was still alive. I didn’t know what these people had done, but it was clear they had pissed him the fuck off. They were both druggies. I had grabbed their bathroom bag from their hotel and found a syringe and some crack in it. After I heated it up into liquid, I shot it into her. I’m not sure if she died from the drugs I gave her or the fact that I never removed the tape from her mouth and she choked on her own vomit. It didn’t matter. They both died. We killed them.
After they were both dead, we stood there in that office. Cole had told me that Austin’s stepdad had touched her. Sexually. The first time she was ten. It was then that I realized just how much he loved her. And how far I would go to protect his girl for him. She was one of us—a shark—and we protect our own. No matter what.
“Well.” Demi’s mother clears her throat. “I hope you wait a while before you get married. Finish school—”