If You Dare (Dare 3)

I look over at the ditch, and my heart begins to pound in my chest when I see the three, white wooden crosses that Deke and Cole placed here after their friends were killed in the car wreck. I remember being at Eli’s funeral and hearing people whisper that Cole and Deke didn’t show. They had been here, setting these.

Right where we stand.

“Austin?” I turn to face her, and she’s got her hands on the window of the car, trying to look through the blacked-out windows. “I think we should leave,” I say, getting a bad feeling about this.

“I don’t see anyone …” The door opens, hitting her in the face, knocking her off her feet and onto her ass.

“Austin?” I shout, running over to her, but an arm wraps around me from behind, and I’m yanked off my feet. Oh, no. God, no!

She rolls over onto her hands and gets up on her knees. A guy steps out of the car, and my breath hitches. No, no, no. “Austin … run.”

He walks over and kicks her in the side, and she cries out, grabbing it.

“Stop!” I scream, trying to fight the hands that hold me.

The passenger door opens, and I watch my sister walk around the back of the car. My teeth clench at the sight of her smiling at me. “You fucking bitch!” I scream.

The guy holding me tightens his hold, pinning my arms down to my side. “Nice to see you too, sis.” She gives me a smile that I want to cut off her fucking face.

“Let her go,” I order. I can’t let Austin get hurt. Not because of me. Not because I stole my sister’s boyfriend.

She laughs. “Not a chance.”

“Your fight is with me.” My eyes go to Austin, and she’s now on her knees with her head in her hands. The car door hit her pretty hard, and I’m surprised it didn’t knock her unconscious. She’s definitely confused as to what is going on. “You hate me. I took him from you.”

She steps into me, pressing her chest into mine. Her blue eyes narrowed. “I no longer give a fuck that he picked you.”

She spits in my face. Then she gathers her blond hair to the top of her head and spins around, giving me her back. I see four tally marks across the back of her neck just below her hair and then one across it. Fuck, Deke, what did you guys do to her? They had to know she wouldn’t quit. Not after that.

She spins back around. “The sharks did that to me. Because of you. Because of her …”

“You deserved it.” I growl. They should have just killed her.

She slaps me across the face, and I taste blood, but I refuse to make a fucking sound or let her think she hurt me. Instead, I spit it on her.

She laughs, and says, “Do it.”

Before I even get the chance to comprehend what she says, I feel a sting in my arm. “What …?”

“You’re done, Demi. Once and for all.”

I panic as I look over at Austin. She’s getting to her feet, her hands up and fisted because she’s more alert now. Just as the guy goes to swing, she ducks and punches him in the dick.

Good for her. Maybe one of us will survive this.

“Don’t worry. It’ll only hurt a lot,” Becky taunts.

The guy shoves me forward, and I fall to my knees in the middle of the street. I watch Becky walk over to Austin, and I take the chance to pull my phone out of my back pocket and go to Deke’s number.

“I’ll take that.” She yanks it from my hands and throws it out into the woods behind me.

“I hope he fucking kills you,” I growl up at her from my knees.

“He already has,” she states with a smile.

The guy who was holding me walks around and picks her up. She kisses him while he spins her around, and I blink, making sure I’m seeing what I think I see. What did she give me? Am I hallucinating? “No …”

He drops her back down to her feet. “Can’t … be.” My eyes are getting heavy, and my lips won’t work.

She kneels in front of me. “Nothing is ever what it seems.” That’s the last thing I hear her say before my arms give out, and I fall to the snow-covered street.

BECKY

“Put her in the back of the Range Rover,” I order David.

He bends down to pick up my sister and carries her over to Austin’s SUV. I turn to face the bitch who was supposed to be my best friend.

“What’s your plan, Becky?” she asks with a sarcastic laugh, wiping the blood off her bottom lip. Then she sticks her finger in her mouth and sucks it off. I never realized how psycho she is until just now. I had quite a few what the fuck moments when I read her journal, but I thought maybe she was overexaggerating. “Gonna kill us?”