My life wasn’t a good one. And honestly, I wasn’t all that surprised when my mother dropped me like a bad habit for her boyfriend. But I still thought she would fight for me. Want me. But she didn’t; all she needed was him. She stood by and let him hit me. Touch me.
But now it’s clear they have a hidden agenda. She wants me to get access to his money and send it to her. Fuck no! If she wants his money, she can call and ask for it. She’s never been shy about asking before.
Cole slows the car down, and I realize we are pulling into a driveway. And I’m instantly on alert once I realize it’s not my father’s. “Where are we?” I ask as panic bubbles up my throat.
“Shelby’s,” he answers and shuts the car off, getting out.
I follow him up to the front door. He enters without even knocking.
“Shelby?” he calls out.
“In here,” a woman’s soft voice says.
I follow much slower as I’m taking in my surroundings. The house is nothing like my father’s. It’s much smaller, homier. Smells of coconut.
We round a corner and walk into a kitchen. A beautiful blond sits at the table. She looks up at him, smiling warmly, her crystal blue eyes soft. She stands and walks right to him. He hugs her, and it makes me think they have something going on.
“This is Austin.” He gestures to me without looking my way. “She needs stitches.”
My eyes widen. That’s why we’re here? Stitches?
Her eyes widen as well. “Oh, my, what happened?” she asks, concern in her words.
“He took a knife to my forearm,” I say, lifting my chin.
“He what?” Her wide eyes snap to his. “Cole …?”
“Just stitch her up so we can go. I need to get home,” he snaps.
She closes her mouth and then walks over to me. “May I see it?”
I remove my red cardigan and lift my right hand in the air to show her my forearm. It’s covered in blood from when he broke it open earlier. She gasps. “Cole Reynolds. Why the hell would you do this to her?” she demands.
We both look at him, and he’s glaring at us, lips thinned. When she realizes he’s not gonna answer, she looks back at me. “I tried to superglue it.”
She sighs heavily. “That won’t do on a cut like this.”
His phone rings, and he pulls it out of his back pocket. A soft smile appears on his face and then he walks out, answering it to where we can’t hear him.
“You poor thing. Come on. I have everything we need in my spare bedroom.”
I follow her and sit down on the end of the bed like she instructs. “Do you do this for him often?” I ask. She frowns, walking into the adjoining bathroom. “Stitch people up?” I clarify.
She laughs softly, coming out with a wet washcloth to clean the blood off. “For others, no. For them, yes.” I tilt my head to the side. “They tend to get into trouble a lot.”
“They?”
“Great White Sharks.”
“I don’t understand what you are talking about,” I say, shaking my head.
“Do you not know them?”
“I don’t know who them are. I just moved here and …”
“Oh.” She nods in understanding, tossing the washcloth into a dirty clothes hamper in the corner. “The GWS, Great White Sharks is what everyone calls them. Cole, Deke, Shane, Bennett, and Kellan are all on the school swim team. They are sharks in and out of the water. Cole is their captain. All of them already have scholarships for college next fall.”
“Do you go to school with them?” She seems older than us but how else would she know them?
She chuckles. “I’ll take that as a compliment. But, no, I am Deke’s older sister.”
“I see.” The bastard who wanted to kill me last night. Now here I am, and his sister is going to stitch me up. “But you have done this before?” It’s not that I’m afraid she’s not qualified; at this point, I’ll take anyone’s help.
“Yes. I’m a trauma nurse. I keep stuff here just in case the guys need something done.”
“What kind of something do you mean?” I ask slowly.
She sets down a box next to me on the bed. “They dare one another to do stupid shit. Half the time, they end up in an emergency room. And I’m there to patch them up only to send them on their way to do it again”
“Dare one another?” Is this one of your dares? Jeff had asked Cole last night.
She opens the box to pull out a package. She rips it open and takes out a cold cloth that she rubs over my cut. I hiss in a breath through gritted teeth. Then a syringe and a vial of clear liquid. She sticks the end of the needle into it. “It’s hard to explain. Even I don’t know all the details. But they dare one another to do something stupid, and if they don’t complete the dare, they have consequences. It’s so juvenile, if you ask me. But then again, they are still boys.” She smiles at me. “Okay. Now you’re gonna feel a sting. I’m going to numb the area.”