“But why would that make her think …?” You could tell the cops know what we did, and they think she knows what we did. Fuck!
“I’m sorry, Deke.” He sighs.
I wave him off. “Don’t worry about it. Not your fault.” Just another thing for me to take care of.
He runs a hand through his hair nervously. I frown. Cole doesn’t get nervous often. “What is it?” I ask. Whatever it is, I’ll make sure it goes away.
“There’s something else I need to tell you …”
The door to Austin’s room opens, and Jacob walks out. “She wants to see you,” he tells Cole.
He nods.
“It can wait,” I tell him. He looks like he wants to argue, but I give him my back and walk away. Austin needs to be his main priority right now.
Entering the waiting area, I see Becky and Bennett sitting by one another, neither one of them speaking. He had run to do a few things but was back before Cole and Becky arrived. He’s looking down at his phone, and she is staring straight ahead at nothing.
“Becky?” I get her attention, coming up to stand in front of her.
She looks up at me through her eyelashes but says nothing.
“May I speak to you for a moment?”
She stays seated, and Bennett ignores us.
Finally, she speaks. “I think I heard all I need to know.”
I refrain from yanking her out of her seat and dragging her ass outside and into my SUV so we can talk. She knows. One of my secrets is out there, but I need to know she can keep her mouth shut about it. I can’t help Cole and Austin if she goes and gets my ass in trouble.
The GWS aren’t stupid. We know what we are up against every time we fight. The adults in this town think we’re just stupid kids who do stupid shit, but they’re so wrong. Their heads would spin if they knew half the shit we’re capable of. And it would scare Becky to death if she knew just how much I could hurt her. I could ruin her, just like Cole wanted to destroy Austin. But our story would be different because I wouldn’t stop like Cole did. I have very few limits when you cross me.
“Why are you still standing here, Deke?” she snaps, getting my attention.
I smile down at her, and her eyes widen in fear. Then, without another word, I walk away. I take the elevator down to the first floor. As I walk out of the hospital, I pull out my cell and dial up a number to a friend of mine. I need to find Kellan’s car. My plan to crush my ex can wait.
CHAPTER TWELVE
BENNETT
I SIT BACK onto my couch and prop my right foot on my left knee. I take a long drag off the joint before passing it off. School and swim are officially over, so I can smoke as much as I want since I’m not going to be drug tested. Well, for a couple of weeks until I start college anyway.
“You covered their tracks?” Shane asks, sitting in the recliner across from me. He looks like shit! I’m not even sure when he showered last. And he showed up with a bottle of vodka.
I nod. “They were sloppy, but it wouldn’t have mattered. Kellan was going to die no matter what. Austin had stabbed him.”
I’m surprised the bitch put up such a good fight. Her size compared to Kellan’s—I figured he’d win without any trouble. But who knows, the guy could have been wasted. He’d done nothing but drink for the past couple of months. He was always on edge, especially since finding out Celeste was pregnant with his baby. When she told him, he called me freaking the fuck out. Of course, I didn’t help by telling him he was a fucking idiot.
“You shouldn’t have altered the tape. Nothing about us was on there. Not like we would have gotten into trouble. Cole and Austin would have been locked up behind Bruce.”
I shake my head. “Austin has recordings.” Or she did at the time Deke and Cole killed Kellan. Now Cole has them. “If I hadn’t altered it, she would have had enough to take us all down.”
Shane’s head falls back, and he looks up at the crystal chandelier that hangs from the ceiling. “This can’t be happening.”
“There’s nothing we can do about it now. It’s done. He’s dead.”
“Because he fucked up!” he snaps.
“Again. Nothing we could have done with that.”
He fists his hands. “How the fuck did it get this bad?”
“Well, we all underestimated Austin, for one,” I offer. “You should have known she was gonna be more trouble than we bargained for when she pulled the fire alarm so you could go do your dare. And two, who would have guessed Cole was gonna fall for her?”
He snorts. “That’s what we wanted.”
“No.” I shake my head. “If I remember that first night in the clubhouse correctly, when she showed up in his car, you said she won’t turn on someone she loves. We wanted her to fall for him, so she would take the fall. Cole was never supposed to be on her side. He was supposed to use her. We needed him too much to get caught for Bruce’s death. We needed him ’cause he knew too much about us.”
“Whatever.” He stands and begins to pace in my parents’ family room. “I should have known he was gonna fall for her the moment he found out she had been abused.” He snorts. “Cole started feeling sorry for her … and then shit went downhill from there.”
My brows pull together in confusion. “Austin was abused?” He nods. “Like sexually?” He doesn’t respond. No one has mentioned this. Was that why Cole kept her so close? Maybe he knew Kellan’s true intentions from the beginning. Cole can be ruthless, but no one knows how dark Kellan could go. How dark his thoughts went. “By who?” I dig.
“Doesn’t matter. Now it’s all fucked.” He waves me off.
I let it go because Austin’s past doesn’t concern me. “I disagree. The plan still worked. Bruce may not be dead, but he’s in jail.”
“But Kellan is dead!”
“Because he jumped the gun,” I remind him with a sigh. “I listened to the recording, and he was planning on doing something to Celeste that night. Maybe not Austin, but he went there with a plan. He paid the price for being so foolish, and I can’t feel sorry for him over that.” Shane throws me a glare before he continues wearing out the carpet in front of the fireplace. “He shouldn’t have fallen for her too. He got greedy.”
He throws his head back laughing. “He liked her back when we were kids. That’s why he wanted her here in the first place. To piss off Celeste. Hell, he had been following Austin for the past few months on Facebook before she even moved to Collins. Ever since her mother called. She just never knew it ’cause it was under a different name.”
We all have spam accounts except for Cole. It took Austin challenging him for him to even make one Facebook account. But I don’t think the fucker has ever used it.
I roll my eyes. “He was out of control. And careless. Two things that in no way were gonna get him what he wanted. We saw the red flag when he gave Cole the dare to fuck Kaitlin. Then when she showed up at the party with Bryan, and he told Cole he still had to fuck her, even if that meant rape, Kellan was out of his fucking mind,” I remind him. At that point, Kellan was desperate to get Cole out of the picture. Even if that meant getting his ass throw in jail.