I look up to a familiar female voice.
“Becky?” I ask in disbelief. “What are you doing here? I told you to go …”
“I can’t just leave you here,” she cries. Her arms are crossed over her stomach to hold her bloody, ripped crop top in place. “I did this …” She swallows and looks around the street with wide eyes. “They’re all dead.”
“Fucking go!” I dismiss her.
Her eyes fall to Eli. “I don’t know what happened …” She sobs.
I close my eyes. “Just go, Becky! I’ll handle it.”
“You’ve been drinking,” she reminds me.
My jaw tightens. “Becky …”
“They’ll arrest you, Cole. They’ll think you killed them all…”
“I did!” I scream at her. “I fucking did this!” I hang onto my friend’s lifeless body. “I did this.” I can’t hold the tears back as they run down my face. “Just go, Becky.” I choke out the words. Tonight was my decision. I wanted to go out, and I dared them to drink. It doesn’t matter who the fuck was driving. It was my car! They were my responsibility.
I hear her run from the scene for the second time.
“Please …?” I beg to no one.
I drop my forehead down to Eli’s and close my eyes. “I’m so … sorry …” I choke on the words. They’re pointless. “I promise. I promise I’ll take care of Aimee.”
I hear the sirens in the distance. They’re too late.
I pull back and look down at him; his short dark hair grows like vines, transforming into long, thick, and dark strands. His face thins, his sharp jaw and high cheekbones changing to a petite face with a button nose. Short dark lashes replaced with full, long ones. His large body turns small and fragile.
“No!” I shout, shaking the body in my arms.
“No, no, no.” It’s Austin.
Her green eyes are open and stare up me, but they don’t see me. Nothing but cold and death. Then she blinks. Her eyes find mine, and she speaks, making my heart stop. “You succeeded, Cole. You broke me.”
I sit straight up, gasping for air. My bare chest covered in a thin layer of sweat, and my heart pounds so hard it hurts. I lean over and turn on the lamp that sits on the nightstand, bathing our master bedroom in light. Looking to my right, I see Austin next to me. She lies on her side, facing the window that leads out onto our balcony, her dark hair fanning the white pillow.
I take a deep breath and place my hand on her bare back. Leaning over, I kiss her soft skin. She shifts but doesn’t wake. My anger rises when I think about how fucking close I was to losing her. How close I was to having to spend a life without her because someone who was supposed to be my friend got too close to her.
I shove my hands through my hair and get out of bed. I throw on a pair of board shorts, turn off the lamp, and grab my phone before heading out of our room. I head downstairs, walk down the hall, and look into the cracked door to see Lilly fast asleep in her princess bed. Then I make my way out the back door and onto the patio into the hot summer Austin night. When I was here looking for a house, I only had one requirement—a pool.
I connect my Bluetooth to the outside speakers and turn it down so it doesn’t wake the girls. After picking a random Spotify station, I dive into the pool, enjoying the cold water on my warm body and begin to do a lap. Even now that I’m awake, the memories still creep up. Take over. There’s never an escape from them.
“We’ve got a pulse,” a man yells. “It’s weak but there.” They place Austin on a stretcher. Strap her down, and then they’re pushing her out of the kitchen.
I stand in the now silent room covered in her blood. Dazed. Completely and utterly lost. I walk into the hallway and see the officer and a medical examiner standing over a dead body at the bottom of the stairs. Celeste.
They call out my name, but I ignore them and walk right out the front door. I have work to finish. I’ll find them later once I’m done. I see my car still parked in the driveway, and I fish my phone out of my pocket and dial Deke’s number. “Hello …?”
“Where the fuck are you?”
“Cemetery …”
I pop up out of the water, eyes closed, and take in a breath. The air burning my lungs. When I open my eyes, I see Austin sitting on the edge of the shallow end wearing nothing but one of my white T-shirts. Her legs dangle over the edge and into the water, making soft waves as she moves them back and forth. Her dark hair down and over her right shoulder.
“Build You Back” by Dark Signal plays softly from the speakers, and my chest tightens. No words could be truer than the ones in this song.
I swim over to her. She opens her legs, allowing me to stand between them. My hands go to her bare thighs, and I squeeze her like she’s going to disappear into thin air before my eyes.
“Wanna talk about it?” she asks softly.
I just stare at her. How do I tell this woman that I see her lying dead in a pool of blood every time I close my eyes? I’ve never been good at expressing any emotion other than anger. And time hasn’t changed that. I tell her I love her every chance I get, but even she knows that the darkness lingers.
I told her the other night that I was done with blood. Seeing her bleeding out cured me of that sick disease. After killing Kellan, my need for revenge was over. But that doesn’t stop my need to protect her. That doesn’t stop my fear of losing her.
“I’m okay,” she assures me as if she can read my mind.
Another power she has. It’s a fucking curse and a blessing.
Reaching up, she runs her hand through my wet hair, her nails gently scraping my scalp, and just like that, she smothers all anger and makes a shudder run through me. I lean forward, pressing my forehead to her chest and soaking her shirt. My hands loosen from her thighs and wrap around her thin waist. She’s started putting weight on since Kellan shot her. But she’s still too small. Too far from where she was the night I found her in the cemetery. Even then, she was little, but now she teeters on breakable. Too fragile. I hate it!
“I’m right here, baby,” she assures me, kissing my wet hair. “And Kellan can’t touch us anymore.” Tightening her fingers in my hair, she rips my face from her chest and makes me look up at her. “Because of you, I’m safe now.”
I just stare at her. The porch lights are off, but the pool light casts a glow around us, making her green eyes shine. They hold concern. She thinks I’m going crazy, and she’s not wrong. I reach up and push the few strands of dark hair behind her ear, and the pad of my finger runs over all her piercings.
“Talk to me,” she says softly, cupping my face.
I hate when she does this—coddles me like a fucking child. And I hate it even more that I need it. Her hands on me. Her lips on mine. Any time I start to feel that fire brewing, she smothers it with a single touch. Reminding me that I’m only human. A human can’t protect her. I need to be invincible.
The song finishes and changes to “Into It” by Chase Atlantic. I pull back, grab her wrists, and yank her into the pool. She gasps from the cool water. Grabbing the hem of her shirt, I yank it up and over her head. After I toss the soaked fabric to the side, my lips are on hers, and my hands are in her hair. Her body shivers against mine, and I press my now hard cock into her lower stomach.