“Legal age of consent in the state of Texas is seventeen.” He shrugs before taking another drink. “She’s seventeen.”
She is but … “How do you know that?” I ask, coming to a stop. Since when does Cole know Texas law?
A dark look clouds his eyes when he answers. “My dad brought it up back in Oregon regarding Austin and me. And after what I saw between you and Demi earlier, I looked it up. Just to make sure she couldn’t get you in trouble.”
Even he thinks she was setting me up for something. The sad part? I fell for it. Who knows what I would have done if he hadn’t shown up when he did. I run a hand through my hair. “That fucking bitch played me. Then she laughed. As if it was some kind of a game to her.”
“What are you gonna do about it?” he asks.
Placing my hands on the table, I lean over and look down at my best friend. “I want to show Demi just what kind of game I like to play.”
A slow smile spreads across his face, the one that tells me he’s up for whatever I wanna do. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it. Whatever Cole is dealing with right now, this could be his distraction. I’m always willing to help my friend out.
He nods. “Let’s play.”
That bitch doesn’t wanna fuck with me. I’ve got all kinds of tricks up my sleeves. I watched the look of satisfaction in her eyes and her smug smile when she sucked on my finger. Fuck, it made me hard. And I tried so goddamn hard not to think about it. Not to feel it. But in the end, she won that round. She thinks she can push me to touch her, to fuck her? She’s about to realize she can push me, all right, but it won’t get her the result she wants.
DEMI
I lie in my king-size bed, my back leaned against the padded white headboard while I watch the documentary Serial Clown Killer on YouTube. A serial killer who lived in Illinois known as Pogo the Clown. Hired to perform at birthday parties, he would sexually assault the boys, strangle them with rope, and then bury their bodies under his house. He was put to death in 1994 after being found guilty of thirty-three counts of murder.
Murderers and psychopaths have always fascinated me. I’ve always wondered how a mind of a serial killer works. What makes them want to kill? And what makes them choose their victims? How do they not get caught? I can see someone getting away with one or maybe two, but more than that? Thirty-three fucking murders before finally being arrested. No way. That would never happen these days. The technology we have now would make it difficult for anyone to slip through the system.
That’s what you think, my mind taunts. You know a killer, and he’s not locked up in prison or on death row.
Deke told on himself. I overheard him confess what he did to my sister three months ago. I’ve never cared for the bastard, but it made me respect him a little.
I lean up against my bedroom wall at my father’s house, listening to my sister and her boyfriend fight. He looked pissed when he stormed into her room and ordered me to leave.
“I’m sorry …” she cries out.
“You will be,” Deke says, and I snort.
I quickly place my hand over my mouth, hoping they didn’t hear that. But honestly, come on? What the hell would he do to her?
“Please, Deke,” she begs, and I roll my eyes at the desperation in her voice. “It’s not like you haven’t kept secrets from me.”
“What I did was none of your business,” he replies simple as that.
It’s how all the sharks work—they can do whatever the fuck they want.
“You lied to me!” she screams. “You killed Kellan!”
Whoa! What the fuck? His friend Kellan has been missing for two months now. After the news broke of him shooting Austin Lowes and killing her stepmom, the authorities have had a manhunt out for him but haven’t had any luck finding him. Now I know why.
“I did.” He doesn’t deny the lies. “Want to know the truth, Becky?” I press my body more into the wall to listen since he’s lowered his voice. “I’m a murderer,” he admits with no shame. “I’ve killed five people.”
Holy shit! The town is afraid of the GWS, yet my sister always bitched about how harmless they were. I knew they were untouchable. Evil. That’s what fascinated me about them the most. They played a stupid game of dare that always went too far and landed them injured most of the time. Or in trouble with the law. But a group of kids whose parents have endless pockets mean you never have to pay for your actions.
“Do you wanna be my sixth?”
She gasps.
And I can just see her body trembling in fear right now.
“You … What …? Why, Deke?” she rambles.
“It doesn’t concern you,” he answers.
She was terrified for a few seconds. Then when she realized he was really going to leave her, she dropped to her knees and sucked his dick like the pro she is.
Why isn’t the guy in jail? I know he had help from the GWS. How did they do it and not get caught? And why hasn’t my sister turned them in? She has to know more than she is letting on. She must have evidence to put Deke and his fucking pathetic sharks away, right? Maybe she’s keeping her mouth shut for Austin since she is engaged to Cole. He was arrested for killing her stepmother and shooting her, but I didn’t believe it. Cole isn’t that stupid or that careless. He’s a fucking time bomb, but he wouldn’t do something to get caught. No, they’re all smarter and more calculated than that. So after being questioned, he was released. And a body was never found to prove what the cops already knew.
I turn off my TV and get out of bed. All I wear is an oversized T-shirt of Seth’s and a pair of boy shorts. I walk down to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water and a banana. I notice the clock on the wall reads 10:35. I’m home alone on a Saturday night. My mom and her husband are at some fundraiser for his job in New York, and they won’t be back until Monday. Becky’s out doing who knows who at the moment. She’s never here. I don’t know where she goes or what she does, but I never ask and she never offers. The hired help my mother keeps on the property have been sent home for the weekend. My only friend here in Texas is at some party tonight that I refused to go to ’cause it’s at some bitch’s house that I don’t like. She tried that I’ll come visit you instead of going shit, and I waved her off. I don’t need her to coddle me. Or pretend she’ll pass up free booze. And Seth is … well, I know he’s busy.
I shut off the kitchen lights and make my way back to the foyer. My mother bought this house after my parents divorced. I was twelve at the time. I managed to stay in Collins until just a few months ago. I hate Texas! I loved Collins, Oregon. It was smaller, but that’s what I liked about it. It didn’t take hours to get somewhere due to traffic. Even though she picked to live in Austin, she associates with the same people: stuck-up billionaire snobs. My mother owns a lingerie line, and she’s in stores all over the world. Some would say she’s a big deal, but I think it’s stupid. She makes slutty little outfits so housewives can dress up to try to seduce their husbands who are already fucking someone else on the side. The ironic part? I bet my life that their “secrets” are also dressed in the same lingerie and look better.
I walk past the round glass table that sits in the middle of the grand foyer and take the right set of stairs to my room on the second floor. I enter and notice that my windows are open. The soft wind blows my violet curtains around, giving my room a cold chill from the outside air. “Hmm.” That’s weird. They weren’t open a minute ago. My bedroom light is off how I left it, but since the window is open, the lights on the side of the house give my room a soft glow.