“Everything okay?” he asks quickly.
I look down at Cole as he straddles Kellan again. He wraps his hand around the butt of the knife that sticks out of his side. “Fuck you, Kellan.” He yanks the knife from his side, tosses it away, and then begins to punch Kellan in the face again with fists still covered in Austin’s blood. Kellan tries to fight him, but it’s no use. He’s lost too much blood, and Cole is a killer. When you become his target, he doesn’t stop until the job is complete.
Kellan knew this would only end one way. Even if Cole had to track him down, the outcome would have been the same.
Death.
And I was going to help my best friend achieve that goal. No matter what I had to do to make it happen. Because we’re sharks. And what do sharks do? They kill.
“Deke …?”
“No, Bennett, it’s not.”
“The town did call off the search.” I shrug. They were never gonna find his body. Bennett arrived and dropped him off in the ocean—attached to some dive tanks. He was never gonna resurface. I’m sure the sea creatures took care of what was left of him. “With no body recovered, that leaves a lot of questions.”
He sighs. “I’ll call Bennett in the morning and see if he’s got anything new.”
“Has he found any information on who owns the cabin?”
He shakes his head again.
“So we’re just supposed to wait around for the fucker to throw something our way?” I growl.
“I’m just as pissed about it as you are, but until we know who it is, there’s nothing we can do.”
A silence falls over us, and I finish the cigarette. I stand to walk inside when he steps out of the pool, and asks me, “What if it’s not her?”
I turn to face him but don’t answer.
He picks up his towel off the ground and wraps it around his neck. “Her name was on the list. So she’s either behind it or about to be thrown into it.”
“Your point?” I quirk a brow, wondering where he’s headed with that statement.
He runs his hands through his hair, shaking off the excess water. “My point is what are you going to do if she’s not behind it?”
“We have never killed someone for the hell of it. If she’s innocent, then I’ll protect her.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
DEMI
I PULL UP to Austin’s house and knock on the door. Rocking back and forth on my heels, I wait for someone to answer. There wasn’t a car in the driveway, but I’m sure her Range Rover is in the garage. The guys aren’t here. I only came over ’cause they have practice. I haven’t even gone home. I came straight from school because I wanted to get this over with before they returned home.
Just when I’m about to give up and turn away, the door swings open. Austin stands before me in a pair of dark jeans, a white T-shirt, and her hair up in a messy bun. And she doesn’t look very happy.
“I’m sorry,” I say immediately. I never meant to hurt her.
She lets out a long sigh and steps to the side, allowing me to enter. “It’s not your fault,” she says, shutting the door.
“I should have never read it. I should have told you …”
She waves me off and walks to the kitchen. I follow her. She goes straight to the fridge and pulls out a bottle of wine. “Do you drink?”
“Yes.”
She pops the cork on the bottle, then she pours two drinks. “I prefer Fireball, but since it’s not five yet, I’ll keep it to a glass of Merlot.” I take the offered glass, and she raises hers. Knocking them together, she says, “To the friends we lose, and the lessons we learn.” Then she takes a big gulp of hers.
I sip on mine. “Have you heard from her?”
She nods. “She’s called me. I’ve ignored them.”
I look down at my drink. “I hate that she hurt you, but I can’t say I’m surprised.”
“I’m not mad about the journal. I mean, I am, but it’s what she said to me.” She sets the glass down, and her eyes meet mine. “I’m not with him because—”
“I know.” I interrupt her. “You don’t have to defend yourself to me, Austin.”
My sister read her journal, and anyone who knows Cole and Austin knows that their love is real. Becky just wanted to hurt her and knew exactly what to say in order to accomplish that.
She gives another nod and throws back her wine.
I take another sip of mine.
“So enough about me and onto you,” she says, faking a smile.
I sigh. “There’s nothing about me to be said.”
She quirks a brow. “Deke Biggs,” she says, and this time when I lift the glass of wine to my lips, I take more than just a sip. “You love him.”
I choke on it. “Hell no.”
She tilts her head to the side. “Then why did you sleep with him?”
“Did you love Cole the first time you slept with him?” I counter. I know she didn’t. Their first time was in a bathroom at a party. Deke stood outside the door and recorded it. Then someone uploaded it to social media the next day. I hate to say that I tried to find it, but it must have been taken down ’cause it’s nowhere to be found now. I’m sure Cole made it disappeared once he realized he loved her.
“No, but he also wasn’t previously in love with my sister. And I wasn’t a virgin.” She eyes me skeptically. “You slept with him for a reason, Demi. He may not know that, but I do.”
I fall onto the barstool and place my elbows on the marble island. “Would revenge make it any better?”
“I told you I’m not going to judge you.” She shrugs. “Everyone does something for a reason. I’m just trying to figure out why you did what you did.” She refills her drink. “I know why he slept with you.”
“Because he wanted to make my sister mad.”
She shakes her head. “It had nothing to do with her and everything to do with you.” I frown. Taking another drink, she smiles at me over the rim of her glass. “So I’ll ask you again. Do you love him?”
DEKE
I stand at my locker with a towel at my bare feet and my jeans pulled up to my hips but still undone. My shirt lies on the bench behind me.
Cole walks up next to me, also fresh out of the shower, and all he’s wearing is a towel draped around his neck. He yanks his locker open and picks up his phone. “Bennett called me.”
“And?” I ask.
He throws his phone back into the locker. “And I missed it. He left me a voicemail. I’ll call him back on the way home.”
I sit down on the bench and put my socks and tennis shoes on as Cole throws his towel down to the floor. He’s still pissy. This morning, Austin wouldn’t even look at him. As I suspected, she woke up pissed when she realized he had broken into Lilly’s room and carried her up to theirs. If I didn’t know she loved him, I’d half expect his clothes to be on fire in the front yard when we get back to the house.
The guys walk around the locker room after swim practice. We’ve just finished our showers. I’m ready to get the hell home and go to bed. I’m tired. I can’t survive on no sleep like Cole does.