Deke enters followed by Shane and then Bennett. I begin to shake. They’re gonna kill me. Right here. In my bathroom. “Fuck you guys! All of you!” I shout.
“You like to play, Becky? So do we.” Deke speaks, dropping a black duffel bag to his feet.
Shane gives me a cruel smile and kneels by the bag. Slowly, he unzips it. “Sorry, Becky. I ratted you out.”
My chest tightens. “I don’t know what you’re talking about …”
“But you do.” He nods. “Kellan had told me ...”
“No, no, no, no,” I chant.
“And you knew that I knew … How long did you expect me to keep that secret?”
Now it all makes sense. That’s why Cole slammed my face into the mirror. Because that’s exactly what Kellan did to Austin. The night I helped him break into the Lowes house.
Eight months ago
Austin walks into the kitchen and grabs the Fireball off the counter and takes a sip from the bottle. Her birthday party has been in full swing for over an hour now. She’s already pretty drunk. I’m sober as shit.
“What the hell was that?” I demand, running up next to her. I just stood in her father’s game room where she told the sharks that she has insurance on them. Whatever the fuck that means.
“Me putting them in their place,” she says and tips it back again.
I sigh. “What do you have on them?”
“Enough.”
I roll my eyes. “That’s not what I asked, Austin.”
She takes another drink as Deke walks into the kitchen, and I tense. What the fuck have they been up to? I know Cole is playing a game with Austin, but I didn’t know they were all playing with her. Now I know everyone is involved.
He comes over to us, his eyes on mine. “We’re leaving, babe,” he says, and I watch Cole storm past the kitchen and out the front door.
She takes another drink.
“I’m staying again tonight,” I tell him. I stayed last night as well to bring in her birthday.
He nods, already knowing that. Then he looks at Austin. He opens his mouth to speak and then closes it.
“What?” she snaps.
He just shakes his head. “Nothing.” Then gives me a kiss before he turns and leaves.
“You can go with him if you want,” she offers.
I shake my head. “Absolutely not. I’m your only friend, remember?” I give her a smile before taking the bottle from her hand. All the girls hate her ’cause of Cole and all the boys want her ’cause of him as well. She’s fucked either way. “Someone has to watch over you.”
She rolls eyes and sighs in disappointment. I can tell he’s ruined her birthday. Things have been tense since we stood at the clubhouse and he confessed that her father raped his mother and she has a half-sister.
I place my hand on hers and give her a reassuring smile. “You should give him a chance.”
“Some people don’t deserve a chance,”
“Austin—”
“I don’t wanna talk about it,” she interrupts me. “Can we just get drunk?”
I chuckle, handing her back the bottle. “Drink up, birthday girl.” She tosses it back, and I look over in time to see Kellan walk by. He stops, then looks at me and jerks his head. “I’ll be right back,” I tell her.
She waves me off.
Exiting the kitchen, I walk down the hallway to a half bath. Kellan shuts the door behind us. “What do you want?” I ask; he and I aren’t friends. I put him in the same category as Cole. Fucking evil.
He takes the phone from my hand and begins to mess with the keys. “I want you to text me later after the party is over.”
I snort. “Why would I do that?”
He hands me back my phone to see he entered his number into it. “Because if you don’t.” He steps into me. “I’ll tell Deke what you’re really doing with him.”
My eyes narrow up at him. “I don’t know …”
“I’m not stupid, Becky. I see everything.” I swallow. “I know everything.”
“It’s not what you think.”
He gives me a slow smile, his brown eyes looking me up and down. He reaches up and pushes some hair behind my ear, and my heart hammers in my chest. “It’s exactly what I think. Now are you going to let me in, or am I going to go to Deke?”
This can’t be happening. He can’t go to Deke. Deke can’t find out what I’ve been doing. He’ll destroy me. He’ll make school a living hell for me. “What are you gonna do?”
“I just want her phone.”
“I’ll get it for you,” I offer.
“No.” He shakes his head. “I want to get it.”
“But why?”
“Because I wanna know if Austin is full of shit, or if she really does have insurance on that phone.”
“What was she talking about?” I ask. “What kind of trouble could she get you guys in?”
“The kind that will get all of us sharks thrown in jail.” He leans in, and whispers, “For life.”
I swallow nervously. “She wouldn’t. Cole …”
“She is pissed at Cole right now. Believe me when I say she’ll turn his ass in without a second thought after everything he’s done to her.”
“But …”
“Becky?” A hand pounds on the bathroom door, and I jump at Austin’s voice. “What are you doing in there?’
“I’ll … I’ll be right out.” I holler.
He quirks his brow at me, and I take in a deep breath and nod. He just wants her phone. I can handle that. Then I exit out of the bathroom, closing the door behind me. She holds her bottle of Fireball in one hand and her other sits on her hip. “Let’s get fucked.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
DEKE
“AFTER COLE KNOCKED out Kellan’s car window with a bat and found Austin’s phone the day after her birthday party, I called and asked him what the fuck he was doing. And how the hell he got into the house. He told me Becky helped him …”
“What the fuck, man?” I bark. She was supposed to be her best friend.
“Why would she help him?” Cole snaps.
“I don’t know.” Shane throws up his hands. “That’s all I know. He never went into detail, and I didn’t get the chance to ask. Just that he needed whatever insurance she had on her phone, and Becky was willing to help him. And he was pissed that you caught him.”
I remember what Shane told us just hours ago at the clubhouse. He stands and hands me two bundles of rope from the bag.
“Please,” she sobs. “I’m sorry.”
“Not yet.”
I walk over to her, and she begins to scream. She kicks her legs out and starts flinging her arms. I grip her ankle, yank her across the tile on her side and flip her on to her stomach. I fall to the floor and straddle her hips. I yank her hands behind her back and wrap the first bundle of rope around her wrists, tying them tightly together.
“Deke! Please … please don’t do this …”
“Someone shut her up,” I order.
Shane drops in front of her with the bag and pulls out a roll of duct tape. He yanks a washcloth off the side of the counter.