“Come on,” Cole orders. “I’ve already messaged Shelby. She’s expecting us.”
“No …” I argue.
My sister just graduated from nursing school. I don’t worry about her telling our parents, but I don’t want to listen to her bitch at me this evening. She hates what me and the guys do. Our “stupid games” as she calls them. And this wasn’t even a dare.
“You’re going,” Cole growls. “You fucking blacked out.”
“You and Eli take him.” Bennett sighs. “The rest of us will stay here and clean up.”
Maddox huffs. “That’s what you have hired help for, Bennett.”
Everyone ignores him. We all know he just wants to get back up to the bedroom where his nightly fuck is waiting.
“I’ll be back to help,” Cole assures Bennett.
No one else says anything, but I catch sight of Kellan by the windows. He has his lips pressed in a hard line, and his brown eyes are narrowed at Cole, but he doesn’t have a touch of blood or any bruises on him anywhere. And I’m not sure if he’s mad that Cole stood up for him, or that Cole isn’t the one who needs stitches.
Present - Eighteen years old
I stand in the warm night, breathing heavy. It’s gotta be almost eleven, but thankfully, the sky is clear, so the moon gives off some light.
I just dragged Kellan up this hill to the abandoned cemetery behind the Lowes’ Estate. And the bastard is heavier than he looks.
Dead fucking weight.
“What are you gonna do … kill me?” he grinds out in pain. Then he begins to cough.
I pull my gun out of the waistband of my jeans and cock it. “Yes,” I reply simply, pointing it down at his head. “You really think you could kill Austin, and Cole would allow you to live?” She called Cole about thirty minutes ago screaming at the top of her lungs that Kellan was at her house and had killed Celeste. Then the phone went dead. We had no idea what kind of scene we were going to arrive at, but we found Celeste dead just like she had told us, and Austin was lying in a pool of blood in the kitchen.
He gets up on his hands and knees and begins to crawl away from me. “God, I’m having Déjà vu. Remember when we killed Jeff up here?” I ask him with a smile.
This cemetery behind the Lowes’ Estate has come in handy for many things. Murder being one. It was just four months ago that we killed Jeff and found Austin spying on us.
Kellan falls to his stomach and cries out. A knife still sticks out of his side. His shaky hands go to grab it, but he thinks twice at the last minute. I’m not sure if Austin or Celeste did it, but that bitch is in there good.
I bend down, lowering myself to his level, and place my forearms on my knees. I tap the top of his head with the end of my barrel, and he whimpers. “I’ve been wanting to kill your sorry ass for a while now. Thanks for giving us a reason.” I shove his face into the ground with my free hand, and he cries out again when it hits a rock. No one maintains this cemetery. What little grass it has is dead, and most of it is covered in rocks and dirt.
My phone vibrates, and I pull it out of my pocket to see Cole light up my screen. “Hello?” I answer, my gun still trained on Kellan.
I can hear his heavy breathing through the phone. “Where the fuck are you?” he demands.
“Cemetery …” He hangs up before I can say anything else. I place my cell back in my pocket. “He’s coming,” I sing.
Kellan moans as he tries to sit up.
“Might as well just stay on the ground,” I suggest.
“Fuck … you … Deke,” he grinds out.
I smile. “Remember that time I broke your nose?” He doesn’t answer. “Last year. We had just finished a swim meet, and you were being mouthy ’cause I beat your ass in the water. I took your head and slammed it into your locker. You cried like a little bitch then. And I have a feeling that tonight is gonna be like that for you too.”
After a couple of minutes, Cole appears at the top of the hill, and I swallow nervously. My chest tightens at the sight of him. He’s covered in blood. His clothes are drenched. It’s smeared across his hands, arms, and in his hair. He stops before us with his fists clenched, staring down at Kellan. He breathes so hard he’s panting, and his body physically shakes.
“I didn’t think you wanted him in your car,” I say, but he doesn’t hear me. I’m not even sure he knows I’m present.
I called the cops on our way to Bruce’s from the clubhouse. But I didn’t disclose that Kellan was involved. I gave an anonymous tip that there was a homicide at the Lowes’ residence, then hung up. When we arrived, Austin was lying in a pool of blood in the kitchen, and Kellan was leaning against the countertop. Cole told me to remove him from the scene because he didn’t want the cops getting to him first. So I brought him up here, making sure I didn’t leave a trail of blood. Kellan doesn’t deserve to be behind bars. What little life he has left is up to Cole.
Cole reaches down and grabs Kellan’s ankle, dragging him across the uneven ground. Even though we are too far from the Lowes’ residence and no one can hear him, Cole drops his ankle and then straddles him, placing his hand over Kellan’s mouth to quiet him.
“I’m not even going to ask you why.” His bloodied chest rises and falls quickly as he sucks in breaths through clenched teeth. “Because it doesn’t fucking matter.” Then he punches him in the face. Kellan opens his mouth to cry, but Cole does it again. And again.
I don’t stop him. Or offer him any help. When Cole is in this kind of mood, you just stand back and thank God you’re not the guy he plans on destroying. He used to do this for sport, but ever since Jeff, things have escalated to murder. And I don’t hold him back. If anything, I encourage him.
He comes to a stop and falls off Kellan as though he was functioning solely on adrenaline, and it just ran out. Cole sits on a patch of dead grass next to him, breathing heavily with his eyes closed. Pulling his knees up, he places his elbows on them and drops his forehead into his open, bloody hands. They’re shaking. His entire body is.
I take a step toward him to make sure he’s okay but then stop myself. This isn’t like all the other times. No matter how much Kellan has betrayed us, he was still one of our best friends at one time. But now he has tried to kill the love of Cole’s life. And by the amount of Austin’s blood covering him, I would say Kellan succeeded, causing my chest to tighten for him. For Becky. I’m going to have to break my girlfriend’s heart and tell her that her best friend is dead.
“She was …” Cough. “Always going to die,” Kellan chokes out. “The game …”
Cole lifts his head slowly, blood now covering his face, and he opens his eyes. He stares at Kellan for a long moment, and I see the fire raging in them. I’ve seen it so many times, and I know how explosive they can get. Then he kicks him in the face.
“Fuck the game!” he roars.
Kellan’s head snaps back, and I hear bones breaking. For a moment, I think Cole broke his neck. But then Kellan releases a strangled moan, and I realize it was just his jaw. His bloody hands come up to cover his busted face. He sobs into them like the little bitch he is.