“You’re the only one who is dying tonight,” Cole snaps. “She’s alive. And she’s gonna stay that way.”
“Naaa … Pwe … ase …”
It’s hard to understand his words with a broken jaw.
Cole finally looks up at me. His chest rising and falling fast. “Call Shelby.”
I scramble to remove my phone from my pocket. When she answers, I place it on speaker. “Are you at the hospital?” I ask in greeting.
“Deke? What are you …?”
“Are you at the fucking hospital?” I bark out. Austin’s alive for now. But how long will she stay that way?
“Yes,” she snaps.
“Austin is on her way. She’s been shot.”
“What?” She gasps. “What the hell, Deke? Cole shot her?”
“I don’t have time to go through this with you again!” She always thinks the worst when it comes to him. “I’m calling you ’cause Cole isn’t family, and he’s gonna need updates. So fucking update me!” Then I hang up before she can say anything else.
Kellan coughs before turning onto his left side. Blood runs from his mouth and nose. His face is busted. “I’m … sowwwy,” he cries out.
“You will be,” Cole tells him. Then he looks at me. “Call Bennett. Tell him to get his ass here.”
“No … no … no,” Kellan cries frantically.
I dial Bennett’s number. He answers on the third ring. “Hey, Deke ….”
“I don’t have time to explain. Get your ass up to the cemetery behind the Lowes’ Estate.”
“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.”
CHAPTER TWO
COLE
I STAND IN my bathroom at the clubhouse, clenching the edge of the porcelain sink with my head hanging down. My heart pounds, and my breathing is labored as I rock back and forth silently. My jaw is clenched so tight that my teeth ache. My shoulder throbs and my muscles scream in agony.
“Cole?” I hear Deke call out for me.
I ignore him. The darkness is too thick. The evil too strong. But my mind is silent. Like the calm before the storm. So much rage, it’s clouding my vision. And the fear has seeped into my bones, weighing me down. I lost her. Once again, I couldn’t save someone that I love.
“Please … no …” My words are broken. My chest constricting.
Red.
It’s the only color I see.
So much blood.
Everywhere.
She’s drowning in it.
“Austin!” I demand desperately as if she’s going to hear me. As if she hasn’t already given up and left me alone in this hell people call life.
The heels of my palms push into her chest. Too hard. I’m hurting her. I’m always hurting her. But I can’t stop. Not now. The damage is done, and I’m committed to bringing her back. “Come on, sweetheart. Please …” I beg her.
Her arms lie out to her side, palms facing the ceiling. Her head is tilted to the left, eyes shut, while her body lies in a pool of blood that continues to get larger by the second on Bruce’s marble kitchen floor.
“You can’t do this to me!” I push harder and hear a cracking sound, but I don’t stop. “You’re mine!” I remind her. Her body jerks from my harsh movements. “Austin!” I scream her name so loud that my dry throat burns. “Baby … please …”
“Cole? Man, they’re gonna be here any second,” Deke calls out from downstairs. “We need to get ready …”
I push off the sink and punch my black framed bathroom mirror. It shatters, resembling a spiderweb. Blood instantly runs down the back of my already busted knuckles. I grit my teeth and punch it again. The already broken glass cuts me even more, but I don’t feel it. I could walk through fire right now and not feel the fucking burn.
I reach out and shove all my shit and hers off the countertop next to me, making it crash to the floor. Tired of looking at it. She left shit here before our breakup the morning after prom, and I’ve kept it all. Like she was going to come back to me. Now they’re just reminders that she may leave me for good.
“Cole!”
“WHAT?” I roar, spinning around to the open bathroom door where Deke stands glaring at me, ignoring the mess I’ve made. He’s used to it.
“They’re on their way.”
At the mention of the police, I hear the faint sound of their sirens.
He looks me up and down. “You need to put a shirt on.” Then he walks out of the bathroom and goes to my bag stuffed under the bed.
After we left Kellan’s body with Bennett, we came back here and showered. We had to. His blood covered both of us. And I also had Austin’s on me from trying to revive her. Deke burned what we had on earlier in a barrel out back, and then I washed and put some fresh jeans on. That’s as far as I’ve made it.
Deke pops back into the bathroom and tosses me a plain black T-shirt.
“Austin …?” A knot gets lodged in my throat just saying her name. “Is she …?”
“Still in surgery,” he answers, looking down at his phone before I can even finish my question.
I shove on my shirt, ignoring my throbbing shoulder as the sirens grow louder. His eyes meet mine, and he sighs. “She’s gonna be okay.”
He didn’t see her. He didn’t sit there and beg her to survive like I did. She was nothing but a beautiful shell that I once wanted to break. Destroy. If she will just fight for me, I’ll love her more than any man ever could. Broken and all. Because I’m not sure she can come back from this. Even if she survives, she may never be the Austin I fell in love with. “Bennett?” I ask, changing the subject.
“It’s done. And he’ll probably beat you there,” he answers as the sirens grow louder, letting us know they have arrived.
I fist my throbbing hands down by my side, and Deke notices. “You can’t fight the police, Cole.”
I’m not done. My body craves more, vibrating with anger. Revenge. Killing Kellan wasn’t enough. “I need …”
“Cole?” he snaps and walks up to me. “If you need a fight, fucking hit me right here and now. Get it over with. Because I cannot have you fight the police and go down for resisting arrest. Or assault and battery against a police officer. That’s not the plan. And I can’t get you out of that.”