I Dare You (Dare, #1) — Chapter no 2

CHAPTER TWO

COLE

“Here she is,” Deke says as he drops the man’s legs.

Shane drops his arms, and Jeff lands face first in front of the pile of dirt.

A grave he knows all too well.

“What?” he asks, doing the crab walk backward, but my legs stop him. I kick him forward. “Why are you doing this?” he cries.

“Because we believe in an eye for an eye,” Bennett answers. “And I wanna see you fucking blind.”

He places his hands up. “You guys are just kids …” My friends laugh at that.

“And you’re just a sorry piece of shit.” Deke spits on him.

My four friends circle him. Like sharks. I stay where I’m at, facing him and the cemetery. I take my hands out of my pockets and place them behind my back, watching him size us all up—weighing his odds. They’re not in his favor. They never are when it comes to us. No one can get past the GWS unless we all agree to allow it. And walking away comes with a price.

That most can’t afford.

“Just please … let me go.” He swallows as the others shine their lights on him. “I won’t tell anyone …”

Their laughter grows. I step up to him, and he looks up at me. His tear- streaked face makes me sick. “Every action has a consequence,” I begin.

“You can deny it all you want, but we all know why you’re here. And we believe it’s time for you to pay up.”

“What about your consequences, Cole?” Jeff yells at me, and I stiffen.

“Huh? You killed three of your best friends, and I don’t remember you

having to pay up!” he snaps.

I pay every day.

Deke takes a step toward Jeff, but I place my hand on his chest to stop him. “It’s okay, Deke. Let the man speak. They’re his last words, after all.”

“You’re not fucking God!” he shouts, pounding his fists into the wet ground. The earlier drizzle now falls steadier, soaking us all. I smile. Find

that fight, Jeff. You’re gonna need it. “You guys can’t do this to people.”

I look around the dark, abandoned cemetery where the dead are laid to rest and then forgotten.

You can’t see the cliffs to the right, but you can hear the ocean hitting the jagged rocks below. There’s blood in that water. “Who is here to stop us?” I ask simply.

“Cole!” He growls my name. I tilt my head to the side. “I knew your mother … She would be so ashamed of the man you’ve become.”

A slow smile spreads across my face as the air around us thickens like fog. My friends take a step back from us, knowing that I’m gonna need a little more room.

“Goddammit …”“You shouldn’t take the Lord’s name in vain,” I muse.

“You shouldn’t murder people,” he snaps.

“I’m going to give you a chance,” I tell him. “A chance to win your freedom.” We both know that’s a lie. He can’t beat me. No one can.

His eyes dart from me to my four friends who still circle us. Their flashlights shining on him allow me to see. “Is this some sick joke?” he demands.

“Not at all,” I say, reaching up behind me and grabbing the back of my black t-shirt. I rip it over my head and toss it to the ground away from us.

Now shirtless, I’m ready for a fight. Then I remove my flashlight from the back pocket of my jeans and toss it as well. “I hope you don’t faint at the sight of blood.” I can already smell the copper, and my mouth starts to water. Fuck, it’s been too long since I’ve had a good fight. I roll my shoulder, trying to release the tightness.

“You’re just like your father,” he shouts. “Fucking taking anything that you can get your hands on.”

I hear something behind me. A faint sound of branches snapping. But I don’t turn around. Not yet. “Get up and fight me,” I order.

He shakes his head. “He doesn’t want to play,” Shane says with a chuckle.

“I’ll let you have the first hit. More than fair.” I can’t help but smile.

I hear that sound again behind me, and it’s closer. I take a quick look—on purpose—and he took the cheap shot I knew he would.

He jumps to his feet and lands a hit on the side of my face. I hit him back with a fist to his jaw. His head snaps to the side, and I pound my other fist into his nose. His hands come up to cover it as he stumbles back. I grit my

teeth when my knuckles crack as I hit him in the mouth. His teeth rip my

skin open like a knife to butter.

I love it!

He falls into Deke, and he holds him up while I hit him over and over.

My fist connects with his stomach, face, and head. My skin continues to split. Blood pools down my fists, making them slippery. Deke gets tired of holding him up and pushes him toward me. I swing, hitting him one last time, and he falls back to the ground.

I stand over him, breathing heavy, and sweat covers my body as the rain comes to a stop. My hands are down to my sides, and I can feel the blood dripping off them like a faucet left on—mine mixed with his.

Jeff starts to cough.

“I dare you to get up,” I growl.

“Is that … what this … is?” Jeff gasps for words. “Another dare?” He coughs. “You guys … and your sick … fucking pranks …”

“No!” I snap. “This is you paying for the life you took.” My voice grows louder, and I clench my fists, wanting to hit him some more. My shoulder throbs, but I ignore it.

“When will you get what you deserve?” he whispers roughly. “Huh, Cole? What is your price …?”

I drop to my knees, straddling him. My balled fists rise and then come down on his already bloody face. I scream out of frustration when he just lies there and takes it. I want the sting of a punch. I want the feel of skin breaking. I need to feel it. Need the pain. I deserve it, after all. He was right.

I killed my friends.

I fist his shirt and yank his limp head off the ground, my legs still straddling his hips. His eyes black and blue, face split and bloody. Lowering my face to his, I growl. “Give me what I deserve! Why don’t you get your sorry ass up and hit me?” My voice rises. “Why don’t you be a fucking man and fight me?”

He doesn’t respond. His head falls back, and I shove him down, causing his head to hit the ground with a thud.

Deke slaps me on the back. “Go walk it off, Cole. We got it from here.”

I stand and take a step back from them as they pick him up off the ground.

I fist my hands, loving the feel of the split knuckles. The wind picks up, and it makes the blood that covers my body shiver from the chill.

Fuck, I love a fight!

My father says I was born a fighter. He would say if a man can’t use his hands, then what is he good for? The only difference is that my father pays to use someone else’s hands.

A tree branch snaps behind us, and we all turn around to look. Four flashlights dance in the darkness. “Did you guys hear something?” Deke asks.

“I thought I did. But I don’t see anything,” Shane answers him.

“I’ll go check it out,” I say, walking away from them. “And hurry it up.”

I grab my light off the ground and shine it ahead of me, listening to them laughing behind me as they finish off the sick bastard who deserved every little thing he got tonight.

My tennis shoes crunch the ground, and I come to a stop to just listen. I shut my light off and stick it in my back pocket. I know this land like the back of my hand. And no one is ever out here. No one who is up to any good.

The Lowes estate is down at the bottom of the hill, but they’re never home. And if for some reason they are, they’re already in bed.

My hands hang by my sides, the blood slowly dripping off them and falling onto the leaves. My body craves more.

Slowly taking one step after another, I tune out the guys behind me as their voices grow quieter the farther away from them I get.

A sound to my right has me smiling. Whoever it is, is close. Very close. I stand and wait, not making a move. They’re in the dark just like I am because I don’t see any light. Then I hear it again. It could be an animal, but it doesn’t sound like one. I hear two distinct sounds—a pair of shoes.

I take a step to the right, and I hear an intake of breath. So close.

Then they take off. Their shoes pound the ground, and I run after them. I run into a small frame, wrap my arms around it, and tackle it to the ground.

It makes a noise of annoyance and two hands slap at my face unable to make contact. I grab them and pin them down to their sides and then straddle them to pin them down underneath me.

I yank my flashlight out of my back pocket and turn it on, shining it down onto the intruder.

Dark green eyes look up at me, framed by long dark lashes. Soft pink lips are parted, and she has a small diamond stud piercing in her button nose.

Dark brown hair covers half her face, and she growls, “Get off me.”

She blinks several times, the light blinding her, but I don’t move it. It keeps her from seeing me.

“Get off me,” she demands this time, panting.

I tilt my head to the side, just watching her squirm under me. I’ve never seen her before, and I know every woman in this town. I know every woman within thirty miles. But not her. Not this face. She starts fighting harder, but I hold her easily. She wears a black hoodie, and it’s up, covering the top of her head and side of her face. I reach down and yank it back,

causing her to twist her neck.

“Don’t touch me!” Her voice snaps.

“Cole?” I hear Deke call out.

“Over here,” I answer, not taking my eyes from her.

“You sorry son of a …”

“What did you find?” he asks as he comes up next to me. He shines his light on her, and she turns her face from him, closing her eyes. Six earrings run up her ear in various colors. “Oh, a toy. Where did she come from?”

“Not sure.”

“Are there more?” he asks.

“Fuck you,” she spits out while her body nervously shakes under my weight.

How much did she see? Does she know I almost beat a guy to death? She should be afraid of me. My demons like the rage. Feed off it. And I’ve never been one to starve.

Deke laughs. “I like when they have a dirty mouth.”

She arches her back and delicate neck, letting out a scream of frustration that rings out in the dark night.

“No one can hear you out here,” I tell her, my free hand coming up and wrapping around her throat but not choking her. The blood on my hand covers her sun-kissed skin as if I’m painting a picture on her body. She swallows hard against it. “There’s no one to come save you.”

She whimpers.

“I love it when they scream. Go ahead, sweetheart,” Deke says softly.

“Scream for me,” he says, kneeling next to us. He wraps her long dark hair around his bloody fist, and he jerks her head to the side to face him.

She bares her perfect teeth, sucking in a breath, but she doesn’t cry out from his force. Both of our lights stay on her face, and she squints, trying to see.

In the distance, I hear an engine roar as Shane, Kellan, and Bennett leave.

“What were you doing out here all alone?” he asks her.

“Watching you murder someone,” she snaps.

He throws his head back, laughing at her honesty. “Like to watch, do you?” he asks.

Her hips buck under me, but I keep her down. I’m well over twice her size, so she isn’t going anywhere. She can wear herself out all she wants.

“What a coincidence. So do I,” he tells her with a dark laugh.

She stiffens, and he looks at me. “Go ahead, Cole. Give me a show. I earned it. We gave her one, after all.”

“Don’t,” she whispers as her lips part, and she sucks in a ragged breath.

I smile down at her even if she can’t see me. My hand loosens around her slender neck, and I run my fingers down her skin and along her collarbone, pulling down her oversized hoodie in the process. The blood trail I leave behind makes my cock harden inside my jeans. I can feel her pulse race, and I like it. The fear in her green eyes. The sound of her ragged breathing and shaking of her body.

“You know how much I love to perform,” I tell him.

“Please.” Her body trembles with the plea while my fingers run over her shoulder, pushing her black bra strap off and watching it disappear into the sleeve of her hoodie.

Deke slaps me on the back. “She’s begging you already, Cole. Fuck!

That’s some kind of record, right?” He whistles.

The wind picks up and tosses her hair around her face, causing it to stick to the blood along her neck and chest. “Red is your color,” I tell her.

“Orange is gonna be yours,” she growls, lifting her chin.

I smile at her words.

Deke just laughs it off. “She may have recorded it,” he says, getting serious.

I sigh as if that thought is disappointing. “That would be very stupid of you.”

I drop my flashlight beside her head. Letting go of her, I sit up, and just like I knew she would, she yanks her arms out from underneath me and lifts them to my chest, trying to shove me off her. I don’t budge. Then she runs her nails down my skin. I feel it break at her force, and I refrain from moaning at the pain.

I wrap my hands around her wrists and push them above her head, holding them against the wet ground. Then I scoot my body up to her chest and sit down on her. “Check her pockets,” I order Deke.

She screams out as she tries to fight me. Her hips buck, and she kicks her legs out, but Deke pulls a cell out of her back pocket. “It’s locked.”

“What’s the passcode?” I demand.

She clamps her mouth shut, and her eyes narrow. I like the fight in her.

Most women would already be sobbing. I lean down and give her a threatening smile even though she still can’t see me. Lowering my voice, I say, “Either you give me the passcode, or I take it from you. What’s it gonna be, sweetheart?” A part of me wants her to make me take it. I love it when someone forces my hand—making the decision for me.

“I didn’t …”

“That’s not the only thing we’re gonna take,” Deke says, cutting her off, and then I hear him undoing her pants behind me.

“No!” she cries out. Her hands fisting as I hold them down above her head. “It’s retina … it’s a retina scanner,” she says in a rush.

“Fucking technology,” he growls. “What happened to the good ole days where you just flipped the phone open, and it fucking worked?”

He holds it up to her, my flashlight lies on the ground next to us, shining on her face. It must open because he pulls it back and starts to go through it.

He grunts.

“What is it?” I ask.

“No videos or pictures of it. But there is something interesting.”

“I tried to tell you. I didn’t record it,” she says, panting. My weight on her chest makes it hard for her to breathe.

“What did you find?” I ask, ignoring her.

There’s a long pause before he finally says, “Austin Lowes.”

My brows shoot up. “As in Bruce Lowes?”

Silence.

I chuckle. “Well, well, well, I didn’t know he had a daughter.” She looks around our age. Seventeen, eighteen at the oldest.

She clamps her mouth shut. Interesting. She doesn’t want to acknowledge the bastard either. Good for her. He’s a sorry piece of shit.

“We don’t have time for this,” Deke growls, his patience wearing thin since he isn’t going to get to play with her. He stands and pulls out the gun tucked in the back of his jeans. “Let’s just kill her.”

She narrows her eyes up at the darkness. My eyes trace the blood on her wrists, neck, and chest. She’s too beautiful to kill. Too precious to destroy.

Yet. He’s afraid she’ll talk, go to the police, but I’m not. She fears us.

Thinks we’ll hurt her. She’s not wrong.

“Put the gun away,” I order.

“But …”

“Now.”

He tucks it back into his pants. “Let’s take her with us. I don’t trust her not to call the police afterward.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she snaps.

I almost smile at her bravery. “You’ll do whatever the fuck we say,” Deke replies flatly.

“She won’t call them,” I tell him. Placing both of her wrists in one of my hands, I run my free hand down the side of her face, smearing more of her

flawless skin with blood. “Will you?”

She clamps her mouth shut.

He snorts. “You don’t fucking know that.”

“No one will believe her.” I lick my lips. “She’s covered in his blood. It’s underneath her fingernails from where she scratched my chest. It’s on her clothes. In her hair. As far as they’re concerned, she will be an accessory to

murder.”

“You fucking bastard …”

I get a thought. “What did you guys do with the body?”

“Kellan got a call and had to leave; he rode with Bennett, so they all left.

I told them we would take care of it.”

“Perfect. Call my phone with hers.”

“What? Cole, we don’t have time …”

“Call my phone with hers, Deke,” I snap.

He lets out a huff, but then moments later, I hear mine ringing in my pocket. They remain quiet, probably wondering what the fuck I’m thinking, but they’ll find out soon.

I stand off her, and she tries to scramble away, but I grip her hoodie and yank her to her feet. Wrapping my hand around the back of her neck, I start shoving her forward. She twists in my grip, and my hand slips, allowing her to get a few steps ahead of me. I run after her and fist her hair, pulling her against me. She whimpers. I wrap my free hand around her thin waist and press my front into her back. Her soaked clothes feel cool on my warm

skin. Leaning my head down, I whisper in her ear, “We’re not done, sweetheart.”

“Where are we going?” she demands, and I smile against her skin. I love that she keeps fighting even though it’s not gonna do her any good.

I don’t answer, and Deke doesn’t say because he doesn’t know what I have in mind.

I remove my hand from around her waist but continue to hold her by her hair. I walk her over to where I know they had the body, and Deke shines his flashlight down on the now dead man. She doesn’t gasp like I expected her to, which tells me she saw quite a bit earlier. She expected him to be dead.

“Hold her,” I demand, shoving her into his arms.

“Let me go, you son of a bitch!” she screams as her chest hits his.

I hear him grunt. “Fuck,” he hisses. “She punched me.”

Ignoring them, I reach down into the black bag we brought and yank the now clean knife out of it. “Pin her to the ground. Face down.”

The darkness covers us, but I hear her grunts as she cusses him while he easily tackles her to the ground.

Grabbing my flashlight out of my back pocket, I shine it down on them.

He straddles her ass, his hands wrapped around her wrists, pinning them to her lower back. Her head is to the side, facing me. Those plump lips have thinned, and her green eyes simmer with rage.

I kneel beside them and yank up the right sleeve of her hoodie. “What are you doing?” she asks in a rush.

“Insurance,” I say simply, and then I drag the blade against her forearm.

She cries out in the cemetery as the skin gives and blood starts to pour from the wound. I take the knife and run it through the stream of blood.

Then I turn to the body and stab him in the chest with it. “Now your DNA is in him with the murder weapon,” I say simply, and I hear Deke chuckle as he realizes what I’m doing. “You go to the cops. They dig him up and investigate his murder, and you go down with us.”

“Fucking …”

“And you called me. More proof that we were communicating the night of the murder. Around the time of death.”

Her breathing is labored, and I shine the light down on her again to see the tears rolling down her face cutting through the blood like my knife just

did her skin. But they’re not tears of sadness. They’re tears of anger. She looks so beautiful.

“Return her phone and let her go so we can bury this body,” I tell Deke.

He releases her wrists and then stands over her. She scrambles to her hands and knees and starts to crawl away. He tosses her the phone. She stands up on shaky legs as she holds her arm where I cut it. We both shine our lights on her.

“Get the fuck out of here before I change my mind,” I growl.

She turns and runs.

“We should have killed her.”

“That wasn’t part of the plan,” I argue.

He fists his hands. “I don’t fucking care about the plan. What I care about is not going to prison. We should at the very least have taken her with us.”

“Did you want to take her home?” I arch a brow. “Keep her as a pet?” I shake my head. “She won’t say anything.”

“She will …”

“She won’t. She’s Bruce Lowes’s daughter. We kill her, and they start looking for a missing girl.” I shake my head. “Then that brings questions.”

“They’d never find her body, and you know it,” he adds.

“I wasn’t worried about them finding her body.” We’re smarter than that.

“Then why not let me shoot her?” he growls. “Two birds with one stone,”

he says, gesturing down at Jeff’s body.

“Not yet,” I respond.

He runs a hand through his hair. “You want to fuck with her.” It wasn’t a question. He chuckles. “This will be fun.”

I smile.

AUSTIN

I run in the darkness, almost tripping over my own feet and the tree branches. But I don’t stop. I continue down the hill toward the house.

Lights come into view, and I run through the back door and slam it shut. I make my way up the stairs and into my room. I close the door and lock it.

Then I make my way into the bathroom. I rip off my hoodie, shirt, and then yank down my jeans that are still undone. Standing in front of the mirror in just my black bra and matching thong, I pull my strap back up onto my shoulder and look at myself. Blood covers both shoulders, arms, neck, and my face. He was right; it’s also in my hair from their hands fisting it. I look

like I belong on an episode of The Walking Dead. Like a zombie attacked me. Bile rises up the back of my throat, but I swallow it down.

Turning on the sink, I place my forearm under it and run warm water over it. Grinding my teeth against the sting, I grab the soap and quickly wash it. Who knows what the hell was on that knife. Or who all they’ve used it on.

Blood trails down my arm and drips onto the white tiled floor. I walk into my room to grab one of the scarves Celeste gave me and turn back to the bathroom, trying not to get blood on the carpet. I wrap it around the wound and pull it tight with my teeth, making me whimper at the pain as I try to figure out what the hell I’m gonna do to get it to stop bleeding.

I once watched my mother sew her crackhead boyfriend’s face up with a needle and thread. It made me want to puke at the time. I was nine.

I place my hands on the counter and bow my head while angry tears run down my face. Breathing heavy, I try to calm my racing heart.

“Bastards,” I hiss.

I pound my fists into the countertop. Fucking bastards.

Then I yank open the medicine cabinet and start digging around for anything I can use on my arm. It needs stitches but how the hell do I explain that to Celeste? How do I explain it to the hospital staff? I find butterfly Band-Aids and a small tube of superglue. That’ll have to do. But I won’t be able to use it until later. Once I know the bleeding has stopped.

“Fuck,” I hiss through clenched teeth.

I fall to the ground and lean my back against the cabinet, holding my right arm to my chest. What am I gonna do? They know that I know their names, but they didn’t seem concerned in the least. Especially Cole. He was adamant that I wouldn’t go to the police. And I had every intention to until he set me up to be a part of their murdering cult! Now my hands are tied and stained with blood.

I didn’t get a look at their faces. They kept their lights on me or off, so they could be anyone. Anywhere. And they know my name, so they know I live here.

My hands shake as I run them through my matted hair. The dead guy had said they were kids, but they didn’t sound young. Will they go to school with me? That thought makes my stomach knot. They could fuck with me, if that’s the case. More than they already have. I have to show them that I

could run their little fucking boy group into the ground. I’m smarter than they are.

As for the dead guy? I can’t save him. It’s too late for him. I have to save myself.

The smell of the blood is strong, and I swallow the lump in my throat.

Sitting up on my knees, I yank the hand towel off the countertop and turn on the sink, wetting it. Then I get down on my hands and knees and scrub.

The blood comes off the white tile easily, but it’s stuck in the grout between them. Those angry tears come faster.

I have to rinse the towel out twice, but finally, I’m able to scrub it all away. I close my eyes and place my hand over the scarf covering the cut.

How long will it bleed for? How … The sound of laughter has me jumping to my feet. I turn off the bathroom lights, then run into my bedroom. I turn those lights off as well, then go over to the windows and see their flashlights. One stands at the back of the car by the trunk, and the other gets into the passenger seat.

Cole is the one at the trunk. I can feel it. Probably putting his bag and evidence away. He shuts the trunk and then the light hangs down by his side. A shiver runs up my spine. Even though I can’t see his eyes, I know he’s watching me. I’m also very aware that I’m standing in front of my window with nothing but my bra and underwear on. I get a feeling he can still see me even though my room is dark.

His light shuts off, covering them in nothing but darkness, and then I hear his car door open and close. The headlights come on as the engine roars to life. And then it takes off, driving back down the way it came.

I run back into my bathroom, put on the same blood-stained clothes I was wearing, and then grab a new pair of jeans and t-shirt and leave my room.

Making my way down to the kitchen, I go into the pantry and grab a trash bag. Then I rush to the garage.

Flipping on the light, I see the white Escalade SUV, a yellow Hummer, a white Jag, and red BMW in the six-car garage. I ignore them all and start opening the cabinets along the wall until I find what I’m looking for.

Then I turn the lights off and head out the back door, knowing what I need to do.