I Promise You (Dare, #2) — Chapter no 1

CHAPTER ONE

DEKE

Sixteen years old . . .

I SIT IN THE basement of Bennett’s parents’ house. His father is out of town on a business trip and took his mother with him. So, as usual, we decided to throw a party.

I take a hit from my cigarette and lean back into the couch, blowing it out. Bennett’s parents don’t ever come down here, so we’ve made it our hangout. At the Reynolds’ house, we hang in the game room. At my parents’, we party in the pool house. We have a designated room no matter where we go.

The couch sits back against the wall with a glass coffee table in the center and a large TV on the wall in front of us. The mini bar over to the right is fully stocked. It’s got soft gray carpet and white walls with matching wooden beams.

Bennett’s parents are the coolest out of all my friends. When my father kicked me out of the house last year, they let me stay here. I crashed at Cole’s for a few days until Liam found me and called my father.

Fucker!

He’s never cared much for me. Actually, Liam Reynolds doesn’t care much for anyone. Never once did Bennett’s mother ask me what I did to deserve it. She did my laundry. Fixed me breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She’s the kind of mother every kid dreams of. I could have stayed at my sister’s, but she was in nursing school and dating some punk I hated, so crashing at her place would have been like living with my father.

“Where’s Cole?” Eli asks as he comes down the stairs to my left and plops down on the couch.

I nod toward the only door down here, silently answering Eli’s question while “Right Left Wrong” by Three Days Grace filters down into the room from above.

“He’s been in there for a while,” Kellan growls, glaring at the closed door. “Wonder what the fuck he’s doing.”

“Well, he didn’t go in there alone, so of course, he’s gonna take his time.”

I take another drag from my cigarette.

Eli smiles. “Who is he in there with?”

“I don’t know,” I lie.

I know exactly who he’s with, but I’m gonna wait and let them all see for themselves. Especially since the chick he took in there was the same girl Kellan fucked last night. Natasha Grey. The new girl at our school this year.

She’s had her eye on Cole since day one, but he’s never given her much attention until tonight. Three beers and a Jack and Coke loosened him enough to take her to the closet, I guess. Especially when she came down here pulling her dress up and practically throwing herself at him. I think he was more bored than anything. And she was just … there.

“Yeah, well …” Kellan checks the time on his phone. “He needs to hurry up if we’re gonna draw tonight.”

I snort. “Where do you have to be?” We never draw on Saturday anyway.

It’s always on a Sunday. And we can’t leave the party because this is Bennett’s house, and like a hundred people are in this mansion right now.

Not counting the kids already passed out on the lawn.

“I almost got suspended for my dare last month. I’m not even allowed to be here. My mom will shit if she finds out I snuck out,” Kellan growls before taking a sip of his beer.

Eli throws his head back, laughing. “Can’t believe you got caught breaking into the school. That was stupid as fuck, man. What were you trying to do?”

I take another drag, and Kellan’s jaw tightens. “Seriously?” His dark eyes grow big as he glares at Eli. “You dared me to change my grades. I needed into Mr. Wilson’s computer to do that.”

“I could have done that without having to break in,” Bennett informs him, finally speaking. He’s been typing away on his phone for the past five minutes over in the recliner. Every now and then, I watch him adjust his hard dick. He’s enjoying whatever pussy shots some girl is sending him.

Eli knew that Bennett could change them when he gave Kellan the dare.

But it didn’t matter. Kellan has been bitching for weeks about his grades, and Coach has even been hounding him to get them up, or he was gonna be in deep shit, so Eli dared him to change them. He drew the dare and had to

do it on his own. That’s just how the rules are. I won’t lie and say we weren’t surprised by the dare ’cause we were. Normally anything school related is off limits. But Eli has had this fuck-you-world attitude lately. I think Cole’s need to push the limits in everything he does is starting to rub off on him.

The song changes to “Throne” by Urbanstep, Micah Martin as the door swings open to the storage closet.

Cole steps out. He’s zipping up his jeans, still dressed in his white T- shirt, when Natasha darts out from behind him. Her short blond hair has that freshly fucked look to it from his hands gripping it. She’s panting as her chest rises and falls quickly under her black dress. But other than that, she looks like she didn’t even take it off.

“You’re slacking, Cole,” Eli muses, looking over the girl and noticing the lack of evidence that he fucked her.

I’ve been in the same room with him while he fucked a girl—her clothes were ripped, and she couldn’t even walk afterward.

Cole snorts, and my eyes fall to her knees to see the carpet burns on them before she darts up the stairs, avoiding eye contact with any of us. When she went in there with him, I was the only one sitting down here with Cole.

Now there are an extra four sets of eyes.

Plopping down beside me, he leans over, picks up the pack of cigarettes from the round table, and lights one up. Then he sits back and closes his eyes, taking a long drag, the end of the cigarette burning red.

“How was she?” Eli asks him with a smirk.

Cole pulls the cigarette away and blows out a puff of smoke. “The fact that I was in there for more than twenty minutes should say enough,” he

answers dryly.

We all chuckle.

Kellan stands. “You know I fucked her just last night, right?” he asks, his voice hardening.

The room falls silent. Cole turns toward him with a look of boredom on his face. “Yes. And that’s why the only thing my dick touched was her mouth.”

Eli snorts while taking a drink of his beer. His hand quickly wipes off the liquid that runs down his chin.

Kellan fists his hands down by his side but doesn’t say anything else about the girl. Instead, he changes the subject because he knows it’s

pointless. She means nothing to Cole.

“Are we gonna draw tonight or what? Not all of us have parents who don’t give a shit where we are.”

Cole’s blue eyes narrow on him, and I think he’s about to tell Kellan to piss off. Instead, he brings the cigarette to his lips and takes another long drag. Blowing it out as though he has all the time in the world, he remains quiet.

Kellan has a problem with Cole. I’m not sure when it started or why, but I know he’s jealous. There are eight of us on the swim team who are what our school calls sharks. We dominate the pool and this town. Even though we’re only sixteen, the upperclassmen fear us because we’ve beat up our fair share of juniors and seniors. That’s one thing about us—when we decide to do something, we make sure we win.

“If you need to leave, then leave,” Cole finally tells him, looking away,

clearly dismissing him.

Kellan’s jaw tightens.

“Come on, man?” Eli pats the seat next to him. “Sit down. Tell your mother that you stayed with me tonight. Aimee will cover for you.” He holds up his full drink in offering.

Kellan lets out a sigh and falls down onto the seat beside him. He throws it back.

Cole takes another drag from the cigarette and then pulls his cell out of his pocket.

Bennett jumps up from the recliner and runs up the stairs. Probably to go jack off or something. Either that or the girl he’s been texting just arrived.

“Where are Landen and Maddox?” Shane asks.

He’s been extremely quiet tonight. He and Kellan are tight. When one is pouting, so is the other one. I always joke that they share the same menstrual cycle.

“They are in a bedroom upstairs somewhere fucking the twins,” Eli answers.

“Do you think they trade?” Shane wonders curiously. “Like fuck each other’s girlfriends? I wonder if everything is the same?”

“I know I would.” Eli laughs.

“You can’t even keep one bitch happy, so how would you manage two?”

Cole asks before taking a drink of his beer.

We all laugh.

“Speak for yourself.” He shoves Cole in the shoulder. “Little Miss Priss didn’t look too satisfied when she ran out of the closet.”

Cole smirks. “That’s ’cause I didn’t care if she was.”

Kellan glares at Cole for his statement, but the rest of us laugh once again.

“I need some more. Anyone else need something to drink?” Eli asks since he gave his to Kellan.

Shane gets up to follow him up the stairs, ignoring the bar down here and leaving the three of us alone. Kellan still glares openly at Cole, but he ignores him. Either Cole’s oblivious or he doesn’t care.

“What’s your problem?” I ask Kellan, leaning forward and placing my elbows on my knees. Might as well get this out in the open so we can fix this shit. Even if that means dishing it out right here with our fists. Wouldn’t be the first time we knocked each other around. That’s what brothers do after all.

He looks at Cole, but he continues to ignore us as he types away on his phone. Probably looking for his next fuck for the night.

“Nothing,” he mutters and gets up, also running up the stairs.

“He’s pissed at you,” I tell Cole, leaning back into the couch.

“I don’t give a fuck,” he replies.

“I think he knows that you fucked Kaitlin. And then the fact that you were just in the closet with Natasha doesn’t look good …”

His eyes meet mine. “Again, I don’t care.”

Kellan brags about every girl he fucks, but Cole doesn’t. Whereas Kellan will show them off at school or have them come to our swim meets, Cole refuses. He won’t give you the time of day until he decides he’s ready to take you to bed. Then he’s done with you. I’m not saying he’s picky; I’m just saying women are only good to be used by him and nothing more.

“I heard Maggie bragging about you guys fucking in the back seat of your Porsche. Bryan is pissed that you fucked not only his girlfriend, Kaitlin, but also his twin sister …”

He snorts. “Bryan is a fucking pussy. If either one of them knew how to use their dicks, Kaitlin wouldn’t have come to me. And I screwed his sister just ’cause I could.”

I smile. That’s Cole for you. Bryan hates that his twin sister is just as big of a slut as his girlfriend is. Eli and I tapped Kaitlin at the same time.

Collins isn’t small by any means, but your options are kind of limited at our

age. Not quite old enough to fuck the older women in the town so you gotta keep your dick to the school.

“Kellan said you like his sloppy seconds.” I watch him closely to see how he reacts to that. It doesn’t take much to get Cole wound up. He’s always ready for a fight. To throw his fist into something—and whether that be a face or a wall, it doesn’t matter. They’ve been scarred for years.

He takes a drag of his cigarette and then leans forward, stubbing it out in the ashtray as he blows the smoke out. He looks at me and smirks. “Kellan would never say that.” I smile at him. “Plus, the first time I fucked her was in the boy’s locker room last year. Long before he stuck his dick in that.”

I chuckle. “You got me.”

He takes a sip of his drink but pauses when his eyes go over to the stairs.

“Did you hear that?” he asks.

Thump … thump … “Sounds like they’re moving furniture around,” I answer when we hear

the pounding on the ceiling again.

Thump … thump … “What the fuck …?” someone barks. Sounds like Eli.

We both jump to our feet and run up the stairs. Coming up to the landing, Cole shoves the door open, and we enter the large family room and see Kellan’s back pushed into a floor-to-ceiling window that overlooks the tennis courts in the backyard. A guy by the name of Trenten holds him in place. He’s a senior this year and on the football team.

Eli is on the dark hardwood floor, blood running from his nose, half dazed. Where the fuck are the rest of the guys?

We both storm over, and I yank Trenten off Kellan and shove him away just as Cole’s fist connects with Trenten’s face. He stumbles back.

“What the fuck is going on here?” Cole demands, looking around. No doubt searching for Bennett, Maddox, and Landen. I don’t even see Shane anywhere. Kids of all ages in our high school stand around with drinks in their hands staring.

“He fucked my girl.” The guy points at Kellan, who wipes his face with the back of his hand.

The blonde who was just on her knees for Cole buries her face in her hands in shame while standing behind the cream leather couch.

Cole notices and points at her. “Is that your girl?” He doesn’t even know her name.

I didn’t know she belonged to Trenten.

“Yes …”

Cole grabs him by the collar of his polo shirt and yanks him to his chest.

Trenten has probably a few inches on him, but that won’t stop Cole. He’ll take on anyone. And he always wins. People whisper that he’s crazy. When most would back down, he eggs others on. If he picks a fight with you, he’ll even let you get a few hits in ’cause that’s what he likes. Pain. Blood. It’s all like a fucking drug to him.

“I just fucked her mouth downstairs. Wanna fight me?” he growls.

Trenten’s eyes narrow down on Cole’s. His hands fisted, ready to strike.

Cole just glares up at him.

“Come on, man.” Kellan slaps Cole’s shoulder. “She’s not worth it.”

The girl cries into her hands, turns, and runs out of the room. There’s gotta be fifteen people just standing around watching the exchange, and another twenty littering the backyard gawking through the floor-to-ceiling windows. The music has stopped, and no one says a fucking word. No one even breathes. They’re all waiting to see what is gonna happen next.

I help Eli up off the floor, not sure how the hell he got involved. He stumbles once on his feet.

“No,” Cole agrees with Kellan but keeps his eyes on Trenten. “She’s not.

But you are.”

A flash of regret crosses Kellan’s face, and I wonder if he set this up. If he planned for Cole to get in a fight with Trenten. Cole may not brag about who he sleeps with, but he also doesn’t hide them. Kellan knew that Cole would own up to it, but he probably didn’t expect Cole to stand up for him like he is. As I said before, we may fight, but we are brothers. And brothers have each other’s backs.

“What’s it gonna be, Trenten?” Cole asks with an arch of his brow. Then he leans in closer to the guy and smiles.

Oh, shit! I know that look.

I’m already pushing a dazed Eli onto the couch and out of the way when my friend speaks again.

“You should thank me.” Cole lowers his voice, but you could hear a pin drop in this house. “I taught her a few things. It’s amazing how much dick she sucks, yet she couldn’t get me off …”

Trenten shoves him back and swings his right fist, hitting Cole in the jaw.

People gasp as Cole takes a stumbling step back. But he just gives a bloody

smile and then runs at him. Wrapping his arms around his waist, Cole picks Trenten up and body-slams him to the floor.

And then all hell breaks loose. Girls run screaming out of the room. One of Trenten’s teammates jumps on my back. Kellan pulls him off just in time as another one runs toward me as though I’m the quarterback on the opposing team he wants to sack. I get a few punches in before I’m hit in the back of the head. I feel the skin split, and an instant headache takes over.

Falling to my knees, I try to blink away the pain.

I spot Cole on the floor across the room. Trenten’s still underneath him as Cole pounds on his face with his fists.

Eli yanks on my arm, trying to get me to stand, but I push him away.

“What the fuck is going on?” I hear Bennett’s voice ring out through the madness followed by a half-dressed Maddox and Landen skidding into the room.

Breathing heavily, I hang my head and shake it, thinking that will clear the fog, but it makes it worse. The room begins to fade in and out.

“Deke?” I hear Eli call out. “Deke, are you okay?” His voice fades as the ringing grows louder in my ears. I feel something running down the side of my face. Blood. What the …?

I don’t know how much time has passed, but I look up and no longer see Cole on the floor.

“Deke?” Instead, he kneels in front of me, snapping his fingers in front of my face. He has blood dripping from his busted knuckles and a cut on his upper lip. His right eye already turning purple. “Can you hear me?” he asks, breathing heavy. A thin layer of sweat covers his forehead, and blue eyes are hard on mine. “Deke?” he snaps.

I nod. “Fine.” But even as I say it, I flinch. “Fuck. What happened?” I ask as Cole grabs one of my arms while Eli grabs the other. They get me to stand and place my arms over their shoulders. I blink several times, but the pounding won’t stop. I notice we’re now alone. Even the backyard is clear.

“Denny hit you on the back of the head with my mother’s glass cross,”

Bennett growls.

My head hangs, and blood drips from the side of my face to our feet.

“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 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 gonna 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.

“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.”