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

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 gonna 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. ’Cause 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.”

“Plans change.”

He punches me in the face, knocking me back into the shower door.

Blood instantly pours from my nose, and my face begins to throb. I right myself and fist my hands, ready to punch him back.

“If you go to jail and she dies, what will you do then, Cole?” he yells at me, running out of patience. “Huh?” He lowers his voice and arches a brow at me. “What will you do if you don’t get to say goodbye?”

His words throw me back into my memory from just hours ago. When I thought goodbye was all she left me with.

“AUSTIN!” I shout, shaking her. How long have I been here? How long have I been trying to bring her back to me? I can’t give up. Every muscle I have is tight. My throat burns.

I’m yanked back and shoved to the side. My back hits the bloodstained wall, and I look to see the paramedics surround her. They fall to their knees, dropping their bags. Digging into them, they grab their supplies.

“Cole?”

I look up and see a set of brown eyes belonging to Derek James. The same ones from the night of the car wreck when he found me sitting in a ditch with my best friend dead in my arms.

“Cole, what happened? Did you shoot this woman?” His eyes fall to my gun that sits in the pool of her blood.

I had planned on shooting Kellan, but I learned a long time ago that plans don’t mean shit. She was dead on Bruce’s kitchen floor. Killing Kellan didn’t fucking matter at that second.

I stare at him in a daze. Shoot her? Why would I …? Because I’m Cole Reynolds. I destroy. I fucking take light from life and replace it with darkness. At first, I wanted to destroy her! Then I just wanted to save her!

You killed her! You didn’t pull the trigger, but you left her. All alone and

unprotected, my head screams.

It’s my fault.

They cut her shirt off, and my breath gets caught in my lungs. What little skin isn’t covered in blood is turning blue. One paramedic begins compressions while another holds pressure on the wound.

My chest tightens, and a tear runs down my face. I reach out to her.

“Please …”

“Cole!” Derek growls my name, grabbing my shoulders and pulling me back.

This time when my eyes meet his, they narrow. “I love her. I was trying to save her.”

“What’s it gonna be?” Deke holds his fists up and smiles at me.

“Police.” They pound on the clubhouse door. “Open up, Cole!” We hear them call out from downstairs. “Don’t make us come in and get you!”

I lower my hands, and he does the same, the smile no longer on his face.

“Stick to the plan, Cole. And you’ll be with her soon enough.”