I Promise You (Dare, #2) — Prologue

PROLOGUE

COLE

I’M COLE FUCKING REYNOLDS.

Dark.

Evil.

Fucked up.

A part of me has always been this way. And that part of me will never change. Some would call that too much damage. Others would just say I’m an asshole. I’m not sure which one I really am anymore. But does it matter?

Not one fucking bit.

Have you ever heard someone say that one moment defines a person’s life? If you say no, I’ll know you’re a fucking liar, like so many others out there.

Well, let me tell you this, the people who say there is “one” defining moment are fucking morons. If you believe there is just one, you are a dumbass too. I’ve had two such defining moments in my life. And I’m only

eighteen.

I was twelve the first time.

Tears roll down my face while I stand inside the cold and silent room. It’s got a couch on either side that sits three people and a round table in the right corner with a phone on it. That’s it. No bed and no mother. They said they were taking me to the hospital to see her.

“Where is she?” I demand. “I wanna see my mother.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Cole,” Celeste, my mother’s friend suggests, rubbing my back.

I pull away from her. “That isn’t for you to decide.”

“Cole—”

“She’s right.” A man in a white coat interrupts her, entering the room.

He shuts the door and comes to a stop before us. “Seeing your mother won’t bring her back.” My heart pounds at his words. “And I don’t think this is how she wants you to remember her.”

“I don’t care what you think.” I spin around, giving him my back to face Celeste again. She can’t be gone. This isn’t happening. I don’t believe it! I don’t believe them! Celeste said she didn’t make it through surgery. “Where

is my father?”

“On his way.” She sniffs.

“I want to talk to him. Now!”

She nods quickly. “I’ll call him.” Stepping out of the room, Celeste leaves me and the doctor alone.

I start to pace the small room. My hands fist down by my sides. This isn’t happening. She’s not dead. I shake my head. I just saw her this morning.

When she dropped me off at school, she told me she had some errands to run and would pick me up after swim practice. At no point did she say she wouldn’t return. Nor did she say that she would leave me alone with my father. I can’t … I need her.

A hand on my shoulder makes me jump back. Angrily, I lift my hands and wipe the tears from my cheeks when I look up at him. “Don’t touch me!”

He doesn’t seem to be affected by my anger. He probably deals with people like me all the time. “Would you like to see your sister?”

And just like that, my mind races. I thought the baby was dead too. I remember Celeste mentioned something about blood loss. She said there had been an accident … “Is she okay?” My voice shakes. I can’t take any

more bad news.

He nods once. “I can show her to you.”

Following him out of the room, I take a quick look around the cold and quiet hospital hall for Celeste but don’t see her anywhere. As we travel farther down the hallway, the soft voices grow louder. We come up to a nurses’ station and then turn right down a new hall. He comes to a stop in front of a window, and I see rows of babies wrapped in blankets lying in little beds.

“Second row. Third from the right,” he informs me as he places his finger to the glass, pointing her out.

She’s screaming. Her little mouth opens, body shaking and face flushed.

She’s angry. Just like me. “What’s wrong with her?” I demand.

“Nothing. She’s perfectly fine. Babies cry.”

“She wants Mom,” I choke out. “She needs Mom.” Tears sting my eyes, and I fist my hands on the glass.

“I’m sorry, Cole,” he whispers, placing his hands on my shoulders. “I know it hurts, and it will for a while, but your sister needs you to be strong.

For both of you.”

He’s right. Does he know what kind of man my father is? Most know in this town, but none do anything about it. I’m all she has. “What’s her

name?” I swallow the lump in my throat.

“She doesn’t have one.”

I turn to look up at him. “Lilly.” The name comes out of my mouth without thought. I know my father won’t care enough to take the time to give her a name. Everything regarding her is up to me now. And I don’t remember my mother ever talking about what she wanted to name her.

“What?” he asks, frowning at me.

I look back over at my baby sister who continues to cry at the top of her lungs. My chest is tight, and my hands are balled into fists. I want to hold her. Take care of her. “Lilly. Our mother’s favorite flowers were lilies.”

I’ll never forget the way our lives changed that day. My mother was dead. A little sister in a world that no child should have to be in. I wanted to be stronger. I wanted to grow up and rule the world that my father thought he owned. Even the devil can fall. All he needs is someone willing to push him. And I was that man.

I walk into the house with my baby sister in my arms. She has her little eyes closed because she sleeps a lot. My father hasn’t even looked at her once. He arrived at the hospital, spoke to my mother’s doctor, and then left.

I refused to leave until Lilly could. Celeste brought me clothes and blankets.

I slept in two chairs out in the waiting room. School and swimming be damned. Nothing else matters anymore except for Lilly. She is now the most

important thing in my life.

“Blanche?” my father calls out.

My nanny comes running down the hall into the grand foyer. “Yes, sir?”

“Take the baby. I need to speak with Cole,” he orders. I’m surprised he didn’t change her name just because he can. Lilly Grace Reynolds is what they wrote on her birth certificate because I told them to, and he signed it without a second glance.

She nods and holds her hands out for her. I don’t let her go.

“Cole,” he growls.

“I’m just going to change her,” she assures me with a nod.

My eyes go from hers to my father’s, and he sighs heavily. I gently hand Lilly over to her, and my arms instantly grow cold at the loss of this little girl I need to protect. If I don’t, she’ll end up dead like our mother.

“We need to have a conversation man to man,” my father states, giving me his back. “My office.”

I straighten my shoulders and follow him down the hallway and into his office. The same one where I saw my mother tell him that Bruce Lowes had raped her and she was pregnant. That was months ago, but it seems like ages. He should have protected her, but instead, he called her broken and put his hands on her. I’ve wanted him to suffer ever since then.

“Shut the door,” he orders, sitting down in his chair.

I do as he says and walk to the front of his desk. “I have nothing to say to

you,” I state.

“Watch your tone, boy,” he growls.

“Fu—”

I don’t even get the word out before he’s reaching over his desk and dragging me across it. I knock off his computer and papers and scream out in surprise. He slams my back into the wall with his hands on my shirt, pinning me in place. His face is red with anger as he lowers it to mine.

“Do you want me to send your ungrateful ass off to boarding school?” he shouts. “Like Deke’s father did to him? Huh?” He shakes me, and I try to fight him off, but he’s too strong. “Do you want me to send you away and never let you come back? Because I can fucking do that, Cole! I can do whatever the fuck I damn well want! No one’s here to stop me.”

Without thought, I punch him in the side of the head. He lets go of me long enough to backhand me across the face, sending me sprawling onto his office floor. I taste blood as I make my way up to all fours on the hardwood.

I’ve never hit him before, but it’s not the first time he’s hit me.

He chuckles, standing over me. “You think you can beat me, son?” I don’t answer. “You may have the boys at school afraid of you, but don’t forget who runs this house,” he growls, “and who owns you. I can take everything away from you in a matter of seconds.” It’s almost the exact same thing he said to my mother.

I look up to see him standing before me breathing heavily. “Are you gonna kill me?” I ask, tasting the blood in my mouth. I wanna make him bleed. I want him to know what it feels like to have nothing left. “Like you did Mom?”

He throws his head back and laughs out loud. “I didn’t kill your mother.”

I get up onto my knees and wipe the blood from my chin with the back of my hand. “You gonna try and tell me that you loved her?”

“No,” he answers simply and kneels down before me. “You’re not a stupid kid, Cole. You’re a lot smarter than the others give you credit for.”

“I know you killed her!” I scream as tears sting my eyes. He did it! He had to. There is no other explanation as to why she’s not here. With me.

With my sister.

“Why would I do that?” He tilts his head. “You think I wanna raise you and your bastard sister on my own?” He chuckles.

“Then Bruce did it,” I growl. Someone killed her. She didn’t just fall and die. I don’t believe it. I won’t believe it.

He stands and straightens his black tie. “Bruce may have not wanted the child either, but he wouldn’t murder her for it.”

My nostrils flare at that statement. “I’ll find out the truth.”

He smiles. “Go ahead and prove me wrong, Cole.”