Dare Series Collection - Shantel Tessier Page 0,163

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 would 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