Dare Series Collection - Shantel Tessier Page 0,155

calls out my name.

I jump up from the couch in the clubhouse. “Austin! What’s wrong?” I demand.

“What’s going on?” Deke asks, also standing.

She starts to cry uncontrollably, and I can’t understand a thing she is trying to say. “Slow down, sweetheart. I can’t understand a thing you’re saying.”

“He’s here!” she screams. “Kellan’s at my father’s house. He killed Celeste!”

“I’m on my way …” The line goes dead.

Deke and I pull into the driveway in record time and jump out of my car. He’s already called 911 on our way. I burst through the front door and don’t even bother giving Celeste’s lifeless body a second of attention, knowing she’s already dead.

“Austin?” I yell out, pulling my gun out of the back of my jeans. “Austin?” I shout, running down the hallway.

I follow a blood trail into the kitchen and come to a stop when I see Kellan leaning against the countertop. He chuckles when he sees me, but it causes him to cough. A knife sticks out of his side.

My eyes look at the wall ahead of me, and it’s also covered in blood. Austin’s blood. She lies on the floor on her side. I run to her.

“Austin?” I choke on her name, brushing her hair from her face. The smell of the blood so strong it causes bile to rise, but I swallow it down.

“What the fuck?” Deke gasps, entering the kitchen.

“Take him!” I call out.

“She needs help,” he says, looking down at her body with narrowed eyes. There’s so much blood I don’t know where it’s coming from.

“Take him!” I bark. “Help is on their way.” I turn my attention back to her, and I hear Kellan grunt as Deke drags him out to the car. Taking him where the cops will never find him. He’s not dead yet, but once I’m done with him, he’ll wish he was.

Austin’s eyes are closed, and her body lies limp. “Please, baby,” I beg. “I can’t lose you.” My throat tightens. I feel her neck for a pulse, and I feel nothing.

My heart stops, and I drag her away from the wall to the center of the kitchen floor. I begin CPR.

The guys and I called off the last dare. Bruce didn’t need to die. We had enough evidence on the laptop that Austin had Shane steal to prove Bruce had three people killed. I never did find out why he tried to kill me. Deke thinks he wanted me dead so Celeste could have Lilly. I always knew she wished Lilly was hers, but that didn’t make sense to me. Bruce never wanted kids. Why would he want Lilly then? I reminded Deke that some people are just evil. They do things just because of the simple fact that they can. I should know. Look at what I put Austin through.

Bruce was arrested three days after I found Austin dead on his kitchen floor, and his conviction gives him no chance of parole. He’ll spend the rest of his miserable life in a cell wondering how in the hell he got caught. Trying to figure out how four teenage boys and his teenage daughter managed to fuck him. It wasn’t the original plan, but it was good enough for me.

Kellan, on the other hand, begged for his life. I told him outside the clubhouse the night that I found Austin’s cell in his car that I was going to kill him with my bare hands, and I did just that. I hated that he was already almost dead when we found him, but a part of me, a very big part, was proud of what Austin did. She fought. She did what I knew she was capable of.

And as for her mom and stepdad? Austin never came out and asked me, but I didn’t have to tell her—I took care of them. Deke helped me. We made it quick for her mother, but her stepdad suffered. He also cried like the little bitch he was. Their bodies will never be found. Or missed.

After I found Austin lying there in her own blood with no pulse, I just wanted to move on. Put all the dares and deaths behind me. After I killed Kellan, I no longer had a need for blood. To kill. Once again, she had changed me.

I twirl the wedding ring on my left hand as I turn back to face the grave. I look over it with a sad smile and let out a long breath. “I’ll