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 going to 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