Dare Series Collection - Shantel Tessier Page 0,5

coughs. “You guys … and your sick … fucking pranks …”

“No!” I snap. “This is you paying for the life you took.” My voice grows louder, and I clench my fists, wanting to hit him some more. My shoulder throbs, but I ignore it.

“When will you get what you deserve?” he whispers roughly. “Huh, Cole? What is your price …?”

I drop to my knees, straddling him. My balled fists rise and then come down on his already bloody face. I scream out of frustration when he just lies there and takes it. I want the sting of a punch. I want the feel of skin breaking. I need to feel it. Need the pain. I deserve it, after all. He was right. I killed my friends.

I fist his shirt and yank his limp head off the ground, my legs still straddling his hips. His eyes black and blue, face split and bloody. Lowering my face to his, I growl. “Give me what I deserve! Why don’t you get your sorry ass up and hit me?” My voice rises. “Why don’t you be a fucking man and fight me?”

He doesn’t respond. His head falls back, and I shove him down, causing his head to hit the ground with a thud.

Deke slaps me on the back. “Go walk it off, Cole. We got it from here.”

I stand and take a step back from them as they pick him up off the ground.

I fist my hands, loving the feel of the split knuckles. The wind picks up, and it makes my blood-covered body shiver from the chill.

Fuck, I love a fight!

My father says I was born a fighter. He would say if a man can’t use his hands, then what is he good for? The only difference is that my father pays to use someone else’s hands.

A tree branch snaps behind us, and we all turn around to look. Four flashlights dance in the darkness. “Did you guys hear something?” Deke asks.

“I thought I did. But I don’t see anything,” Shane answers him.

“I’ll go check it out,” I say, walking away from them. “And hurry it up.” I grab my flashlight off the ground and shine it ahead of me, listening to them laughing behind me as they finish off the sick bastard who deserved every little thing he got tonight.

My tennis shoes squelch along the muddy ground, and I come to a stop to just listen. I shut my light off and stick it in my back pocket. I know this land like the back of my hand. And no one is ever out here. No one who is up to any good.

The Lowes estate is down at the bottom of the hill, but they’re never home. And if for some reason they are, they’re already in bed.

My hands hang by my sides, the blood slowly dripping off them and falling onto the leaves. My body craves more.

Slowly taking one step after another, I tune out the guys behind me as their voices grow quieter the farther away from them I get.

A sound to my right has me smiling. Whoever it is, is close. Very close. I stand and wait, not making a move. They’re in the dark just like I am because I don’t see any light. Then I hear it again. It could be an animal, but it doesn’t sound like one. I hear two distinct sounds—a pair of shoes.

I take a step to the right, and I hear an intake of breath. So close.

Then they take off. Their shoes pound the ground, and I run after them. I run into a small frame, wrap my arms around it, and tackle it to the ground. It makes a noise of annoyance and two hands slap at my face unable to make contact. I grab the wrists and shove them down to their sides and then straddle them to pin them down underneath me.

I yank my flashlight out of my back pocket and turn it on, shining it down onto the intruder.

Dark green eyes look up at me, framed by long dark lashes. Soft pink lips are parted, and she has a small diamond stud piercing in her button nose. Dark brown hair covers half her face, and she growls, “Get off me.”

She blinks several times, the light blinding her, but I don’t move it. It keeps her from seeing me.

“Get off me,” she demands this time, panting.

I tilt my head to the side, just watching her squirm under me. I’ve