“Cole.” She softens her voice. “It wasn’t your fault.”
I tense. No one talks to me about what happened that night I killed three friends. They know that’s a line I never cross, but Shelby doesn’t care about people’s limits. “You can’t right all the wrongs in the world. Eli would understand. It was an accident. It could have happened to any of us.”
“We both know he deserved it,” I growl, focusing on Jeff instead of my friends.
“Jesus.” She hisses softly, realizing I just admitted to killing Jeff. “Who all knows?”
I clamp my mouth shut. She looks away from me.
“Was Deke involved?”
I stare at the back of her head, refusing to give in to the urge to look at the floor. I won’t answer her question, but I also won’t give her a reason to assume either.
My silence has her turning back to face me, and there are tears in her soft blue eyes. She reaches out for me, her hands gripping my shoulders, and her eyes meet mine. “I need him, Cole. You can’t take him from me. Do you understand?”
My eyes search hers, a tear falls down her cheek. And my chest tightens at the thought of losing Deke. He and I are by far the closest. He, Eli, and I were inseparable. He was supposed to be with us that night. But plans changed, and he ended up not coming along. It probably saved his life.
“Thank you again …” Austin’s voice trails off as she enters the kitchen.
Shelby lets go of me and turns her back to us quickly, rubbing the tears from her face.
Austin comes up to me and watches me closely, probably wondering what the hell is going on between us. But I give her a cold stare. I don’t owe her an explanation.
“Anytime,” Shelby says cheerfully. Her tears now gone. A smile on her face.
_________________________________
The silence in the car is as thick as fog, making it hard to breathe. To swallow. My hands fist the steering wheel and gear shift.
Austin sits beside me, and I can feel her anger toward me rolling off her shoulders. She’s confused about what she saw between Shelby and me. Probably thinking I’m playing her—fucking her and others too. And I won’t tell her otherwise. What I do is none of her business. Just like it’s not Shelby’s.
Her phone goes off, and she looks down at it. “Great,” she mumbles.
“What?” I ask unable to help myself.
She types back a quick reply and then throws her phone back into her lap but stays silent.
“What, Austin?” I growl.
“That was Celeste,” she answers.
“And?”
“My father is coming home tomorrow. He wants to have a family dinner.”
And just like that, my tense body relaxes. I smile. “What time?”
Her head whips over to look at me. “Why?” she asks, eyeing me skeptically. “Have plans for me already?” she snaps, angry with me.
Ignoring her question, I grab her left hand and bring it to my lips to kiss her knuckles. “Because I’m gonna have dinner with my girlfriend and her dad.”
She yanks her hand from my hold, and it reminds me of when I kissed it outside the church and how leery she was of me then. She knew I had ulterior motives. I still do.
“One, you’re not my boyfriend. And two, why?”
“Do I have to have a reason?”
“Yes! I can see it all over your face. You just wanna piss him off,” she says matter-of-factly.
“What’s so wrong with that? Don’t tell me you care if he gets mad? I already know you hate the man too.”
“Yeah.” She looks down at her hands in her lap. “But if he gets mad at me, he can ship me back.”
I look over at her quickly surprised by her words. We don’t share personal information because I don’t talk about myself and because I don’t care to know about her. Maybe I should … But then I remember what Celeste told me about how she didn’t think she was safe and how I was a good influence for her. And my chest tightens. I’m a murderer. Evil. What could they do that would be worse than that? “Celeste wouldn’t let him send you back,” I tell her. She would fight for her to stay here. Because if it came down to it, I would force Celeste to make that happen. Like she said, I always get what I want. And too bad for Austin, she’s it at the moment.
Plus, I still have some tricks up my sleeve. One that will get her father to do whatever I want. Including giving her to me.
She looks straight ahead and lets out a long breath. “I’ll tell Celeste you’re coming,” she says and then picks up her phone again.
I look ahead as I drive her home, wondering just what has happened to her that she would rather stay here with the devil than go home to her mom and her mom’s boyfriend. A part of me wants to know. The other just doesn’t wanna acknowledge it.