CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
DEKE
I PULL UP to the house and carry a passed-out Demi inside. It’s quiet, letting me know that Austin and Cole are already asleep. Opening my door, I lie her on my bed and undo her jeans before sliding them down her legs. Then I’m removing her shirt. I leave her in her bra and underwear and make my way back out to my SUV. I open the passenger side door and pick up her phone off the floormat.
Going back inside the house, I grab the pack of cigarettes out of the drawer and make my way out back. Cole is in the pool.
“Thought you’d be asleep,” I say, sitting down.
Standing in the shallow end, he gives me a clear view of his bare chest and all the red scratch marks along his stomach and sides. I bet his back matches. That is why I took the long way home. No telling what Austin looks like at the moment.
“I just got out here,” he tells me.
I lean forward. “So, I found out some interesting stuff tonight.”
“I think that’s an understatement.”
He’s talking about the Demi situation and Evan Scott. I sigh. “Other stuff.”
He arches a brow. “Like what?”
She asked me if I could keep a secret, and I will keep what she said about Austin to myself. But the other stuff I need to talk to Cole about. “Demi filled me in on all kinds of information.”
“Do you believe her?”
I nod. “I do.”
“Does it have to do with anything regarding Seth and Evan Scott?”
My jaw tightens, but I shake my head. “No. But some of it has to do with Eli.”
“What about him?” He frowns.
I sit back in my seat. “She claims he was not sleeping with Becky.”
“Well, I didn’t see him physically fuck her, but I did see them all over each other,” he states. “And he acted like he had been when I confronted him about it.”
I hold up her phone. “She said everything I need to know is on here.”
He gets out of the pool and dries off before sitting down in the seat beside me. I open her Facebook app and search his name. None of us ever deactivated it after he passed. It was like erasing too many good memories when we were a team. When there were eight sharks and not five. And it wasn’t much time after that that his sister was killed. There was no one else to take it down besides her.
I click on his page and go to message him. Their conversation pops up.
“Scroll up,” Cole orders.
I do as he says and then stop when I see the date of the night of the car wreck. It didn’t take long since this was the last conversation they had. Cole begins to read it out loud.
Eli: I might have oversold it.
Demi: What does that mean?
Eli: Cole is pissed at me. I thought he was gonna knock me out right then and there. He’s probably already messaged Deke.
Demi: What did you do?
Eli: I kissed her. A lot. Acted like I was already fucking her.
Cole lets out a sigh from beside me. I continue.
Eli: Demi?
She doesn’t respond.
Eli: I had to do it.
Again, nothing from her.
Eli: I’m sorry, baby.
Baby? Just how much were they seeing each other? He never mentioned her to us. I knew he had a thing for her, but I didn’t think it was anything serious.
Ten minutes later, she texts him back.
Demi: I hate this.
Eli: Me too.
Demi: I don’t understand why you couldn’t have just told him what kind of person she is. What she did to me.
Eli: Sometimes words aren’t enough. I know him, and he’d confront her. Her being the vindictive bitch she is will cry and lie her way out of it. He’ll fall for it. Not because he’s stupid, but because he is in love with her.
Demi: Are you going to sleep with her?
Eli: Fuck no! Cole, Landen, and Maddox now know. That’s enough.
Demi: Why is she doing it? Why would she jeopardize what she and Deke have for you?
Eli: She’s pissed at him. I overheard Cole telling Maddox at the party earlier that Deke hooked up with Kaitlin last weekend. Becky hates her. So, she’s willing to spread her legs for his best friend. In her eyes, it’s retaliation.
Demi: Your friends are gonna hate you. Think you backstabbed him.
Eli: Yeah. But maybe eventually, he’ll understand.
Demi: Will I see you tonight?
Eli: Yes. Cole is going to go fuck some girl. Not sure what Maddox and Landen have going on. Once I figure out what I’m doing, I’ll call you, baby.
Then there’s a thirty-minute gap before all messages turn one-sided. And they’re all pretty much the same thing.
Demi: How did it go?
Demi: I keep calling.
Demi: It’s going straight to voicemail.
I exit out of it and shut down the screen. Leaning back, I run a hand over my face.