Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 134665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
I lean down, pressing my lips gently to hers, and she opens up immediately, but I don’t take the bait. Not yet. Why rush this, when I can have some fun and draw it out?
I pull back, and she opens her heavy eyes. “Deke—”
The doorbell rings, interrupting whatever she was about to say.
I let her go and walk out of the kitchen. I open the front door to see the neighbor kid Misty standing there with her dark hair up in a ponytail. She reaches up and pushes her glasses to sit higher on her nose. She’s a fourteen-year-old girl with three older brothers. I sometimes play basketball with them out in the driveway.
She smiles at me. “Hi, Deke. Austin called and said she needed a sitter tonight.”
I step aside for her to enter. “She’s upstairs in the shower right now, but Lilly is in her room.”
“Thanks.” She walks inside, bouncing down the hallway to find Lilly.
When I return to the kitchen and find it empty, I take my ass up to my room to get ready for the night. I’m going to seduce Becky. And she’s going to realize she’s weaker than she thought when it comes to me.
CHAPTER THREE
DEKE
TWO HOURS LATER, “Like a Nightmare” by Deadset Society plays inside my SUV as I drive us to Silence. The sun has officially set, and we decided to go earlier rather than later to beat the crowd and traffic since it’s a Friday night.
Austin leans forward from the back seat and taps Cole on the shoulder. “Turn that down for a second, please?” He does as she asks, and she begins to read something to us off her phone. “Did you know they can touch you? I’m on their website, and it says that you should not wear open-toed shoes or nice clothing. That you may have to crawl, jump, or run to get free. And that you may have blood thrown on you.”
Cole stiffens in the passenger seat at the mention of blood. And I wonder if he has the same thought as me.
Five months ago
Cole pulls up to the Lowes estate and doesn’t even bother turning his car off. He jumps out, and I follow him up the stairs, and he barges into Bruce’s house. Celeste, Austin’s stepmother, lies dead at the bottom of the stairs. Neither one of us gives her any thought.
“Austin?” Cole yells, pulling the gun out of the back of his jeans. I’m holding mine down by my side, and it’s ready with a bullet in the chamber. “Austin?” He shouts again, running down the hallway.
He follows the blood trail down the hall, and my throat tightens at what we’re going to find. It won’t be good.
He takes a sharp right, entering the kitchen. “Austin?” I hear him choke on her name, and my heart begins to pound. What did he find?
I enter behind him and gasp. “What the fuck?”
Austin lies in a pool of blood on her father’s marble floor. Fuck! She’s bleeding too much. Her shirt and her jeans are soaked. Her once sun-kissed skin looks pale, and the pool of blood underneath her slowly gets bigger. The smell alone almost knocks me off my feet. Kellan still holds the gun in his hand. Why did he shoot his best friend’s girl? I don’t understand.
“Take him,” Cole calls out, not looking up from her body. He goes to touch her but then pulls back.
She’s dead. I’ve helped him kill enough people to know what a lifeless body looks like. “She needs help,” I argue. Looking over her with narrowed eyes, I know there’s not much we can do for her at this point. Kellan killed the only thing Cole has ever loved. And Cole will make Kellan suffer in ways he can’t even imagine.
“Take him!” Cole barks this time. “Help is on the way.” He turns his attention to Austin, dismissing me.
I look over at Kellan leaning up against the countertop with a knife stuck into his side. He smiles, looking over at Austin lying on the floor. Fucking prick. I grab him by the back of his neck and rip the gun out of his hand, before yanking him away from the countertop.
I’m not sure how Cole would handle seeing Austin covered in blood again. Even if he knew it was fake.
“For the ones who think they are fearless, they have a ‘blackout’ attraction where you are given a glow stick to navigate your way out.” She goes on to read about Silence.
“Pass,” Becky says.
I smile to myself. She’s avoided me since I played with her in the kitchen back at the house. She stuck by Austin’s side while she got ready. It’s like she’s afraid to be left alone with me again because she doesn’t trust herself with me. Silly girl. Space won’t save you from me.