“Cole?” he snaps and walks up to me. “If you need a fight, fucking hit me right here and now. Get it over with. Because I cannot have you fight the police and go down for resisting arrest. Or assault and battery against a police officer. That’s not the plan. And I can’t get you out of that.”
“Plans change.”
He punches me in the face, knocking me back into the shower door. Blood instantly pours from my nose, and my face begins to throb. I right myself and fist my hands, ready to punch him back.
“If you go to jail and she dies, what will you do then, Cole?” he yells at me, running out of patience. “Huh?” He lowers his voice and arches a brow at me. “What will you do if you don’t get to say goodbye?”
His words throw me back into my memory from just hours ago. When I thought goodbye was all she left me with.
“AUSTIN!” I shout, shaking her. How long have I been here? How long have I been trying to bring her back to me? I can’t give up. Every muscle I have is tight. My throat burns.
I’m yanked back and shoved to the side. My back hits the bloodstained wall, and I look to see the paramedics surround her. They fall to their knees, dropping their bags. Digging into them, they grab their supplies.
“Cole?”
I look up and see a set of brown eyes belonging to Derek James. The same ones from the night of the car wreck when he found me sitting in a ditch with my best friend dead in my arms.
“Cole, what happened? Did you shoot this woman?” His eyes fall to my gun that sits in the pool of her blood.
I had planned on shooting Kellan, but I learned a long time ago that plans don’t mean shit. She was dead on Bruce’s kitchen floor. Killing Kellan didn’t fucking matter at that second.
I stare at him in a daze. Shoot her? Why would I …? Because I’m Cole Reynolds. I destroy. I fucking take light from life and replace it with darkness. At first, I wanted to destroy her! Then I just wanted to save her!
You killed her! You didn’t pull the trigger, but you left her. All alone and unprotected,my head screams.
It’s my fault.
They cut her shirt off, and my breath gets caught in my lungs. What little skin isn’t covered in blood is turning blue. One paramedic begins compressions while another holds pressure on the wound.
My chest tightens, and a tear runs down my face. I reach out to her. “Please …”
“Cole!” Derek growls my name, grabbing my shoulders and pulling me back.
This time when my eyes meet his, they narrow. “I love her. I was trying to save her.”
“What’s it gonna be?” Deke holds his fists up and smiles at me.
“Police.” They pound on the clubhouse door. “Open up, Cole!” We hear them call out from downstairs. “Don’t make us come in and get you!”
I lower my hands, and he does the same, the smile no longer on his face. “Stick to the plan, Cole. And you’ll be with her soon enough.”
CHAPTER THREE
DEKE
ISTAND BACK ANDwatch as Cole exits the clubhouse. We normally avoid the police, but given our current situation, it isn’t an option.
This wasn’t some dare we had planned down to the second, so we improvised. And it will work out. I just have to pray he doesn’t fuck it up. Cole can be a loose cannon, and now is not the time for him to blow the fuck up.
I turn and begin to run up the stairs to clean his bathroom and grab a few things before I meet him at the police station, but my phone rings. Coming to a stop halfway up the stairs, I pull it out, hoping it’s my sister to give me some good news about Austin. But I see it’s Becky.
I answer, “Hey, babe, I can’t talk right now—”
“Is it true?” she interrupts me in a panic.
“What?”
“Is it true?” she shouts in my ear, and then she begins to sob.
