Seconds later, my door opens, and she pokes her head in. My phone sails through the air, almost hitting me in the head. “Get dressed and meet us downstairs.”
I sigh and do as she says, wanting to get this over with. I already told them I’m fucking tired.
DEKE
We all gather in the living room. Austin sits on Cole’s lap in the leather recliner. I’m perched on the couch next to Bennett, and Shane stands by the back door, refusing to sit.
“Do we have any idea who it is?” Austin asks. Her eyes scan the paper one more time. Cole gave it to her ten minutes ago, and we’ve all sat here while she silently went over it.
“No.” I answer.
“Demi has to be behind it.” Shane growls.
“I don’t know,” she says slowly. “Demi doesn’t seem to be that type.”
He pushes off the wall. “Deke is fucking her.”
“What?” She gasps, her large green eyes meeting mine.
“I’m not.” My jaw clenches. I’m only fucking her in my dreams. My dreams where she pretends to be Becky and tells me to hurt her. Too bad I end up killing her every time. I keep that to myself, though. Don’t want to cause more worry than there already is.
Shane goes on. “She knows too much. And she needs to die.”
I didn’t think Austin’s eyes could have gotten any bigger when she looks at him. “You can’t be serious.”
“You have a better option?” he asks.
She turns and looks at Cole. He’s running his hand absentmindedly through her hair. “Please tell me you don’t want to kill Demi?” I haven’t heard that kind of fear in her voice in a long time.
His hand pauses, and he looks up at her. His eyes give nothing away, but his brows crease. “No.”
She looks back down at the paper in her hands.
This would be a good time to tell them she threatened me the last time I saw her, but I keep my mouth shut. For some reason, I feel like I need to protect her from Shane. He’s on a mission to kill someone, and Demi is his target. Do I think she’s capable of this? Not really. But am I suspicious? Yes. If she’s behind it, I’ll handle her myself. It’s not going to require all the GWS to take her down.
“We don’t have a lot of options here.” Shane growls. “She comes out of nowhere, and all of a sudden, she’s on a piece of paper that has some cryptic riddle on it. And we’ve checked Kellan’s phone. Of course, there was nothing on there. He must have deleted everything.”
Yeah, that was a dead end. “What do you suggest we do?” I ask her.
Shane snorts as if asking Austin for advice is beneath him. I don’t give a shit what he thinks.
She doesn’t answer right away. Folding up the letter, she stares out the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook their pool in the backyard. Regret and sadness flashes across her face, and I wonder what she’s thinking about. I’m not sure how well she knows Demi. Becky never hung out with her much. Demi came to a few bonfires on the beach with Becky, David, and his friend, but that was the last time I knew of them ever hanging out together.
Finally, after what seems like forever, she looks at me. “How do you push a girl to think irrationally?”
None of us answer.
She chuckles at our clueless minds. “You make her jealous.”
I frown. “Jealous?”
She nods. “A jealous woman is a scary one.”
I think back to the time I saw Austin jealous over Cole.
I lean my shoulder up against the lockers as Cole digs through his. Austin walks down the senior hallway, not bothering to look his way, but he sees her, grabs her, and pulls her back to his front before she can pass him. “Miss me, sweetheart?”
She spins around in his arms, reaches up, and slaps him across the face. The sound bounces off the walls.
