EPILOGUE

COLE

Twelve years later . . .

It’s the usual cloudy day in Collins, Oregon. Any second, the clouds are going to open and pour down rain. I miss it here. This town had a lot of demons, but it was quiet at times. You never get that in Dallas. There are always people no matter where you go. And the traffic—it drives me mad sometimes.

I kneel and place the bouquet of yellow flowers on the grave. They’re the only ones at this cemetery. Not much has changed. The dead are still forgotten at the top of this hill. I come back to visit it twice a year. Every Christmas and on her birthday. I wish I could come more, but work isn’t slow by any means. Running a law firm isn’t an easy feat. Even if you have Deke Biggs as your partner. But I make sure to come and tell her that I miss her. How much I loved her. How I wish she could see Lilly grow up. She’s gonna turn eighteen this year, and I just can’t wrap my head around it.

I turn around, giving the grave my back and look down the hill at the house that was torn down years ago. The Lowes estate was demolished after Bruce was arrested on three counts of manslaughter. We were supposed to kill him, but like I once told Austin—plans change. And that’s exactly what happened when Deke and I showed up to the house after she called me that night.

My phone rings, and I look down to see it’s the Lowes residence. I answer, expecting it to be Celeste. “Hello?”

“Cole!” Austin strangled voice calls out my name.

I jump up from the couch in the clubhouse. “Austin! What’s wrong?” I demand.

“What’s going on?” Deke asks also standing.

She starts to cry uncontrollably, and I can’t understand a thing she is trying to say. “Slow down, sweetheart. I can’t understand a thing you’re saying.”

“He’s here!” she screams. “Kellan’s at my father’s house. He killed Celeste!”

“I’m on my way …” The line goes dead.

Deke and I pull into the drive in record time and jump out of my car. He’s already called 911 on our way. I burst through the front door and don’t even bother giving Celeste’s lifeless body a second of attention, knowing she’s already dead.

“Austin?” I yell out, pulling my gun out of the back of my jeans. “Austin?” I shout, running down the hallway.

I follow a blood trail into the kitchen and come to a stop when I see Kellan leaning against the countertop. He chuckles when he sees me, but it causes him to cough. A knife sticks out of his side.

My eyes look at the wall ahead of me, and it’s also covered in blood. Austin’s blood. She lies on the floor on her side. I run to her.

“Austin?” I choke on her name, brushing her hair from her face. The smell of the blood so strong it causes bile to rise, but I swallow it down.

“What the fuck?” Deke gasps, entering the kitchen.

“Take him!” I call out.

“She needs help,” he says, looking down at her body with narrowed eyes. There’s so much blood I don’t know where it’s coming from.

“Take him!” I bark. “Help is on their way.” I turn my attention back to her, and I hear Kellan grunt as Deke drags him out to the car. Taking him where the cops will never find him. He’s not dead yet, but once I’m done with him, he’ll wish he was.

Austin’s eyes are closed, and her body lies limp. “Please, baby,” I beg. “I can’t lose you.” My throat tightens. I feel her neck for a pulse, and I feel nothing.

My heart stops, and I drag her away from the wall to the center of the kitchen floor. I begin CPR.

The guys and I called off the last dare. Bruce didn’t need to die. We had enough evidence on the laptop that Austin had Shane steal to prove Bruce had three people killed. I never did find out why he tried to kill me. Deke thinks he wanted me dead so Celeste could have Lilly. I always knew she wished Lilly was hers, but that didn’t make sense to me. Bruce never wanted kids. Why would he want Lilly then? I reminded Deke that some people are just evil. They do things just because of the simple fact that they can. I should know. Look at what I put Austin through.

Bruce was arrested three days after I found Austin dead on his kitchen floor, and his conviction gives him no chance of parole. He’ll spend the rest of his miserable life in a cell wondering how in the hell he got caught. Trying to figure out how four teenage boys and his teenage daughter managed to fuck him. It wasn’t the original plan, but it was good enough for me.

Kellan, on the other hand, begged for his life. I told him outside the clubhouse that night that I found Austin’s cell in his car that I was going to kill him with my bare hands, and I did just that. I hated that he was already almost dead when we found him, but a part of me, a very big part, was proud of what Austin did. She fought. She did what I knew she was capable of.

And as for her mom and stepdad? Austin never came out and asked me, but I didn’t have to tell her—I took care of them. Deke helped me. We made it quick for her mother, but her stepdad suffered. He also cried like the little bitch he was. Their bodies will never be found. Or missed.

After I found Austin lying there in her own blood with no pulse, I just wanted to move on. Put all the dares and deaths behind me. After I killed Kellan, I no longer had a need for blood. To kill. Once again, she had changed me.

I twirl the wedding ring on my left hand as I turn back to face the grave. I look over it with a sad smile and let out a long breath. “I’ll be back to visit soon. I love and miss you,” I say and then give it my back.

I walk down the hill, passing the spot where it all began. Where I found the gorgeous brunette spying on my friends and me, and I smile. That was so long ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday.

I come to the bottom of the hill and see the black lifted Chevy come into view. The passenger door opens, and a little boy jumps out—my five-year-old son. “Daddy!” he says, running to me.

I open my arms and pick him up. “Hey, buddy. Ready to go home?” I ask him.

He nods. “Mommy is hungry.”

I laugh at that. “Mommy is always hungry.” Setting him back down on his feet, I look up to see my wife slowly getting out of the truck.

“We should have driven my car,” she whines, rubbing her growing belly and aching back. “You can’t expect me to get up and out of this monster at six months pregnant. She’s really active today.”

I chuckle, stepping to her. My hand sliding into her hair. “Have I told you that you look gorgeous today and that I love you?”

“I’m a whale,” she whines.

I kiss her red painted lips. “You’re a shark, sweetheart.”

She pulls away, and her green eyes search mine. “Are you okay?” she asks, and her eyes go to the top of the hill.

I nod. “I said what I needed to.”

“I wish Lilly could have made it,” she says, and tears start to form in her eyes. I still find her beautiful when she cries. And she does that a lot with this pregnancy.

“Me too. Maybe next time.”

She nods and looks over at our son who is digging in the dirt. “Come on, Eli,” she calls out, and he dusts off his hands and runs over to her.

I turn and look back over the hill where my mother was buried long ago. I used to ask myself why I survived that car crash. And then one night, I found a girl in a cemetery and all my questions were answered.

I’ve never been a religious man, but I prayed that night I found her on the kitchen floor, and for some reason, God answered them and gave her back to me. Gave me another chance at living. Because without her, I wouldn’t have survived.

It’s been two months since she was released from the hospital, and we’ve officially moved into the place we call home in Texas. She sits with Becky at our kitchen table. Her morning hair a mess and no makeup on her face. I’ve never seen her more beautiful.

Becky looks up at me, and her words trail off.

Austin looks over her shoulder at me, and a smile spreads across her face when her eyes meet mine. But it drops when I don’t return it. “You’re up to something.”

“Aren’t I always?” I ask with a straight face.

Her eyes narrow on me. “Cole …”

When I kneel on one knee, her words cut off and those dark green eyes widen in surprise. “Cole,” she whispers my name.

“Austin Anne Lowes,” I begin and tears well up in her eyes. I open the box, and she gasps when she sees the princess cut red ruby sitting on a platinum band. I take it from the black velvet box and hold it up to her. There’s nothing for me to say. The ring says it all.

She takes it from my hand and reads the three words I had engraved on the inside of the band—I dare you.

I used to think that I was going to go to hell. And that thought hasn’t changed. One day, I’ll have to pay for my sins, but as I watch my pregnant wife hug and kiss our son, I realize I’m okay with that. Because my life right now is heaven on earth.

THE END

Thank you for taking the time to read I Dare You. I hope that you all enjoyed Cole and Austin as much as I did. Continue on to read the prologue of my novel Addiction; Seven Deadly Sins, book one. It is FREE in KU.