CHAPTER FIVE

COLE

Austin stayed silent in the car, but I could hear her mind working. The questions she had were ones I would never answer. Some things are just better left the way they are.

I dropped her off at her father’s without a goodbye or a see you around. She got out, and I sped off, heading home.

As soon as I step into my father’s house, I hear Lilly’s voice. “Cole?”

“In here,” I tell her, entering the kitchen. My father stands at the breakfast bar with a glass of his favorite scotch in his hand. It’s not even five yet.

“Where have you been?” he demands.

Just then, Lilly runs in, carrying her stuffed bunny, Hippo, in her hands. “Hey, princess,” I say, and she jumps into my arms. “How was ballet today?”

“Ms. Talon taught me how to twirl.”

“That’s awesome,” I say, hugging her.

My father clears his throat. “Lilly, give Cole and me a moment.”

I kiss her soft cheek. “I’ll be right there.” I set her down and then turn to my father.

“I spoke to Bruce Lowes this morning.”

I fucking hate that guy! Knowing that he has a daughter makes me hate him even more. She’s already causing problems for me. “And?”

“And his daughter is in town. Moved in with him.” He eyes me skeptically.

“I don’t see how this requires a conversation between us.” I avoid my father at all costs. He’s not any better than Bruce Lowes. They’re best friends, after all.

He sets his glass down. “She’s trouble. Stay away from her.”

That piques my interest. But I’m not surprised, considering she burned a body and crushed the bones with a hammer. I like her creativity. It’s sexy. “How so?”

“Guess her mother is some crack whore. The mom’s boyfriend abuses her.” He rolls his eyes. “He said the mother wants her to stay until she graduates. But he plans on sending her back the moment she fucks up.”

“And you’re telling me this why?”

“Because I’m giving you a warning. Lord knows you don’t need anyone helping you and your friends get into trouble.” Then he picks up his drink. “Oh, and quit fucking his wife.”

I smile at that statement.

He grunts. “He knew that your car was over there one night last week. All night. He has help, for Christ’s sake. You think you’d be a little more discreet.” Then he walks out of the kitchen.

My smile widens. Pulling my cell out, I send a quick text to Celeste. I wanna know everything there is about Austin Lowes.

Up for swimming?

She sends a text back immediately. Absolutely. Bring that little princess on over.

_________________________________

“Cole. Watch me,” Lilly calls out from the side of the pool.

I stand in the shallow end, looking up at her. “Watching.”

She puts her feet together, bends her knees, and leans over at the waist, her hands out in front of her before she falls into the pool face first, doing her version of a dive.

She comes up sucking in a long breath. I reach out and grab her even though she can swim. “That was awesome, Lil,” I say with a big smile. Celeste claps from her raft in the deep end.

“I’ve been practicing,” she says, smiling up at me. Her blond hair sticks to her face and neck because I forgot to braid it. Now it’ll take me forever to get her tangles out.

“So how was lunch with Austin today?” Celeste asks from behind me.

I refrain from smiling. “It went well. She didn’t say much.”

She sighs. “Yeah, I asked her how it went, and she didn’t respond. Just went up to her room and said she was tired.”

That’s because she spent last night watching us kill a guy and then she burned the body. I lick my lips and say, “I hate to be forward, but I didn’t even know Bruce had a daughter.”

She frowns. “You’ve met her before. I remembered that earlier this afternoon after I introduced you two.”

“What? When?” She must be mistaken.

She sits up on her raft and uses her hands to paddle over to me. “You guys must have been around nine. Maybe ten. I don’t know. Bruce and I have been married for ten years now, and she’s seventeen. So seven.” She laughs. “I was off on the math.”

My frown deepens. “I don’t remember.”

“I don’t think she does either.” She sighs. “She came to stay with us for a few weeks during the summer. We had just gotten married. Her mother had been admitted to the hospital for an overdose.”

“Then why did she go back?” Lilly throws some diving rings into the water and watches them sink as she puts her goggles on.

“Her mom went to rehab. Got better. Bruce bought them a house, sent her money …”

He sounds like my father. Just wants to throw money at it. Bruce doesn’t care about Austin any more than my father cares about Lilly. At least he knows I have a scholarship. He knows I have plans. He just doesn’t know that I plan on taking Lilly with me when I go to college. It’ll be hard, but I’ll make it work. And he won’t fight me. He’s never wanted her.

“So why now?” I watch Lilly dive in and kick her little feet to make it to the bottom to grab a ring. Then she pushes off the bottom and shoots up. I help her to the side of the pool where she will get out to repeat the process again.

Celeste sighs. “She got expelled from school. Caught with drugs.” She shakes her head. “Her mother called me, demanding I take her. That she was just too much to handle anymore.”

Lilly jumps in, getting two rings that were close to one another this time.

“Bruce said no, that we didn’t have time for her, but I have nothing but time.” Her eyes fall to the water, and she runs her hand through it slowly. “He’s always away. And I don’t think Austin was safe. I think she just needs a different environment. Different friends.” She looks up at me and smiles. “You could help her.”

I chuckle. I’m not a good influence, by any means, and Celeste knows that. This entire town knows that I do what I want, when I want. No one tells me I can’t do something. And when I find myself in trouble, my father bails me out because he hates it when I make him look bad. “You know that’s not true, Celeste,” I finally say as Lilly jumps in again, splashing me.

She drops her head. “We both know that you’re the lesser of two evils,” she whispers, and my chest tightens at her words.

Yeah, I try to beat the kind of men who she married. Like my father. Right now, I can only do so much. But one day, they will all pay. I will release all that anger bottled up inside me, and it will fucking rain blood on this town.

AUSTIN

I wake up with a headache and a throbbing forearm. Shelby couldn’t give me any pain meds, but she said that it shouldn’t hurt once the numbing shot wore off. It’s not painful, just a dull ache.

Getting out of bed, I walk over to my closet and put on a white long-sleeve shirt to cover my stitches. It hangs off my right shoulder, letting whoever sees me know that I didn’t take the time to put a bra on. Then I yank on a pair of yoga pants before walking out of my room in search of Celeste.

I make my way down the staircase. “Celeste?” I call out when I walk into the kitchen. “Oh, I’m sorry,” I say to a woman who stands in front of the open fridge.

“You’re fine, dear. Can I get you something?” she asks, placing strawberries on a silver platter.

“I’m looking for Celeste.”

She nods. “They are out in the pool. I was just about to take them some fresh fruit. Would you like something?”

“No, thank you,” I say and then walk out of the kitchen and then down the hall. They? I hope my father isn’t back home. I want to avoid him as much as possible. I know he didn’t want me here. As much as I hate my mother, she was right. My father’s never wanted me, and he won’t now. I’m here because of Celeste. And although she drives me nuts, I must admit she’s pretty awesome. But you’ll never hear me say that out loud.

I push open the back doors and step out onto the porch. I hear splashes coming from the right and make my way over to the edge of the terrace. I stop short when I see Celeste in the pool floating on her bright blue raft over by the rock slide in the deep end, and Cole is also in the pool with a little blonde on his hip.

“Austin!” Celeste spots me and waves. I wave back slowly. “Did you have a good nap?” she asks, and Cole looks over at me. He lets go of the little girl, and she swims over to the steps.

“Yeah,” I say, walking around the pool and plopping down on a lounge chair. I look anywhere but at Cole. What is he doing here? Is he trying to fuck with me? Is he feeling Celeste out to see if I said anything to her? I wouldn’t do that. She would tell my father, and who knows what he would do with me. He’d probably try to help Cole pin it on me so my ass would go to jail. Out of his life.

“You should come swimming with us.” She lies back on her raft. Her purple string bikini reveals more than lingerie would. Letting the world know that my father paid for most of her body.

I think about saying yes but stop myself. “Not today.” I just got stitches. I’ll have to get those removed before she can see my arm. Plus, I don’t think the chlorine would feel very good on it.

The little girl gets out of the pool and makes her way over to me. “Hi,” she says with a big smile on her face.

“Hello.”

“My name is Lilly. I’m six. Wanna watch me dive?”

This is his sister? They look nothing alike. She has blond hair where he has brown. She has brown eyes to his blue. “I’d love to,” I say with a smile of my own.

“Cole, can I dive in the deep end? Please?” she begs, jumping up and down.

I take a chance to look at him, and he’s staring right at me. My hair is still up in a messy bun from when I slept and pieces fall out down my back and shoulders. His eyes drop to my exposed shoulder and then down my chest. They slowly run down my body to my legs, and I feel them tighten at the look in his eyes.

The man who tried to pin me for murder is now at my father’s house with his little sister, swimming with my stepmother.

He’s up to something. And I need to get ahead of his game. I’m not some stupid little girl who he can play.

“Please, Cole? Just once,” she asks, standing by my lounge chair. Water runs off her bright yellow one-piece and onto the concrete.

“Yeah. One time,” he tells her, running his hand through his wet hair, making it stand straight up, and she squeals with excitement. He swims over to the deep end, passing Celeste on her raft. He comes to a stop and looks up at her. She prepares herself for her dive, takes a deep breath, and falls in head first. He reaches under the water and grabs her, pulling her up and then helps her to the side. She climbs out and comes running back over to me.

“Did you like it?” she asks with that excitement still on her face. I envy it. I wish life was that simple.

“I give it a ten.” I hold up all my fingers, and she bounces up and down. “Perfect.”

She lunges for me, wrapping her arms around me for a tight hug and soaking my shirt and legs. The water feels good. Not too cold but not warm either. She pulls away. “I can dive for rings.” Her face falls all of a sudden. “I can only grab one at a time, though.”

I refrain from laughing at how adorable she is. “I’d love to watch you dive for rings.”

She bounces over to the edge of the pool and tosses five rings in the shallow end. “Cole?” she yells at him. “Cole?”

I look at him to see why he is ignoring her, but when my eyes meet his, he’s staring down at my chest. His jaw tight and eyes glaring with anger.

I look down to see what he is staring at. “Geez,” I mutter to myself. She soaked my white shirt, and I don’t have a bra on.

I hunch over and pull it away from my chest. Standing up, I go to walk away, but Lilly stops me. “You’re not gonna watch me?” She pouts.

Shit!

I reach over and grab a blue towel off the back of a lounge chair and drape it over my shoulders. “Of course, I am,” I tell her, sitting back down and plastering a smile on my face.

I ignore Cole, but I can still feel his gaze on me for a few more seconds before he turns to her and helps her out with diving for her rings.

We spend another hour out in the pool when Cole finally announces that they have to get going. At first, Lilly tried to beg him for another five minutes, but he didn’t budge. He’s better than I would have been because the moment she pushed that bottom lip out, I would have caved. Then she threw a fit. He glared at her, but she didn’t care. She just wanted to swim.

“She can stay out here with me,” Celeste tells him.

“I don’t think …”

“Please?” Lilly begs, interrupting him. She hugs his shoulders while they still stand in the pool.

“Lilly …”

“Let her swim a little longer, Cole. It’ll be dark shortly. She can stay the night. We can have a girls’ night. You kids go have some fun.” She looks at me, and my brows rise. What is her deal with Cole? Does she not know how much he hates me? That he wants me in jail? Or worse, dead?

“Please? Please?” Lilly begs. “I wanna stay. I wanna swim. And have a girls’ night.” She splashes the water around them with her hands.

“Fine,” he says with a heavy sigh. “Just tonight, though. Okay?”

“Thank you.” She hugs his neck, and he pats her back.

“Yay.” Celeste claps her hands excitedly. And it makes me wonder why she and my father never had a child of their own. I’ve never thought about it. And sure as hell never asked. Then she looks at me. “Austin, we have a ten o’clock appointment at the salon in the morning.”

“For what?”

“I figured you’d want to get you hair done.” She shrugs. “Something new for school. And it gives us time together.”

“Thanks.” I’m not really into spending time at a salon, but I’ll give her this. Celeste has been more of a mom in the past twenty-four hours than my mother has in the past seventeen years.

She claps excitedly as Cole hands her Lilly. She bounces on her raft, straddling Celeste’s legs.

Cole goes under the water and then his head pops up in the shallow end. He stands, and I watch with complete fascination as he climbs the stairs to exit. Water drips off his lean body. Shelby had mentioned that he was the captain of the swim team, and I didn’t understand what that meant until just now. His black swim trunks hang low on his narrow hips. He turns to face me, and my mouth starts to water at the defined V that dips into his shorts and his chiseled abs. Thoughts of him pinning me down to the ground last night come back, reminding me of how strong he was. You can still see the faint marks my nails left when I clawed at his chest.

He isn’t overly muscular; he’s lean. But what he does have is chiseled, and my legs threaten to buckle. Good thing I’m sitting down.

“You have my towel,” he speaks, making me jump.

“Oh, sorry,” I say in a rush and yank it from my shoulders and toss it to him.

I look up at him through my lashes when he just stands there in front of me, and now, he’s the one looking down at me like he wants to push me up against the wall. Or down onto the lounge chair.

That’s when I remember why I had his towel in the first place. My shirt is still wet. And my nipples are hard from the wind making me cold. “Excuse me,” I say as I jump up. Turning around, I take off into the house.