The Lies That We Tell

Chapter 32

I minimize the camera feed on my phone and dial Tate”s phone as I run up the path from the small house back to Rhyann”s. The call goes straight to voicemail. Fuck. Quickly, I try Liam”s phone. Same thing. Fuck fuck fuck. This can’t be happening. I knew splitting up was a bad idea. I never should have let them go to the club alone. I should have insisted Tate call his father, find out what he meant by situation, the place had already burned to the ground, what else could fucking go wrong there?

At least Rhyann”s safe. I stop to catch my breath when I reach the driveway of the main house. The last time I was in the garage, I saw the old VW Jetta Rhyann”s grandfather bought her for her sixteenth birthday. The man was meticulous about car maintenance, and I know Phil is too. I’ll be surprised if the car isn’t in pristine, running order.

The side door to the garage is unlocked and creaks open when I turn the handle. It’s dark, but there’s enough light coming from the open door that I spot the car immediately. I hurry to the driver side door, silently praying to every god from every religion I can think of, that the keys are in it. I let out a triumphant sigh when the door opens immediately for me and I notice the acrylic cherry keychain with a single black and silver key attached, sitting on the driver’s seat.

I smile to myself, a little surprised that Rhyann never changed the keychain after college. Liam got it for her on her sixteenth birthday. Liam, Tate and I had gone with her grandfather to pick up the car. Liam saw double cherries with the sparkling green stem and leaf hanging from a display at the dealership and he just had to buy it for her. It was his birthday gift to Rhyann. My drawing permanently inked on her skin, the keychain kept on the car she’s driven since she was a teen— I guess in her own way, she’s kept us with her all these years.

The thought kills me when I think about how much hell we put her through over the years also. The way I treated her after taking her virginity. How I told her she was just another notch on my belt, a tally mark in my little black book. I was such a dick and definitely don’t deserve her.

I search through the car, looking for the garage door opener. When I can’t find it in the center console or the glove box, I get out of the car and walk over to the door that leads into the kitchen and press the dimly lit button on the wall. As the metal door slides up, I walk back to the car. I stop before sliding into the driver seat when I hear soft footsteps behind me. Rolling my eyes I let out a sigh. “I told you to stay at Kathleen and Phil’s.” The smile on my face betrays the annoyance in my voice.

I start to turn and kiss the woman I love, but something heavy strikes me in the back of the head, sending a searing pain throughout my skull. My ears ring and my teeth gnash together as stars explode behind my eyes and everything goes black.

“You,” I breathe. “You’re the one who took me from the gala?” I gawk at the tall dark haired man walking toward me.

“Surprise.” Cole’s black eyes glint in the dim light. “You know, if you’d have just come with me that night at the club, things would have been so much easier for you.”

A sick feeling settles in my gut as Cole rubs at the purple and green bruise across his face. The bruise I left when I hit him with the wrench. “This is all because I blew you off at the nightclub?” I ask.

His sinister laugh sends chills down my spine. I take a few steps back, looking around for anything I can use to defend myself with. My mind races with a million thoughts. How did Cole get into the gala? How did he know I’d be there? Oh god, he— “You burned down Tate”s club, didn’t you?”

Cole stops a few feet from the front door as my back hits the kitchen counter. He brushes a strand of dark hair from the side of his face as he smiles wide and puffs his chest in pride. “Did you like my handy work, Rhyann?”

“Because I rejected you?” I choke on the question. Tate losing his club, it’s all my fault.

Cole’s smile fades. “Contrary to what those three idiots would have you believe, you’re not the main character of everyone’s story, Rhyann.” Cole takes a slow step in my direction. Slowly, not taking my eyes from him, I walk along the counter, my hands reaching behind me, blindly searching for something heavy or sharp.

“Then what? You heard about the first attempt to kidnap me and thought, ‘Hey that sounds like fun’?” There’s a wooden knife block on the counter across from me. If I can just get to it before he has a chance to close the gap of space between us.

Cole laughs, shaking his head. “Don’t even think about trying to fight back. You’ll be coming with me, and this time you won’t fight me.” His fingers go up the bruise that covers almost one whole side of his cheek.

I scoff. “Like hell I will. Dev will be back any minute,” I say. “He’s going to bury your disgusting ass.” Dev, please hurry. I caught Cole off guard in the van, but he towers over me and he’s almost as big as Tate. I don’t think I can take him head on. I blink back tears as they form at the roots of my lashes. I won’t allow him to have the power over me that he’s had for the past week.

“Oh, he won’t be coming back for you. Actually none of them will.” Cole takes another step forward.

Panic shakes my body. The guys wouldn’t leave me here, they wouldn’t put me in danger. I know that after this weekend, after last night. They love me. Devon promised to come back as soon as he got the car. My Jetta is in the garage. The keys are right where I’ve always left them when I came home from school. He should be on his way right now. Any minute, Dev will walk through that door and beat the shit out of this guy.

Cole reaches into the pocket of his hoodie and I take my chance and run for the knife block, gripping the largest handle and pulling out the chef’s knife. “Stay back,” I say. God, could I sound any more like one of those dumb girls in horror movies? The ones who can’t fight, who can’t even stab the bad guy deep enough to get away. That’s not me though. No, I’m not going to be that girl, the defenseless weakling who can’t protect herself.

“Look.” Cole pulls a cell phone from his hoodie and slides it across the counter. I gasp and drop the knife onto the granite countertop when my phone and the image on the screen gets close enough to me. “You see, no one is coming to rescue you, Rhyann. No one is going to save you this time.”

“Dev will,” I say, fighting back the bile that rises in my throat as I stare at the image in front of me. The picture is of both Tate and Liam, their eyes swollen shut, blood covering their faces and necks as their limp bodies sag against a charred wall of the club.

A slow smile spreads across Cole’s face. “Look at the next picture.” Cole nods his head at the phone that’s now in my hands. I swipe left on the screen and find a picture of Devon, face down on the floor of my garage, the Jetta’s driver side door open, blood covering the back of his head. My knees begin to buckle as I continue to swipe between the two pictures. My whole world right there, taken from me in one swoop.

“Where’s Adrian?” I choke back the sob.

Cole laughs. “He’s still around, that idiot uncle of yours too. We aren’t done with them yet.”

“I don’t have any uncles,” I say, confusion mingling with the dread cementing in my bones.

“Oh Rhyann. Everyone in your life has kept so many secrets, told you so many lies. You don’t even know who you are. Or, you didn’t until recently.” Cole takes a step closer to me. His hands up in the air. “That idiot in your garage is alive, for now.” Cole smirks. “If you come with me, I promise you’ll know every deep dark secret your family has kept from you before you die.”

Before I die. Devon”s gone, Tate and Liam are gone. I have nothing and no one left in this world. Even if I made it out of this mess alive, what do I have to live for? The only men I will ever love are gone. I’m nothing more than a hollow shell without the three of them. But if I go with him willingly, Kathleen and Phil won’t have to find my body. They won’t come home to my body decaying on their kitchen floor. Kathleen won’t be scrubbing my blood out of the hardwood flooring. They won’t have to worry about work either when I’m gone. When my grandfather died, I had Kathleen and Phil written into the deed for the house in the event of my untimely death. My grandfather’s lawyer, Calvin Montgomery— Oh. My. God. No, no no. I shake my head in disbelief. Cole watches me, his black eyes never leaving mine as I quietly process the thoughts running rampant in my mind. There’s no way Calvin Montgomery could be my uncle. My mother was an only child, and my father took my mother’s last name when they married. He was a Montgomery though. Am I really so dense that I didn’t question why my grandfather’s lawyer and my father shared a surname?

“Fine,” I say. “I’ll go with you. I have nothing left to fight for anyway.” I straighten my back. If he thinks that I’m just going to lay down and let him kill me when this is all over, he has another thing coming.