58
THEA
Pain floods my senses. I can’t feel anything beyond it. I think it’s mostly coming from my head, although my entire body hurts. My eyelids feel too heavy. Still, I try to open my eyes. It’s a momentary peek. I’m staring at my lap. I’m in a chair, I think.
My eyes fall closed, unable to keep the darkness from consuming me.
The next time I come to, I can finally think around the aching coming from the back of my head. Taking in a deep breath, I try to figure out what’s going on. What’s the last thing I remember?
I open my eyes—still staring at my lap, but this time I have the strength to keep them open. Lifting my head, my neck aches in protest. I push past it. In front of me is a living room, dim and only lit by the flames in the fireplace.
Old, plaid print couches and worn armchairs frame a small coffee table. There’s a deer head mounted above the mantel. By the look of the wooden walls and ceiling, I know I’m in a cabin.
To my left is a dining room table and three other chairs tucked into it. Mine is the only one askew. That brings me back to the feel of my body, which is stiff and aching. I try shifting my arms and legs. My wrists rub against something rough and scratchy. My feet barely move an inch as I try to push them outwards.
I’m tied up.
That’s when I feel the pain in my shoulders. It’s similar to the soreness I felt after Damian tied me up in my studio. My muscles throbbed from being in the same position for too long, but this is much more intense. How long have I been like this?
Memories come flooding back. Cole. The hospital. Sutton. The light post. Jesus fucking Christ. Cole must have knocked me out. My only goal in those last few moments was to make sure he didn’t get me in the car.
I failed. Wesley’s words pummel me. I didn’t fight like I wanted to live.
Where is he now? Aside from the crackling fire, it’s been silent since I’ve woken. I crane my neck to look behind me—an empty kitchen. Then I hear a door creak open. My head snaps to the one opening to my right.
“Oh good, you’re finally up.” Cole walks in with an armful of wood. He kicks the door closed and goes to the fireplace, dropping the logs next to it. In the firelight, I see that his light blue shirt, the same one I remember him wearing this morning as he kissed me goodbye, is stained. The dark smears make my stomach turn—blood. My blood.
I want to cry. How much had I lost? Was I dying? No, not dying. I’m awake now. If my injury was that serious I’d know it, I think. I remember hearing that face and head injuries bleed the most because the vessels are close to the skin. That must be why there’s so much on him.
Swallowing the thickness in my throat, I croak out. “Cole.” My voice is hoarse from screaming. “Please untie me,” I manage.
He smiles and walks towards me. Reaching out, he puts a finger under my chin and I have to force myself not to flinch. I need to stay on his good side for as long as it takes to get out of here. “My love, I can’t do that. You and I both know you’ll run.”
I wet my lips. “You can’t keep me tied up forever. I’ll need to use the bathroom, shower, eat.” I try to reason with him. He frowns.
“Thea, those privileges are for good girls and you’ve been very bad.”
Panic rushes through me as he uses Damian’s words against me. Something in Cole has snapped and I’m on the receiving end of his wrath. “Cole, this isn’t like you. You’d never hurt me. You told me that yourself.” Maybe I can convince him he doesn’t want to do this or at the very least keep him distracted from whatever it is he has planned for me.
My wrists stretch against the rope that’s binding me. I’m looking for an inch of movement that I can exploit. If I can stretch it out, then maybe I can get my hands free. Even if I do, I won’t have enough time to untie to my feet and get out the door. Sitting here doing nothing isn’t an option either.
Cole leans down until he’s nose to nose with me. “This is who I am now. This is who you and my brothers have made me into.” His mouth crushes mine, but I don’t reciprocate, so he bites my bottom lip. I yelp and he shoves his tongue into me. “Good luck with trying to get your wrists free,” he muses, pulling away.
I hear muffled ringing. Cole walks over to the couch and grabs my satchel. He digs through it and finds my phone. He stares at the name on the screen and scoffs.
“Probably wondering where you are by now,” Cole says as he rolls his eyes and holds down the button on the side of the phone. I watch as the screen goes black. Fuck.
“Cole, my arms really hurt. Please,” I beg.
He tosses my phone back on the couch and comes over to me. “But isn’t this what you like, Thea? Don’t you like to be tied up and fucked? A little pain with your pleasure.” He smirks in a way that makes a shiver run down my spine.
“Not like this,” I whisper. “I don’t understand how we got here.”
Cole sighs and walks over to the fire. Leaning down, he pushes at the logs with the metal poker. “I thought things would change when I met you. You were perfect. I made sure you were before I made my decision.” He stands back up and plops down in an armchair. Resting his elbows on his knees, he runs his hands up his face and through his hair.
My face screws in confusion. “What do you mean, perfect? I’m not perfect at all, Cole.”
He looks up at me. “You were for me. Those innocent eyes and your tragic past, you needed a savior. Someone who would cherish you, put you first, and give everything they had just to be with you. I was ready to do all of that.”
This all sounds too dramatic. Of course, my past wasn’t anything to write home about, but tragic—that’s a little much.
“We were so similar and I could see us creating a beautiful new life together, healing each other because we understood what it was like being neglected and forgotten.” His eyes soften and I can see that he’s wanting me to sympathize with him.
The wheels turn in my head. Cole has romanticized this entire thing, creating some kind of distorted reality where he’s my hero and I’m his heroine. We’ll rescue each other from all that has hurt us in the past. And while that’s all well and good, he’s conveniently glossing over the fact that he’s also the villain who’s doomed us both.
But I can’t say this—not if I want to make it out of here alive.
I drop my head. “You’re right, Cole.” Looking up at him, I force longing into my gaze. “I needed a savior—that was supposed to be you.” Careful not to lay it on too thick, I continue. “I got confused when they were brought into the mix. I didn’t think I had a choice. And I didn’t want to lose you. I was willing to sacrifice who I was to be with you.”
In the firelight, I see his jaw tighten and I worry I’ve said the wrong thing.
“They always ruin everything. I thought I found my place when I met them, a new family who actually cared about me, who would notice me. I was overshadowed once again. Damian made his own way, making millions with his natural fucking talent for computers. And Sutton with his perfect, accepting family who loves him no matter what. He didn’t even belong with us. We were all cast out or neglected by our families, but not him. Sutton couldn’t be happy with having one family—he needed two.” My heart cracks at hearing Cole talk about Sutton like this, especially when he is fighting for his life. Is he okay or had he… I push the thought away, unable to bear the alternative. “Wesley is always the loveable one. Why does everyone like him so much? He can be such a prick sometimes, but everyone sees this big teddy bear, always pushing his way into the spotlight. He’s so fucking fake. Acting like he’s happy when he’s really wallowing over the women who’ve left him. Victoria. His mom. Jesus, suck it up.”
His words send goosebumps over my skin. Not only by how callous he’s being, but the truth about Wesley’s past. His mom abandoned him? It’s like a blur filter is being slowly pulled from my vision of him. While I understood the pain that Victoria caused, this makes so much more sense. The woman who should’ve been the most important in his life left. And now, he probably thinks I left too.
The tears sting my eyes.
Cole stands and starts pacing. I can tell he’s getting agitated talking about this. I should try to calm him, although I’m still recovering from the blow his words have dealt. “They couldn’t let me have one thing.” He turns to face me. “You. That’s all I wanted. But no, we had to follow the rules of the pact. Share you or toss you aside. You know, I begged Damian to change the terms, literally on my knees begged him—for you,” he laughs cynically as he says it.
“Cole, you have so much aside from me. You have the bakery, you’re unbelievably talented.” He’s made his brothers out to be far better off than him. They’ve all struggled to make their own way.
“No, I have part of the bakery. Damian owns the other part. The rules of the pact,” he says it in a mocking tone. “Damian owns it all. He owns all of us.”
“This isn’t the answer, Cole.” With the revelation that the only way out is death, I’m not sure what the solution is. Not involving me in this twisted pact in the first place would be a step in the right direction. “There has to be another way. Some other option. I can help,” I try to reason.
His eyes study me as if he doesn’t fully believe me, but there’s a flicker of hope there and I need to play on it.
“We can do it together. We can leave them behind. Run away together.” I let my eyes fill with promise, willing him to entertain the idea.
Cole walks toward me and hope surges. Maybe he’ll untie me now. “My love, I wish it was that easy. They’ll never let you go. You know our secrets too. The only way out is death.”
He makes the last part sound more like a promise than a threat.
His hand travels up the side of my neck and to the back of my head. I wince as his fingers find the wound. I think he might pull away, realizing he’s touched it, but he doesn’t. Instead, he grips my hair tightly and yanks my head back.
“Even if I thought I could take you away from here and keep you from them, I don’t think I’d ever trust you. Because you want them as much as they want you. On your life, right, love?” He’s not wrong. I haven’t done a good job of fooling. Maybe Jessie was right—I’m a shit liar.
My eyes water from the pain and I’m on the verge of crying out, however, I don’t want to give him the satisfaction, so I bite down on my lip to keep it in.
“Yeah, this is what you like, isn’t it? You’re just as sick and twisted as them. It’ll always be in the back of your pretty little head. Wishing I’d tie you up and spank you like Damian or bite you like Wes. Or fuck you on a bookstore counter like Sutton. You’ll never be satisfied with me. I realized that when you took all of us that night.” Cole releases his grip, looking disgusted that I barely flinched at the pain.
In the dimness, I see his hand slicked with my blood and I have to take a breath to keep from screaming or passing out again. Cole wipes his hand over his pants and perches on the back of the couch. “I expected more from you, Thea. At every turn, I waited for you to draw the line and tell them you had enough, that I was enough for you. To beg me to choose you over the pact. But you never did. You kept pushing the boundaries. You’re not the girl I thought you were.”
I bite my tongue, wanting to correct him. I’m not a girl, I’m a woman. Then I remember Damian’s words. The day in my studio when he said that I wasn’t as innocent as Cole thought I was. Fuck, it was there all along.
“I gave you everything you said you wanted. You wanted consistency, attention, protection, affection. I gave it all to you. I made sure you saw that, even if I had to create scenarios to prove it to you.” His words, the list, it sounds oddly familiar, although I can’t place why.
“Cole, there’s a lot I want. All of those things, but also things I’ve yet to discover. I’m just confused. I don’t remember telling you that stuff.” I push farther, cautiously—he’s piqued my interest. “What scenarios?”
He tilts his head and drops his brows. “You told Cassie those things. You could have told me anything you wanted me to hear, but with her, I knew you were completely candid. And I met all of those expectations.” Cassie. I vaguely remember us texting, right after my breakup, one of my many rants about what Gavin failed to provide and what I needed out of my next relationship. How? Her phone. It suddenly dawns on me. It went missing after game night.
Fear grips me. No, I don’t want to believe it.
“You took it,” I murmur.
He chuckles darkly. “What better way to get into a girl’s head than to read all the conversations with her best friend?” My lips quiver at the invasion of privacy, mine and Cassie’s. There were so many things we told each other that were for only us to see. Things that Cole has known about for months, hiding the knowledge behind that warm, sweet smile.
Nausea and lightheadedness assault me.
I’ve heard enough. Despite that, I need to know the full extent of what Cole’s done. “The scenarios?” I probe.
“Where do I begin with that?” He says, looking up at the ceiling as if he’s fondly remembering each one. “Well, there’s Jake. You know about that one. I was sloppy with that. I should have paid someone random. I talked to him a few days before the barbecue and told him we were moving the date out so he wouldn’t show up. Someone must have told him it was tonight.”
Cole pushes off the couch, heading to the fireplace. The flames are dying now. He throws in a fresh log, the embers lick at the wood, hungry for the sacrifice.
“The notes, the texts, you getting sick, your apartment flooding. I did these things to show you I could protect you, that I would be there for you at your lowest, and that I could provide for you. I would do it all without hesitation. God, it was so easy to get away with. I thought you’d be suspicious, but Gavin showed up and took the fall.”
“The texts from Gavin? That was you? How?” I’m completely confused. How could he send me messages from my ex’s phone?
He tilts his head as he stares at me, a menacing look in his eyes. Reaching onto the mantle, Cole grabs something…a phone. I don’t need confirmation—it has to be Gavin’s. “When’s the last time you saw Gavin, Thea?” The carnival. A sly smile forms. The tracker on his car showing it hasn’t moved. “You should’ve seen the fear in his eyes.”
Another wave of sickness rolls through me. Did Cole kill him? I’m not sure I can ask him that. I don’t want to know.
“Was all of it you?” Gavin had done his fair share of shitty stuff. He’d shown up in Willow Hill to get me back. He stayed long past his welcome and put his hands on me, but was that the extent of it?
“Gavin was the perfect scapegoat, even after he was gone.” Oh, God. Is that a confession? Rob, Matt, and Gavin. What if I’m next?
Numbness creeps in. I push everything else away because I’m realizing that I’m dealing with someone very dangerous and completely demented. I can’t have my emotions affecting anything I might need to do to survive.
“I’m truly impressed, Cole. You had all of us fooled. No one suspected you. I’m actually fascinated by it, by you.” I give his ego a boost, so he’s full of himself. Cole needs to feel indestructible. I’ll use his arrogance against him. That’s how I’ll take him down.
Even if it means killing him to stay alive.