I Dare You (Dare, #1)

by Shantel Tessier

Have you ever been to a funeral where the preacher stands before the friends and loved ones of the deceased and talks about how shitty the person was? How he fucked around on his wife? Or spent his family’s life savings to feed his gambling addiction? How about during his bachelor party when he snorted coke off a hooker’s ass? Me neither. Why is it that we’re fucking saints the moment we die?

Now that begs the question–what if you’re not sorry? What if you don’t care to be forgiven? No amount of holy water could cleanse my soul, and I’m okay with that because when I sinned, I understood that I would one day have to pay.

Now, I’m not a religious person. Obviously. But I do know this. When I am damned to hell, it’ll be because I fucking earned it.

“It occurred to me that if there’s no DNA to be found, then there’s no way for you to pin me for a murder. Did you know that it takes just a little over two hours to burn a body?” I laugh nervously. “Fire doesn’t destroy everything, sweetheart.” “I know.” I can hear the smile in her voice that lets me know she’s ahead of me again. “That’s why after it finished burning, I took a hammer and crushed what bones were left and then tossed the dust over the cliff into the ocean. Oh, and no worries, I also burned my clothes as well.” “Fuck …” “I know how to cover my ass, Cole. I’m a Lowes, after all.” I stare ahead at my dark gray wall, trying to decide my next move, but she’s not done. “But it was fun watching you think you had it all figured out.” Click. “Goddammit!” I throw my phone across my room.

I yank up the sleeve of my red cardigan and hiss in a breath when I see blood running down my arm. His hand grabbing my forearm must have pulled my cut open. “Fuck!” He hisses, noticing it, and demands, “You didn’t get that stitched up?” I narrow my eyes on him. “Who the hell was going to stitch it up?”

“Where did you move here from?” I ask. She reaches up and quickly wipes away a tear from her cheek. “What does it matter?” “It doesn’t. Just making small talk.” “I prefer when I thought you were trying to kill me over small talk,” she snaps. I smile. Yeah, there’s something about Austin Lowes that I like. A lot.

“I know you’re into the fight.” He stiffens. “But if you didn’t wanna get your hands dirty, you could have poisoned him and tossed his body into an abandoned well and thrown sulfuric acid down there with him to dissolve the body. It takes a little longer than lye, but it liquefies the bones and teeth as well as the soft tissue.”

I give him a big smile. “I know how to cover my tracks.” I say the same thing I told him the night he tried to blackmail me. The first time. And for the first time in the three weeks I’ve known Cole Reynolds, he looks utterly impressed and speechless. It’s awesome.

“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.