Page 175 of The Pact

“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.

59

COLE

“Can you start from the beginning? I want to know all of it.” Thea looks at me, expressionless. I’m surprised. Crying, yelling, begging—I’d been prepared for all of those things. I wasn’t expecting this. “Please,” she adds.

My brow pops up. “Really?”

She nods. I consider her request. Part of me knows I should keep my mouth shut. However, the other part of me is eager to give into her. I’m not sure if I’m more interested in seeing the shock on her face when she learns the depths of my obsession or if I’m so damn arrogant that I got away with it and need to tell someone.

The arrogant part of me wins.

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