Page 166 of Soul So Dark

“Why not?”

His eyes wander across the room, settling on the wood burning stove as the flames dance in his eyes. “She needed to be punished first.”

“What for?”

“The first time I saw her was at a party. I watched her for a while, and then some girl she was with started getting sloppy. It didn’t take long to realize her friend had been drugged, so I waited while Brett—that’s her name—took care of her.” Colson’s eyes begin to darken. “This asshole,Trey,was hanging around them the whole time, acting like he was trying to help. I already knew him from high school, he went to St. Iggy.”

Trey from St. Iggy? Like…Austin’s cousin, Trey?

“He was a fucking sleaze, so I figured he was the one who did it.” Colson empties his glass, swallowing hard. “Brett found someone to take the girl home, so Trey helped get her outside. But after that, I couldn’t find Brett. Come to find out, she disappeared withTrey.”

I watch Colson intently as he glares at the flames, his lip twitching as he recalls the memory.

“What’d you do?” I ask dubiously, unsure if I want to know the answer.

“I broke his goddamn knee,” Colson snickers, “just like Aiden did to Jay Rhinehardt.”

Jay Rhinehardt? Bowen’s friend, Jay Rhinehardt?

Then he smiles like he’s reliving the moment. “Mase and I went and found him one night. Stupid motherfucker still had that shit on him. So, I balanced that little bottle on his kneecap and smashed the fuck out of both of them at the same time. Then I got in my truck and drove up to the lake.”

“To Brett’s house?”

“Don’t worry,” Colson grins in response to my ambiguous expression, “I told her all about it a few months later.”

“You told her?” I balk. “How’dthatgo?”

Slowly, he turns back to the fire. “Absolutely amazing…” he murmurs on his breath. “She loved it. She loved everything I did.”

I stare at him, dumbfounded. “Shelikedit?”

“She gets it. She getsme.And it didn’t matter how fucked up I was, she saw all of me and she still wanted to be with me. She still wanted me to beher only.”

I pause to swallow the ever-growing lump in my throat. “So, if she gets you, why isn’t she here now?”

“Everyone has their breaking point,” he says after a long silence. “I had a nightmare that night. I put a gun to Bowen’s head. I wanted him to say what he did to Evie, and then I was going to put a bullet between his eyes. Except when I woke up, it wasn’t Bowen. It was Brett. She was the one I was throwing around the room. I put a fuckinggunin her mouth, Dallas,” he rasps.

My stomach drops and a sobering realization washes over me.

“Then what happened?”

“I woke up. And before I could do anything, she bolted. She wouldn’t answer texts, she wouldn’t answer calls, she wouldn’t even look at me in class.”

Can you blame her?

“I almost went to her apartment, but if she hadn’t told anyone what happened yet, she would have then. Leaving for a while was better than prison. So, that’s why I take the pills, Dallas,” Colson’s tone becomes increasingly more agitated, “because I went to the doctor and told them I tried to murder my girlfriend in my sleep. And now I get to take meds every day to remind myself that BowenfuckingGarrison is still ruining my goddamn life!”

“How long were you planning on staying away?” I ask, knowing how easy it is for time to elapse and promises to be forgotten.

“Paige asked me the same thing when I told her what happened,” Colson chuckles.

Who’s Paige?

I don’t get to ask him before his tone shifts again. “But Brett was—iseverything, and I can’t go back there if I can’t be with her.”

But I need him. I need Colson to come home. I know what I have to do to neutralize Bowen Garrison as a threat, and I’ve made my own plan for it, but Aiden’s words hang heavy in the back of my mind.

You and who else?