Our Darkest Dare

  Our

  Darkest

  Dare

  OUR DARKEST SERIES

  BOOK FIVE

  SARAH BAILEY

  Our Darkest Dare Copyright © 2021 by Sarah Bailey

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Please note the spelling throughout is British English.

  Cover Art by Sarah Bailey

  Published by Twisted Tree Publications

  www.twistedtreepublications.com

  info@twistedtreepublications.com

  Contents

  Prologue

  Part I

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Part II

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty One

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Chapter Twenty Six

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Part III

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty One

  Chapter Thirty Two

  Chapter Thirty Three

  Chapter Thirty Four

  Chapter Thirty Five

  Chapter Thirty Six

  Chapter Thirty Seven

  Chapter Thirty Eight

  Part IV

  Chapter Thirty Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty One

  Chapter Forty Two

  Chapter Forty Three

  Chapter Forty Four

  Chapter Forty Five

  Chapter Forty Six

  Chapter Forty Seven

  Chapter Forty Eight

  Chapter Forty Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty One

  Chapter Fifty Two

  Chapter Fifty Three

  Chapter Fifty Four

  Epilogue

  Acknowlegements

  About

  To Xavier and Ash,

  Your son gave me too many feels to count. I’m grateful you gave me the opportunity to tell his story no matter how difficult it was. Thank you for bringing Duke into the world. Without him and his Kira, your family wouldn’t be the same.

  Prologue

  I couldn’t be called someone who makes good choices in life. In all honesty, I don’t consider myself a nice guy. I’ve always played by my own rules, done whatever the hell I wanted and said fuck you to the consequences. That was okay. People knew what to expect when it came to me. No one asked for anything more.

  Except for her.

  She saw me for who I was. She understood me. Never judged me for the shit I did. She was there for me when everything got dark on that fateful day, which sent me spiralling out of control. The only one who knows why I can’t let anyone in or give them a part of myself I’ve long since buried underneath self-hatred and blame. The only girl who gave me her everything.

  Simply put… she was my best friend. And I had her back. Always.

  Until I didn’t.

  I knew one day our dares would get us into trouble. It started a long time ago with simple stupid kid stuff. One reckless act in a moment of weakness changed everything, and it only got worse from there. We had this innate need to one-up each other like it was a game.

  Only real feelings aren’t a game.

  They’re raw and unyielding.

  They were the ultimate ruination of the two of us.

  We took the dares too far. We crossed the line. And we can’t go back to the way we were.

  Kira Renata Willis used to be my best friend.

  She used to be my everything just as I was hers.

  Then we both fucked up.

  And now I want her back in my life so fucking bad, I’d do anything to make it right.

  Part I

  obliterate

  verb, ob·lit·er·at·ed, ob·lit·er·at·ing.

  to remove or destroy all traces of; do away with; destroy completely.

  Chapter One

  “I dare you to kiss Andie Simms.”

  My words had replayed over and over in my head for months. I wore them around my neck like a shackle. If I could take them back, I would. I regret that dare more than any other. And I’ve dared my best friend to do a lot of dumb shit.

  I met Duke Scott when we were both four years old at nursery. He was without a doubt the loudest and most out-there kid I’d ever encountered. We became inseparable over the years, both being heavily into gaming and doing reckless shit. My dad once said Duke was the male version of me. It was probably true. We were alike, but different in the right ways. We complimented each other. I knew how to calm him down when he got riled up. He pushed me to do things out of my comfort zone. Always wanting me to be the best version of myself.

  Duke was everything to me, like I was to him. However, there was one huge difference between him and me.

  I’ve loved my best friend for as long as I can remember. And not the platonic kind of love either. No, I loved Duke like he was my air, my sun, my moon and my stars.

  Why the hell had I dared him to kiss another girl?

  I’d asked myself this many times. The paralysing fear he would hate me if I told him the truth had driven me to say it when he told me he liked Andie. When he broke my heart into tiny pieces by admitting he liked a girl who wasn’t me.

  It’d always been stupid to harbour these feelings and hope one day he’d see me in the same way. I wasn’t exactly the most feminine girl. More like the girl the boys saw as one of the lads. It depressed me, but I’d brought it on myself. What boy would look at me, a gamer girl who wore boy’s clothes half the time as I found them more comfortable. A girl with mousy brown hair and brown eyes who rarely wore makeup. I didn’t stand out. I was ordinary. I liked blending into the background, but it didn’t stop me from wanting Duke to notice me. To see me as more than a friend. To see me as the girl he could fall in love with.

  Too bad it would never happen in reality. This was basically history repeating itself. I knew all about his family and how his dad, Eric, had harboured secret feelings for Duke’s biological father, Xav for half their lives. I’d grown up in their household. They were all like family to me.

  Duke and me? It wasn’t to be.

  Why would he look at me as a viable option, anyway? He was gorgeous. His previously blonde hair had darkened to auburn. Those blue eyes of his were like looking up at the sky on a cloudless day. Not to mention his beautiful bone structure. Maybe I’d spent far too long looking at him. We had known each other for twelve years. I’d watched him grow from a boy to a teen. Every day he grew ever more handsome. And little old me looked plain next to
his glory.

  I was a foolish girl in love with her best friend. It was all I’d ever be. A pathetic mess.

  I sat across from Duke and Andie in the lunch hall, watching them look at each other with stars in their eyes. My stomach protested the image, making me fiddle with my food rather than eat it. I dragged my fork through it, trying not to think too hard about wanting to tear Andie’s stupid, beautiful hair out.

  You suck. You really fucking suck.

  “You sure you don’t want to come over tonight?” Duke said to her.

  “Yes,” Andie trilled in that annoying high-pitched voice of hers, “You know my brother is on leave and my parents want me there for dinner.”

  Andie’s older brother, Wyatt, was in the army and had returned from a tour of duty. It’s all she talked about these days. I found the hero-worship of her brother odd and a little unnerving.

  “Yeah, I know.”

  Andie gave him a bright smile which only made me feel worse. I hated this. And I hated myself for the insane jealousy coating my veins like a sticky tar substance. I should not hate her because she was dating Duke. But I did. Oh, I really fucking did.

  I knew it was wrong and stupid. Duke was my best friend. My person. Andie didn’t know him the way I did. She didn’t fit into his life or share the same interests with him the way I did. She wasn’t right for him.

  Stop it. That’s not fair and you know it.

  “Besides, I’ll only get in the way of you and Kira.”

  I flinched, hearing my name on her lips. Andie was a nice girl. She never tried to come between me and Duke. I had been in his life first. It made me hating her ridiculous since she had done nothing wrong. It was me. I was the problem. Me and my idiotic feelings of unrequited love.

  “True. We are having a game night.”

  Duke and I liked to game. A lot. You wouldn’t think it, but we were probably the nerdiest kids in our class. Duke liked equations and logic. He was smarter than everyone else, though he never made a big deal out of it. We studied hard and played hard, spending almost every day together. Well, we did until Andie came along and took up his time. I was left with two nights a week and the occasional weekend.

  I hate myself for hating everything about her.

  I stared hard at my food, feeling ever like the third wheel.

  “Anyway, I promised the girls I’d spend the rest of lunch break with them. I’ll text you.”

  I looked up in time to see her kiss him before she got up, taking her tray with her. The very last thing I wanted to see today. Another display of public affection between the two of them. Duke watched her weave through the tables with a smile whilst I felt sicker than ever. He turned to me a moment later, his blue eyes glinting. I narrowed my eyes. I knew that look.

  “I dare you to throw that bit of carrot you keep pushing around at Tony’s head.”

  “Really?” I muttered, dropping my fork and picking up the carrot.

  “Yeah, really.”

  The devious smile on his face had me launching the carrot at Tony Brown’s head. It sailed through the air and hit my target. Tony immediately brought his hand up, rubbing the back of his head and looking around to see who had thrown something at him. I stared down at my plate, listening to Duke sniggering across from me.

  “You keep trying to catch me off guard with this shit, Duke, haven’t you learnt I don’t back down yet?” I hissed at him.

  I didn’t want to bring attention to us considering Tony had no idea I’d thrown something at him.

  “Oh, trust me, I know. You’re a daredevil.”

  I scoffed and went back to pushing my food around. If anyone else tried to dare me to do things, I would have ignored them. With Duke, I had everything to prove. It was a game we’d started with each other when we were eleven. We would take turns daring each other to do stupid things. It was kid stuff. I never expected us to still be doing it five years later, but here we were, two sixteen-year-olds being reckless because we could.

  “That was too easy. Next time, make it something good, yeah?”

  He winked at me. It was my turn to dare him. I had so many ideas, but I’d keep them to myself for now. He’d have to wait and see.

  “You’re on, Miss Baroness-in-waiting.”

  “Don’t call me that.”

  “No? Remind you too much of your staff?”

  I almost threw my plate at his head. He knew I hated the fact my dad was Stanley Willis, better known as Baron Suffield. Being his only daughter meant I would inherit the title. As if I wanted to be a member of the British nobility. What did it even matter, anyway? Not like it made me better than anyone else.

  We didn’t have staff like Duke had hinted at. Dad had private carers because of his advanced Parkinson’s disease. Mum had passed away when I was small. I remembered very little about her. Dad had never remarried. It was just us now.

  “You’re lucky I’ve not tossed the rest of my carrots at your head.”

  “How is the baron?”

  “Duke!”

  “You going to tell me?”

  I sighed.

  “He’s fine. Had a bad weekend, but he’s dealing, you know.”

  My dad adored Duke. They got on like a house on fire. It was another reason why I wished Duke and I could be together. My dad would be happy. He wanted me to have someone who would always be there for me. Duke fitted the bill. The two of us had been inseparable since we were kids. Not to mention we lived two streets over from each other. We’d always been in and out of each other’s houses.

  “Is his medication not working?”

  “It is, but he hates when he gets bad tremors in his hands. You know he likes to do things for himself.”

  My dad had always been independent. He’d taken on the bulk of raising me himself, but he’d also had the help of his younger sister, Aunt Bess, who'd passed away five years ago from a very aggressive form of breast cancer. He sat for the House of Lords in Parliament, something he continued to do despite his disease. One day, he’d have to step down from his role, but he loved his career in politics. I’d always supported him, even if I had zero interest in government.

  “I’ll come over next week. I still have to beat him at chess.”

  I smiled. Duke was so patient with my dad, even on his bad days.

  “He misses you.” And I do too.

  “Now I feel bad. I haven’t been over as much.”

  “It’s okay, he knows you have Andie.”

  He gave me a sad smile. I wasn’t sure why.

  “Yeah, I do, but you and Stan are important to me. I don’t want to neglect you.”

  My heart burnt at his words.

  “You’re not.”

  The lie stuck on my tongue. I had no right to feel neglected by him. Duke made every effort to spend time with me. We wouldn’t always be joined at the hip. I had to get used to it. The two of us weren’t destined for each other or anything.

  “Mum says E is making you a very special veggie lasagne tonight.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Yeah, he wants to test a new recipe out.”

  My dad had raised me as a vegetarian. I had tried eating meat when I was younger but could never abide the taste.

  “How I love being one of your dads’ guinea pigs.”

  Duke’s family treated me like one of their own. They even had my dad around for dinner when his job permitted. I’d spent most of my life at theirs when I wasn’t at home. Duke and I had countless sleepovers. Plus, I got on with his siblings, including Aurora, who most people feared. She was nice to me outside of school, even though I was her younger brother’s nerd friend. Maybe because I kept Duke from annoying her all the time.

  “Dad says E spoils you too much.”

  “Xav spoils me too, so he can’t talk.”

  Duke snorted.

  “Well, you’re family. Plus, Rora doesn’t like computers, so Dad loves having you around.”

&nbs
p; Xav had taught me a lot, including things no sixteen-year-old should know, like how to hack into a few rather well-known companies’ networks. I never did it on my own. My dad wouldn’t want me doing anything to break the law considering he was a politician. I kept my nose clean for the most part, except for my stupid dares with Duke.

  “Well, I am kind of amazing.”

  “You’re the best of the best.”

  “Still your favourite person, then?”

  He winked.

  “As if that was ever in doubt.”

  Sometimes in my heart, it was. I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want to come second best to his girlfriend.

  God, I’m such a bitch.

  Guilt swarmed me. I had to get this shit under control. Duke could never know I felt this way. He’d hate me if he did. I couldn’t stomach the thought of it. If I lost Duke, I’d have nothing. Duke Scott was my everything. And I hated myself for wishing I was his everything too.

  Chapter Two

  I lay on my bed, staring up at the ceiling with my best friend next to me. Kira was humming as she read a textbook. We were supposed to be doing homework. She was doing hers, but I had too much shit on my mind.

  I turned my head and eyed her. The curtain of her light brown hair hung over her face, obscuring my ability to scrutinise the girl I’d known most of my life. Kira often told me she thought herself plain. I’d never considered her anything but beautiful. Her eyes were more coppery than plain brown, an unusual colour. They were her best feature. I could see all her emotions reflected in them, but no doubt it had everything to do with me knowing her well.

  I shouldn’t be listing off my best friend’s assets when I had a girlfriend. Every part of me felt guilty over the fact I found myself staring at her more and more as the years went by. Kira wasn’t some random girl to me. She was the person who knew me inside out. The only person other than my younger brother, Raphi, I ever let in.

  I did like my girlfriend a hell of a lot. If I let myself, I’d probably fall for her. It had been Kira who’d dared me to kiss Andie. And the only reason it had even come about was from me trying to work out Kira’s feelings towards me. I’d picked a girl in our class and said I liked her. It wasn’t a lie. Andie was beautiful with dark, glossy hair and brown eyes. My surprise came when Kira had responded to my confession with a dare. Now I was in a relationship I had never intended to get into in the first place, wondering how I’d got everything so wrong.