Days of Revelations (Night of Secrets #2)

Chapter 4 - The First Panic Moment

Trigger Warning: Sexual harassment and assault

Adeline

The guys check in on me during lunch. At some point, I went on autopilot and have to force myself to focus enough to fake smiles and sarcasm when I answer their questions. It's not until the start of my free period an hour later that I calm down enough to come out of my thoughts. My breathing is less shallow, and my heart rate is finally back to normal.

When I open my locker, I basically grab all my books and shove them into my backpack. There's too much to catch up on, especially since I spaced out during my classes. My fault... Calculus, psychology, English, and—

An arm slides around my shoulders, and my breath catches in my throat. Oh, fuck... Only one person does this to me. Jax and the guys know not to catch me by surprise like this for a reason. So it has to be—

Dean smiles at me. "Adeline Stargate."

I shrug his arm off, tightening my hold on my locker door so the metal cuts into my skin. But better to feel the pain than whatever panic is swelling in me right now. "What do you want?"

Dean smirks. "Maybe the question should be what do you want? You know, before Jax interrupted our conversation this morning."

"We weren't having a conversation. I was just telling you I'm sorry for bumping into you." And I really am sorry because if I didn't bump into him, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. I shut my locker and finally look at my hand. There's a pretty deep cut on my palm, just on the verge of bleeding. I dig my nails into it. "If you don't actually have anything to say, I have to go."

I try to walk around him, but he steps in my way. "No, you don't. You have a free period next." How the fuck does he know that? He reads the question—or panic—on my face and smirks. "I do my research."

"You mean stalking."

He shrugs. "Call it what you want. All I know is you have time to talk."

I lift my chin. "About what? Because so far it's just me standing here while you say nothing."

His smile drops, and he takes a step toward me. He's so close now that I can see his eyes darken. I have to dig my nails even deeper into my palm to keep myself where I am.

"Okay," Dean says, "here's something. Tell me about your last letter."

Huh... Not what I expected him to say... Dean, Faye, and Cyril have never come up to me about the letters before. I always thought they just threw them away instead of reading them. Dean is definitely confrontational enough to say shit to my face, so I'm a little surprised it took him so long to say anything at all.

"What about it?" I ask.

He leans towards me, so when he speaks, I can feel his hot breath. "Why don't you want me to fuck you? You never explained that."

His eyes sear into me, but I force myself to maintain eye contact. "There's nothing to explain. I don't want to. That's the only explanation."

I try turning and walking in the opposite direction, but Dean grabs my wrist, yanking me back to him. My breath catches in my throat as I stop myself from slamming into him. I focus on my closed fist. Blood drips down my palm, and I turn all my attention to the dark red color instead of Dean and his eyes and his touch and his closeness.

Dean tightens his grip on my wrist, pulling me even closer to him. I turn my head away, and I feel his breath on my ear when he says, "Whatever the reason, I'm gonna tell you right here and now you would've enjoyed it."