Jenalyn: Crossing Lines (#4) [Complete]

Chapter 20: Hayden

Saturday, 11:41 P.M. EST

“I don’t care about him,” Dane says, growing impatient behind his very calm and collected demeanor. “Daddy-to-be is not waking up any time soon. I can assure you of that.”

I should have known! No, a part of me did fucking know. I was just too stupid to acknowledge it! I thought I was just being panicked, and that everything would be okay!

“Ivan is right down the hall…” I mutter, my heart and stomach both threatening to come up as vomit. 

He clears his throat, shifting his weight to the opposite leg with a sigh. “He’s not waking up anytime soon either, Jena,” he says, trying to hide the frustration in his voice. “Let’s go. Open the goddamned door and stop fucking around.”

My stomach quivers in anxiety.

Jena wants to open the door in fear out of what he’ll to do to her if she doesn’t. She wants to open the door because somewhere inside of her; she loves him. 

Hayden can’t have him in her room though. I don’t know what he’s here to do tonight, but I can’t risk it seeping into Hayden’s life!

“I can’t…” I cry, hiding behind the small crack I’d left in the door. 

I hear him sigh again, his anger becoming more clear as each second passes that I don’t let him in. 

“Jenalyn, I am only going to tell you one more fucking time to open that door before I make your life an episode of Special Victim’s Unit,” he says between gritted teeth. “Do not fucking test me!”

I let out a small cry. I can’t bring myself to open the door; he wants to take my baby!

“What are you going to do if I let you in?” I wail, feeling as if I could collapse at any moment.

He rolls his eyes and shifts his weight again. “I would like to see you, Jenalyn,” he says with his jaw clenched. “Open the fucking door.”

I don’t want to! I really don’t fucking want to, but what choice do I have?!

He probably could have gotten in this whole time. I’m sure his requesting that I let him in is just him offering me one last life line before he kills me. If I open the door for him? He’ll make it quick and painless. If I keep defying him? It’ll be excruciating and slow. 

I open the door, my hands shaking as I allow him to slip through carrying a small black backpack.

His presence in my suite alone is enough to suck all the air out. I feel lightheaded. 

He doesn’t belong in Hayden’s life!

He scopes out my suite, saving the bedroom where Ty lay drugged up for last.

“So this is the big bad rockstar?” he asks, pausing in the doorway to the bedroom to turn around to me with a smirk. “He doesn’t look badass to me… Was he worth it, at least?

I step closer to him, though certain to keep a decent amount of space between us in case he tries to hit me. My legs feel like Jell-O as they tremble beneath me. “Worth what?” I ask, my voice weak. 

Dane chuckles, cocking his head to the side as if I shouldn’t have had to ask. 

“Worth all the hell we’ve got to go through because you ignored my warning to pursue a family with this guy!” he exclaims matter-of-factly. He wears a smile that doesn’t sit right on his face. 

I knew it would be along those lines. Knowing it a hundred years ago couldn’t even have prepared me for how to respond though.

“It- it’s a lie for the media!” I blurt. “We’re not really together! We’re just-”

He rolls his eyes, letting out a sigh before interrupting me. “That’s not the point, Jenalyn,” he says to me. “I told you to get rid of that bastard fucking baby, and you didn’t! You know how I know? Because you look like a goddamned house.”

My mind is shot. I’m surprised I can muster up words right now.

“I- I couldn’t…” I stutter. 

Dane cuts me off though, closing in on the space between us so fast can’t react. “Bullshit!” he yells when he reaches me. He raises his fist as if he’s about to hit me, but lowers it before continuing. “I didn’t dish out a couple thousand fucking dollars for a ‘couldn’t!’ The bitch you killed could, right? So why couldn’t you?! Do you know what I went through to clean that mess up for you?!”

I’m not sure how to respond anymore; Anything I say is just going to piss him off more and work against me in the end. I can already feel the heat from his rage radiating off of his skin.

“That’s beside the point,” Dane says after a few moments, running his hand through his hair as he tries to contain his anger. “Now, in addition to taking care of that bastard in your belly? I’ve got a lesson to teach you. So let’s go.”