Jenalyn: Crossing Lines (#4) [Complete]

Chapter 37: Hayden

Sunday, 11:32 P.M. EST

I’ve been contemplating if and how I should tell Dane about what Sierra did. I’d intended to as soon as he got home, but finding out that Sierra was lying about him insisting I stay in there threw a wrench in the works.

What if this gets turned around on me?

The longer I wait, the more anger he’ll carry when he blames it on me anyway… I should just tell him. 

“Dane…” I say before I psych myself out any more. 

Sierra got one over on me. She probably knew she could let me out the whole time; she just needed someone to take the fall for her. I did this to myself, and I have no choice but to come clean.

My only options are to tell him now and deal with the consequences or let him find out on his own, and deal with the consequences of having kept it a secret. I imagine the latter to be worse. He’s bound to look in his stash at some point, that’d lead to questions, which would result in checking the security cameras for answers…

That’d lead right to me. Sierra was smart about that.

Dane pulls his attention from the line he’d been breaking down to turn to me.

“I uh… I forgot to tell you…” I force myself to mutter despite the heavy pit forming at the bottom of my stomach. It’s not a good start, but it’s all I can bring myself to muster up under the pressure of anxiety weighing me down. 

He raises his brows in skepticism as he waits for me to continue. I can see the impatience clear on his face, but I still have to give myself a moment to catch my breath before I go on.

“I… I made a deal with Sierra so she would unlock the door for me. I really had to get out of there, Dane!” I force from my lips, my words coming out rushed. I don’t leave any time for him to interject before I continue. “She made it seem like you didn’t want me to get out of there! And I knew it was only because you thought that I’d try to leave, and that wasn’t what I was trying to do! I agreed to help her in exchange for unlocking the door because… because…”

I know I’m rambling, and I can see him growing more and more frustrated as the seconds tick by. I can’t help myself from trying to defend my action though, even if I haven’t told him what it was yet…

“I wouldn’t keep it a secret from you like she told me! And I only did it because I knew you could take care of it!” I cry, pushing through the panic rising in my chest as I watch his eyes harden. “I was scared you’d blame it on-”

Dane interrupts me; I’m surprised he hadn’t done it sooner. 

“Get to the point,” he demands, frustration already apparent in his voice. 

I take a deep breath. My face and head already hurt again just looking at the anger he holds. After everything that happened at the hospital with Ren, I’ve been trying to be a better person. I don’t want anybody to have to take the fall for my actions again, but I hope Sierra is the one who gets blamed for this. 

She tricked me… 

“Sierra wanted me to break into your stash so she could steal a brick and run off…” I shove the words from my mouth before I leave too long of a silence. “She wanted me to take the blame whenever you found out, but I never planned to keep it a secret! I just… wanted to get out of there…”

Dane looks unimpressed. Unimpressed, but still angry. 

“You’ve been in my presence now for…” he says, pausing for a moment to check his watch bere continuing. “18 minutes, and you couldn’t have said anything prior to this moment?” 

I knew that would upset him but it’s better than not having said anything at all, right? 

“I’m sorry,” I mumble, my voice reflecting the nerves that rush through my body. “I was afraid you would find a way to blame me for it, and I-”

He cuts me off again, this time yelling as he storms off into his walk-in closet where his safe sits. “How the hell is this not your fault, Jenalyn?!” he growls, disappearing behind his closet door. “You let some bitch steal my shit, and for what? A shower? Really?!”

It sounds stupid when he says it out loud, but that’s not even what this should be about! She stole from him! How am I really getting shit right now, when she did so much worse?

Dane rants about my stupidity as he scopes out the damage she’d done to his stash. I can’t fully hear him through the walls, but I can tell he’s angry up until a few moments before he emerges carrying the remains of a brick. 

She didn’t even take a whole brick. I’m starting to think this whole scheme had nothing to do with the stash in the first place…

“I thought this was going to be a lot worse than it turned out to be,” he says, shrugging his shoulders as he eyeballs the fourth of brick she left. He doesn’t sound angry anymore, but he glares at me in a way that makes my skin crawl. “I’m not mad about the drugs… You know my supply has no limits. What I am mad about though? Is the stupidity both of you displayed tonight…”

He pauses for a few moments, but not long enough to allow me any time to respond. Letting out a chuckle, he turns to me with his eyes ablaze. 

“We could have a lot of fun hashing this out,” he hisses.