Chapter 4 – Reese #2
Dakota smirked and said, “So polite now.”
I ignored him.
He left the room, and I let out a long, weary breath.
When I knew he wasn’t coming right back, I pulled out my old notebook and flipped through the pages until the aging photo fell out. I carefully picked it up and stared at the memory. It all just felt like a dream I’d once had now.
I kissed the picture and tucked it back into the notebook, then slid it under my pillow.
I studied my textbooks until my eyes refused to stay open, then shut off my light, got under the covers, and went to sleep, hoping Dakota would never return.
Spiders were crawling in my hair. Spiders with thick, long legs that dragged through the unkempt strands, snagging on knots and freeing them. I swatted at them, but they wouldn’t go away.
“Hey. Are you awake?”
That rough, raspy voice had me cracking my eyes open as a flood of adrenaline started pumping through me. I sat up, banging my face against—
“Ow, fuck!” Dakota shouted.
Moonlight illuminated the room in an ethereal glow, but there was also a dim artificial light emanating from the end of Dakota’s bed. His face was inches from mine, and he was holding a hand to his cheek.
A thick webbing of confusion blanketed my mind, and I struggled to break through it. Dakota’s eyes were just two black spots glittering in the near-dark, trained on me. I stared into his eyes, and the heat that radiated from his body was distracting.
When he reached out like he was going to touch me, I snapped out of it.
“What are you doing?” I croaked, pushing away from him and shoving my back against the window.
What the hell? Why was he in my bed?
“You were talking in your sleep,” he said, rubbing his cheek. “You wouldn’t wake up.”
I was talking in my sleep? Shit, what had I said?
“So I—” I could barely form thoughts, let alone words. “I just—”
“It’s fine, it’s not a big deal. You woke me up and I couldn’t get back to sleep, I was just trying to calm you down,” he said, finally standing. I realized he wasn’t wearing a shirt, and what little light there was played over the lines of lean muscle on his chest and stomach.
My eyes kept moving down, and everything in my brain skidded to a halt.
What the fuck was that?
Was he wearing a…thong?
When he turned around, I got a good look at his firm, round ass and the back of his long, toned thighs.
His bare ass was right there, two thick straps of black winding around his waist and beneath his ass cheeks.
My mouth dropped open. Was I still asleep?
What the fuck was he wearing? A jockstrap?
My eyes were riveted to his ass as he walked, cheeks bouncing up and down with every step.
I tore my eyes from him, swallowed hard and gripped my blanket.
“What…what did I say?” I asked. I didn’t think I talked in my sleep. No one had ever told me I did. I used to sleepwalk, but that was a long time ago.
Dakota climbed back into his bed. “I couldn’t understand half of it, something about the snow, and then you kept apologizing to your mom. When you started yelling is when I came over there. ’Bout to wake up the whole damn floor.” He got under his covers and lay on his side, facing away from me.
I couldn’t remember any of my dreams, but if I’d been talking about my mom in my sleep…how embarrassing that he heard that.
“Sorry,” I said softly.
Dakota hummed. “Don’t worry about it.”
My gaze drifted over to the dim light at the foot of his bed. “What is that light?”
“It’s a night light. Is it bothering you?”
“No, I just…why do you need a night light?”
“Because,” he murmured sleepily. “I don’t like the dark.”
I stared at his back until I was sure he wasn’t getting up again. I felt bad about waking him up. What if this became a nightly thing? How did you stop yourself from talking in your sleep? What if I said something really…
I flopped down onto my stomach and dragged the blanket over my head, squeezing my eyes shut against an unexpected wave of tears, trying to will myself back to sleep.
Dean Voss was enormous.
Tall, broad, and thick with equal parts muscle and fat. I’d been expecting a middle-aged man of average height and average looks, maybe glasses and a mustache, but Albert Voss must’ve been six and a half feet tall and was ridiculously handsome.
He looked like he’d come straight off the cover of a magazine with his strong jaw, straight nose, and perfectly coiffed hair the color of chestnuts. The lines of age around his mouth and eyes, in addition to his initially pleasant personality, only added to his charm.
I wondered how much of his looks money had bought and how much were lucky genetics, and I couldn’t help but compare them to my own.
It was annoying how focused on the appearance of others I sometimes became.
I wished I didn’t do that, that I could just ignore the hated envy that crept up from its dark hole when confronted with beauty.
But that little demon was fucking strong.
And loud. A vile thing that left a sludge of envious goo in its wake, painting up my insides and burning me like acid.
To Dean Voss’s credit, his gaze never strayed to the mark on my face. He was a master at keeping eye contact—and it was really intense, bordering on unsettling.
I guessed that’s where Dakota got his thousand-yard stare. But that was where the similarities ended, because they actually looked nothing alike. Maybe Dakota took after his mom?
“…and it is, of course, the duty of the Academy to provide its students with everything they need to succeed here.”
Dean Voss had been giving me what I thought was some kind of obligatory welcome speech for the past ten minutes, and I’d listened quietly while nodding and yes sirring him at the appropriate times. And all the while, dread sat heavy in my stomach.
When was he going to bring up Tagerton?
Dean Voss leaned back in his chair and linked his fingers over his stomach, pinning me with a fierce stare. “It’s come to my attention that you’re in the same room as my son Dakota, is that correct?”
Oh, fuck. Had Dakota said something to him? Was he complaining about me already?
“Oh—yes, that’s correct.” Was I supposed to say something flattering here? To wax poetic on what a fine man he’d raised?
I opened my mouth and racked my brain to tack something complimentary on about his son when he said, “Wonderful. There’s something I need to ask of you, and I’m certain it won’t be too much of a bother.
It’s a very small thing, and you won’t have to go out of your way at all.
Do you think you can help me, Mr. Walker? ”
Dean Voss smiled at me, and it was all teeth.
He wasn’t asking me at all, but telling me that I would do this ‘thing’ for him.
I folded my hands in my lap and smiled back while my heart did a somersault.
There was only one correct response here.
“Of course, I’d be happy to help.”
“Excellent. I knew I could count on you.” For the first time, Dean Voss broke eye contact and set his gaze to somewhere out the window.
“Dakota is a…special boy, and hasn’t had an easy go of things.
There was an incident last spring that we do not want a repeat of.
We missed the warning signs and Dakota’s involvement was unfortunate. ”
What in the hell was he talking about? He was being so vague, but none of it sounded good. At all.
He brought his attention back to me. “I think you might understand better than anyone the value of a second chance. Of letting people learn from their mistakes and giving them an opportunity to grow.”
My stomach dropped, and I felt like I was free-falling now.
Here it was.
He was going to tell me that he’d reviewed the incident and decided I wasn’t a good fit for such a prestigious academy.
I gripped the arms of the chair hard, digging my nails into the wood.
Except he kept talking about Dakota. “There may be some difficulties, and he may require a little extra help. And by that, I mean he needs to be watched closely and carefully.” Dean Voss’s eyes cut to mine so quickly that my heart jolted in my chest. I squeezed my hands, trying not to squirm in my seat.
“I need you to keep an eye on my boy and report back to me if you see anything at all out of the ordinary. In fact, I was thinking we could hold meetings every few weeks or so to discuss his progress. That wouldn’t be too much of a bother, would it, Mr. Walker?
” He smiled again, though it was devoid of any warmth.
Alarm bells were going off in my head, a blaring cacophony of warning tones that told me something was very, very wrong here, and I wasn’t sure who I needed to watch out for more—Dean Voss or Dakota.
He wanted me to…spy on Dakota? He wanted another student to keep tabs on his son?
What the hell? And what the fuck counted as ‘out of the ordinary’?
I didn’t even know what was ordinary for Dakota, and somehow I was supposed to suss out what wasn’t?
Was he just a dad who was worried about his son?
Or was there something else at play here?
What happened last spring? What did Dakota do?
Why in the ever-loving fuck did this have to fall on my plate?
The smile on my face became brittle, and holding it was painful.
I was pretty sure my being Dakota’s roommate wasn’t something that had just come to his attention, and now I understood the purpose of this meeting.
Maybe even of my being here at Ashbrook, period.
I’d thought it was strange that they’d so quickly admitted someone who was being transferred for fighting.
In the back of my mind, I wondered what kind of deal had been made behind closed doors.
What the actual fuck.
“It’s no bother at all,” I managed to get out.
“Perfect. Let’s do a bi-weekly lunch on Fridays, how does that sound? Right here.”
That sounded fucking terrible.
“That sounds great, Dean Voss. I look forward to it.”
“As do I. Well, lovely meeting you, Mr. Walker, and if you ever need anything at all, don’t hesitate to ask.”