Second Snowfall (Elton Hall Chronicles Book 2)

  “Right, I keep trying to remind myself that. I just miss him. I’m scared to sleep alone so I’ve just stopped sleeping, but then I’m exhausted all day, so I fall asleep the next night and the dreams come. This just needs to be over.”

  “No, we just need to look into the legality of things. If you spoke to a therapist outside the school, I don’t think they are allowed to tell anyone about your relationship with Berneli. I’ll look into all this and then maybe we can get you some help. Until then, I think maybe you should look into a sexual assault support group. Someone there could have a way to help you.”

  “After this weekend is over, I will definitely find one. Let me deal with this one problem first, and then we can tackle the sleeping. Maybe I’ll look so awful on Saturday that Finn won’t want me anymore.” She smiled and gently shoved me.

  “Well, who could blame him, with bags under your eyes are the size of my tote bag?” I pushed her back and we went back to my room.

  “Shut up,” she said, laughing. “I just need more make-up.”

  “Yes, that’s the answer to everything.”

  Violet tried to leave, but I insisted she sleep in my bed with me. If she was going to have terrors, I’d wake her up immediately. If she changed locations, there was a chance the terrors wouldn’t come, after all, they didn’t happen at Christie’s. Maybe she needed to change rooms since her scared her so much. Sure, she’d had some terrors in London, but she said they didn’t happen every night.

  We awoke to the sound of the alarm screaming and not Violet. She made it through the night without a terror and looked better than ever now that the bags under her eyes were the size of a small clutch.

  She left to get ready and that was when I heard her scream. I ran out the door and stopped short when I saw what was waiting for her.

  “Is that what I think it is?” I asked as she fell to her knees.

  There was a vase of wilted violets in front of her door with a card taped to it. I reached down and opened it.

  My Vivacious Violet,

  I assume the snow delayed your visit so I checked the weather for this weekend. What do you know, it’s going to be forty degrees and sunny. I will see you then. Remember, I have spies everywhere. Don’t think I don’t know about your study session last night.

  Ever yours,

  Finn

  “What does it say?” she asked in a monotone voice. She sounded defeated and crushed and it pulled at my heart.

  “It just says he knows about the snow and it will be forty and sunny this weekend, so he’s excited to see you,” I said, sticking the note in my pocket before she could read the whole thing.

  “Thanks for not telling me the rest. I don’t want to know.” She nodded and then walked into her room. I followed quickly, leaving the flowers in the hallway.

  “Okay, can we go to the police station now and report this? It looks like a threat.” The flowers were dead; it felt like that was what Finn was going to do to her.

  “Yeah, you’re right. It just got serious. But first, I need to call David. Would you excuse me for a second?” she asked as she sat on her bed and pulled her phone out.

  “No problem.” I turned to leave, but she stopped me before I got to the door.

  “Annabelle, please take the note with you. I don’t want the police to see it.”

  “I’ve already got it along with the tape from the vase.” I walked out and was going to head to my room, but I needed some air. I felt like the world was closing in around me and I couldn’t breathe.

  I pushed through the door and stumbled to the nearest bench. There I sat, my head between my knees, no coat, no make-up, no shoes, no bra, and no idea what to do. I tried to calm the fear that was raising up inside of me and threatening to come out. I lifted my head and looked at the sun, wondering what we were going to do.

  “What the hell happened? Was it Kingsley? If he hurt you, I’ll kill him,” Jason warned as he sat down next to me. I didn’t even hear him come up.

  “It’s not Kingsley, it’s Violet. Someone left her a vase of dead flowers and a note.” I handed it to him and he took a moment to read it.

  “Come with me,” he insisted as he grabbed my hand and pulled me with him. “By the way, next time you have a panic attack, grab your coat.” He slid his off and draped it over my shoulders.

  “Sorry, I will remember that for next time. By the way, how did you know I was here?” I followed him to his room and sat on his bed, like I had a million times before.

  “I am stalking you as well.”

  “Seriously, not funny at this moment.”

  “Honestly, I just wanted to see if you and Violet wanted to grab breakfast or something. It was a crazy coincidence. I don’t know. I just felt like I needed to see you guys. Guess my Spidey Senses knew something was wrong.”

  Jason grabbed his laptop and took a seat next to me. “Look, I’ve been saving this until it was ready because I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do it. Violet gave me the photo and I’ve been messing with it.” He pulled up some computer system and showed me the initial picture of Violet and Berneli kissing in front of the apartment complex.

  “Okay, what did you do? It looks the same.”

  “Patience. Wait for everything to load.” He clicked around on the screen and another picture popped up, but I wasn’t ready for what I saw. It was Berneli and me kissing. My eyes grew wide and my mouth dropped to the floor.

  “What the hell? This never happened. Oh my god, you can’t show this to Violet.” I was furious. What was he doing?

  “You don’t get it?” he asked, looking at me incredulously.

  “No! Are you trying to screw with me?”

  “Did this ever happen?”

  “Of course not! I would never do that to Violet. Besides, I’m with Kingsley.”

  “Exactly. It never happened. But what does it look like?”

  “Shut up! You made that?” I couldn’t believe it. This could solve her issue with Finn. If we could make the dean think the original picture of Violet and Berneli was fake, then Violet couldn’t be blackmailed. We could go to the police and they wouldn’t have to know about Berneli and Violet’s relationship. “This is brilliant.”

  “It gets better. Just in case they thought this was fake, I took a picture of the dean and…” He pulled up another picture and sure enough, the dean and Berneli appeared to be kissing each other.

  “But how did you do this? How could you do this?”

  “It’s not that hard. I’m just a bit of a social media creep. You and Kingsley posted a disgusting kissing photo from that Christmas festival, so I used it here. The dean was kissing her husband at their anniversary party last week. The rest of it was painstaking details that took me forever.” He was practically shaking with excitement and I didn’t know what to say.

  “Jason, this is…”

  “I know. I couldn’t let him play with our girl like that.”

  The panic I had felt before was lifting off my chest and I pulled him into a huge hug. This could really work. He held me tight and rested his chin on my head. “I don’t know what to say. Earlier, Violet was talking about transferring schools, and I can’t imagine being here without her.”

  “Don’t worry, if there is something I can do, I won’t hesitate.”

  “I know, and that’s why I love you.” Oh shit. I froze. What the hell did I just say to him?

  Jason pulled back and looked at me. Really looked at me. I stared back and waited to see what he had to say.

  “You know, I mean I love you like a—”

  But he cut me off. “Are you happy with Kingsley?”

  “Yes,” I uttered.

  “Do you feel butterflies when he’s near you?”

  “Yes.”

  “When he kisses you, do your knees give in?”

  “Yes.”

  “How about now, how do you feel now?”

  I couldn’t move. I just stared back at him as what felt like hours went by. He reach
ed out and tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. Tingles shot through me and I tried to control my shaking as I took a ragged breath.

  “I don’t know how I feel.”

  Jason leaned forward so he was inches from my face. “How do you feel now?”

  “I—”

  He cut me off with a kiss. Jason’s lips were smooth and tasted like peppermint. I leaned into the kiss and then ran my fingers through his hair and it felt wrong. I jumped back and stared at Jason in shock.

  “No, you can’t do this! We can’t do this. You have Janice and I have Kingsley. Why would you even do that? Don’t you love Janice?”

  Jason stood up and started pacing the room. He started to talk and then closed his mouth again. I just watched as he seemed to be deep in thought. I didn’t know what I was waiting for. What did I want him to say?

  “Yes, I do love Janice, but I’m just—”

  I jumped up and pointed a finger in his face. “Confused, I know. But you know what, I’m not going to be this girl. I won’t be the girl who helps you figure out that you’re madly in love with your girlfriend. I refuse to let you use me like that. I have too much respect for myself and too much respect for Janice.”

  “You don’t even like Janice.”

  “No, I don’t like her, but that’s not the point. I won’t be this girl again. Kenny tried to play me and I won’t let you do it too.” I grabbed his computer and turned to walk out the door.

  “It’s not like that, Annabelle. I just—”

  “No, I’m done. We need to get this computer to Violet before she does something she’ll regret. We’ve already wasted enough time.” I left the room, still wearing his jacket, and practically ran to her room.

  When I knocked, Violet was sitting on the floor, knees at her chest, and tears falling down her face. I put the computer down and turned around to hug her, but Jason was already there.

  “Vi, take a deep breath. I found a way to fix everything. Just get up and let me show you on my computer.”

  Violet nodded and let Jason pull her up and place her in the desk chair. He quickly brought up the pictures and explained to her what he had told me earlier.

  Violet threw her arms around Jason. “You’re quite possibly one of the most amazing men on the face of the planet. David just called me and said the investigator has a lead as to who the outside help is but he isn’t sure of anything yet. We don’t know if Trent is the only one helping Finn. I am so scared.”

  “Well, Vi, let’s go to the police. They need to know about all of this and we need to keep you safe. They can probably sort that out a lot faster than the investigator.” Jason grabbed her coat off of the back of her chair and draped it over her shoulders like he had done to me earlier.

  I looked down and realized I still had no bra or shoes on.

  “Um, guys, do you mind if I meet you at the security office? I need to put some clothes on.” I crossed my arms to try to cover my boobs. Besides, I could use a minute alone to get over what just happened with Jason.

  “Yeah, I got her,” Jason said, and we all left. Violet went to pick up the flowers, but I stopped her.

  “Wait, get a scarf or something to preserve the fingerprints.”

  “You already touched it and so did I. Plus, we took the card off,” she reminded me.

  “But still, you never know what they’ll find,” I insisted.

  “Fine,” she said, and went back in her room. Jason and I were in the hall alone. He looked at his feet and I stared at a hole in the wall. It was crushing me to think we’d just ruined our friendship. I should have stopped it earlier or something.

  But then a voice in my head said, You didn’t want him to stop. I pushed that voice away and went in my room to change, leaving him alone in the hallway. I did want him to stop, which was why I pulled away.

  ***

  When I walked up to the security office, Violet and Jason were standing outside.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, looking at the two of them.

  “Look who’s at the front desk.” Violet pointed to the secretary who was nasty to her when she tried to report Finn the first time.

  “So why are you still out here? Let’s go in and speak to the chief. He already knows you, and I’m sure he wants to hear about this. If not, we’ll call 9-1-1 and get a different set of cops,” I insisted, and opened the door for the two of them, not entirely sure if that was how this all worked. But I needed to stay strong. “Let’s go,” I reiterated when Violet didn’t move straight away.

  Jason caught on and gave her a little push on her lower back.

  We all walked up to the desk and the secretary glared at Violet.

  “What do you want? Are you trying to ruin someone else’s life?” she asked, snapping her gum.

  “I need to speak to Chief Johnson,” Violet responded with as much authority as she could muster.

  The secretary gave Violet a snide look and snickered. “Well, he’s busy. Why don’t you all come back later? Don’t you have to go to class or something?”

  “Listen, you played this game last time and it almost got me raped. So excuse me if I don’t give a crap about what you have to say.” Violet tilted her head, smiled, and then walked around her desk. She bolted toward the back where the chief’s office was.

  Jason and I looked at each other, wide-eyed, and ran after her. We caught up in the chief’s office. He was standing and shaking Violet’s hand. She quickly reminded the chief of my name and then introduced Jason.

  “All right, Miss Carrington, what can I do for you? You mentioned my secretary was causing some problems.”

  “Chief, as I told you last time, I tried to report the incident but your secretary made light of the whole thing and more or less forced me to reconsider talking to someone. I came here with other problems relating to Officer Finn and she wouldn’t let me speak to you.”

  “All right, we can worry about that later. What’s going on with Officer Finn?”

  Violet explained about the flowers and placed the vase on his desk. Then Violet took a deep breath and handed him the initial note and the picture the stalker had left.

  “I was afraid to come in before. I didn’t want someone to think anything of this. But he’s blackmailing me with this picture.”

  “Well, relationships with professors are against the school’s rules,” the chief reminded us.

  “Look, Chief Johnson.” Jason pulled up his phone and showed him the pictures he had been working on. Before we came to the office, he had emailed them to himself. “He is trying to get back at Violet. I made the same pictures on my computer. Here is one with the dean of students hooking up with Professor Berneli.” Jason handed his phone to the chief, who let out a subtle laugh.

  “Well, we know this didn’t happen.” He handed the phone back to Jason but kept the picture of Violet and Berneli. “We will contact the jail and look into this. Until we get an answer, I need you to report any further communication that might come your way.”

  “Thank you, Chief,” Violet said, managing a weak smile.

  “Is there anyone you think could be working with Finn? Is there anyone who may be creating drama or threatening you?”

  Violet sat quietly for a few minutes and then looked at the door. “Chief, I think something is going on with Trent, a senior here. He delivered me one of the notes. I don’t know about these flowers, but he got physical with me last semester and he was passing—”

  “What do you mean he got physical with you?”

  “He grabbed my arm and wouldn’t let me go. I had a mark on my arm for two weeks. Annabelle was with me. She can vouch for it.”

  “Did you take pictures of the bruises?”

  “No.”

  “Did you film it, text about it? Any kind of proof? Right now, it would just be your word against his.”

  “No, I didn’t. I didn’t want to make a big deal about it.”

  “Miss Carrington, I cannot do anything about him, then. Did Trent threaten y
ou?”

  “Well, no, but—”

  “Officer Finn is not allowed to contact you, Miss Carrington. If Trent is delivering messages, then we will sort that out. Let us handle it. Until then, I’d suggest you file a restraining order against Trent. Other than that, there is not much else we can do.”

  “I understand,” Violet replied. She took a deep breath and I hoped this would help give her some peace of mind.

  “I don’t want you going to see Finn, understand? Don’t worry about the picture, don’t worry about any of it. Going to see him will only give him what he wants and continue to perpetuate this obsession he’s carrying.”

  “Right,” Violet agreed. I was thrilled she didn’t have to go. Nothing good could have come from it.

  We talked over some more specifics with the restraining order and went to leave, but the chief stopped us.

  “By the way, Miss Carrington, does Professor Berneli know about this connection?”

  “No,” she mumbled. “I wouldn’t have a reason to tell him since we aren’t in a relationship.”

  Chief Johnson looked at her for a minute, not saying anything. At first, I thought he was going to call her out for the horrible liar she was. But instead, he grabbed his phone. “I will contact him for you. However, if I were you, I’d be careful to ensure no other fake pictures are taken. That would not look good for anyone.”

  “Thank you.”

  We left and Violet collapsed on a bench near our dorm.

  “I feel like I can breathe a little. Finn must have been bluffing about sending in the picture, or maybe the school mail lost it or something. Chief Johnson had no idea about that picture until we showed it to him. That’s a relief.”

  “For now.”

  Jason and Violet whipped around and looked at me.

  “Sorry. It just seems to me this is not gonna be the first time someone finds out about your relationship. I feel like it’s time you decide what you want. He’s leaving in a couple months, what’s gonna happen then and is it worth getting kicked out of school?”