Deviant(122)

“Surprised to see me, Dean?” I thought I would end up breaking the ice, considering he was always the one that ended up getting the first and last word in.

Dean sighed and shook his head with a resolute smile. “So, now you know,” he whispered with that sexy, raspy voice of his.

I nodded my head. “Now I know.”

He pushed the hoodie off his head, exposing the full beauty of his features. He was exactly as I remembered as a youngster, just older. He was very different in a sense, too. His normally soft nature was gone now, replaced with this hard, unforgiving man in front of me. But what was there to forgive? I just couldn’t understand it all.

“I must admit, this wasn’t how I had planned things, but you were destined to find out soon enough.”

He pulled out his chair and sat down. I knew then that he was ready for a conversation. I wasn’t going to say no, but I was determined not to settle in the chair opposite him, either. This wasn’t about my work anymore. This was idle chitchat about the day’s events. This was my stranger, my Dean, and he was determined to break me. I certainly wasn’t going to cosy up to that.

Instead, I stood still, gazing down at his beautiful blue eyes like it was the last time I would ever see them. And this would be the last time. I knew this was the day that determined my fate as a journalist here. I knew this was the last day I would ever see the light of day in this office again.

“Why?” was all I could ask. It was all that needed to be asked. That same question had been bouncing around in my head for the last thirteen years. Until last night, it was for different reasons, but I still asked it. I still wanted to know why me.

He dipped his head, sighing with a smile. “You know, the funniest part about this whole thing is that you don’t even know what you’ve done.”

My anger flared. “I don’t know what I’ve done, Dean, and unless you fucking tell me, how am I supposed to defend myself?”

He banged his fist on the desk, making me jump. “You don’t come in this office and swear at me like that.”

I breathed out my frustration before I responded. “I’m not talking to Andrew Walker anymore. I’m talking to Dean Scozzari. Someone I had considered my best friend once. Someone I had considered the love of my life once. My first love. What happened to him?”

He stood up, eyes blazing with fire. “You happened, Tyler! You and your whole fucking family happened!”

I gasped, rearing back in shock at his outburst. “My family? I don’t understand.”

Dean’s expression was fierce. “Don’t act like you don’t know, Tyler.” He looked at me, his expression searching my face for answers. But he must have seen something in my face as his eyes widened. “You really don’t know, do you?” He started laughing, and it just made my blood boil.

“Know what, Dean?”

He stopped laughing and looked at me with a smile. It wasn’t a nice smile. It was cunning. And I wanted to wipe it off his face. “Your parents got my parents killed, Tyler. They were supposed to help but, instead, they sent a letter to that fucking scumbag Pinzano, telling him where we were.”

I shook my head, unable to comprehend what he was saying. “Letter? What letter? I don’t understand.” I really didn’t understand. Panic was radiating through my body.

“My parents are dead because of your mum and dad, Tyler. And I was left alone. At the age of eighteen, I was left with nobody. At first, I lost you when I found you kissing Ian that fucking day. I came back for you because I thought in my stupid, little immature head, we still had something. I didn’t care if it put me in danger. I had to see you and I had to make sure we were okay. I didn’t believe when I heard you could have anything to do with what happened to my parents, so I had to see it for myself. But the minute I saw you, Ian had his arms around you and you were kissing him. I had only been gone a couple of months, and the moment my back was turned, you went to be with him. I knew then that my parents must have been right all along.” He looked at me with disgust, but all I could stand there and do was try and wrap my brain around what on earth he was talking about. I knew Ian and I have fooled around, but it was never anything more than that.

I thought back to all those years and remembered a time shortly after Dean disappeared. Ian was telling me outside this shop that this guy he despised said he would never get a girl like me. This guy, who was a complete arsehole, was there, so Ian asked me to kiss him in full view of everyone so he could witness the kiss and end up looking like the dumb ass that he was. I did it as a favour to Ian. I did it because that’s what friends do for one another. I had never felt anything for Ian, other than friendship, and Dean should have known this.