Page 7 of Dissension

The conundrum; a crime has clearly been committed, but to prove it was Paxton Brooker without a shadow of a doubt istricky.There are too many unknowns still and even Kara sees that.

The discussion isn’t exactly quick, once they get into the meat of things. “Tell me from the beginning so we can level set,” Melanie says, crossing her legs as she sits. “I want to draw lines from your original case to how we got where we are today.”

Derrick inhales and his brow rises with a hint of humor. “It’s a long story.” He glances over at Kara. “We’ll start at the Debra Mills case and work down from there, ending with the woman from one of the torture videos that we met with, ‘X’.”

Kara shudders, her skin crawling. The woman who only called herself X. Number Ten. The one who had willingly gone to a house of pain, not knowing that she’d be tortured for sport, videotaped for profit. The intent wasn’t murder, oh no; it wasmoney.

Money, oodles of it, likely. Flowing from buyers who are willing to pay for realistic films, when the fake grindhouse tales just don’t cut it anymore. The need for blood and the screams to be real. So terriblyrealthat they can’t even be faked.

By the timeThe Roomhad been found, it was vacant. Empty of people, the burning scent of bleach overpowering. A few abandoned videos, left unfinished.

Other damning things had been left behind as well, per what Detective Ray Wellis told Kara. Things like chains, hanging from the ceiling, the walls. Bland instruments of pain, such as scalpels, sitting nice and neat. Thick needles. Rusted bathtubs, filled with soured, brown water. Cages, stained.

No perpetrators to be found…only the fact that Paxton Brooker, owner of the kinky sex clubDark Mirage, was listed as the owner of the property. He became the only link in the gory mystery brought to life by the torture victim known as X.

“We have illicit, grotesque videos and we have a property in Paxton Brooker’s name. We do not, however, have Farrah Vincelli anymore.”

Kara frowns. “Who is Farrah Vincelli?” Derrick appears just as lost, a furrow in his brow.

The DA frowns down at a few folders, sifting through them. “That is the woman you knew as X. She was found dead in her home when we paid her a visit recently.”

Shock sweeps over Kara in a wave of foamy dismay. “Dead? As in…normal dead or…?” She remembers the woman they met as being a former addict, already living a hard life, deep in her depression. She’d been in bad shape even then. A ghost animating flesh like a puppet.

Melanie shakes her head subtly, biting her thin lower lip. “Between you and me, her head was found in the bathtub with her lips sewn shut. It’s apparent that someone didn’t like having loose ends, no matter how little she truly knew.”

The grotesque image plays out in Kara’s mind. The scraggly, limp, greasy hair. The sallow, sunken face. A thick black thread plunged through swollen lips. Just the head, sitting there in the bathtub. The body, left elsewhere.

“Crap,” Derrick mutters, tapping his fist against his knee. “A murder now?”

“She wouldn’t have been the best witness,” Melanie says begrudgingly. “She was…unreliable. But she did have the uncanny connection to theDark Mirage,which would have helped our case. At least now we know there is truly something to hide. She wouldn’t have been murdered otherwise. The police have kept it mostly quiet, but the scene was clean of evidence. No hint of who could have done it, which tells me it was professional.”

“That’s unsettling,” Derrick replies lowly. “Do we know if there are any other living survivors that can be used for the case?We know there were more payouts from theDark Mirageto people under NDAs. People probably like X.”

Looking tired, Melanie rubs her face. “We’re having investigators look. I don’t want to make a mistake pinning Paxton Brooker with this case if it isn’t him. It would be bad for me politically.” Then, Melanie looks at her watch sharply, making a noise of frustration. “There’s so much more I wanted to get into today with you, but I’m afraid my next appointment is fast approaching. I lost track of the time.” She stands up, thanking them for their efforts. The DA looks at her watch again with a certain amount of distraction and Kara gets the impression that they are being shooed out.

There’s a knock at the door and Melanie grimaces, looking at them apologetically. “I’d meant to get you out sooner so you wouldn’t cross paths. My next meeting is with-”

When the door opens, Kara feels her heart drop into the floor with a crash.

In he walks with a certain air of aggression and confidence, dark hair perfect, electric blue eyes bright, and stony features perfectly schooled. Nicholas Havenwood-Calais looks untouchable in his deep navy suit, tailored to fit him perfectly. The shine of his Italian leather shoes, the flash of the Rolex at his wrist.

He’s a true portrait of a sharp lawyer, living and breathing.

He’s also the man who crushed Kara’s feelings intonothing.

Those tropical eyes catch on Derrick first with a certain ‘oh, it’syou’ expression, but when he sees Kara in the mix, his confident step falters slightly. They haven’t seen each other in months, though not for his lack of trying, a fact that has put him in a venomous disposition towards Kara, visible in his gaze.

There’s poison between them and Kara is certain nothing is ever going to fix that.

Not after how he twisted her up inside like a pretzel and thenlied to her.

Chapter 4

Seeing him hurts worse than she imagined it would, after all this time.

Trouble is here, Trouble has walked into the room. Trouble in the Navy Suit.

It’s ironic; when Nick had her in his grasp, he rarely called her, rarely asked to see her. He completely took her for granted in the way a Trust Fund Baby takeseverythingfor granted. Playing off that cool distance of his, keeping her emotionally at bay at all times while setting her desires on fire in ways that he shouldn’t have. Then, the minute she realized she was a fuckingside pieceand wanted nothing to do with him, he realized what he’dlost.

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