Page 62 of Dissension

“Did she…did she do something to him?” Sickness pools in her belly.

The smile vanishes from Dieter’s face. Just a blank expression, as if reciting a normal story. “Oh. It’s not what she did to him. It’s what she letsomeone elsedo. Repeatedly.”

Kara stiffens, sitting away from him as if burned. Suddenly, she isn’t sure that she wants to hear this story after all. There are maggots wriggling in her guts, bile on her tongue.

“Nick’s good old ma has long been in the game of law and dark politics, as it were. And back then, she was trying to build her favor with one of the judges out east at the time, some bigshot broad in her…ah, late fifties, early sixties.” He sneers, lost in memory. “All the lawyers that graced her courts either kissed her feet or hated her. Many wanted her favor to gain more power. She controlled more than she should have, but that’s the way of politics, isn’t it?”

The Judge.

“Anyway,” he starts againquitedemurely. “It wasknownin certain circles at the time that this judge liked her boytoys young. Teenagers, really. An age group that she could groom to do as she liked…and she liked pain. Not hurting others, but herself. A painslut. When she asked Delphine if she could spend an afternoon with Nick, to ‘mentor him’…well, Delphine didn’t say no. Which turned into more afternoons. Which turned into athingthat no one talked about.”

A thing that no one talked about, involving a teenage boy who had no power and no choice.

“…did she know what that woman would do?” Her voice is a bare whisper of horror and disbelief. Her own father may be a narcissistic monster in his own right, but he never would have used her as currency in such a hideous fashion. Would he?

“She knew the rumors.” Dieter sits up and leans against the headboard. “People of a certain circle tend to know the dark dirty secrets of others around them. It’s how they keep everyone in line. A filthy machine that just. keeps.churning.”

The words fall like stones, a strange ringing in Kara’s ears. She can’t believe what she’s hearing. Nick had been abused and his mother had…orchestrated it. For what? More sway in the courts? Political power for a future judge seat? “Howcould she do that to her own son?”

“I’m sure you’ve heard the old saying, power corrupts,” he says with a strangely flat voice. “It was out of sight and out of mind for her. It isn’t like he could complain to anyone; that judge held everyone under her thumb. Too much power and everyone was afraid of going against her. He knew his mother’s favor leaned on him behaving. Nicky doesn’t like to disappoint dear old mother; bit of a quirk of his. A terrible flaw, perhaps. He putssomuch stock in trying to keep that bitch happy. Hence, Claire, see?”

The very air in the room is too thick to breathe.

“Was…was he the only one…that woman hurt?” She doesn’t want to think of nameless boys, at the mercy of some sick old witch, tormenting them with her disgusting whims. She can’t even begin to think of what that would do to a boy. Twisting sexuality into somethingpurposely sick and cruel.

“Don’t be silly.” This time, Dieter scoffs. “Of course, there were countless others. You think people like that only strike once?”

When Kara finds her voice, it’s thick, full of disgust and horror. Her childhood was a mess. Her broken home, her mercurial, cruel father. Her hopeless, broken mother. But this? No. This is not something that ever darkened Kara’s door as a girl. “What happened to her?”

“The judge?” Dieter’s eyes flicker here, his tone shifting with odd amusement. Analmostgrin pulls at the corner of his mouth. “She had an accident,chickadee. During a fox hunt, hosted at one of my father’s properties out east. She solovedto fox hunt, after all. Bit of a blueblood thing, you wouldn’t get it. There was a mishap with her tack. You know the girth, right? I showed you last time we tacked up the fat bastard in the back field?”

Numb, Kara replies, “The thing that hooks up to the saddle and goes under the belly? That we tightened to make sure the saddle didn’t slip?”

“Bingo!” He snaps his fingers, pleased that she remembered. “Well, she didn’t tend to be the sort to tack her own mount, nor did she check the work ofthose who did. It was loose when she rode off with the rest of the hunt. While they galloped through the fields, it slipped completely, the saddle going right under the horse. She landed wrong and snapped her neck. Dead as a doorknob. Only reason she didn’t crack her stupid skull was because of her helmet, not that it mattered. The horse trampled her wicked bones.”

Dieter tilts his head back and looks at her from under lowered lashes briefly, continuing his ugly tale. “After her death, the videos she’d made came to light of countless boys she besmirched. No one wanted to investigatetoo far. There was a lot of corruption when she held her seat as a judge. Her crimes implicated many. So, someone influential made it disappear. She died a well-respected judge.” He sneers briefly.

It took Kara a few moments to pull herself together, because inside she simply wanted tocry. The thought of this happening to Nick…twisting him, ruining his ability to have a normal relationship with other women-

Being abused and videotaped?She shudders and tries to hide how defeated it makes her feel.

When the world stops spinning on a hideous carousel in Kara’s mind, she settles on one strange question. “What does this have to do with you, Dieter?”What is therealpoint you wanted to make to me?“Why does Nick…why is he untrustingof you?”

“Ah ah ah…you’re not asking the right question.” He wiggles his finger in her face.

Not in the mood to play his little games, Kara huffs out a furious breath and thinks through what he just told her. The right question? The horrible woman, the accident, the horse, Nick being wary of Dieter-

Like mother, like son.

A putrid thought sticks in her gut. “Who tacked up her horse the day she died?”

For a moment, Dieter is silent, appraising her in the darkness of his grand bedroom. He runs a finger across her bare thigh, watching her skin prickle with awareness. Every movement of his is perfectly calculated, predatory. “Oh, it’s nothingso deviousas what you’re thinking. The answer is that one of the groomingstaff tacked her horse that day. They were all fired. Each and every one.”

The barest hint of relief slides through her. It isn’t much comfort.

“You knew what was happening to Nick,” she utters slowly, mouth tasting bitter with bile. “He confided in you, about what was happening-” She stops speaking, feeling choked up. “Did you tell someone, betraying his trust? You must have told…someone else must have heard and he must have gotten in trouble with his mother for telling-”

When Dieter replies, his answer is no answer at all. “Poor Nick. His mother was so displeased with him when that old hag bit the dust. He was so afraid of his mother’s disappointment as a boy. Still is. Sickening, really. Mine was never around, so I couldn’t comprehend the sentiment.” He says it with a certain finality that makes Kara’s skin crawl. He doesn’t blink and his fingers dance across her naked hips. His pale green eyes are nearly a complete yawning black.

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