Page 22 of Devoured
CHAPTER 6
Roland
The courtroom wasn’t packed, but there were plenty of servers from the Dahlia District there, waiting to hear the sentencing for a sexual assault case that had happened a long time ago. Still, it was quiet for the number of people in there. Shoes against the rigid carpet. A sniffle. A throat clearing. The zipper of a purse. Clicking fingers on a touch screen. Then the doors to the side opened, and it was as if the room itself had swallowed a breath. The defendant was escorted in by his lawyer. The defendant’s lips were pinched together as if holding back the slew of words he wanted to say. Sloppy blond hair. Pale skin. A cherubic face. Beady eyes. He cast his gaze over the room, narrowing them over the section of women, then let his eyes fall to his feet, glaring at the ground as if the devil himself were there and this was all his fault.
From what I knew, Jake Harris had quit the Dahlia District a long time ago but had been part of the staff for many years prior to that. While working as a security guard, he had used his position to take advantage of the servers. At first, there had been sixteen charges against him for sexual assault, but most of the charges were dropped, so the case now hinged on one server. Luckily, the jury had unanimously found him responsible for the crime.
The judge entered through the back door and everyone stood. Once she was seated, she adjusted the glasses on her nose, then took a deep breath.
“Though the verdict has already been reached,” the judge said, her eyes focused on the papers in front of her, “Attorney Adler would like to give his client, the survivor, a chance to speak before sentencing is announced.”
A murmur sounded through the room. It was not a typical procedure for the courthouse, but the Adlers had their hands in everything, including the law, so it wasn’t surprising. If the assault survivor wanted to speak, Attorney Adler would make sure she got the chance to. The lawyer stood, smoothing his jacket over his shoulders. He didn’t look like the Adlers I had met, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t part of the family. That name had weight, especially around here.
He held out his hand, helping a blond woman stand.
“Ms. James?” the judge asked.
Kendall’s heels clicked on the floor. Everyone shifted uncomfortably, waiting for her to speak. Once at the podium, Kendall scanned the room, her eyes resting for a moment on the group of women from the Dahlia District, all of them leaning into each other. Iris sat on the end, her arms crossed over her chest, her black hair razor-sharp next to her face, her eyes brighter than the last time I had seen her. But then again, she had been well-used after the abduction.
Kendall pulled out a folded piece of paper from her pocket. The material crinkled as she laid it flat on the wood. She cleared her throat, then spoke into the microphone.
“Jake Harris,” she said, her voice throaty, different from how she had purred her introduction to me at the club. “I trusted you. I thought you were my friend. My only friend, in a place where I was the outsider. The new girl everyone hated.” Her features visibly tensed. “But you betrayed me,” her voice quaked, “You used me. You took away my power when I—” she stuttered, pausing to take a deep breath, then continued, “when I was already weak. What you did was nothing less than a complete violation of my rights. My freedom. It was rape.”
Jake kept his head down, a blank stare, avoiding Kendall’s eyes. A tumultuous orchestra playing in his mind that no one else could hear. He sniffled, sucking in a loud breath, the subtle acknowledgment of her words. Iris shifted in her seat, then uncrossed her arms, her full attention on Kendall.
Had Jake hurt Iris too?
“You will never truly understand how you broke these women. How you broke us,” Kendall said. “How you broke me.” A tear went down her cheek but she swiftly wiped it away. “But now, you’ll pay.”
She left the podium. The judge pushed her glasses up her nose.
“Jake Harris, for sexual assault in the first degree of Kendall James, this court sentences you to fifteen years in prison with the possibility for parole. Report to prison in six weeks.”
The judge knocked the gavel into the desk. Hushed conversations built and people stood in the rows. Jake stayed seated while his lawyer whispered in his ear. Eventually, Jake turned around, glaring at the room, taking in each individual, marking them from head to toe, as if writing a list. His eyes lingered on the group of servers hugging each other. His glare found Kendall, taking her in, then moved on, stopping on Iris. He kept his eyes there, stalling, dissecting Iris, taking her apart, limb by limb.
I clenched my fist impulsively, then stopped. For once, the justice system had taken care of the crime. Jake was going to prison. He couldn’t hurt Iris from inside of a correctional facility. And by the time he returned to the real world, most of those servers would be long gone, Iris included.
In the lobby, I found Iris exiting the bathroom, a small onyx beaded satchel clutched under her arm. I waved her down, and she stopped, tucking a short strand of hair behind her ear. Her eyes were red, her stare vacant, but she nodded when she saw me, not shooting hatred in my direction, but indifference.
Across from us, the servers were consoling each other, Kendall in the middle. Iris looked at them, absently rubbing a palm over her chest.
“You okay?” I asked. I didn’t take her to be someone who would cry at a court hearing, but I didn’t know her well. Her posture perked up.
“Why do you ask?”
I pointed towards the doors, knowing Jake was probably exiting through one of the other doors by now. “Seems like a heavy topic. Are you okay?”
She shrugged. Kendall sobbed, burying her face into a fellow server’s shoulder. Iris scoffed, her irritation aimed towards the open doors of the courtroom, at Jake himself.
So shewasupset. Likely mortified by the whole ordeal. But she was never going to admit it.
“He raped Kendall, then?” I asked.
“A lot of the other servers too. Two of my closest friends.”
“And you?”
“That man had ‘creep’ written all over him from day one. I didn’t trust him for a second,” she sneered. But Iris wasn’t the type to trust many people. Her tough exterior made her nearly impossible to penetrate, hence our bet. It was the only way to get inside of her head.
