Chapter 28
Frustrated that she can’t find her wayward date, Kara heads out towards the empty elevator hall, eager to get outside and get some fresh air. She needs to escape. Hell, she’s happy to go home and hide for as long as it takes for her heart to repair itself.
“So, that’s it? You show up here and tell me off, only to run and hide?” Nick’s cold voice stops her in her tracks. “Disappointing. I thought you’d fight a little harder. Instead, you just want to lie down and die.”
Kara swallows thickly, hearing him walking up behind her. “I bet you’re blaming me for having morals,” she says shakily. “I bet you’re blaming me for your mistake. Guess what, Nick; mistakes have consequences.”
His hands fall on her shoulders and instantly she feels the walls come down around her. She wants to turn around and cry into his chest and beg him to tell her it isn’t true, that he hasn’t been promised to someone else all this time.
The what they had…twisted as it was…was all a lie.
A strangled sob curls in her chest, slipping out of her lips against her will. Hearing it, Nick turns her around slowly until she’s facing him, her eyes wide and her lips trembling. Her anger has burned into mental anguish.
“How could you do this to me?” She stares up at his pretty blue eyes, noting the way he exhales hard, his hands tightening on her.
“I didn’t do anything to you,” he replies with a whisper of frustration. He really seems to want to convince her that nothing has changed. “I’ve been engaged to her for years. It has nothing to do with you, Kara.”
“Regardless of how you feel about it,” Kara says with a cracking voice, “You’ve made me feel like a whore in at least a thousand different ways. But this? This hurts. The backstabbing-”
One of his hands runs through her hair before touching her cheek. “You’re beating yourself up over nothing . Just let it go. Forget you ever found out.”
“Well, are you going to break off the engagement?”
“No.” Flat. Final.
“Then, we have nothing to talk about. I’m not going to play this game with you, Nick.”
He presses his forehead to hers, grinding his teeth. “Kara,” his voice is husky. “Please, sweetpea, don’t be like this. I want you-”
A soft voice breaks through the tension, cutting right through the emotions burning the air into nothing. “Excuse me. I’d like my date back, Nick. You appear to be monopolizing her.”
Nick stiffens, pale eyes shadowed in the dim lighting of the hallway. He pulls back from Kara slightly, searching her face, anger in his jaw. Not directed at her. “We’re in the middle of a conversation. Entertain yourself with someone else for a few minutes.”
Dietrich is a shadowy silhouette in the archway, leaning against the frame, arms crossed. Kara can’t see his face, but she knows he’s likely watching them with that awful, shark-like expression. Cruel, empty, and cold like the ocean far from land. Ominous. Ruthless. “Shall I tell your fiancée where you are? She’s looking for you. What would she think if she saw you two together…” his voice drops in midnight chocolate tones, “…whispering in the dark, alone?”
The verbal reminder is like a knife, digging just under Kara’s ribcage. A burning, sharp pain. Suffocating in how terrible it hurts. A gentle reminder that the man in front of her can never be hers.
“It doesn’t matter what she thinks,” Nick replies sharply, jaw clenching, shoulders hunching up. “Dieter, if you could fuck off, that would be absolutely welcome.” Kara marvels that he must be upset, to curse like that. He never curses unless he’s fucking.
There’s a snort from the archway.
“It’s over, Nick.” Kara says as calmly as she can, even though it feels like her heart is shriveling into nothing. “You may not care about the situation, you may live a nice little private life, but I refuse to be wasted on someone who will never be with me the way I want.”
“No, no no. Kara, stop talking like that,” Nick rasps, looking at her with a strange sort of nervousness in his eyes. “This doesn’t have to end. Nothing has changed! We agreed on no strings attached.”
Feeling her eyes watering, Kara can’t stand to meet his gaze any longer, averting her face sharply, inhaling. It feels like inhaling a burning gas, the way her lungs catch. “I wish that were true. You expect far too much of me. I’m not emotionless. I’m not a machine.”
He’s staring at her, eyes burning holes into the side of her face. “I don’t care about her, you know-”
“ You don’t care about me, either . You only care about the way I make you feel.” Kara snaps, seeing her new master tapping his wrist in the doorway, telling her to wrap it up faster. She wouldn’t put it past Dietrich to find and bring Claire over just to watch the chaos unfold.
A hand grips her chin, forcing her stinging gaze back to Nick’s stone cut features. “How can you say I don’t care about you when I’ve shared my deepest desi-” he cuts himself off sharply, his throat tightening visibly with emotion.
Nick barely covers up a sneer, an expression of self-hatred crawling across his face.
“I’m done.” Kara wants to sit down and cry, wants to shove her hand into her chest and rip out her beating heart and give it to him. “Just…leave me alone. You’ve hurt me enough for one lifetime.”
A rough hand grabs her by the chin and lips cover hers in a consuming, possessive kiss, stealing her breath away. Before Kara can even respond, Nick pulls away from her, eyes wild and angry as he turns, leaving her all twisted and broken inside.
Dietrich collects her as Nick angrily strides out of the hall, heading back towards the party. It feels like every step he takes is on her heart, smashing it. Kara can hear Claire’s cultured tone ringing out, asking him where he’s been all this time. She can’t even hate the woman; it isn’t Claire’s fault. It’s his. This pain has been caused by no one other than Nick. He should have known better.
He shouldn’t have put Kara in this position.
He shouldn’t have played with her emotions this way. Worse yet; Kara shouldn’t have given him the opportunity to worm into her heart, like a poison.
“Don’t look so down,” Dietrich drawls lightly, looking handsome even with shadows playing on his features. His eyes look like midnight pits, the green being eaten by an emotion that Kara can’t read. “Pain is temporary. Usually, anyway.”
“I don’t want you to give me a pep talk, Dieter,” Kara says with a tremor that she can’t hide. “I want you to leave me alone.”
His arm brushes hers as he gives her a gentle nudge. “And I want three cunts fighting over my dick tonight, but we can’t all get what we want, now can we?”
“I’m not in the mood for your vileness!” She wipes at her eyes angrily, hating him for seeing her like this.
She’s weak.
Dietrich sighs, looking very well put together. Too well put together. He’s so beyond her league that Kara feels like a rat witnessing some sort of deity waltzing around in a tailored suit. “You never have to wonder where you stand with me,” he says coolly, eyes glittering. His pupils are utterly normal; no cocaine tonight it seems. “I’m using you and...”
Kara sneers at him, ready to clock him in the mouth.
“You’re using me,” he continues, as if unconcerned about the expression on her face. “It’s a beautifully simple relationship. Symbiotic.”
She’s still not sure what he’s getting out of this and it makes her suspicious. It can’t totally be about pissing off Nick. No, there has to be something else that Dietrich is after. It can’t be good. She remains silent.
“We have a lot to do, you and I.” He continues idly. “We’re going to have so much fun. I can be nice, you know.”
That’s what Kara’s afraid of.
That, and whatever other morally grey things he’s involved in, putting everything she’s worked so hard for at risk. Making a monster of her. A liar.
You made the bargain to stay above water, Kara. Now, sink or swim in it. He’s going to twist you up regardless.
He takes her hand and pulls her to the elevators. Kara goes with him numbly, suddenly no longer caring about keeping up appearances at the party. What does it matter now; she’s already with the person who owns her.
Outside, the night air is tolerable compared to the heat of bodies in the office. Dietrich lights a cigarette, even making the act of inhaling look sexual. Kara hates that about him; everything he does feels like foreplay to her. “Since when do you smoke?”
“When I feel like it. Usually when I’m lit,” he replies huskily, coughing slightly. A social smoker.
Kara’s phone rings loudly and she jumps to pull it out of her back pocket. “Kara Hayes,” she answers, feeling Dietrich’s eyes on her.
“Kara? It’s Ray. You won’t believe this, but we finally found The Room. We found videos. The place is in Paxton Brooker’s name; he’s been paying taxes on it for three years. Kara. Kara? You there?”
It’s like standing in ice cold water, a full body shiver encasing Kara at his words. They found it. They finally fucking found that horrid place.
Shakily, she whispers, “Yeah. I’m here. What’s happening? How…are we proceeding?”
Ray sounds like he’s been pounding energy drinks and chain-smoking. A very likely thing, too. His speech cadence is fast, excitable. More energy than is possibly containable. “Paxton has been under house arrest for a few months, but this changes things. We are going to be bringing him in for questioning. Let Derrick Benson know. This is going to court on new charges. Our DA may want to pursue it.”
“…I’ll tell Derrick.” Kara feels numb, cannot even believe this is happening. Nick’s client is involved in The Room, the place of torture. He owns the place. Did Nick know? This whole time? Was he part of it after all? Sickness pools in her belly. Ray hangs up, telling her he’ll be in touch.
Her arm falls to her side, clutching her phone still. Staring off at the lights of the city, too bright, too intense for the darkness filling her soul. A crushing feeling of rage, pain, and hopelessness.
Just another thing behind the wall Nick always put up. The real reason why he got the Debra Mills case dismissed in regards to Paxton Brooker. The snake . Kara’s fist clenches, thinking of all the times she gave herself to him, completely oblivious to the man behind the curtain.
To all his dark little secrets. I’m going to bring his client down if it’s the last thing I do.
“What’s up, chickadee?” A soft tone.
Kara jolts in surprise. She’s almost forgotten about Dietrich, elegantly smoking beside her like he’s being paid to do it. “Ah. I’m sorry to tell you…well, I can’t tell you. I mean, I don’t think I can. It’s about Paxton and the Dark Mirage .”
Dietrich’s only response is a devious flicker in his gaze before his lips shape into an ‘O’, blowing smoke upwards. “Oh? What did Pax do now?”
Then, he smirks, leaving Kara wondering.