Iniquity

*** WARNING***: please be aware that there is a scene involving non-consensual sexual violence. It may be triggering to some readers.

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The breakfast dishes had been washed and put away. The kitchen was spotless.

Joan carefully aligned her cell phone with her laptop and her tea. There was much to do as she waited for the call from Channing.

***

Vera finally opened her eyes, blinking against the sunshine. The space next to her was empty, but she could hear the shower running.

In a strange way, she thought, she should be happy. Jake had never before stayed the night. They still hadn’t had sex—as much as she hinted that she wanted to—but at least he had stayed. This must mean something.

She closed her eyes.

It figured that her love life would finally start just as her career flatlined.

***

Jake leaned into the warm spray, letting it fall over his shoulders and down his body. He pulled back, grabbing Vera’s body wash—ugh, freesia, so disgustingly feminine—and scrubbed it vigorously across his skin. He allowed his hands to drift slowly downward, to where he was already half aroused.

He thought about Joan.

A rush of breath escaped from between his lips.

He wasn’t interested in her sexually. Not really. But the way she had manipulated that interview last night, the way she had maintained control throughout, playing the victim when she was anything but…

It excited him.

He imagined her coming back to Wentworth, seizing the Governorship. She would have both the inmates and the guards running in fear—everyone but him. Poor little Vera wouldn’t know what hit her.

Smiling, he closed his eyes, picturing Joan calling him into her office after a staff meeting. She would send her assistant away. When she turned from closing the door, ushering him toward a seat, he would slowly allow his eyes to travel up and down the length of her body. He would assert his dominance over this powerful creature.

But she was Joan, so she wouldn’t allow that. Unlike Vera, who would redden and stumble backwards, Joan would slowly, purposefully stride forward, directly into his personal space. She would hold his gaze.

He was fully hard now, pumping himself in a familiar pattern.

“I’m promoting you, Mr. Stewart,” she would say in that low, husky voice. “You’ve demonstrated your reliability and ability to complete tasks.” She would reach up, placing her hand on his upper chest. “You’ll be my deputy, now,” she would say, smiling smugly. “Congratulations.”

He would roughly tug her hand, pulling her even closer, surprising her. “Fuck you, Joan,” he would whisper into her ear as she quivered against his hard body. “You made me kill for you.”

Her laugh would vibrate against him, the sound low and throaty. “I didn’t force you to do it,” she would hiss into his ear. “You chose to take my money. You chose to kill.” Suddenly, she would bite his earlobe. “And now I own you.”

The feel of his cock was almost excruciating. He was close, so close…

“No, Joan,” he would say. “No, Governor, it’s the other way around.” Suddenly, he would shove her hard, forcing her down to the ground, down to her knees. Pulling out his cock, he would push it into her face. “I own you,” he would say as he forced it between her lips, holding the back of her head as she gagged on it.

He came hard, his cum spurting against the sides of Vera’s shower.

***

Joan checked the time on the upper right of her screen. It was still early, particularly for a slothful General Manager.

She smiled to herself, focusing again on her work.

***

Kaz was finally allowed out of the slot.

“Who did it?” she asked as soon as she was escorted into the Governor’s Office.

“Thank you, Officer Lawson,” Vera nodded, dismissing the man who had escorted Proctor. “Please wait outside.”

“Well?” Kaz asked as soon as the door closed behind Lawson.

Vera ground her teeth and stared out the window. This was exactly what Jake had pointed out to her this morning, after his shower. The women didn’t respect her. They didn’t fear her. They just… demanded.

“Will Jackson obviously knows,” Kaz continued belligerently.

Jake had said that she had to be more careful now. She had to be harder, stricter, more calculating, if she wanted to keep her job.

She had to be like Joan.

The thought made her want to scream.

“You’re seriously refusing to look at me?” Kaz demanded.

Fine, Vera thought. She would be like Joan, at least for these next few days.

Then let it all be done.

She swiveled her chair to look at Kaz, her face chillingly expressionless. She said nothing.

Kaz’s brows furrowed. She couldn’t say that she knew the Governor well, but… this was a different Vera Bennett than the one she had encountered before. Something had obviously happened. Was it because of Bea? What else had occurred while she was in the slot?

“I will respond to you,” Vera enunciated slowly, icily, “when you show me the respect due to my position.”

“Are you kidding me?” Kaz nearly laughed.

“Do I appear to be kidding?” Vera asked, her eyebrows rising in near-perfect imitation of Joan’s.

Kaz hesitated. She was determined to find out what happened to Bea, but something was obviously going on. She needed to talk to the women, to get information before she antagonized the Governor.

“I respect you, Governor,” she said slowly.

Vera peered at her closely, searchingly. “Fine,” she replied, somewhat taken aback by Proctor’s quick about-face. “No, the police have not yet determined Smith’s cause of death.”

“Haven’t determined—let me help them out,” Kaz said sarcastically, already losing the careful façade of only a moment earlier. “She was stabbed. Repeatedly. Brutally!”

Vera cleared her throat, trying her best to keep her patience, to preserve control. “I mean that they do not yet know who stabbed Smith.”

Kaz stared at her incredulously.

Vera’s jaw shifted, growing tighter, but she maintained eye contact.

“You know,” Kaz finally said accusingly. “I think that you know.”

Vera stared back. “I have removed you from the slot on one condition,” she stated firmly, pointedly ignoring the accusation.

Kaz stepped forward. “You know and you haven’t told anyone.”

Vera continued as if Kaz hadn’t spoken. “That condition is that you stay away from Officer Jackson. You make no attempt to interact with him past what is strictly necessary.”

“You’re covering it up,” Kaz spat, pointing accusingly at Vera.

“If you continue to attack Officer Jackson,” Vera persisted without losing a beat, “I will have no recourse but to place you back into the slot.”

Kaz finally yelled, pounding her hands on the desk. “You’re part of it—you’re part of whatever this is!” She swept her hands across the desk, throwing everything in her reach onto the floor.

Officer Lawson appeared in the doorway. “Everything all right, Governor?” he asked, flicking his eyes to Kaz and back. He and Vera exchanged glances.

“Please escort Proctor back to the slot,” Vera ordered firmly. She turned back to glare at Kaz. “She will remain there until she learns how to conduct herself properly within this prison.”

“What?” Kaz screamed. “This is a cover-up—this is all a cover-up! Don’t touch me!” She tried to push off the officer. “You know who killed her, Bennett!” she yelled as she was dragged away. “This is a cover-up!”

Vera calmly shut the door to her office. She stepped over the telephone now lying at her feet. Sitting once more, she swiveled back toward the window. She looked out, staring at nothing.

Kaz continued to scream as she was led to the slot.

Down the hall, Liz stood frozen where she had emerged from her meeting with Detective Kaplan. She was shocked.

Had that been Kaz screaming?

Was the Governor really covering up the murder?

What was going on?