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I was being a bit rough with her, aggressive, dominating her, and she tended to get really soft and cooperative when I fucked her like that, which was part of the heaven of it all.

It didn’t look good here, though, and while I knew she’d been quite willing it was not immediately apparent in the video.

I flinched because it didn’t end there, and I knew what was coming next. It was the time I’d taken her in the ass, and some creep had captured it all from just a few feet away.

Our faces and our privates were blocked from view throughout because of where the camera was angled, thank God, it was mostly a shot of my bare ass thrusting like a jackhammer, but the whole thing was still completely lurid, and by the awful things I was saying it was impossible to mistake what I was doing to her.

It was horrifying and humiliating, but more than anything in that moment, I was worried about Nova.

“This is online?” I asked, feeling just sick about it.

“Yes. Steps are being taken to remove it as much as possible, but I’m sure you know how it works. Once it’s out there, there’s no getting it back, not really.”

I did know that, and a wave of self-disgust moved over me.

It was so powerful I felt ill with it.

I’d done this to her, my carelessness had landed her on the internet in a seedy sex tape for any random pervert to get off to. I hated it. More even than what was coming to me personally, all the various consequences for what I’d done, I hated the fact that I hadn’t protected her properly, when that was my fucking job.

“You see the problem,” Anna said when the awful video finally finished.

I shut the laptop, exerting some effort not to slam it closed, not to punch a hole through the nearest wall. “I think so,” I said tonelessly.

“It’s not immediately apparent that Nova is a willing participant there,” Sharon added sharply.

I just stared her down. I had a lot to answer for here, but that was going too far. “Has Nova seen this?” I asked.

“She has. We’re holding her in another room. Some of the other APs are still getting her side of things.”

I hated that, hated so much that she was probably scared right then, and I couldn’t be with her to comfort her at the very least. “And what has she said? About whether she was a willing participant?” I asked.

I hated to play that card, but I just knew—there was absolutely no doubt in my mind—that Nova wouldn’t do that to me, wouldn’t for one second infer that I had forced her.

“That’s part of the problem. She’s barely talking. She won’t even corroborate that it’s you in the video. She insists you’ve never laid a finger on her.

In spite of the hell I currently found myself in, I felt something warm roll around in my chest. That was my perfect girl.

“Let me talk to her,” I said.

They both stared at me like I’d lost my mind.

“You won’t go near that girl,” Sharon almost snarled, “ever again.”

I didn’t like that. They could fire me, there’s nowhere else this could go, but they couldn’t keep her away from me outside of school.

Could they?

A new type of sickness was creeping up on me, this one heavy with the weight of my fear.

“Let me call her,” I said, trying to sound reasonable. From their faces they weren’t buying it. “If I can talk to her for thirty seconds, she’ll cooperate more, okay?”

After a brief stare down Anna said, “Fine. Call her. But you have thirty seconds exactly, and you better not say one threatening word to her.”

I glared. “I would never—”

“We heard you on the video, Carter. Never is a strong word. Now watch what you say. Sharon, go tell Stevie and Marian to let Nova take his call.”

Sharon looked like she badly wanted to refuse, but she left in a huff.