Page 42 of Master B-1901

“Not exactly.”

“It wouldn’t matter anyway.” Elec let out a breath. “She has just as much access to this system as me. She has pull and power. A lot of it. Evidence disappears. By her or from another, I don’t know. At this point, it’s a waste of time to even look to see if there’s footage. Every time I do, it’s already gone or it simply doesn’t exist.”

“She admitted to me that she’s been doing this to Braddock. To others too. She’s been messing with his head for a long time. I think it would be best for you to find something proving her guilt. There are ways. New cameras. Hidden cameras. My training says it can be done. Mistress Two is dangerous. More than dangerous; she’s deadly. This can’t go on. Main Master…my mind. I’m…I’m not sure I’m okay. She got to me for a little bit. She almost had me.”

My teeth chattered, and the shaking got worse as my adrenaline increased at my words. The truth of what she was capable of made mefeel,where my mind said I shouldn’t. And what it made me was afraid. I didn’t like that. But it wasn’t fear over myself. I didn’t want to fail Elec or Braddock. I didn’t want to kill them or anyone else either.

“You need to be reset again. Do you remember the exercise we did just before your Master woke up in the hospital room?”

“Yes.”

“I need you to close your eyes and do that. Do it every free moment you have until I can make it to your apartment. I’m tied up at the moment, but I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Thank you, Main Master.”

“Ally?”

“Yes?”

“I know your job is to protect Braddock, but I need you to spare the Mistress. You can restrain her if you have to, but I need her alive. You can’t kill her.That’s an order.”

Even the showerand the change of clothes couldn’t erase the blood and meat I still saw covering my Master. It’d been hours since we’d returned home, but I still couldn’t forget his brutality, nor could I get the Mistress’s words out of my head. They repeated in a cycle, warning me of my weakness, hinting I’d be murdered by my Master. Him. Me. Him. Which one of us would snap first? Which one of us would submit to her powers and end the other? The damn shaking still wouldn’t stop. But where I was nervous, my Master was all bliss.

“You outdid yourself tonight, Ally. This dinner is amazing.”

“Thank you, Master. I was just glad I made the grocery order before we left. It was nice to have everything here shortly after we returned.”

He nodded, missing that my voice was soft. Quiet. It hadn’t escaped me. I was so turned inward that I could barely express anything on the outside. How many times had I done the breathing and mental exercises since I’d gotten back? Four? Five? Can’t kill her? Can’t kill her!

My head shook as I took a bite of the potatoes. The order rubbed me the wrong way. I should have felt indifferent. It was an order. I had to follow those. My threat to the Mistress was pointless. She was getting away with this, and the part of me that had given itself completely to the Main Master battled the orders he’d given me for Braddock. I was so at odds that my brain fogged over. To think was all I could do, yet nothing in my mind seemed right. None of it made sense.

“I know you’re…a protector. Acompanion. But you’re different. Did I scare you?”

“What? Oh, no, Master. You got what you needed. That was what I wanted for you.”

He nodded.

“I did need that.” His brow crinkled through his thoughts. “I don’t know who I am. Even now, finding the missing pieces…I’m not sure where they fit in with who I used to be. These scars. They tell a story. But what story? How did I get them? Are the memories I have real? Are they all fake and she—" He came to an abrupt stop, shaking his head. “I don’t even know when I started recognizing them. I know the stories but remembering the actual events afterward. Doctors. Things like that. It’s…wrong. Not there? I’m so confused. Do you think what I believe about my life is…her doing?”

I licked my lips, pausing as I took in the uncertainty.

“Master, Mistress Two is not a good person. I think…” Loyalty battled duty making my teeth bite into themselves. “The woman is capable of the worst things imaginable. With her, anything is possible. That is all I can say.”

“To imagine she did this to me. That what I think of my life is a lie. How? How do I not know the difference? I get that she fucks with the mind but, you’d think I’d know. You wouldthinkI could tell the difference between the truth and a…story.”

My Master’s head reared back.

“What? What is it?”

He blinked rapidly, pushing back in his chair.

“I…remembered something. I…stories. Stories. I think she told me…stories? I can’t see them or hear them, but I can see her saying the word. What stories…What adventures are we going on today.Let me tell you a story,” he breathed out.

An aggravated sound left him.

“Master, you’re doing well. I know it’s not easy.”

“Easy? No. I don’t know what the fuck I’m seeing. I can’t decipher anything more than words.”