Page 61 of Mistress A-0002

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“I don’t think Keith Moore’s wife would agree. She’s absolutely livid about what you’ve done with her husband. In his office…On his desk? They’ve all seen it, Melissa. Everyone. Keithsays you messed with his mind. He’s telling everyone that will listen. Now, they’re wondering if you messed with theirs too.”

Heat rolled over my skin as I tried to swallow back the spike of panic. My vision blurred, and the dreaded sweat began to appear.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“We all have copies of the video. We were told to pay special attention to certain signs of manipulation. Tapping. Clicking. There are signs. I can email it to you.”

“Fuck your video.” I pushed to my feet, grabbing my coffee and leaving the half-eaten muffin there. “We had an affair, so what. The tapping and clicking are just nervous habits I do. I didn’t need to use mind tricks to have his dick. He gave that over willingly.”

“As well as his home in the Florida Keys? It appears he’s not the only one who’s discovered they’ve…given you elaborate things.”

I pushed the elevator button. Once. Twice. Harder. Faster.

“This is all absurd. You all act like I’m the only one who’s ever had a string of affairs. Men give me gifts. So what. Should I have declined their generosity?They sure weren’t declining mine.”

“Call it what you want. Gifts. Kindness. Charity. Keith Moore is filing charges against you, and others may be joining him soon. This doesn’t look good for you or Ronald, who by the way is quite pissed at discovering your news. Whether he knew about what you were doing or not is yet to be seen. Above ground, it’s turning into a fucking witch hunt on you both, and I can’t make this go away. I can’t even try. The Council is taking this seriously. They know what you’re capable of, and they don’t see this as just affairs. What the Council sees is mental extortion. They see a serial rapist who has made her rounds for material gain. You may have declined a lawyer for your son, but you’d be smart to obtain one for yourself. Do you have any questions?”

“A fucking million,but none I want to ask you. I’ll deal with this on my own. I don’t need your help or anyone elses. A serial rapist. You’ve got to be kidding me. I see the decision on my innocence has pretty much been made. A serial fucking rapist.Go to hell.Every single last one of you.”

“Noted. It is eight-fifteen am, record number four-thirteen-eleven?—”

“Wait! You recorded this?”

“Of course. Protocol. The Council asks you refrain from coming above ground. You are temporarily assigned to the Gardens until further notice. I will reach out to you again soon with an update. Goodbye, Melissa.”

First Jett. Now this? Dammit! And of course I was the bad guy. Not him. Not Jett who forced his way into another Master’s apartment. I was sick of people trying to come to that little shit’s rescue. No way I was letting that happen. If I was going down, so would he. So would everyone. Fuck the Gardens. Fuck the Council. Fuck Keith, and fuck Elec.

No…it wasn’t going down this way. I had the power, not them. I did. I just needed a plan. I needed to think.

Fuck! I wanted to scream. To hurt someone. Red. All I saw…was red. Not many understood the true meaning behind the saying, but it was real. My vision pulsed with my pounding heartrate. The red elevator doors opened, giving way to a small, red room. I barely could function enough to hang up and meet the set of hard eyes that stared at me. I was on autopilot. In shock and rage, when I should have been calculating my next move.

“You.You did this!”

Ethan O’Brien stopped talking, glancing over to Elec, only to come back to me as I surged into the elevator.

“Mistress Two.” Elec stayed standing tall, his shoulders relaxed as he cocked his head to the side, reading my face. “I see you’re not having a very good morning.”

“How could you? I trusted you.I made you!”

Elec’s brows drew in.

“My mother and father made me. You merely taught me.”

“And I did fucking good considering what you’ve done. Too good.” I stepped closer. “But you’re not good enough. How deep are you in? Did you create this narrative against me? Supply the video? Contact the Council? Keith wouldn’t have gone in search of an old video for no reason. And what about Braddock? Did you set that meeting between all of us up too?”

Ethan looked between us, but it was Elec’s expression I couldn’t break from. Confusion. It was there, wasn’t it? Or was it wishful thinking? He was mad at me because of Braddock but—no. I was done making excuses for him.

“Wipe that stupid perplexed look from your face.” I snapped my finger. “You know what I’m talking about. I’m almost convinced now that you planned this all. Maybe you even fucking set up Braddock because you knew I’d be coming back to my apartment and you wanted to instigate that fight. Is it so important for you to rule the Gardens alone?”Snap.“To sacrifice your own teacher for power and greed?”Snap, snap. “I took care of you. I gave you this place!”

We came to a stop and the doors started to open, but I quickly reached over, clicking my tongue and hitting the button to cause them to shut and hold.

“Answer me!”

Nothing. Just a glare. Mine narrowed even more, and he wasn’t turning away. Elec barely even blinked from his bored expression as I tried to hook him again with a double snap. My hand swiped down, and a smile slowly stretched across my face as the Main Master jolted into my spell. Confusion extinguishedthe boiling fury as Elec’s lids nearly closed. I took a step forward, clicking my tongue again twice and deepening my tone.

“I’ve warned you not to cross me,Main Master.” His lids lowered even more through the heaviness, and I lifted my finger, tracing the air in his peripheral. “You think you can outsmart me. Overpower me. You can keep trying, but you’re not going to win. One snap and a crush of my fist and you’d hit this floor,dead. Is that what you want,Elec Wexler? Do you really want to force my hand?”

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