Page 52 of Dozer

I heard his footsteps returning, and he stood in the hallway and looked at me without approaching.

“I understand I’m not supposed to know what’s happening, but makeup can be pretty specific to whatever is going on. Lunch in a honky-tonk bar makeup is completely different from lunch in a five-star restaurant, and both of those aren’t the same as lunch in an ordinary restaurant. And then there’s whatever I’ll be doing tonight, which is—”

“You’re lucky I adore you. Anyone else, I’d turn them over and whale on their ass for asking me about makeup.” He sighed, looked at me another handful of seconds, and finally said, “Lunch should be confident and glamorous, but also casual. Tonight? Bring makeup to put on for one of those red-carpetthings, I think. Too much. Exaggerated, but still gorgeous. Not clown makeup, right?”

“Yes, Master. Thank you. That helps.”

It didn’t really help all that much, but I understood it was all he was going to tell me, so I’d just have to wing it.

As it turned out, the boots and heels went into a bag with the makeup I was taking, and I had to wear motorcycle boots and a super-cool jacket he told me would keep all my skin where it’s supposed to be if we crashed. Apparently, the jeans were thick enough to protect me, so I didn’t have to change out of them.

He brought my laptop, and I spent the morning in his room at the clubhouse going over my pros-and-cons list, but really, Iknewwhat I wanted.

I wanted to be his wife.

And not only that, I wanted to add his name onto the end of mine. I didn’t want to trash my family name. Not when it really came down to it. Marguerite Elizabeth Chanel-Hearst Stevens. It was a long-damned name, but it was who I wanted to be.

I looked at my first name again.Margueriteis the French name for the oxeye daisy, and apparently, when my parents decided to have another child, my father bought my mother a bouquet of this super-rare Whirligig African Daisy, both because it’s rare and mega-expensive, and also because the petals kind of look like sperm. Anyway, when they found out I was a girl, mom said I’d be nicknamed Daisy as a family name, but always Marguerite in public. I’d actually gotten into trouble for telling Thurston he could call me Daisy. Outsiders weren’t supposed to know the nickname.

But then I’d had everyone at school call me Daisy, and my parents had insisted the teachers continue to use my legal name, but the students called me Daisy because I told them to.

And I’d told my parents if they switched me to another school, I’d tell my friends there to call me Daisy, too.

I had no idea why keeping all of my original name was suddenly important, but it was, and I knew, deep down, this was something Master would probably want me to decide for myself.

He returned a few hours later and handed me a fistful of money, folded over. I opened it, planning to count it, and he said, “It’s three hundred in twenties. Put a hundred in your right pocket and the rest in your left. If you spend any in the right pocket, go to the restroom and move enough over so you have a hundred in the right pocket again, and know the totals in each pocket, so if you go into a shop, you’ll know which pocket to pull from, when you pay.”

I nodded. “Dray had me keep my cash separated. I understand the concept, and I know how pickpockets work, Master.”

He kissed the top of my head. “The truth is, those street-smarts combined with who you were before are a bizarre contradiction, and it’s possible that’s one of the things that made me fall for you. Or maybe it’s just that smart mouth.” Another kiss to the top of my head while I contemplated the fact Master had just told me he’d fallen for me, and my stomach and heart grew wings. “You’ll be drinking at lunch, but we know the restaurant owner so no one will ask for your ID. Gen might try to pay the tab. If she does, thank her and tell her you’ll pay the tip, and then put three twenties down, assuming the server did a good job — two if they did not, but I expect they’ll assign you their best, so three should do, but you can put four down if you think the server did an exceptional, above-and-beyond job. You’re allowed one drink before your meal and one during, but no more.”

“And I know what questions I can answer, Master.”

He swatted my ass once, hard, but didn’t say anything. My response was impertinent, and he hadn’t liked it. “I apologize, Master.”

He chuckled. “Part of me wants to tell you not to apologize when you don’t mean it, but I appreciate the lip service, so I won’t tell you that. Still, it wasn’t a full apology, but I’ll take the half one you offered.”

I looked up at him and grinned. I was skating on thin ice, but I wanted to cut up with him, so I did. “Part of me feels like I should apologize for not giving a full, heartfelt apology, but then we’d just be back in the same circumstance, so I suppose I should stop while I’m ahead, Sir.”

He touched the tip of my nose and gave me a stern look, though it looked like he was suppressing a grin. “You’ll be having lunch with Gen and Angelica, and they’ll explain what’ll happen tonight. I’ll have pictures of everyone who’ll be present for you to look at and memorize once you’re back in my room, along with a brief bio of them all. You’ll be quizzed on it before I turn you loose tonight, and you already know you’re going to want to know all the answers off the tip of your tongue.”

And then he reached in his pocket and pulled a phone from it. It was one of the new ones, the kind that folds in half. I accepted it and opened it, and he said, “It’s programmed so it’ll only call or text me, Duke, Brain, Gen, and Angelica right now. You can’t install programs, and there are no social media apps on it. You’ll see an app with the MC’s logo on it, and it’ll let us talk through encryption, so LEO can’t listen in, but that shouldn’t be necessary, so it’s doubtful we’ll use it, but you have it, just in case. You can contact the MC’s control room with it, but I’m telling you to only do that in an emergency, and only after you can’t contact me, Brain, or Duke. If you receive a call through it fromanyone, you should accept the call.”

“Thank you, Master. This is like being part of the world again. It’s big.”

“It is. For now, this doesn’t connect you with the world, but it’s the first step towards making that happen. Now go, and have fun, but don’t forget your rules.”

Chapter 41

Daisy

Angelica picked me up in the cutest little car. It looked perfect from the outside, but the body style hinted at retro. Once inside, the dashboard told me it was probably a really old car, because the dials were the kind with an actual hand that moved back and forth, and the radio looked like something out of a museum.

“What kind of car is this?”

“When I was fifteen, my dad gave me three MGBs, two of them wrecked to hell and back, and the one that looked good with a trashed engine and tranny. He told me I had to turn them into something drivable before I turned sixteen if I wanted something to drive. The engine and tranny in one of the wrecked models was in great shape, considering, and going over every inch of a car when remodeling it teaches you tons of mechanical engineering shit you can probably only get by doing something like that hands-on.”

She shifted gears like a pro on the way out of the compound, and I relaxed into the surprisingly comfortable seat. I knew she had a degree in mechanical engineering, and she worked for the government agency responsible for the dams on the Tennessee River and its tributaries, so her dad had probably done her a huge favor, making her build this car.

---