Page 77 of Cruel Master
Hadrian nods but lets her speak uninterrupted.
"Candice gave her more than friendship. She was Quinn's... thing, her purpose. Her joy. Building their world together, it…it was a distraction. Now it's gone, and Quinn’s lost. Drinking a lot, like she was before, when she manages to get around Jacob.”
I don’t know Quinn, but my heart feels heavy for her. It’s a bleak assessment of her situation, and I addbuilding their worldto the list of things I need to pry out of Hadrian. Is Quinn a game designer like me? Maybe I could help her.
I force that line of thought to a screeching halt before it gets going. The only thing I need to help Quinn do is get the fuck out of here. Eve, too. Everyone. The women here seem to have a lot of freedom—it’s a long way from the barred cells I’d been imagining. Surely we can manage something if we all work together?
Once Eve leaves, the silence lies heavy between Hadrian and me. People wander past, but I can’t focus on their voices. There’s too much I need to ask and way too much I don’t understand. One question, though, looms over the rest. “Why does everyone look like they’ve seen a ghost when they first see me?”
Hadrian’s poker face has gotten crazy good, but even he can’t hide his wince. I’ve hit straight on the thing he least wants to talk about, and that means I’ve asked the right question.
He’ll probably order me to shut up and tell me to get on my knees. Or gag me. Something to stop me poking around where he doesn’t want me. I’m braced for it, and the long silence is a good indication he’s considering it. But then his jaw tenses, and he meets my gaze.
“It’s easier if I show you.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Hadrian
IleadJuliettomy lab, wondering with every step whether I’m making the right decision. This doesn’t feel like a Saldar move. Saldar would have dragged Juliet back to her cell and punished her for even thinking of questioning him.
She’ll get her punishment, but the longer we’re out here, the more it’s sinking in that I can’t pretend the outside world doesn’t exist. Juliet needs to accept the real me as her master. Me, not Saldar, and that can’t happen in isolation. The Brotherhood is a community, and Juliet needs to find her place in it, just like the other girls have.
But before that, she needs to know about Candice.
Quinn took away any chance of breaking the news to Juliet in my own time. I saw the recognition on her face at the name. CDICE—our private joke. I don’t know why I kept the name after what Juliet did. I just couldn’t think of Candice as anything else, even though it hurt.
Juliet remains quiet, though I can feel the questions desperate to spill out of her. For every one I answer, there will be hundreds more right behind. She lit up, desperate for company, when Eve mentioned some girl time. She’s always needed that type of connection.
I have to find a balance, a way to allow her that without breaking the hold I have over her. I hadn’t meant to introduce her to anyone today, but of course fate threw everyone in the Compound into our path the second we stepped outside. All I need now is Kendrick to appear from the shadows.
We reach my lab, and I use my fingerprint to open the door. That used to be Candice’s job, and I can’t entrust it to any of the other creations yet. They’re nowhere close to Candice—none of them have achieved even basic sentience, and I’m not sure why. I neglected them in favor of her, and now they’re years behind.
I don’t want to admit it, but I’ve been avoiding them. Avoiding the lab altogether. It feels bare and miserable without Quinn’s shrieking laughter filling it. I used to find it an irritating distraction, but now I’d give anything to hear it.
Christ, get it together. It’s your workspace, not a tomb.
I wish I could be certain that was true.
Juliet stares round at the bare walls, as unimpressed as I thought she’d be. “This is homey,” she mutters, then tenses, waiting for me to react.
Juliet always kept her workspaces as an extension of herself. Bright colors, paintings she’d done of her own characters, knickknacks, fish tanks, collectible mugs. I used to tease her that she’d do anything other than actually work, but she knew I didn’t mean it.
Juliet works hard when she has her teeth into a project. It’s something we have in common, though I take it to the pointof obsession, whereas she manages to make it outside once in a while.
“You know me and my sense of style,” I respond, too anxious about what is coming to form a suitably master-like response. Better to just get this over with.
My connection to the mainframe computer comes live as soon as I open the door, and all I have to say is, “Computer, show me footage of Candice and Quinn in their private server. Rainforest biome. Find footage with a lot of conversation.”
I used “Computer” as the keyword as a joke because of the old Star Trek series, and Juliet’s slight smile tells me she didn’t miss the reference. Juliet gasps as the screens come to life, displaying what could be mistaken for a movie scene.
Quinn and Jacob consented to constant recording when Candice and Quinn explored the virtual world together. I rarely watched the footage, but seeing Candice interact naturally with her friend was a great way to view her progress.
On the screen, Quinn, her avatar dressed in a ridiculous Tarzan and Jane wild woman outfit, and Candice, her virtual body clad in shorts and a pink T-shirt, are sitting on a log, surrounded by the lush green of the rainforest they created. The sound of rushing water fills my silent lab, and I recognize the area. They’re close to the waterfall.
Quinn grins at Candice. “It’s just so perfect. I keep thinking of adjustments but then stopping. I don’t want to mess with it.”
Candice holds out her hand, and a butterfly lands on her outstretched finger. “I know what you mean. But you know what would be cool? A cave system behind the waterfall. We’d only have to shift the topography slightly. We could have a stream running through it, stalactites and stalagmites.”
