“I thought I’d stop by,” Benton said. “See how our problem child is coming along. Is she in the back?”

Tammy shook her head. “I sent her to the depot to stock up on a few things.”

“We have a perfectly satisfactory delivery service.”

She smiled a knowing older woman’s smile. She could see his reaction, but kept that fact hidden. It wouldn’t do for him to judge her. “We certainly do,” she said, “but this way she can put in some hard hours’ work. I think, at the moment at least, she needs the lesson. And between lunch and clocking off time, I think that lesson’s more valuable than having her here.”

Benton nodded. “In that case,” he said, “shall we step through to the back? And you can give me your honest opinion.”

“Another debriefing?” Tammy was quietly proud of her ability to make it look as if she hadn’t noticed the double meaning in what she said, and while she reserved the experience only for her favourite people, she always enjoyed the momentary disconcerted expression. “This way then.”

Benton followed her through and closed the door behind them. He was, she thought, more self-assured than ever; feeling like he was making a difference evidently suited him.

“I… think she’s doing well,” she began. “I won’t lie, she’s a little downbeat some of the time, and she can be stubborn about things. But I catch her enjoying herself, every so often.” She wasn’t about to let Nikki know she noticed, though. She couldn’t afford to let her see the mom under the boss; she might feel like she had leeway, and relax.

Tammy had intended to tell Benton only positive things once he came by to ask how things were going. She was surprised to find herself being completely truthful.

“That’s good,” he said. “Is she improving?”

“Oh, yes.” That she could say without hesitating, with no fear of misleading him. Even that first morning, a week ago now, she’d come downstairs bright eyed and ready and eager to work. She’d held back heavily from flirting, which was a shame - Tammy was convinced that someone who both Delaneys had flirted with would spend even more - but the work was getting done.

It was over the course of that first day that Nikki’s enthusiasm had dwindled, and it wasn’t always back quickly.

“How are you helping her to improve her attitude?” Benton asked. He had his phone out and was fiddling with it now, but he did still seem to be listening.

“Discipline,” she said promptly. “Nikki knows better than to argue, thankfully, at least with me. It’s just a case of getting her to understand that her role in work is who she is, and make her proud of that.”

“Anything else?”

Tammy shifted uncertainly. There was an answer to this… at least, she thought there was. She just wasn’t sure, and she didn’t want to be embarrassed about that.

The fact of the matter was, when Tammy called up an ad on the Brand Ambassador platform and showed it to Nikki, her daughter was a better asset for a while. Different ads seemed to have different results, and a lecture that coincided with an ad seemed to be more impactful than one that didn’t.

Sometimes, it didn’t entirely feel like her own idea to show a video, either. She’d been experimenting with it a lot, but she wasn’t sure it was real. She might be imagining things.

At the same time, some canny instinct told her that being promoted to Brand Ambassador in the same week her daughter had been arrested had to be connected. She just didn’t know how.

“I’ve shown her a lot of the in-house apps on the Brand Ambassador portal,” she said in the end, because dishonesty to an Allen was unthinkable and she had finally decided that this counted as dishonesty.

“Excellent,” he said, and Tammy shivered deliciously. Pleasing an Allen, she was discovering, was something else again; it sent tingles down her spine that made her want to squirm and wriggle luxuriantly. “And do you think that’s had any effect?”

“Yes,” she said promptly. Now she’d brought up the topic, there was no more question; it was simplest - and best - just to answer his questions. “She’s always at her best just after one.”

Benton looked up, smiling broadly. “That’s excellent,” he said. “Now, have a look at this.” He flipped his phone to face her.

Tammy looked. There was again a disconcerting feeling, a sort of vertigo which combined with the brief sensation of falling, and yet somehow it wasn’t unpleasant, was tantalising. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach as her body grew still. The background noise filtering through from the bar seemed to fall away entirely. She felt anticipation, though she couldn’t have told you what for.

“Your daughter is still a worry,” he said. “You can’t afford to let her slide. She’s a screw-up, isn’t that right?”

“Yes,” Tammy said, her voice hushed, and yet forming the word utterly perfectly.

“What is she?”

“A screw-up.”

“But she can be fixed, can’t she?”

“Yes.”

“You can fix her, can’t you?”

“Yes.”

“But that’s going to take a lot of your attention. She needs constant work and correction. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes.”

“Excellent.” Benton was smiling, though Tammy couldn’t tell. He had put his phone away, but until released, Tammy would remain in the same open, suggestible state.

He stepped closer to her, running his hands over her chest, hefting her breasts experimentally. There was a sturdy bra under her top, of course, but even taking that into account, he was fairly sure that her tits had grown a little over the past couple of weeks. He made a mental note to mention to Dr Henry that she’d be a good person to monitor for the physical changes, especially now the shake mixer was firmly established at Tammy’s.

“Things are looking up,” he told her unthinking form. “And if you get your daughter squared away, Tammy, everything will just get better.”

He released his hold on her, pacing compulsively around the small office. “We’re down to very few holdouts now,” he said. “You Brand Ambassadors should be the fix we need.

“If this all works the way it’s supposed to…” He chuckled. “I’ll be the youngest a family member’s been when they took full control of a district. Plenty more work to do, but I can expect, if nothing gets in the way, to make it to the Board young too. That’s what this is all about, you know.”

His words flowed faster and faster, giving vent to them compulsively. It was the promise of her unthinking, unhesitating blankness, he thought. Someone who was there, but not there. Pymon did it, he’d seen, whenever he had a puzzle to solve; he’d called Betty Lyons the best rubber duck he’d ever had, and Benton was almost sure that wasn’t just rhyming slang.

“Nobody messes with the Board,” he said. “The family is just all competition until you get there. It’s dog eat dog, except everyone wrote my branch off anyway. Fucking dad…” He rolled his eyes. “Mom isn’t much better, she just spends Dad’s money. Doesn’t care. She married into the family, but she’s never taken a single opportunity to get involved in the work. Better than just screwing it up, I guess.”

He fell silent, finally. It was the most he’d allowed himself to think about how angry his parents made him in a long time, but there was a point not much further down this train of thought that he disliked and avoided.

Admitting part of his motivation was the mockery his cousins had always made of him was bad enough. When he started to think about the other frustrations he’d carried, the other grudges he’d nursed, in this context he started to ask himself questions about why he did anything.

Better to completely ignore all of that.

It had done him good to vent, though. As angry as he was to have relived it, somehow he already felt the lifting of a weight from his shoulders.

He dropped into Tammy’s office chair. Almost as an afterthought, he snapped his fingers.

A few moments later he was surprised to find his train of thought interrupted when a pair of hands descended onto his shoulders. He jumped a little in his seat, and Tammy giggled musically. “Now, there’s no need to be nervous,” she said, practically purring.

Her strong, nimble fingers had already started to massage at his shoulder blades and neck, provoking a much deeper reaction than he’d expected. He sighed contentedly, leaning back into her touch.

“There,” she said softly as the back of his head came to nestle in her cleavage. “That’s better. You’re a busy man. You’ve got a great future ahead of you. And a good company woman like me?” The amusement in her voice mingled with equal parts of excitement. “It’s my responsibility to do whatever I can to set your mind at ease.”

He had no argument against that.

After a while she moved back in front of him and settled quietly to her knees. After unzipping his pants, she made a great production of taking off her top, and then her bra.

She sat forward on her knees and wrapped her tits around his cock, looking up at him all the while, and she began to pump up and down.

She sighed contentedly. “I’ve missed this,” she said, almost too quietly to be heard. Benton didn’t inquire; he felt sure it would come up before too long.

*

“I can’t get hold of Bea,” Charlotte reported, her tones hushed. Nicole was being sent out on errands more often now, and any time she did that Charlotte wasn’t required front-of-house with her parents, they tried to make a rendezvous, so they could talk without being sure they were overheard.

It did mean, though, that they had to be quick each time. “I think she’s out in the woods more often now.”

Nicole couldn’t blame her. “When you do get in touch,” she said, “tell her I overheard Maggie telling my mom in the bar last night that the PD are officially concerned she might be missing. I think they’re putting a framework in place to start a proper mountainside search.”

“Shit.”

They shared a moment of quiet, contemplating an increasingly bleak picture of the future. “How about Miriam?” Nicole asked.

Charlotte made a face. “Mimi,” she said, and the single word told Nicole everything. She sagged.

“I’ll keep trying to get in touch with Bea,” Charlotte said. “Meantime, I’ve been trying to cut down on phone use.”

“Good.”

“You’d think.” She sighed. “Emphasis on trying, unfortunately. Mom keeps sending me videos.”

“Oh, well, your mom’s properly bought in already,” Nicole said. “I’m dealing with the same thing.”

Something itched in the back of her mind. Something that should connect with the topic of conversation.

What was it, now? It had to be fairly new. Probably something her mom had said in the last two weeks, since she’d been on the work program. Her memory of the week before was patchy at best, for some reason.

“Yeah. Only… I don’t know. I might be reading too much into things. Overthinking it.”

“You might not. What is it?”

Charlotte pulled a face. “I’m either noticing little changes in how I behave, day after day, or I’m imagining them. It could be real and it could be paranoia, I don’t know which.” She raised both hands in pseudo-surrender.

“I actually might be able to help with that,” Nicole said. “I’ve started keeping a journal. It’s all feelings, thoughts, emotions. Just anything I notice about myself. And I reread all the entries once a day.”

“You’re watching for change too.” Charlotte sounded relieved by that. “I’m so glad I’m not the only one.”

“We’re both worried. Just… there’s only so much that we can think about that.” Nicole reached out and quickly hugged her friend. “I’ve got to go. Meet by the bandstand next time.” They were hoping that if they kept changing where they met, it would take whoever was monitoring the ankle bracelet - police or Mandatum, not that they believed there was much difference - longer to wonder about a meeting.

When she made her way back in to Tammy’s, laden down with bags, her mom ignored her at first, busy with serving a customer. But less than five minutes later she sweetly asked “Can you join me in the back office?” while Nicole was taking Joe Mac’s order.

“Of course, as soon as I’m finished here” she said, answering her mom’s saccharine smile with one of her own, equally false (her mom’s had to be false, right?) before turning back to Joe Mac. He was wearing a custodian’s jumpsuit, relatively new, in Mandatum blue, and his hand had come to rest on her ass. “Sorry, sir,” she said. “Go on, please.”

She had gone more than five paces from the table before she remembered how revolted she used to be by Joe Mac. That change in her tolerances, she decided, was going to have to be another note for her journal.

Once the back office door closed behind them both, her mom’s smile cooled several degrees. “You took your time,” she said.

“The bags are heavy,” Nicole protested.

“You know that anything worth doing takes work,” Tammy told her firmly. “Are you saying my job isn’t worth doing?”

“Whoa.” Nicole raised both hands defensively, thought fleetingly of Charlotte as she did. “You know I don’t, mom. I just-”

“What?”

“I just wish you were still doing it for yourself.”

“There are more opportunities in Mandatum than outside it,” Tammy told her. “And more financial security too. Are you still wanting to go to college?”

No, Nicole almost said, I want to be an executive assistant. But that wasn’t her thought, that was something the M-Phone had drilled into her. And it didn’t feel like it was as strong an idea as it used to be, either. Was she starting to successfully fight back against these ideas?

“I’m waiting,” Tammy said, a warning note in her voice. Nicole couldn’t believe just how aggressive she could be now.

“I don’t know,” she said. It sounded weak, even to her, but it was as close as she had to a truth.

Perhaps it was how weak it actually sounded, but her mom’s expression softened slightly. “Really?”

Nicole shrugged. “I’m going through a lot right now. Thinking about the future… I don’t know. I feel like I can’t.”

Her mom watched her in silence for a long while, then reached back into her pocket and produced her phone. “I think I know what’ll cheer you up,” she said.

It’s not another ad, is it? Nicole managed to stop herself from asking the question out loud, because asking it was sure to send her mom back into full boss momma mode. Her mom was definitely doing that a lot lately, and it didn’t make much sense - made even less sense that she always seemed to have the perfect one for whatever she was saying ready to hand, too.

And yet, when the phone screen was brought in front of her, she still felt a stillness settle over her as she gazed down into it, a strange peace and calm.

It was an ad; it must in fact be an ad for Tammy’s, because it was a tight close up on the spiral formed by vanilla and chocolate milkshakes being churned together in the mixer. There was suddenly a lightness in her head, a tingling in her scalp, and moments later she found her mouth watering, wanting to slip around a thick straw and suck down all the goodness it had to offer her (was this fleetingly accompanied by a similar thought on another topic? If so it passed too quickly for her to be sure).

“Do you really feel trapped in the now?” Tammy asked.

“Yes.”

“Do you wish you felt better?”

“Yes.”

“Happier?”

“Yes.”

The next thing Nicole knew, she and her mom were seated at one of the tables by the bar, both with a giant milkshake - much more than she would have ever ordered for herself - both drinking them down fast. Around them were many of the customers, each of whom had picked one of the women; a little over half were chanting “Tammy!” over and over, while a minority were instead chanting “Nikki!”

Nicole knew she and her mom were racing each other, a challenge, but couldn’t for the life of her remember why or how it had started. Some combination of a rare maternal concession in this new era with - yes, she suddenly realised, she had spatters of white milk on both her cleavage and the V-neck her mom had insisted on (not that much of her older, less… slutty… wardrobe still fitted her new measurements); Tammy actually had a slim line of milk running from the side of her mouth down to her jawline, no wonder the men were so delighted - her usual cynical sextrepreneur’s eye for a selling point.

Even though she couldn’t remember it (and the number of holes in her memory were a growing concern) she was confident that volunteer customers had paid for both milkshakes.

The frustrating thing was that she was enjoying herself; actually more than she had done in weeks. It couldn’t all be the M-Phones, she thought, nor could it all be that delicious, thick creamy flavour filling her mouth. Could the difference be completely explained by the ad they’d been watching?

She doubted it, but she wasn’t ready to address the possibility that if so, some part of her might enjoy this. That just couldn’t be the case.

She needed it not to be.

Nicole finished first and the crowd broke out in good-natured cheers and applause. She sat back, looking around the gathered group. She felt better. She felt happier.

One of the people applauding resolved into Benton Allen. The good feeling she had twisted, but didn’t entirely vanish.

“Bravo, ladies,” he said, smiling.

“Mr Allen!” Tammy scrambled to her feet suddenly. Her cheeks were flushed, Nicole noted idly, and then a moment later her attention sharpened onto it. Her mom wasn’t attracted to him now, was she?

Not, she admitted grudgingly, that she couldn’t understand it. He’d come into his own the last couple of months; if she didn’t know who he was, she might find him attractive now herself, even through that infuriating smugness.

Then she blinked and reminded herself sternly that this was most likely not her own opinion but something the M-Phone had given her.

“Don’t mind me,” he said with a smile. “I think this is great for morale. It took me a moment or two to realise what was going on, but it’s definitely a positive.” He nodded approvingly. “Well done, Tammy and Nikki.”

Nikki’s vision swam for just a moment. It wasn’t that anything he’d said changed anything. It just felt good, somehow.

“Actually,” he said, “I had something I wanted to talk to you about, Tammy, but I think Nikki could have some useful insights as well. Shall we get some privacy?”

Nicole hadn’t seen as much of her mom’s back office in the four years prior as she had in the last four weeks. She was seeing a lot more of Benton, too, and she wasn’t happy about either of them, even if Benton’s presence sometimes felt like a dopamine fix.

“As I think you ladies know,” he began, “I’ve had to step into my father’s shoes.”

They nodded politely. The rumour mill had dreamed up a half dozen different reasons that Errol Allen had suddenly become all but a recluse. Nicole privately doubted all of them, and wondered if Benton had more to do with his father’s absence than he made out.

“I’m in the middle of drawing up plans to present to the Board for the next three years,” he continued smoothly. “And obviously, Tammy’s is one of the properties we need to plan for. But I wanted to get your feedback before I submit anything for decision.”

He looked from one of them to the other. It hadn’t escaped Nicole’s attention that there was no commitment there to take their thoughts into account, but speaking up would likely raise her mom’s temper again. She stayed silent.

“We’re all ears,” Tammy said. “Aren’t we?”

“Sure, Mom.”

If her mom had been treating their relationship as familial rather than boss and employee it might have ended there. As it was, there was an exasperated tut, and while Benton politely cleared his throat and Nicole looked to him, her mom had whisked her phone from its place in a pocket and had it thrust under her nose.

Nicole felt herself go still.

“You need to remember the hierarchy,” Tammy told her. “I’m your boss. I outrank you. And Mr Allen outranks me.”

“The pecker order,” Benton put in quietly, his smile affable and warm at the very edge of Nicole’s awareness.

“Exactly, the pecking order,” Tammy said. “Mr Allen, then Tammy, then Nikki. And respect is paid to your betters. At all times. Just like you do with the customers. Remember our lesson about Joe Mac?”

“Yes,” Nicole said, though as soon as the phone had been put away again she would have consciously forgotten one more time.

“Well that goes double for Mr Allen. We’re on company time. We’re company women. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” she said again.

Tammy put her phone away.

Nicole was blinking rapidly, shaking her head, and trying to dislodge the unsettling idea that something had happened when Benton said “I’m thinking of expanding Tammy’s into a wider brand, if we can hit certain targets here.

“You probably know already that the Allen family don’t run franchise operations. So we’d position you as the head of operations, though obviously you have a lot of value in the day-to-day,” he continued. “Potential managers from new locations would go through the same kind of training that Nikki’s receiving.” Nicole twitched again.

“That… that would be fantastic,” Tammy said. She sounded stunned. Nicole sneaked a look; her mom’s eyes had gone far away and dreamy.

She wanted to protest, but she couldn’t say anything. And besides, a thin voice in her head piped up, it wouldn’t be respectful.

“Well, that being the case, I’ll include it in the proposal,” he said. “I can’t promise anything yet, mind. But I’ll update you when I have some targets.” He looked across to Nicole. “How are you finding working for your mom?” he asked.

“It’s fun,” she found herself saying.

“Well, that’s good.” His voice was surprisingly gentle. It would almost have been possible to pretend there had never been any threats between the two of them. “We all want to be in a role we enjoy. Um, I saw Joe Mac out there, and if memory serves the two of you never really got on - he doesn’t bother you?”

She remembered his hand squeezing her ass. “No,” she said, and meant it. “He’s improving.”

“Great, great.” He turned and started for the door. “I’ll leave you ladies to it. Oh - one quick suggestion?” He looked over his shoulder at them. “Matching outfits on company time,” he said. “I think it’ll really increase your bottom line.” And with that, he left.

Nicole looked at her mom, only to see Tammy eyeing up her figure thoughtfully.

*

When she unlocked the front doors of Boutique Emily one Tuesday morning, Emma was surprised to see her friend Tamara waiting to enter.

“Hi,” she said. “Are you here to buy, or…?” It seemed like a perfectly reasonable question to ask under the circumstances. They’d spent enough time in the Boutique without any shopping taking place before, simply being friends.

Tammy slipped in. “Mostly I’m here to see you,” she said. She looked around the shop slowly, as if she was studying it. The shop hadn’t changed, so Emma wasn’t sure what had prompted this reassessment.

“Well, that’s good,” Emma said. She wasn’t sure she meant it; their last meeting had been awkward. But for Tamara to reach out again like this, that had to be a positive.

Didn’t it?

Tammy had naturally drifted past her as she inspected the shop, and when Emma turned back to her, the first thing she was confronted with was her phone screen, on which Tammy, Jan, and Tori Madison were all smiling out at her, wearing somewhat different outfits all in Mandatum blue.

Emma opened her mouth to protest, but nothing came out. She could feel a tickling at the back of her mind, a second thought emerging to chase down her first reaction. Years of experience had taught her that her second thoughts should be entertained, even if she eventually went with her first idea, so she held back.

She had no idea that the thought tickling around the back of her mind wasn’t her own; that it was instead creeping in from outside.

They looked so happy, all three of them. So comfortable in the blue. And the thought creeping through her head was that they seemed more comfortable, happier, than she did. That Mandatum had taken away their worries.

Emma found that both tantalising and worrying, all at once. They were so different.

“This is a company town,” Tammy was saying. “It needs good company women to grow. And I know you want Bankhaven to grow, you always have.

“The best way you can help Bankhaven grow is to work with us all,” she went on. “The best, happiest way. Mandatum helps us to find our better selves.”

Emma shivered. The passion in her friend’s voice…

“Do you trust me, Emmy?” Tammy asked, her voice coaxing.

“Yes,” Emma answered. She could barely hear her own voice.

“Trust Tammy, trust Mandatum,” Tammy said. “Emmy, the fact is, we need you in line for this town. And I’ve seen the way Roddy White looks at you. If you shook your pretty little tail at him he’d make you a good company woman, I’m sure.” After a moment she added, “You should visit me once a week, Thursday morning. I’ll help. You want me to help, don’t you?”

There was a longer pause and when she spoke, Emma wasn’t sure whether it was even her intention to speak. “Yes.”

“There’s a good girl,” Tammy said cheerfully.

By the time Emma’s mind cleared, she was standing alone in the middle of the shop floor at Boutique Emilie.

What had she been doing?

It probably didn’t matter. She shook her head and went back to the process of opening up the shop, idly thinking that perhaps she should drop in on Tammy soon.

Running the store as an independent in a progressively more company-minded town was becoming a struggle. Tammy could help, that much Emma was sure of.

She wanted her old friend to help.

*

Charlotte Madison slid the back door key into the lock, very slowly, very carefully. She worked the lock with equal care, aiming to produce as little sound as possible. She hadn’t been out long, and her parents were working, so there was a good chance that her absence hadn’t been noticed. That was exactly how she wanted it to stay. The longer it took before anyone realised she and Nicole were meeting up, the better.

Especially now. Charlotte kept getting sent ads by her mom, in DMs, but they autoplayed when she opened the app and if she didn’t, her mom could tell they hadn’t been viewed. They’d hit on a solution where the two of them were swapping phones for a week, just so that whatever messages they were to be exposed to wouldn’t follow on from what they’d seen. The hope was that it would slow the effect of the M-Phones further.

They still believed - had to believe, really - in the chance that they’d find an opportunity, if they just held out long enough.

She eased the door open just wide enough to slip inside, then carefully closed and locked it again. There was no sign of anyone, so she headed for the stairs.

Her mom turned out to be waiting for her in the bedroom. Charlotte stopped dead in the doorway. “Mom?”

“Come in, sweetie. Close the door.”

It had been a long time since she’d heard that tone from her mom. She felt younger immediately, small and frightened and guilty.

She did as she was told, uncertain because for once, she actually had something to feel guilty for. It wasn’t anything her parents knew about, but it was still there.

But then her mom reached behind her and brought out her journal. “We have to talk,” she said.

“Mom, have you been snooping in my diary?”

“Charlie,” her mom said, warning in her tone, “now is not the time for questions like that.”

“That’s a private place,” Charlotte said. “For my private thoughts. It’s not for you.”

Tori Madison, as she’d lately come to insist on being called, stood up and walked over toward Charlotte. “You’ve been acting very suspiciously lately,” she said. “What else should I do?”

“Mom, goddammit, I’m an adult, I can look after myself.”

She lifted the journal. “Do you want to explain this?”

“I’d rather not,” Charlie retorted.

“Well, you can consider this confiscated,” Tori said primly. “And you can consider yourself grounded.”

“Again, I’m an adult,” Charlotte shot back. “You can’t ground me.”

“My home, my rules,” Tori answered. “If you don’t like it, you’re welcome to move out. But we won’t have any shifts for you.”

Charlotte’s jaw had dropped. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Why would I be?” She lifted the journal. “This,” she said, “is an insult to Mandatum. It’s an insult to everything your father and I have worked for.”

Tori took out her phone and began to page through options. “Let me show you why I take this so seriously,” she said. “I think you don’t care, and I think you need a reason you should.”

*

Nicole pushed open the door to Tammy’s, her arms laden again with supplies. She was happier than she should be, and she kind of hated that - especially after she’d just managed another covert meeting with Charlotte.

At times it felt like those meetings were the main thing that kept her motivation up to actually resist. Her nightly journal rereads highlighted just how much she was changing, and as much as she knew it was wrong, she also had to admit (especially on her second journey) just how well designed the process had been. She had started to picture it as being overlapping layers, almost like an interlocking fabric. As such, the more she changed, the more she felt at home with the changes.

Her mom wasn’t at the bar. She made her way across and unpacked everything she could while minding the bar for customers, and when Joe Mac drifted over to the bar to order another beer, she was happy enough to serve him.

At the register, she noticed voices coming from the back room. Once Joe had drifted back to his chair, she set her hand on the doorhandle and gently eased it open, peering in through a slit.

Her eyes widened, her mouth opening into a gasp, as she watched her mom, kneeling in front of her office chair, lovingly stroking Benton’s cock with one hand. Her top and bra rested on the desk beside them, but Mandatum-blue hotpants still encased her ass.

Nicole couldn’t stop herself from staring. The two of them were clearly preoccupied with their own project.

“You know what,” Benton said with a smile, “you’re being such a company woman, you’ve convinced me.”

He picked up his phone and started fiddling with it. “I’m going to give you override authority on Nikki’s phone,” he said. “You’ll be able to do your thing even when you’re not in the same room.”

“I don’t mean to be so officious,” Tammy purred. “But I’m sure she’s dawdling on supply runs. It’s not the kind of keen behaviour Mandatum deserves.” And then she leaned forward, her head sliding down Benton’s cock with an ease that shocked her daughter, and a comfort that Nicole almost resented herself for envying.

“No, I agree,” Benton said with a smile. “She needs to be a shining example of the brand. That’s how you get the second Tammy’s location.”

Nicole swallowed and closed the door. Her heart was hammering so loud and fast it was all she could hear.

If Benton could give her mom remote access from his phone, it made sense he had full access.

If she could hold out long enough…

“The plan’s back on,” she said aloud, and smiled grimly to herself.