The Chaos of Luck

Book 2: A Felicia Sevigny Novel

by Catherine Cerveny

Genres: Action & Adventure Romance; Science Fiction Romance; Sci-fi Action & Adventure; Genetic Engineering

Synopsis

A Brazilian tarot card reader and a Russian crime lord race to stop a conspiracy in this steamy science fiction adventure -- the sequel to the exciting series that began with The Rule of Luck. Mars, the terraformed jewel of the TriSystem, is the playground for the rich and powerful. A marvel of scientific engineering, the newly colonized world offers every luxury. For the first time in human history, the picture perfect life is possible. Felicia Sevigny's come to the Red Planet for a fresh start. She's brought the tarot cards that have been her family's trade for generations but is hoping to leave the rest of her troubled past behind. Felicia wants to believe that Mars will also be a clean slate for her and Alexei Petriv, notorious leader of the Tsarist Consortium, but her cards keep predicting something even darker and more insidious is ahead. Something that could mean the end, not just for her and Alexei, but for the entire TriSystem -- and all of humanity.

Release date: December 6, 2016

Publisher: Orbit

Print pages: 303

Sample

1

It used to be that you didn’t often see dogs on Mars. With the strict quarantine laws bordering on the ridiculous, and the month-and-a-half-long voyage from Earth, it was easier to clone one from the pet you’d left behind. However, that tended to be expensive when you’d already spent your life savings trying to get to Mars in the first place.

When the Tsarist Consortium took over the transit routes, they’d lobbied hard to abolish the quarantine—a move applauded throughout the tri-system. One Gov relented under pressure from just about everyone and now all sorts of pets were appearing on the once red planet. But still, the fact that I was seated across from a woman with a teacup Yorkie was actually pretty amazing, given I hadn’t known the breed even existed. That the woman wanted me to run my Tarot cards and tell the future of said Yorkie was not. It took a concerted effort on my part not to sigh out loud or reach over to throttle the woman. Besides, I’d hate to upset the dog, who, though I was loath to admit it, really was a cutie.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t do readings for dogs,” I said, not for the first time that week. “I know Sunbeam is a member of your family, but that’s not how the cards work.”

The woman on the other side of my card reading table, Lila Chandler, was a potential new client. Definitely older, though only her eyes gave it away. They had a hardness to them that came from decades of Renew treatments and a lifestyle that said been there, done that, and had all the T-shirts. I would have put her around ninety, or maybe even a hundred. Otherwise, she was flawless with pale porcelain skin, blond hair cascading down her back, and luminous blue eyes—and luminous wasn’t a word I threw around just for fun. And she was absolutely filthy rich. The kind of rich that got whatever it wanted and could afford to indulge in frivolous things most people would never think about. Like Tarot card readings for dogs apparently. Mars had two social classes—the ultra-rich and everybody else. I was still working out which class I fell into.

About a third of my clients were of this sort—rich, curious women with nothing but time on their hands. In fact, she was the fourth client this week who’d come in requesting a pet reading.

“I’d heard you ran the cards for Mrs. Larken’s dog Puddles and I want the same for Sunbeam,” she insisted.

Puddles belonged to Mrs. Larken, whom I’d met on board the Martian Princess during the trip from Earth. She’d been old—like really old, maybe two hundred—and something about her charmed me. Maybe because she reminded me a little of Granny G, and gods knew I was a sucker for anything that put me in mind of family. Plus, I don’t think my head was screwed on straight once I’d reunited with Alexei after having thought him dead for six months. When we’d come up for air, I’d met Mrs. Larken, taken a liking to her, and done a reading. Once on Mars, she’d opened doors for me I’d never dreamed of touching on my own. When she’d imported one of the first dogs allowed on Mars and asked me to do a reading for her mini schnauzer, I couldn’t think of a polite way to refuse. The end result was I’d been tagged as some sort of psychic dog whisperer. And although Mrs. Larken had genuinely liked me and vice versa, Lila Chandler was something else entirely.

“Well, then perhaps Mr. Petriv might be here and you could introduce us? I’m told you’re acquainted with him and he drops by quite frequently,” Ms. Chandler said, meeting my gaze with a level one of her own.

Wonderful. Now the claws were out and we’d come to the real reason for her visit: Another portion of my clients came in the hopes of spotting, and presumable landing, Alexei Petriv.

“I’m sorry, but he isn’t here at the moment. Unfortunately, I can’t predict when he’ll decide to drop in.”

“Oh, that is too bad. In that case, perhaps I should rethink this entire appointment. Things don’t seem to be going well for either of us today, do they?”

Fuck. And now I was being threatened over a dog card reading.

“Not necessarily. I can run a combined reading for you and Sunbeam,” I said, and proceeded to shuffle the Tarot deck, making a mental note to tell Lotus to screen for dogs and their psycho owners beforehand. This would have never happened with Natty back on Earth.

Sorry, Granny G, I thought out to the universe. A gold note is still a gold note and a girl needs to eat and keep the shoe industry afloat. I can’t lose business on account of crazy.

“Oh, how exciting!” Ms. Chandler exclaimed. Then she held her little dog to her face and proceeded to baby talk us to death. “Isn’t that right, Sunbeam? Who’s a good girl? You are! Mommy loves you. Yes, she does. You’re going to get a card reading today! Yes, such a good girl,” and on it went until I wanted to put all of us out of our collective misery. At least Sunbeam seemed happy, given how quickly she gulped down her doggy treats.

Like my shop back on Earth, I’d used the same décor scheme of exotic Old World meets space-age New World, yet somehow the look hadn’t translated well to Mars. And the fact that I now essentially had a day job was depressing. On Earth, I’d only worked nights. On Mars, it just hadn’t attracted the same clientele, so I had to open during the day instead. The only time evenings were profitable was on weekends during the Witching Time. Then, I could pretty much double my fee. People expected a show extravagant enough to blow their minds, so I gave it to them. A Martian day, or rather a sol, was thirty-nine minutes and thirty-five seconds longer than an Earth day. For some reason people went wild then, as if the extra time meant the rules didn’t exist. They partied harder, committed more crimes—even wanted their babies born then. And if it helped my shop’s month-end numbers, who was I to argue?

Half an hour later, I walked Ms. Chandler out of my reading room and to the front reception area. I made sure she transferred her three hundred gold notes to the shop’s account and reassured her I’d already uploaded the reading transcript to her memory blocks on the Cerebral Neural Net. The CN-net linked every human mind in the tri-system of Earth, Mars, and Venus into a sort of electronic collective of information sharing via One Gov’s t-mod implants. Implants I didn’t have. Then I got her the hell out the door. I’d jacked up the price on the spur of the moment, tripling the rate to include an annoyance fee—Sunbeam had passed out in a treat-induced coma after making little tiny doggy poops on my reading table. Besides, we both knew she wouldn’t become a regular client. No, all she wanted was a glimpse of the infamous Alexei Petriv, leader of the Tsarist Consortium who was too damn hot for his own good, and to see if she could get the current competition out of her way. Namely, me.

I stood in the middle of my small reception area, taking deep breaths in hopes of avoiding a meltdown. I turned to Lotus, who looked at me like having me explode might be entertaining to watch. That she was my fourth cousin and had been recommended to me by family back on Earth sometimes made me regret I was such a softy when it came to my relatives.

“No more dogs, Lotus. I don’t care how rich the client is, if they have a dog, I don’t want to see them.”

“Sorry, Felicia.” Lotus hung her head, her blunt-edged pixie cut doing nothing to hide her grin. Did I mention I come from a family of con artists? “But you have to admit, little Sunbeam was so cute! Did you see her little tiny doggy paws? I’ve never seen a teacup Yorkie before and I couldn’t pass up the chance. Didn’t they bring those back from extinction?”

“I don’t care where they brought them back from. Screen the clients first. If you get the slightest whiff of dog, forget it.”

“Fine, whatever. I’ll have Buckley sift them on the CN-net and let you know what shakes out,” she said, referring to her boyfriend, who was fully wired with t-mods, unlike me and Lotus, who relied on antiquated tech like charm-tex bracelets and flat-file avatars on the CN-net. I wasn’t sure I liked the idea of Buckley going through my potential clients, but decided to let it slide. “I thought you said you needed to increase the shop’s revenue. You said—”

“I know what I said, but I changed my mind. I don’t need that much money or the headaches that come from dealing with those women,” I said, then ran a distracted hand through my hair and froze.

Ah hell. I’d forgotten I braided a thin chain-mesh weave through the nearly black waves that morning. Now my hand was stuck. I sighed as I tried to get free, pulling out a few strands in the process. Lotus watched me struggle before bursting out laughing and coming to rescue me from my own damned hair.

“You really should cut it off. It’s so much less work,” she said, gesturing to her own short hair.

Hers was just a shade lighter than mine, just like her eyes were a darker green, her skin a little more olive-toned—everything in keeping with the Romani looks she shared with most of the Sevigny family. I just happened to look more like my mother, which drove my father crazy. Literally. Me too actually, though not so literally. I’d gotten off easy in the crazy department, considering my mother had cloned me, then tried to kill me so many months ago. With family like that, it was a wonder I wasn’t in therapy.

“I like it long,” I said, even as I winced when she tried tugging at my two rings still caught in the mesh weave. “Ouch. Take it easy!”

“Sorry. And does he like it too?” she asked with seeming innocence. “I bet he does. I bet he wraps his fists in it and—”

“Just put whatever dirty thoughts you’re thinking right out of your mind. We’re at work and I’m not discussing this with you now.”

“Fine. Don’t be any fun. See if I care,” Lotus griped. A beat of silence, a little bit of tugging, and my hand was out. “There, you’re free, Medusa. You shouldn’t wear that mesh thing anymore.”

“You’re probably right,” I agreed as I pulled a few long black hairs out of my rings, all of them elaborate costume jewelry I’d brought from Earth. Maybe it was time I did away with the props. It seemed like everything I used back home wasn’t cutting it on Mars. Maybe I needed to rethink the whole business model. “And for the record, yes, he does like it. A lot. Now if you need me, I’ll be sanitizing my reading table and spraying air freshener everywhere. Sunbeam shit on it in the middle of the reading.”

“Oh, Felicia, I’m sorry!” Lotus laughed behind her hand, green eyes wide. “That’s awful. You’re right. No more dogs. Let me take care of that since I feel like it’s my fault anyway. I’ll get the cleaning stuff.”

She headed to the supply closet, where we kept a few basic cleaning supplies since the shop was professionally cleaned every evening. Then she froze, caught like a baby rabbit in some big bad hunter’s trap. I knew the exact reason for her reaction. It was written all over her face, plus it wasn’t the first time I’d seen this particular behavior from a woman before.

“Good afternoon. Nice to see you,” Lotus said in girlish tones. Her cheeks flushed and her tongue darted out to lick her lips as if tasting something sweet.

I turned and my heartbeat seemed to skid to a halt before resuming again, just as I suspected it did for all the women who met him. Except in my case, I knew the look he wore was solely for me.

Alexei Petriv stood in the open doorway of my shop, removed his sunshades, and slid them into the breast pocket of his charcoal gray suit jacket. Tall, broad-shouldered, well-muscled, and built like a rock, he seemed to fill every room he entered with his presence alone. He didn’t have to do anything other than just stand there, and he was still overwhelming. His thick black hair fell nearly to his shoulders and his eyes were so intensely blue, sometimes I wondered if they could cut into me if he stared at me long enough. At the very least, they gave the disturbing illusion he could look into your soul. Saying he was gorgeous and sexy as hell was a ridiculous understatement. In fact, words failed me. His MH Factor was off the charts, up in some stratosphere no one could calculate. The same could be said for his t-mods, meaning his mind could manipulate the CN-net in ways few others could. Looking at him left me breathless and sometimes made me doubt what I saw was real because he was utterly perfect. So perfect, in fact, he might not be human anymore.

I’d secretly been cataloging the oddities I’d noticed during our time together. So far as I could tell, he never got sick—not even a cold. If he hurt himself, such as when he’d once sliced his palm with a paring knife, the wound healed in hours with no skin renewal patches required. He needed very little sleep, and some nights I wondered if he even slept at all. He was definitely stronger than average and had little trouble keeping in shape, though he worked out like a fiend—doing even more than was required by One Gov mandate. He could hold his breath for ridiculously long periods of time, something I’d learned when we’d gone on a day trip to Aeolian Beach. And one thing I’d discovered soon after the first time I’d slept with him—he needed almost zero recovery time before he was ready to go again. Sometimes it was thrilling to have that much attention. Other times, it was exhausting and made me wonder how I could ever be enough for him.

“Hello, Lotus. Glad to see you’re doing well,” he said in that deep voice of his, a slight hint of a Russian accent present. Sometimes it felt like that voice could slide around your mind, commanding you do to things you weren’t entirely sure were a good idea. Or maybe I was the only one he had that effect on?

“I’m fine, Mr. Petriv. Thanks for asking.” Lotus continued to stand there gaping, mouth slightly open. I rolled my eyes. Was it always going to be like this when other women had his attention?

“Dog shit, Lotus. Remember?” I reminded her, none too subtly.

Lotus shook herself and flushed a brilliant shade of red. “Oh, right. I forgot. I’ll get that cleaned up right away. Excuse me.”

In a flash, she was at the supply closet, gathering some rags and a spray bottle of cleaning solution. Then she disappeared into the back room, slamming the door so hard behind her, I winced.

“Sorry about that. It’s been an interesting morning.”

“Another dog card reading?” Alexei asked, arching an eyebrow. He left the door frame and crossed the shop to me, fighting to stop a grin from filling his face. “How many has it been this week? Three? Four?”

I shrugged. “Four, but who’s counting?”

“You are.”

“Lotus is enamored with dogs lately so she keeps booking pet readings whether I want them or not.”

He laughed. “Maybe she thinks you need a dog.”

“Not if they’re going to get excited and shit on everything I own. At least this latest did it on my table, so that’s something new.” I looked around the shop—a shop that wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped it would be. I was doing okay, but not like I had been back home, and I couldn’t figure out why. I missed Charlie Zero and his business savvy.

“I assume you were able to convince the owner to stay for a reading of her own?”

“Of course, but you know they’re only here because they’re hoping to catch a glimpse of you. It’s like I have to beat the women away with a stick and it’s getting exhausting.”

He’d reached me now and his hands were on me, sliding along my neck to tilt my face up. Even in my highest heels, my eyes were barely level with his shoulder. My gaze locked with his and my neck arched under his hands. “You have to stop doing this to yourself, Felicia. You’re making yourself crazy and imagining things that don’t exist. I have no interest in any other woman.”

I swallowed. “I know, but it’s hard when I have yet another Martian blueblood in here, judging me. I never cared about any of that before, and now it seems to be bothering me all the time.”

His expression hardened. “I hate it when you do that, compare yourself to things I have no interest in, because there is no comparison.” He looked like he wanted to say more. Instead he stopped and his mouth quirked at the corners. “Besides, you’re the only one who can keep me from jumping off the deep end into megalomania—or so you keep reminding me.”

“Very funny. Someone needs to keep you humble or you’ll think you own the tri-system.”

“Actually, I believe I only own half of it, or thereabouts,” he said drily. His hands drifted down my body, coming to rest at the small of my back. “Tell me who was here and made you feel this way, and I’ll deal with it. Then it’s no longer a problem.”

It sounded tempting, but Alexei’s way of dealing with problems tended to be extreme, with no chance for the other party to recover. Depending on what he was after, such as securing ownership of most of the off-world asteroid mines, it ran the gamut from driving his opponents to financial ruin, undercutting prices on business rivals, or pitting family members against one another and taking advantage of the chaos. While none of it was technically illegal, it didn’t sit well with me—and those were just the things I knew about. The Tsarist Consortium was considered a legitimate corporate and political entity with plans to revolutionize lives throughout the tri-system, but you could never forget how it started, or where its roots lay. They’d come a long way, but not far enough in some people’s minds.

Long before me, I knew that as Alexei worked his way up the Consortium hierarchy, he’d seduced both wives and girlfriends, using his looks and his perfect body to gain whatever secrets they’d offer him regarding the men in their lives. Then he’d use those secrets to either buy or steal whatever it was he was after. I suspected that was why he didn’t seem to care about how he looked or the things he was able to do. To him, his body was just another tool to be used.

“I’m a big girl. I’ll get over it. It just puts me in a bad mood whenever I have to deal with one of them. What are you doing here anyway? Aren’t you supposed to be holding secret closed-door meetings and can’t be disturbed?”

“My plans changed and I needed to see you,” he said, leaning in to brush a kiss along my throat.

It made me sigh and melt into him, my hands sliding over the ridges of well-muscled abdomen until my arms were around his waist under his jacket. My head dropped to his shoulder and the kiss at my throat turned into something more heated. Soon, he kissed along the line of my jaw and his tongue ran the outer edge of my ear. My hands fisted in his shirt as I wondered how fast I could get to his bare skin. Still, some measure of common sense clamped down on my lust-filled brain.

“This is really nice, but Lotus is in the other room and I have another appointment in about fifteen minutes.” Weird how my voice had gone all breathy and I was barely holding my own weight as I leaned into him. How the hell had he gotten one of my legs hooked around his hip and my dress bunched at my waist so quickly?

He raised his head and the dark look he gave me made my toes curl and had me squirming against him. “We both know I don’t need very long to get you exactly where I want you.”

No, he didn’t. Still… “Maybe, but it might get awkward if my next client sees you bending me over the reception desk. Come to my place tonight. I can have dinner ready for seven if I rush.”

Was it weird we didn’t live together? I wasn’t sure. It was one of those things I tried not to think about too much. I’d never been so on edge in a relationship before. With Alexei Petriv, the highs were so high, they could be terrifying, but the lows were equally scary. How could I hold on to someone so frighteningly perfect and fundamentally dark when the only thing I had going for me was luck—another thing I filed under unresolved issues not to be examined too hard.

Alexei let me go, setting me on my feet and letting my dress settle around my hips. His expression became rueful. “That’s why I’m here, and what I wanted to talk to you about. There’s been a slight change in plans.”

I frowned. “Slight change how exactly? Does this have anything to do with finishing up the big project you’ve been working on?”

“Or ‘getting me out of the Consortium muck,’ as you so elegantly put it.” He grinned and I jabbed him lightly in the chest with my finger.

“Hey, that’s not what I said! Just that sometimes the Consortium does things that scare me and I don’t want to have to pick a side.”

“I know what you meant.” He caught my hand and kissed the knuckles. “I can’t say I was thrilled with the Consortium’s approach either, but at least now the mining unions are under unified leadership and we avoided an all-out revolt with the workers. There were issues with some of the mines collapsing, but production yield didn’t drop, and no one in the tri-system was the wiser. The troublemakers were handled discreetly, and it showed both the unions and the Consortium in the best possible light. The union leadership would rather deal directly with me than any One Gov agents they send into the field. My being here on Mars has actually made things easier.”

I rolled my eyes. “Isn’t it lucky you were here then?”

“Yes, it was.” He kissed the inside of my wrist before letting my hand go. “And now that it’s almost done, I can focus on things closer to home and spend less time directly on-site. That means more time for us.”

My breath caught in a tiny gasp. “Really?”

He grinned again. “Yes, really. Unfortunately”—and there the grin faded—“I’ll need to be off-planet for a few weeks to ensure all the key players are in place before I step back. Konstantin specifically requested I attend negotiations, so I can’t delegate to someone else.”

Konstantin Belikov. The name made me shiver. At nearly five hundred years old, the man had seen things and lived through events that would have sent most people screaming. He’d survived the Dark Times on Earth at the end of the twenty-fifth century, when the polar ice caps melted, earthquakes ravaged continents, and billions had died. He watched as humanity terraformed Mars and turned it into a paradise, and laughed as they struggled to do the same with Venus, with less than spectacular results. He knew how to work every angle and drafted plots inside of plots. He was ruthlessness personified and lived his life to ensure the Tsarist Consortium would one day replace One Gov as the ruling power in the tri-system.

He’d all but raised Alexei and ensured Alexei took over as head of the Consortium. He also wasn’t pleased I’d lured him away to Mars since wherever Alexei went, so went the Consortium’s power. Frankly, I resented the accusations. When I left for Mars, I hadn’t even known Alexei was alive. I wasn’t in a position to lure him anywhere. I was just glad I was safely here on Mars, and Belikov was over a hundred million miles away on Earth. Sometimes, though, I wondered if it was far enough.

I ran my hands absently over his chest, enjoying the defined ridges as I looked up at him. “A few weeks? How long is a few?”

“Two, possibly three at most.”

“Three? Where are you going? Is it to the mines on Vesta or Pallas? Are you sure someone else can’t go in your place?” It was the only thing that made sense since it wasn’t possible to travel to any of the asteroid belt mines and back in a few weeks. Vesta and Pallas both orbited Mars, so a three-week trip was doable. Didn’t mean I liked it, though.

“I’m afraid not. I need to oversee this personally. The union leaders will only work with me and those collapses need to be fully investigated.”

“But it’s for so long. Will you at least shim me?”

He touched my hair, running his finger through the strands and toying with the mesh. I might have made a joke about how he was more handsy than usual, but right then, I needed the contact. “Konstantin requires a complete blackout on this. Closed-loop Consortium access only.”

I frowned. A secret mission and that sneaky asshole Belikov was involved. Alexei would be gone for possibly three weeks and I couldn’t contact him. It went without saying my gut kicked me hard enough to almost knock the breath out of me. That scared me too. I hadn’t had a feeling this intense in months—not since I’d arrived on Mars. I thought everything had settled down. Apparently I was wrong.

“I know it’s a long time to be out of contact,” he murmured, brushing a hand along my cheek and tilting my face back to his. “I also know you don’t trust him. Neither do I to some extent, but he has significant power in the Consortium.”

“I don’t have a good feeling about this. Are you sure you have to go?”

A kiss on each of my cheeks, then my hairline. “I’m doing it for us,” he whispered. “When this is finished and I’ve secured the Consortium’s power base on Mars, we can begin making inroads into One Gov’s leadership. That’s when I can pull back. I may be the head of the Consortium, but I’m not here to appoint myself king of Mars.”

I knew there was something I was missing in his words, but my focus had turned inward, picking at my gut feeling like a tongue wiggling a loose tooth.

“And unfortunately, we’re leaving tonight. They’re waiting for me outside. I just couldn’t go without seeing you first.”

That brought me up short. I pulled back enough to look at him, my roaming hands going still. “You’re leaving me right now, for three weeks?”

“I know. I’m sorry, Felicia. I was just informed of the change in plans today. You know I would never tell you like this if I could avoid it.” Alexei’s hands were on my forearms, his thumbs stroking the insides of my wrists. And he looked genuinely sorry too, sorry enough that I had a moment where I wondered if I could pull him into my card reading room and convince him to stay. But no, Lotus was back there, and my gut was kicking me hard enough that I needed to pay attention. Unfortunately the feeling was so vague, I didn’t know what to focus on.

So I said what, to me, was the most logical thing in the world: “I need to run my cards.”

His hands tightened, stopping me when I would have pulled away. “No.”

“Why not? It won’t take long.”

“No,” he said, more firmly this time.

“But…” I looked up into at his face, bewildered. “Something isn’t right and I want to check into it.”

“No, Felicia. Don’t.” His voice had gone very soft. “I don’t want you to run a spread for me. Not now. Not ever.”

Stunned, I’m sure my jaw dropped open. This wasn’t anything we’d ever talked about before. Actually now that I thought about it, he’d never really asked me to run the cards for him except for when we’d first met. There was a seriousness to his tone that made me wary. “But it’s what I do. I’m good at it. Why wouldn’t I run them for you if something feels off?”

“Because I don’t ever want you to think I’m with you because your luck gene twisted events in your favor, or I’m using you for some advantage you’ll give me over everyone else. I’m with you because I want to be. Because you’re the only woman I want.”

Then he leaned down to kiss me, just a brushing of his lips over mine before he pulled away. It was the kind of kiss he gave me when he was trying hard to be gentle but in reality wanted to throw me down on the nearest flat surface and bury himself inside me for hours. I knew it and he knew it, and I think I may have swooned a little because he reached out to steady me and chuckled softly.

“As you say, there’s no time for that, or you know I would,” he murmured.

“But…I guess if you don’t want a reading, I can’t force you,” I sputtered out.

Behind him, the door to my shop opened and two Consortium bodyguards stepped inside, tall, overly developed muscle with close-cropped hair, the ubiquitous sunshades, and wearing identical black suits so it was impossible to tell one from another. Though I had my suspicions, I’d never been able to get Alexei to confirm if the Consortium grew all their muscle out of the same vat of genetic goo or what their Modified Human Factor might be.

“Looks like your ride’s getting anxious,” I said, peeking around his shoulder.

He threw a negligent look behind him before refocusing on me. “So it would seem. We’ll table the rest of this for later.” He brushed a thumb over my cheek and across my lips as if memorizing the contours of my face before he kissed my forehead. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Then he let me go, turned on his heel, and left the shop. The Consortium chain-breakers fell into step behind him. And I was left with nothing but a sharp ache of loneliness that wasn’t going away anytime soon, a gut feeling Alexei didn’t want me to investigate, and an appointment who tripped through the door staring wide-eyed after Alexei and carrying—gods help me—another dog.

2

Two weeks later found me at my shop, counting the minutes until Witching Time ended and hoping for walk-ins. Venusol was the only night I kept to anything resembling my old Earth hours, often staying open until the wee hours of the morning. But if no one came in after Wit