The Chaos of Luck Read online

  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 hundreds of millions of 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. Close-looped 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.

  Chapter Two

  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 Witching Time when the clocks restarted, then I’d closed up and call it a night. Weekends in Elysium City during Witching Time were crazy, with Venusol being the wildest—or rather Saturday. Even after four months, I had trouble remembering the Martian names for the days of the week. Sorry—sols, and Venusol was Saturday. Perfectly logical.

  It was a warm autumn evening for February—no wait: Leo, the Martian name for February. With the Martian year being twenty-four months long, every month was twenty-eight sols, and every other year a leap year. I’m sure the calendar made sense to whoever designed it, but using it gave me brain cramps.

  Most of the populated areas on Mars lay on or slightly south of the equator, making the year-round weather patterns in Elysium City similar to those back in Nairobi—warm days, cool evenings, and thankfully, no snow. Also, no rainy seasons either. Nope, didn’t miss those or the frizzy hair I sported most of the year.

  I stood in the doorway looking up at the sky, watching the fireworks and trying not to cringe. Venusol Witching Time always had fireworks. Once, I used to love them. However, that was before the horrific night in Brazil when my mother had tried to kill me and I thought Alexei had died. Now, fireworks upset me. I was trying to build up a tolerance since it was difficult to escape something that went off once a week like clockwork. Unless I had a client, I forced myself to watch the display. Usually, Alexei watched with me or was nearby if I panicked. Now it was just me, although Lotus was somewhere in the shop as well—probably getting ready for a night out with Buckley or her girlfriends once we closed up. Sometimes I went with her if Alexei was away on Consortium business. Providing I didn’t have any last-minute customers, tonight was one of those nights. I needed to distract myself from the jittery feeling in my gut—a feeling that hadn’t settled since Alexei had gone off-world.

  He may not have wanted me to run the cards for him but I hadn’t let that stop me. It just meant I wouldn’t tell him the result. In fact, I shuffled the deck at the first opportunity. What I saw, I hadn’t liked. Too many swords meant strategy and conflict. I also had the Devil—fear, deception, and trickery, along with the King of Swords, which I’d always associated with Belikov. The King was reversed, meaning an abuse of power. I also had the Knight of Cups, which focused on love, romance, and emotion. That should have been a good thing. Instead, the spread showed it as an outside force, coming in as something new rather than something that already existed. Was someone from Alexei’s past about to blow our relationship apart—someone Belikov approved of since I knew he barely tolerated me?

  I checked my c-tex then watched as the last of the fireworks faded in the night sky. Looked like tonight was another bust. No clients so I may as well lock up. I let the door close behind me. From the corner of my eye, I saw one of the Consortium’s chain-breakers moving in the shadows of the buildings lining the street. Yes, I had my own security detail. Since the incident where my ex-boyfriend had tried to kill me, Alexei wanted me protected at all times. It was annoying, but I couldn’t stop him. Besides, I could see his point; I wasn’t in a hurry to die anytime soon.

  I glanced about the shop, looking for anything out of order before I locked up. The reception desk was tidy. Beyond it, the small waiting area containing a sofa and a few chairs looked the same as it always did. On the walls were prints of various Old World Earth city scenes from before the Dark Times. One of them was crooked so I crossed the room to straighten it. The walls themselves were set to a soft blue so as not to compete with the prints. I could smell lavender in the air and checked my c-tex to make sure the AI still knew to shut off the scent diffuser before we left for the evening.

  Lotus emerged from the washroom that was tucked into the shop’s back corner wearing what looked like two neon blue scraps of fabric—one over her breasts, the other her groin. Both covered her with strategic precision and laced up in back into a complicated knot. It made her look like a pornographic present waiting to be unwrapped for porn Christmas.

  I blinked. “I haven’t been out of the club scene that long. What are you wearing?”

  Lotus modeled her ribbons for me, twirling in her matching slippers. “It’s fresh off the runway from the Olympus Fashion Blitz. Total knockoff, but still amazing, right? It blew Buckley’s mind when he saw it. What do you think the Russian would say if he saw you in this?”

  The Russian was her nickname for Alexei. It had taken Lotus a while to feel anything other than disapproval toward him. Oh, she could appreciate how he filled out a suit, the chiseled cheekbones, and the hair you ached to run your
fingers through, but I knew he was still “other” to her. With whatever t-mods he carried and his off-the-scale MH Factor, his abilities stretched far beyond what most people could do. If Lotus was any indication, he might never be accepted by my family of tech-averse holdouts. It annoyed me, and it hurt. Family mattered and I’d gone out of my way to meet the members of the Martian branch of the Sevigny clan when I moved to Mars. I knew I didn’t need their approval to be with Alexei, but deep down, part of me wanted it regardless.

  “I think he’d like it, but I also think he wouldn’t let me leave his sight,” I said finally. Lotus took fashion risks even I wasn’t willing to make.

  “Mmmm…You’re probably right. The way he looks at you is so hot, it’s scorching. It’s like he’s dying of thirst and you’re the only water around. I wish Buckley looked at me that way,” she said, her expression dreamy. “I barely rate above a ham sandwich.”

  I probably should have said something to reassure her about Buckley’s feelings but I wanted to talk about Alexei. I needed a female perspective to drive away the doubts the Tarot reading had left behind. “Does he really look at me that way?”

  “The man can’t keep his eyes off you,” she assured me. “And don’t think I haven’t heard you two in the back room when business is slow and he happens to drop in. Sometimes I have to walk around the block just to cool down because I can’t take it. It’d be nice if he could bottle some of that stamina and give it to Buckley.”