Stark Pleasure; the Space Magnate's Mistress (The LodeStar Series) by Cathryn Cade Page B

patterns, figure trends. I started watching the display between customers. After a while, I saw a pattern. Did some figuring and made a few small wagers. I won them all.”
    She rubbed her hands over the soft leather of the chair. “Then the fighting started to get really bad in my quadrant. Been waiting to get flashbombed in my bed. Or grabbed off the street by a slaver. I decided to make one big wager and then have enough credit to get a better place, closer to the port.”  
    “Ah.” He nodded, and when she looked at him warily, she saw no judgment, only wry acceptance. “And the Vulpean saw you coming.”
    “Little bastard changed the patterning, instead of finishing the set the way it would have played out organically.”
    His eyes narrowed. “You are good with numbers. One of a thousand would pick up on a subtle pattern like that.”
    She let her head fall back on the chair. “For what good it does me.”
    He grunted in acknowledgement. “So in fact, your ... misfortunes have been cause and effect. The fighting worsened, so you gambled. The Vulpean was cheating his customers, so you lost and he was killed.”
    She stared at him. “But I didn’t— oh . You think he was killed by someone else he cheated yesterday.”
    Stark shrugged. “It is the answer that makes the most sense.”
    “Well, I for one hope they never get caught,” she muttered.  
    “You may have your wish. Security holovids from the back passageway are missing, according to the source I spoke with.”
    “Really?” That was more sophisticated than just a clout over the head from an enraged customer. Kiri shuddered.  
    Organized crime was always slithering around the edges of the port, looking for merchants to strong-arm. She had avoided the gangers’ attention herself by having so few profits she wasn’t worth bothering with. But she supposed the Vulpean had been worthy of their attentions.  
    She wondered if Tal was involved, and hoped not. She didn’t want to think a man she’d been with was capable of murder, although he probably was if pushed.
    She frowned at the dark, gloomy cityscape. “Where are we?”  
    “Headed south from the space port.”
    Kiri craned her neck to peer out the porthole nearest her. A familiar tall, thin obelisk speared into the clouds. Lights danced up and down its sides in an ever-changing display of colors and patterns. “Hey, there’s the New Space Needle. My apartment is near here. Can we—?” She looked at him.
    “You know there’s nothing left,” he said quietly.
    Kiri swallowed the hot lump in her throat. “I know. But I need to see it.”
    He nodded. “Giles, fly over Astra quadrant. When you reach Landing Ten, hover please. And we’ll want the belly cams.
    “Yes, sir.”
    The cruiser swung west. Kiri gasped, grabbing the arms of her chair as a holovid opened before her. It was as if her seat hung in midair, only drifting clouds and dirty fog between her and the rooftops of her old neighborhood. She checked to make sure Stark was still across from her. He was watching her, his face enigmatic.
    Their flight slowed, and she looked down again. There it was, the familiar tall, empty building on the corner, windows like empty eye-sockets. And the odd yellow of the fastener factory. But between them lay only a heap of blackened, twisted metal and fabrication, smoke still drifting in odd wisps from the depths. The near wall of the factory had been scorched too, long black streaks contrasting with the garish yellow.
    Streamers of pale blue substance lay draped over the rubble like ice she’d seen on a holovid of Earth I. Cryofoam. No fire could withstand the intense cold and suffocation if enough of the foam could be sprayed from fire-fighting cruisers. There was still one parked on the street, and she could see chartreuse-suited firefighters and police in red suits clustered on the ground.
    Kiri drew a shaky breath and then another. There was truly nothing left. No way could anything of