The Grifter by Blaze Ward

Author:Blaze Ward
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knotted Road Press

Monday. For what it was worth.

Harper watched as the taxi landed in the front of a building that felt like a small city. Even city blocks weren’t as long as this stone monstrosity was wide. And who needed four stories of elevation?

Worse, the building had two spurs out the back, wrapping around a courtyard large enough to hold. small track and field events.

This was what happened when you had a social ladder that was impossibly wide at the bottom and came up to a narrow spike quickly. Dukes and the like who owned significant fractions of the planetary surface and economy, on the basis of twisting the laws to exclude them from inheritance taxes.

Harper suppressed a growl as she exited the vehicle and found Lorn standing nearby in the shade.

He approached when she was alone. He was alone.

Tall, dark, handsome, rich. Fairy tale shit.

Another reason Eldor deserved what it had coming.

“Good morning,” he said brightly as she stepped in his direction. “I’m so glad you could come.”

“Thank you for having me,” she lied exquisitely. “I’m happy to be here.”

“Come,” he said, taking her elbow in a directing manner rather than a possessive one. “I thought we might start with a quick tour before lunch.”

She didn’t bite him, though the thought crossed her mind. Let herself be drawn inside the massive pile of stone and money to see the long hallways with family portraits in oil and equally ancient art collections.

As a museum, she would have approved. As a private residence for one unmarried man and two widowed sisters-in-law, it seemed excessive. Fortunately, the two women didn’t make an appearance.

Library. Salon. Music room larger than most of the bars she went to for live bands. Study, separate from the other spaces because apparently being a duke required you to sit alone in a dark, calming chamber about the size of small city hall somewhere and think deeply impressive thoughts.

Or whatever shit they told themselves to justify having so much money. She hadn’t seen anyone actually homeless or starving around here, but crime was higher than a planet this wealthy justified, which was usually the indication of not enough avenues for poor, smart kids to advance.

Hard to do when you had inbred aristocrats capstoning the entire economy. Legally. Permanently.

So okay, maybe she’d taken Project Harmony a little to heart.

They ended on ONE of the patios in back, up a half-level with bushy leaves on two sides to make it almost a comfortable hideaway, until you looked up at all the windows that could hide someone looking back.

A LOT of windows. How many servants did a place like this employ, merely because they needed folks to supervise teams cleaning over one hundred rooms?

Harper pasted a smile on her face and kept conversation shallow and vapid, as suited the Count/Neighbor and his Countess/Ox wife. And the two sons of somebody important who looked like they had about one brain between them. Tall and pretty. Dull as bricks.

She’d been quite certain after ten seconds that

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