Read Online Rules of Conflict by Kristine Smith - Free Book Online Page A

eyes taking in the cramped
dimensions, the shabby furniture, before coming to rest on Evan. “Cozy,” he said,
with a ghost of a smile.
    Evan responded in kind. “I think so.”
    “Quite a change from the old Family estate.”
    “Quite.”
    “Smaller.”
    “Yes.”
    “A woman’s presence, of course, is what makes a home.” Shroud’s
smile withered. “I never had the opportunity to offer my condolences. Lyssa’s
death came as a shock to us all.”
    Evan tensed at the sound of his dead wife’s name. “Thank you.”
    “I spoke with Anais last evening, at one of Vandy’s interminable
dinner parties. Milla’s staying with her for the summer. Lyssa’s aunt and
mother together again, after so many years. Sad how it takes such tragedy to
reunite sisters.” Shroud shook his head. “Anais had a great deal to say about
Lyssa’s death. I think she used it as a shield to avoid discussing that idiotic
food-transport screwup she helped engineer that upset the idomeni so, but then
Family gossip has always been more riveting than idomeni food philosophies.”
    “Transporting foodstuffs in sight of their embassy was incredibly
stupid.” Evan leapt at the chance to dismantle Anais’s diplomatic blunder. He
was starved for news from the capital. Besides, he didn’t want to discuss
Lyssa’s death. “I understand the idomeni almost packed up and returned home?”
    “Not as long as Nema draws breath.” Shroud’s air of mild interest
never altered. “Tell me, was Lyssa’s skimmer crash really an accident or did
you arrange matters, as Anais claims?”
    “I didn’t—” Evan’s fingers curved around a nonexistent glass.
“Despite assurances to the contrary, I’m fairly certain the walls have ears.”
He pulled up his sleeve to expose his security cuff. “And I’m not altogether
confident about the jewelry, either.”
    Shroud pressed a hand over his heart as though taking a pledge.
“Jo’burg also allows us our privacy. And in case anyone’s forgotten that, I’m
well fitted out in the counter-monitoring department. Now, back to Anais—”
    “I didn’t realize you and she were so close.”
    “We’re not.” Shroud draped an arm along the sofa back. “But she
does bend every ear she can these days.” The smile again. “And you do have a history
of engaging in that sort of thing.”
    Silence stretched. Just before it snapped, a muted tapping
sounded. Evan offered up a silent thank-you. “Come in.”
    Markhart, his housekeeper, entered pushing a beverage trolley. She
was elderly, short and compact—a white raisin of a woman in a shapeless tunic
and trousers—but she possessed enough wit to compensate for Halvor’s lack of
same. Despite the smiling greetings, she detected the tension between the two
men. She maneuvered the low-slung trolley between them like a barrier and,
after waiting for a small nod from Evan, left them to serve themselves.
    “As I was saying.” Shroud leaned forward and poured himself coffee
from the carafe. “An old habit is an easy fallback, and you’ve one that’s hard
to break. Killing people when they become dangerous, or inconvenient—”
    “I’ve never killed anyone.” Evan cracked the seal on a bottle of
bourbon. “My attorney would be very interested to hear you’ve been telling
people otherwise.” He filled his tumbler, then added a splash of soda. His
hands shook. His voice didn’t.
    Shroud’s shoulder twitched. “You’ve never done the dirty yourself,
no. Someone else interfered with Lyssa’s augmentation so that she hallucinated
herself into a fatal crash. Durian Ridgeway strangled that poor dexxie last
winter.” He stared into his cup, grimacing as though some ugly scene played
itself out on the coffee’s reflective surface. “Someone else placed the bomb on
Jani’s transport.”
    Evan took a large gulp of his drink. Liquid heat warmed him like
an internal sun. “ Someone else . Those are the two words that will have
me sleeping in my ancestral