Looking at Trouble

By Viola Grace

Reeda works in the marketplace selling her mother’s scarves. Each one is a custom weave and no two are alike. When her friends at the marketplace need her, she comes running and takes care of business when peacekeepers are too far away.

Each intervention requires her to record her use of her assessment talent with the peacekeepers in order to make sure she isn’t misusing it. When a Citadel recruiter comes calling, she has to negotiate with Reeda’s formidable mother before she will be allowed to leave home.

A nine-foot member of the spider species, l’nal, raised Reeda. Mother has been attentive, protective and an excellent educator. She negotiates the best deal for Reeda and gets her into the Citadel with a tremendous salary and built-in vacations.

Bilro is a Guardian in training on Balen when he meets Reeda, and the moment he takes in the way she studies, he is charmed. When he finds her witty, he is smitten, and when the call summons him to his new post, he is gone.

What are the odds of them meeting again when Reeda goes looking for trouble?

• Language: English
• Publisher: eXtasy Books Inc
• Release date: Jun 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781487403560

Viola Grace

Viola Grace (aka Zenina Masters) is a Canadian sci-fi/paranormal romance writer with ambitions to keep writing for the rest of her life. She specializes in short stories because the thrill of discovery, of all those firsts, is what keeps her writing.An artist who enjoys a story that catches you up, whirls you around and sets you down with a smile on your face is all she endeavours to be. She prefers to leave the drama to those who are better suited to it, she always goes for the cheap laugh.

Book preview

Being able to see trouble at a glance is a fine hobby, but when it becomes a career, her life is turned upside down.

Reeda works in the marketplace selling her mother’s scarves. Each one is a custom weave and no two are alike. When her friends at the marketplace need her, she comes running and takes care of business when peacekeepers are too far away.

Each intervention requires her to record her use of her assessment talent with the peacekeepers in order to make sure she isn’t misusing it. When a Citadel recruiter comes calling, she has to negotiate with Reeda’s formidable mother before she will be allowed to leave home.

A nine-foot member of the spider species, l’nal, raised Reeda. Mother has been attentive, protective and an excellent educator. She negotiates the best deal for Reeda and gets her into the Citadel with a tremendous salary and built-in vacations.

Bilro is a Guardian in training on Balen when he meets Reeda, and the moment he takes in the way she studies, he is charmed. When he finds her witty, he is smitten, and when the call summons him to his new post, he is gone.

What are the odds of them meeting again when Reeda goes looking for trouble?

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Looking at Trouble

Copyright © 2015 Viola Grace

ISBN: 978-1-4874-0356-0

Cover art by Carmen Waters

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

Published by eXtasy Books Inc or

Devine Destinies, an imprint of eXtasy Books Inc

Look for us online at:

www.eXtasybooks.com or www.devinedestinies.com

Smashwords Edition

Looking at Trouble

Tales of the Citadel Book 47

By

Viola Grace

Chapter One

Reeda finished wrapping the l’nal silk scarf for her client and handed the slim box to the young man who wanted to present it to his fiancée.

He was probably no older than she was, but Reeda could not remember ever looking that young.

He left the kiosk, and she perched on her stool, attentive and enjoying the wild push and pull of the marketplace.

The bright banners of silk waved in the morning sun, each strong enough to stop a projectile but light enough to feel like a breath of air against the skin.

Reeda was just reaching for her caf when her wrist alarm went off. She sighed, triggered the force shield around her kiosk and sprinted down toward the jewellery section of the market.

It was a five hundred-metre run, but with the crowds, she had to get creative with the route she took. Reeda nodded to some of the vendors, and she quickly moved behind their stalls, running through the stocking lane where the supply rail was. It was tricky to use the lane, because anyone could call for stock from storage at any time, but Reeda needed to take the risk.

She heard the approaching unit and dodged back into the market a moment before the large storage device whipped past the spot she had previously occupied.

She slowed her pace as she entered the small jewellery store. Everyone was tense with Liimar—the shop owner—fumbling with the lock on a case. A young Selna female was with a young Krigat male, and both of them were tense with a perverse excitement.

Reeda took in the situation, and she moved to see if the tension would break. Liimar, are you ready for lunch?

He looked at her with a tense smile. No. I am afraid not. I don’t have anyone to watch the store for me. I need to get something for these customers.

Do you need some help?

The Selna female looked at her without turning her body and snarled, Listen, bitch, he doesn’t want to go to lunch with you.

I think he does. Get down, Liimar.

Liimar dropped, and Reeda slipped around to face the couple, noting the nasty burn blaster that the male was carrying and the knife the young woman was holding.

Her vision changed, and she could see the path that his blast would take and where the girl would place the knife. Reeda lunged forward and struck