Indigo Rain Read Online Free Page A

absently noting other regulars in the small crowd.
    Maybe she should go to the Ranean Guard herself. She’d rarely felt truly unwelcome here, after all. Her paranoia about Achoren prejudices was likely unjustified. And as part of the Empire, Ranean law—in which all citizens were held as equal regardless of race—took precedence.
    She’d reached for her coffee mug again when someone slipped onto the stool immediately to her right, a tall woman in dark gray slacks and a light blue blouse. The vixen.
    Roulette kept her hand on her mug but let it drop back onto the counter. It clinked loudly, coffee sloshing over its edge.
    Rissi walked over and took her order. “I’ll have what she’s having,” the vixen murmured, her voice soft and pitched low as she turned to look directly at Roulette. The raccoon tightened her grip on her coffee mug.
    “Coming right up,” Rissi said, ears flicking. He glanced between the two women and headed off.
    “Roulette,” the vixen said, keeping her storm green eyes fixed on the shorter raccoon.
    She looked down at her turnover, ears flat.
    “After breakfast, we’re going to chat about last night.”
    “What do you want?” Roulette hissed.
    “Don’t play stupid.” She picked up the pastry Rissi had just set down and bit into it.
    Roulette slammed money down on the counter, took a final quick gulp of her coffee, and stood up abruptly. “If you follow me I’ll scream,” she whispered. “Stay away from me.”
    The vixen didn’t even look up.
    Once outside, she paused to make sure the woman wasn’t following, then dashed across the street, into the boarding house and up the stairs. When she got into her room she locked the door behind her, dropped onto the bed and held her head in her hands until the sob threatening to burst out subsided.
    Nothing to do but run. She paid for the room by the week; leaving now meant she’d lose three days worth of money, but at this point she didn’t care.
    She started to drag the trunk out from under the bed, then paused. There was no way she could lug this around and duck the damn vixen. She could just grab the bills, but she’d hate to lose the strongbox—and she’d have trouble getting even half the trunk’s contents into her knapsack. She’d planned to leave by purchasing a seat and cargo space on a public carriage to Raneadhros. She hadn’t counted on—
    A knock sounded on the door. Roulette froze.
    The door knob jiggled, clacking as the lock held it in place.
    Roulette tried to hold her breath.
    “I know you’re in there,” the vixen growled from outside. “I’m not here to hurt you, but neither of us has time for this. Don’t make me break the door down.”
    She whimpered, holding her hand on the doorknob as if to brace it. “Why are you following me?”
    “Up until this morning, I hadn’t been following you .”
    Roulette trembled, ears folding back in her hair. “Just go away,” she said. “All I want to do is leave town. No one will ever see me again.”
    “It’s too late for that.” The vixen’s voice remained hard.
    Roulette closed her eyes for a second, then steeled herself and unlocked the door.
    The vixen pushed the door open, slipped in, shut and locked the door behind her. “First I need to know if you went there to kill Grayson.”
    Roulette stared incredulously. “Who is—”
    In a frighteningly fast motion the vixen closed the distance between them, now scowling. “I said no time for this. Were you there to kill Grayson, or just fuck him?”
    “I don’t know who you’re talking about!” She shoved at the vixen with both hands.
    The world blurred and hit Roulette hard in the back, knocking the breath out of her as the Vraini slammed her against the nearest wall, pinning her shoulders.
    “Listen to me very closely.” The vixen’s voice carried a cold steel edge. “Sometime between the point Grayson stopped talking to you in the lobby and when you left in a hurry, something happened that kept him