Obsidian Prey Read Free

by Cruz Sweetwater and a bunch of overpaid Amber Inc. lawyers.”
    “Just a figure of speech,” Nancy said quickly. “Don’t worry, I’m one hundred percent behind you here. Best friends forever. You know that.”
    “Thank you,” Lyra said stiffly. The electrifying tingle of energy that was stirring the fine hair at the nape of her neck was not fading. If anything, it was growing stronger. “Try to remember that friends are supposed to stick together in situations like this.”
    “Absolutely. I am definitely on your side. It’s just that, well, Cruz Sweetwater is one of the men of Amber Inc. Everyone pays attention when a Sweetwater shows up. It’s like having a Guild boss walk into the room. Actually, a lot of people would say that now that Cruz has taken over his family’s private security business, he’s got more power here in Frequency than the head of the local Guild.”
    “That wouldn’t be hard,” Lyra said dryly, “given the fact that the local Guild is between bosses at the moment.”
    “You know what I mean.”
    Lyra sighed. “I know. Sorry. I’m just feeling a little testy.”
    Harold Taylor, the chief of the Frequency Guild, had died recently, and the Council had yet to select a new boss. But that was, Lyra had to admit, a technicality. Nancy was right. As the new CEO of Amber Inc. Security, Cruz Sweetwater did wield more power than a Guild chief, at least aboveground. When it came to the underground world, the men of Amber Inc. had historically maintained very close working relationships with the Guilds. In Lyra’s opinion, the association was not unlike an alliance between two criminal organizations that had agreed to respect each other’s territories.
    The ability to psychically resonate with amber had begun to appear in the colonists shortly after they had arrived from Earth. Initially it had been considered an odd adaptation to the environment with no practical importance. But when the energy Curtain that had made travel between the home planet and a host of new worlds possible had closed without warning, amber had become the one thing that stood between the colonists and total disaster.
    When their high-tech machines inevitably began to fail, the struggling members of the First Generation—united in their determination not to be the last generation on Harmony—had turned to amber as a source of energy. It had served their descendants well in the two hundred years since the closing of the Curtain. Today it powered everything from washing machines to computers.
    The immutable laws of economics being what they were, whoever controlled the mining of standard resonating amber—SRA—controlled a lot of things on Harmony. And for the past fifty years, the mysterious, reclusive Sweetwater family had managed to corner a huge chunk of the market. Amber Inc.’s only serious competitor was the RezStone corporation, which controlled an equally large market share. The rivalry between the two firms was legendary.
    “You can’t blame me for being a little curious about Cruz Sweetwater,” Nancy said. “I never even got to meet him three months ago when you were dating him.”
    “Take it from me: curiosity is a dangerous thing when it comes to Mr. Sweetwater,” Lyra said.
    He was very close now. The sparkling sensation fluttering across all her senses was making it hard to breathe. The half-empty glass she held trembled ever so slightly in her fingers. She could literally feel Cruz closing in on her. The urge to run was almost overpowering. Unfortunately, what she wanted to do was run to him, not from him. It was crazy, she thought. If she had any common sense, she would slip out the back door. Whatever Cruz wanted from her, it was a sure bet that it would not be good for her.
    But the memory of the purple orchids sitting in the black vase on her coffee table swamped common sense. The latest delivery of the spectacularly gorgeous, outrageously expensive flowers had arrived that afternoon. The