Ice Red Read online

  Ice Red

  By Jael Wye

  Mirror, mirror, full of stars,

  Who will claim the throne of Mars?

  The princess: Engineer Bianca Ross, heir to a megacorporation and the Mars elevator, needs to acquire a mine on the surface to secure her place in the company. All that stands in her way is the mine’s charming owner, Cesare Chan.

  The evil stepmother: Victoria Ross is plotting to gain control of Mars. She plans to assassinate Bianca and seduce Cesare to further her goals, and Bianca’s trip is the perfect opportunity.

  The charming prince: Cesare shouldn’t get involved. Bianca’s visit could reveal the escaped slaves he’s hiding at his mine, but he can’t ignore a damsel in distress—especially one as beautiful as Bianca.

  Alone, neither would stand a chance against Victoria. But together, they could rewrite a tale that’s meant to end with Bianca’s blood.

  93,000 words

  Dear Reader,

  Usually I begin these letters with some chatty information, but I’m departing from my norm this time to give you the opportunity to talk to me. At Carina, we’re always discussing our books and making sure we’re meeting your needs—not just with story and content, but also in the way they’re put together. This month, I’d like to reach out to you and ask your opinion on how the Carina Press books utilize the front and back matter. Do you like having the dear reader letter in the front? Would you prefer if it were in the back? Is there something more—excerpts, book lists or other information—we could be providing after the books? We welcome your comments and hope you will reach out to us with your thoughts at [email protected].

  In the meantime, it’s business as usual here at Carina Press headquarters, and that means a lineup of excellent books (no bias here!) for the month of September. We welcome author Jael Wye to Carina Press with her science-fiction fairy-tale retelling, Ice Red, in which the tale of Snow White plays out on the deadly and beautiful planet Mars 300 years in the future. Joining her in launching a new series is return author Nico Rosso, who grabbed my attention the first time he pitched this series to me as “demon rock stars.” Misty is thrown into rock star and immortal demon Trevor Sand’s supernatural world of music, monsters and passion in Heavy Metal Heart.

  More unique voices this month include urban fantasy author R.L. Naquin’s newest Monster Haven novel, Fairies in My Fireplace, as well as Agamemnon Frost and the Hollow Ships, book two of Kim Knox’s male/male science-fiction trilogy.

  Sandy James wraps up her Alliance of the Amazons series with The Volatile Amazon. The Water Amazon leads the Alliance as they face their archenemy in their last and greatest fight. Veronica Scott joins Sandy in the paranormal category with Egypt-set Warrior of the Nile.

  We have multiple releases in the erotic romance genre this month, including Love Letters Volume 5: Exposed, in which the Love Letters ladies strip away everything but the hot truth, and four couples see each other in a tantalizingly revealing new light. Forbidden Obsessions by Jodie Griffin features Bondage & Breakfast owner Gabe McConnell, who finally gets his chance at love when he meets a novice submissive who touches a part of his dominant heart no one else ever has. In Lynda Aicher’s Bonds of Hope, former America’s sweetheart Quinn Andrews has an opportunity to revive her career by playing a sexual submissive in a highly anticipated new TV series. Quinn is ready to throw herself into the role, and sex club The Den is the ideal place for a crash course.

  Also in the erotic romance genre, we’re pleased to welcome author Lise Horton to Carina Press with Words of Lust. A career spent teaching erotic literature does not prepare brainy Professor Serafina Luca for NYC construction foreman Nick Stellato, but his lessons in lust promise to fulfill her wickedest desires, and his promise of love, her wildest dreams.

  For historical romance fans, Alyssa Everett offers up A Tryst with Trouble. The arrogant heir to a dukedom and a blunt-spoken spinster take an instant dislike to each other, but must join forces to solve a murder mystery in this clever regency romp.

  Kaylea Cross returns with another edge-of-your-seat romantic suspense novel, Lethal Pursuit. An air force pararescue jumper and a female security forces officer are locked in an intense battle of wills, but when they’re captured by an enemy warlord, it takes everything they have to survive and fight their way back to friendly lines together. Check out the other books in this series, Deadly Descent and Tactical Strike.

  We’re excited to present Corroded, the next book in Karina Cooper’s St. Croix Chronicles. Now fixated on revenge, bounty hunter Cherry St. Croix must bend all her intellect on catching a murderer—no matter whose help she must ask, and to whose demand she must submit.

  Last, I’m thrilled to announce the release of three debut authors this month. Rebecca Crowley’s contemporary sports romance, The Striker’s Chance, gives us passion on and off the pitch when ambitious PR manager Holly Taylor has to revamp the playboy image of sexy, stubborn professional soccer player Kepler de Klerk. Michelle Witvliet breaks onto the romantic suspense scene with Breaking Protocol. She can’t let go of a tragic past; he faces an uncertain future; so they live in the moment and discover all they really need is each other. And in our new adult lineup, debut author Melissa Guinn offers a new adult romance novel about first love, second chances and learning to let go in Headfirst Falling.

  I hope you enjoy this month’s releases as much as we have, and find them satisfying, remarkable and memorable!

  We love to hear from readers, and you can email us your thoughts, comments and questions to [email protected]. You can also interact with Carina Press staff and authors on our blog, Twitter stream and Facebook fan page.

  Happy reading!

  ~Angela James

  Executive Editor, Carina Press

  www.carinapress.com

  www.twitter.com/carinapress

  www.facebook.com/carinapress

  Dedication

  For my family

  Acknowledgments

  All my thanks go to Vivian, Collin, Chris, Carolyn and John for your love and encouragement. Thanks also to my wonderful editors Meredith Giordan and Alison Dasho and all the editors and designers at Carina Press who helped bring my Mars of the future to life. Finally, thank you to the members of the Connecticut Chapter of Romance Writers of America for your support and good advice.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Eris

  Eris Space Elevator Station, Year 322 After Colonization

  She stood at the edge of the void, the great red disk of Mars turning slowly at her feet. Deep within the rusty haze of the planet’s atmosphere a silver thread glimmered—the elevator cable, a giant cylinder of diamond filaments spinning itself thousands of kilometers up into space to its dock on the Eris space stat
ion. All around her the huge black wheel of the orbiting city sparkled with viewport lights and bristled with com arrays and docking locks.

  But the woman at the viewport window wasn’t interested in the splendid view. She scanned her eye camera out across the stars instead, looking for a larger silvery glint among them.

  Ah, there it is. The corpse of her former personal assistant. A hint of his face was still visible, blackened and gaping in a frozen scream. She smiled slightly, watching her ex-PA drift away until he disappeared into the universe, one dust mote among trillions.

  A discrete chime sounded. The video she had been expecting was finally coming in. Taking off her eye camera, she turned away from the viewport window to regard the blurry images on her video screen. The picture resolved slowly as her spy robot maneuvered closer to its targets; an older man and a young woman, talking quietly as they stood on the upper deck of the space elevator terminal.

  It seemed her husband and his daughter were saying their goodbyes. A touching scene, she supposed, and an excellent opportunity for eavesdropping. She arranged herself comfortably in her chair to watch.

  * * *

  “How much time...” Bianca let her question trail off. Her father wasn’t paying attention. He was scanning the cuff pad on his wrist, intent on some new data suddenly chiming through.

  Probably an important com. They usually are. And when Max Ross is scanning important numbers, not even a herd of little green men line dancing under his nose could make him tear his eyes away from his cuff. Bianca stifled a sigh and waited, idly watching a maintenance bot making its way toward them as it cleaned the floors.

  After a few moments, Max lowered his cuff, his bright blue gaze settling on her distractedly. “Sorry. More calculations from the Earthers.”

  “How long do you think it will take your team to get the Earth elevator running, Da? Still estimating about three years?”

  Max shrugged. “The elevator cable and space station are almost complete. It’s all a matter of operational protocols and precision engineering now. Finishing it should take less than three years if they do what I tell them.”

  Of course the Earthers would do what he told them. Max Ross was the creator and visionary behind the original Mars space elevator, and the president of StarLine, the space elevator company. Aside from being one of the richest and most powerful men in the Solar system, he was a true genius, and therefore an invaluable part of the Earthers’ project.

  The new space elevator they were building was the largest and most important construction venture ever attempted by humanity. When it was complete, Earth’s twelve billion people would come swarming up the giant cable, making the jump into space more cheaply and easily than they ever could with rockets alone. Instead of the occasional, expensive ship launching directly from Earth, whole fleets of ships could begin launching from the elevator station.

  Humanity would burst out into the Solar system in a way they hadn’t since the first wave of colony ships from Earth landed on Mars three hundred years ago. Thanks to the new elevator, the two planets would soon begin a whole new era of relations, and StarLine, Max Ross’s company, would be poised at the forefront of the new Solar order.

  Bianca knew all of that. But she didn’t like it. “Three years is a long time for StarLine to go without you. Are you sure you can’t just leave the Earthers to their own devices?” she said, half serious.

  Her father waved her question aside. “Leave something this important to the Earthers? Ridiculous. Besides, Eris station can pretty much run itself by now. I’ll be on the com regularly. Victoria and the Board of Directors can deal with any little problems that come up.”

  Victoria and the Board. Max’s wretched wife and her pack of sycophants. Bianca shook her head. “I guess I’ll have to take care of all the big problems, then,” she murmured.

  Max looked at her with surprised amusement. “Honeybee, you’re a bright kit, but you’re only, what, thirty?”

  Bianca clamped down on her exasperation. Thirty might be barely out of childhood in Martian terms, but it was still the legal age of adulthood.

  “Don’t worry about StarLine’s problems,” Max went on. “You just concentrate on this new project of yours. Perfect thing to cut your teeth on.” He paused. “What was it again?”

  “Victoria is sending me down to Mars to acquire the RedIce mining company,” she said patiently.

  “Right, right. Hmm. A mining company is outside your experience. RedIce blokes will probably try to give you the tech shuffle. Don’t fall for it.”

  “Ay, si.” She hesitated, trying to phrase what she wanted to say just right. “By the way, I’ve been getting some resistance from Victoria’s legal staff on renegotiating worker contracts...”

  She lost him again. Max fiddled with his cuff, frowning absently at a new stream of data. “I wouldn’t worry about it. Victoria said something about the Assembly ratifying new contract laws soon. Just follow the legal team’s advice and you’ll be fine. Shen Chan won’t give you any trouble. Victoria says the old man’s falling all over himself to unload his mines on us.”

  Victoria certainly did a magnificent job programming Da to her specifications. He’s nearly as good as a robot, I’d say. She suppressed that unworthy thought. Max may have ceded mundane company operations to Victoria, but she didn’t control him. He’d make the right decisions for his company if he would just focus long enough.

  She said quietly, “That may be, Da, but I still would like your support if I decide the contracts need to be changed. I want to make sure this transition is fair to everyone.”

  Something in her voice must have gotten through to him, because he looked up and stared at her for a moment, an odd expression in his eyes.

  “Is that... Is everything all right?” she said uneasily.

  Max blinked. “Oh. Ay. It’s just that sometimes you remind me so much of your mother. She used to worry about things like that.”

  Bianca didn’t quite know what to say. Max rarely spoke of her mother. Ana Ross had been StarLine’s CEO during the development and construction of the elevator, but she had died of leukemia when Bianca was only a year old. For most of her life, her mother had existed for her only as a reserved, lovely figure on the news video archives. Being compared to her like this was strange. And yet warming, somehow. She offered her da a tentative smile.

  Eventually, Max said, “You use your best judgment. But if you bankrupt the company, I’m taking it out of your allowance.”

  She was pretty sure that last bit was supposed to be a joke. Still smiling, she said, “Duly noted.” She stepped up to him and kissed his cheek.

  “Well, time to go.” He patted her back a bit awkwardly. “I’ll com you soon. Have a good trip.”

  “You too, Da,” Bianca said as he walked away.

  He was quickly engulfed in a mob of his assistants and techs, which had been hovering nearby. Bianca watched them make their way through the crowded terminal to the lifts that would take them to the outer rim of the station, where the big interplanetary ships docked. Max didn’t look back at her, his attention already fastened on his cuff. The lift doors slid shut, and her father was gone.

  Three years. She was surprised at the twinge she felt at the thought of Max being gone for so long. Ever since she was a kit, she had gone for months or years without ever seeing him. Why get sentimental about his absence now?

  She wandered toward the edge of the mezzanine, detouring around the little maintenance bot that was still cleaning nearby. Balancing her new designer travelpac on the railing, she looked out over the grand terminal. She took a deep breath, rolling the light fragrance of the air cleanser over her tongue. The familiar scent of home.

  She had spent her entire childhood running wild in this place—exploring the station and the cable and communing with the brilliant General Intelligence pr
ograms that ran the whole magnificent structure. Back then, Eris had been her entire world. Her nannies and tutors might come and go, and her father might grow more distant with every passing year, but her beautiful floating city was always there for her.

  Foolish assumption, that.

  When she was fifteen her Da had married Victoria and made her the new CEO of StarLine, and Bianca’s world was gone in an instant. One minute she was watching with astonishment as Victoria tucked her curvaceous body up against Max and aimed a blinding smile at his face. The next minute, she found herself down on the surface of Mars at Anderson Technology Institute.

  In the beginning, shocked numbness carried her through the bewildering crush of her days. But eventually, her studies in physics, programming and mathematics became so engrossing that she was able to ignore the constant ache of homesickness most of the time.

  After taking a degree in Megastructure Engineering and then a stint at business school, Bianca was more than ready to return to Eris and help her father run the elevator. And she tried to. Heaven, how she tried. But somehow, various internships and minor operations assignments arranged by Victoria always kept her at the bottom of the elevator in Pavonis City.

  Finally, finally, her thirtieth birthday came. She was no longer a minor, and there were no more excuses left to keep her away from her birthright. After fifteen years of exile, she could go home.

  Another foolish assumption.

  No sooner had she arrived on the station than she learned that Victoria was sending her right back down the cable to acquire some Outback mining company. A company that StarLine had no particular relationship with until about two weeks ago, when Victoria inexplicably decided to buy it out of hand. If Bianca didn’t know better, she might think this RedIce deal was just an excuse conjured up to get her out of the way again.

  And just to make the assignment more interesting, Victoria had given her almost nothing to work with on this assignment. No support staff, a joke of a data file.