Deadly Misfortunes (The Fortune Tellers #2)

Chapter 1

Not for one minute did Gregory Landry believe that Sascha Lassiter, also known as Sascha the Sensation, could really envision anyone’s future, but he was determined to learn the truth about her and her cousins, Katrina and Lucy.

They were also purported to have the same abilities, but he believed it was all a sham.

Katrina had convinced another billionaire—Prescott Worthington, Gregory’s competitor in the furniture industry—that she was his one and only. What made it even stranger was that it was shortly after they had met.

Gregory made his way to Sascha to have her read his palm and confirm she was a con artist. For entertainment purposes, sure. But still, he had trouble playing the game. So why was he even doing so?

Sascha was dressed in exotic gypsy colors in rust, blue, orange, and emerald green, her top a corset, her sleeves billowed out except at the wrists, where they were banded and covered in faux gems. Her skirt was full and flouncy, and she wore gem-covered sandals.

What caught his attention the most was her curly red hair, just as red as his own. Redheads always gained his notice, but she was beautiful, her green eyes catlike as she read a guest’s palm.

He couldn’t believe he would stand in line to see her, just to have her tell him a bunch of nonsense. He was debating whether to tell her what he thought of her “talent,” but he’d heard she was a remarkable dancer, and that’s what he really wanted to do—dance with her.

The blonde woman in front of him finally finished her reading, all smiles, and Gregory shook his head.

Then he stood in front of the redheaded seductress, his palm outstretched, waiting for the made-up story to spill from her pretty, peach-colored lips. And realized he still had a faint hint of blue paint on his hands.

Momentarily, Sascha Lassiter was distracted from reading the redhead’s lightly painted blue palm at the Worthingtons’ party in Perrytown, Texas, as she caught sight of her pregnant cousin Katrina, carrying twins and just beginning to show.

Sascha was dying to know if she had made love to her husband, Prescott Worthington, before they were married.

If so, Sascha knew that if she found her true soulmate this time, she wouldn’t lose her powers by making love to a man. If she could just be sure, she would find the right one.

She’d never been jealous of anything her cousin had ever done.

Now that Katrina had found her soulmate, Sascha couldn’t help but feel she had to do the same, and in a hurry.

At twenty-seven, she felt she’d never find the man who would be hers forever.

Neither Katrina nor their Aunt Meg had helped. What were the signs?

Certain that her former boyfriend, Damon Ashford, was her one and only, she realized at once her folly when she made love to him and lost her special ability to see the future or the past. As a professional fortune teller, even though most people didn’t believe she really had the ability, she hated losing her powers.

Five long years without them seemed like losing one of her senses for an eternity. Now they were back. With renewed determination, she had to find the one who would complete her life.

She turned her attention back to the redhead. “I’m sorry for the interruption, Mr.—”

“Gregory Landry, of the Dallas Landrys. I would have thought that with your extra special abilities, you would have ‘seen’ who I was.”

Megabucks Landry. She smiled. “Mr. Landry. I should have known you anywhere.”

“You can call me Gregory. I understand Katrina is your cousin.”

Sascha sat back in her chair. He wasn’t concerned with a reading of his future.

So what was he really interested in? She sensed his concern ran deeper…

much deeper. “She’s also my best friend.

Why are you here anyway? I thought you and the Worthingtons competed with one another in the furniture business.

I can’t imagine you being at his party.”

“Somewhat.”

“So why are you here?”

“Camden and I golf together on occasion. We socialize from time to time.” A sly smile twitched Gregory’s lip.

Somehow his words didn’t ring true. Though her ability to read minds had returned, she still had difficulty with mixed messages, something she hoped would sort itself out in time.

“Do you want me to read your palm, Gregory?”

“You’re going to tell me I’m in danger.”

She folded her arms. That was her job. If he happened to be in danger.

She preferred to learn of folks finding love, getting a promotion at work, or receiving some wonderful accolade.

They might not believe her until it happened, but deadly encounters were another matter entirely.

Especially after what had happened between Katrina and Prescott.

Gregory smiled, his lightly peach-freckled face brightening as dimples appeared.

He had such a manly-looking face—high cheekbones and a strong chin—but the freckles were what really made her smile.

“I know how these things go. You’re given a list of the guests’ names and some interesting tidbits about their lives. ”

“Then how did I not know about you attending?”

“I wasn’t on the guest list.”

“Oh. So a party crasher.”

Gregory continued breaking down what he believed about her abilities. “You add your crystal ball and abracadabra, and voila, suddenly, you know something about the individual you’re doing the reading for.” Gregory arched a brow, waiting for her to agree with him.

“You’re very clever. Except for one thing.”

“What’s that?” He motioned to a waiter carrying glasses of champagne. When the waiter brought the tray to him, Gregory lifted two glasses of champagne off it. He handed her one of the tall, fluted glasses.

She took it and raised it to him. “I didn’t know your name.” She took a sip of the champagne.

“Sure you did. I’m well-known to most everyone.”

Sascha tilted her head to the side. Was he totally conceited or what? “What makes you think I know you from the man in the moon?”

Gregory’s sea-green eyes had a slightly more golden hue than hers, but his hair—they could have been considered twins—was the same rich red color. She imagined he’d had a fuzzy red head when he was a baby, just like she had.

She would have loved to have seen his baby pictures. He was tall, just like the Worthingtons. His broad shoulders looked like they could have carried her nicely to the bedroom, and she imagined that was just what he was thinking too. Though she shouldn’t have been thinking along those lines at all.

His lips curved up with amusement. His eyes sparkled as he toyed with her, as if he were a kid playing with an action-figure doll, making it do whatever he wanted.

Just like her cousins, Katrina and Lucy, Sascha was good at playing games, though. “Oh?”

“My face is in the paper all the time. My mop of red hair gives me away.”

“I kind of like the color. But I don’t read the paper or watch the news.

” She curled a coil of her hair around her finger.

Everything in the news seemed to be negative and she didn’t want it in her life.

Plus, she felt her abilities were stronger if they weren’t clouded with all that was going on in the world.

His lips inched up further. “My hair is just like yours.”

“All natural too.”

“I can see that.”

As she sipped her champagne, the bubbles tickled her nose. She rarely drank and wasn’t sure what it would do to her palm-reading abilities. Though one drink shouldn’t do too much harm, she didn’t think. “So you already know you’re in danger.”

“Sure, and so do the police.”

Surprised to hear it, she lifted her brows.

Unlike Prescott, she thought. Prescott wouldn’t tell the police he had been in trouble; he had been sure there was nothing to it.

Katrina had to convince him before it was too late.

So Sascha was glad that at least Gregory believed that someone was out to do him harm and had contacted the police.

“Then I don’t have to attempt to rescue you.” Which was good news for Sascha.

Gregory had just taken a swallow of champagne and choked on it as if the very notion made him laugh.

Her face warmed with embarrassment at the thought that he would find her so amusing.

Telling fortunes for real was a serious business.

Besides, what made him think she couldn’t rescue him anyway?

Well, maybe she couldn’t, but maybe a vision would come to her that could help him.

After coughing a couple of times, Gregory regained his composure, straightened his back and smiled at her as if she were the funniest thing he’d chanced to meet in a good long while.

Once he looked as though he would live, she took a deep breath of annoyance. “Why would somebody be after you?”

“That’s what nobody knows. Two attempts have already been made on my life. I thought maybe you might know why.”

“Nope, but I’m sorry your life is in danger.” She hadn’t heard anything about it. Surely, Prescott would have mentioned it. Or Katrina. Was Gregory keeping it hush-hush? “Do you have a bodyguard?”

He motioned to a guy with strawberry-blond hair and blue eyes, who smiled at her. “That’s Red. His name is Robby Redfern, so he goes by Red.”

He was wearing a black tux, like the other men there, but he wasn’t a redhead. His hair was dyed for sure, as she could see the blond roots showing his natural color. Why change his hair color when she was sure he would look fine as a blonde?

“Good for you,” Sascha said to Gregory. At least he was taking measures to protect himself.

Gregory cleared his throat, still trying to settle the champagne that had gone down the wrong way.

“Your cousin, posing as a Landry at the Worthington’s ball held at Lemoyne’s only a few days ago, interested me.

My parents wanted me to look into it when both the Worthington brothers asked them whether she was their daughter or a niece.

Then, without any engagement period, party, announcement, or anything else, Prescott Worthington ups and marries her.

It seemed kind of odd that it would happen like that. ”

Sascha’s brows rose. “Do you own exclusive rights to the Landry name? She’s of the Landry family of San Antonio. I wouldn’t call it posing as a Landry exactly, since it’s her birthright as much as it is yours. Unless you’re not really who you say you are.”

He chuckled under his breath, sending a trickle of warmth down her spine.

“I am who I say I am. I soon discovered her parents live in San Antonio. I also learned she resided next door to a cousin who lives here, Sascha the Sensation, known at fairs all over the great state of Texas, fortune teller extraordinaire. And that she, Lucy, and you were raised by another couple. Your Aunt Meg and Uncle Jimmy. Then I wondered what role you had in all this.”

“Role?” Her voice rose with agitation. What was this man’s problem?

“She came to the Worthingtons’ ball at Lemoyne’s without invitation, so Camden, Prescott’s brother, told me.”

“That’s kind of like you coming here without invitation. Isn’t it?”

Gregory gave her a half smile. “As the owner of Lemoyne’s, Damon is very careful not to disappoint his wealthy clientele. The event required an invitation. No one had a clue as to Katrina’s real identity.”

“And?” Sascha hoped the irritation she felt didn’t show too much in the tone of her voice. She didn’t want him thinking he was getting to her. When he was annoying her to the nth degree.

“I spoke with Damon. He told me you’d asked him to let Katrina into the invitation-only affair. It seems you and Damon were…close friends.”

Sascha smiled. Damon would never have told on her. After they’d made love that fateful night five years ago, he’d still remained totally devoted to her. No way would he have told this Gregory anything.

Gregory finished his drink and set the glass down on a tray. “What’s really interesting is I find out that another cousin of yours, a Lucy—”

“Brighten.”

“Yeah. It turns out Damon’s suddenly marrying her.”

“So?” It was their penance, unfortunately.

“I thought it odd that Prescott falls in love with Katrina Landry and marries her, but doesn’t have a clue as to who she is only a few days prior to this.

Then another of your cousins latches onto Damon, who is another extremely wealthy eligible bachelor.

Apparently, he has never even dated her before either.

Like Katrina, she just pops out of the woodwork, so to speak.

There’s no history of her attending any of the social to-dos in Dallas.

In fact, out of the three women, only you have visited several of the influential homes with your sensational act. ”

“It’s a job that I love.”

“So what I’m curious about is—who are you going after?”

“I would have thought that obvious.” Sascha drank some more of her champagne and nearly choked on the words as she mouthed them. “You, of course.”

His perfectly whitened, flawlessly aligned teeth showed as Gregory smiled at her. “Somehow, I knew you would say that. I suppose on the cheat sheet you have concerning the guests, the Worthingtons even said I couldn’t resist a natural redhead.”

“That’s just what they said—even though they didn’t even know you were going to crash the party.

Since the jig is up—you’re way too clever for me to bamboozle you—I guess I’ll have to make my try for Prescott’s bachelor brother instead.

Camden’s good-looking, has a great personality, is extremely wealthy, and is available too. ”

Gregory shook his head. “He prefers blondes.”

“Uh-huh. So did Prescott. But Katrina’s dark brown hair caught his eye. You see, we have something magical that can win a guy’s heart. We don’t just need our special looks.”

Before Sascha could leave her chair and take her break before dancing for the crowd, a loud crash sounded, three women screamed, and a man cried out.

Gregory jumped across Sascha’s small, round, cloth-covered table, startling the crap out of her.

He tackled Sascha to the floor, sending her chair and glass of champagne flying, and landed on top of her as if they were in the throes of passion.