Alice Series Box Set

by Maria Dean

  "Sorry!" Sally squeaked. The receptionist couldn't help it. If you wanted dirt on someone at Lionheart Law, Sally was the person to go to. She was quiet and often went unnoticed by others, allowing her to collect gossip whenever she wanted. It wasn't always correct, though, and Astrid was often the victim of Sally's misheard information. The wedding mishap was the least of her problems. Sally was still paying her back for the night she incorrectly showed up at Astrid's house with sympathy flowers, thinking one of her family members died. Astrid was actually in the middle of a date. It didn't end well.

  "Really, though," Winston said as he returned with two piping hot cups of coffee, "they're all fucking beautiful. Didn't you say you met them at a funeral?"

  Astrid accepted his apology coffee. "Technically. I met each one of them once before the funeral in really weird ways. The first one kind of harassed me on a train, the second one bumped into me on a bus, and I spilled a sandwich on the third."

  Sally and Winston both stared at her. "I'm sorry," Winston said, "did you just say one of them harassed you on a train? And now you're going out on a date with him?"

  Astrid sipped her coffee, avoiding eye contact. "Well, it's more like he started spouting nonsense about how the world was fucked up and how we were all going to die. He's a little weird, I guess. But they all are." She stretched out in her swiveling office chair. "One of them exclusively wears Armani everything, and the other is just...kind of dumb."

  "Let me guess," Winston said as he dropped into his own seat, "that's the one you hit with a sandwich." Astrid nodded. He snorted in amusement and nearly spilled his coffee in the process. "Out of curiosity, Astrid, when are you going to actually get a significant other? Or at least get laid?"

  "Great question. Ask Sally."

  The receptionist squeaked again. "I said I was sorry..." She whimpered. "How was I supposed to know Daniella from HR only heard half of your conversation?"

  Winston set his coffee cup down and leaned back in his chair. "Maybe," he suggested, "you should stop gossiping with Daniella from HR. That seems to get you in trouble."

  Sally pouted. "Whatever. Astrid, please be careful. Having three men go after you can only lead to trouble. Trust me, I have a friend who went through something similar. She had affairs with three different men in one summer. Then she got pregnant and had to keep it a secret from all of them!"

  Winston and Astrid shared a confused look. "Did she also move to Greece so she could run a hotel?" Winston asked.

  "Yeah!"

  "Sally," Astrid sighed, "that's just the plot to Mamma Mia."

  The meek receptionist sighed. "But you get my point, right?"

  "Yeah," Winston chimed in. "I can get it. If you have three guys chasing after you, that's going to be a little complicated. Especially when they're all brothers. And that's not counting the angry lesbian you said tried to kill you."

  "Repeat that," Astrid said to Sally, "and I will kill you."

  "Noted." Sally dipped out of the office to go back to her desk, returning very briefly to say, "My mom says go with someone who can cook better than you." Sally disappeared from the door and ran back over to her desk.

  "Hmm," Winston mused. "She's got a point there. My last ex couldn't cook for shit, and he was also just like, garbage."

  Astrid opened her computer. "But if everyone went for someone who was a better cook, we'd all be single."

  "Yeah, well, you can't cook, Astrid. I would take that advice."

  Astrid responded by flipping Winston off. She logged onto her laptop and opened her email, shocked by the sudden lack of messages. Business was surprisingly slow as of late. Not enough people were dying or in need of wills.

  The day dragged. The only notable event was in the late afternoon when her boss, Tom, came in with an apology cake to make up for Sally's meddling. He'd been the accidental mastermind behind the wedding crashing fiasco and had promised to bring in a cake months ago. He was just now getting around to it. Astrid didn't mind. She never really liked gifts anyway.

  The cake did look good. With a hungover Nova staying with her, Astrid ended up skipping breakfast in favor of giving her aunt some space. Astrid had Tom divide the cake up for her coworkers.

  "I'm sorry," Sally said through a mouthful of rich chocolate cake.

  "I forgive you," Astrid replied. "Next time just ask me if I'm getting married. It's not that hard. Besides, I would've invited you."

  Tom perked up. "Speaking of weddings, what's this I've heard about handsome suitors coming around for you, Astrid?"

  Astrid sighed, not bothering to look at Sally's guilty expression. "Y'all need to stop talking about the Russos. One of them is coming to pick me up after work for a date of some sort. It's neither of the twins, so no Armani and no idiot."

  "Right, so it's the one who harassed you on a train," Winston surmised. "Great taste, Astrid."

  "That's hardly fair," a new voice said from the office doorway. "Here I thought we were just starting to get along."

  The Lionheart employees turned to the newcomer. Lorenzo had his back on the doorframe, leaning against it lazily. A bouquet was clutched in his grip. "I even brought flowers for the lovely secretary I spoke to on the phone."

  Sally blushed. "Oh, you really didn't have to do that."

  "You spoke to him on the phone?" Astrid asked Sally. "You should've told me!"

  The receptionist froze, the bouquet nearly falling out of her hands. "Well," Sally squeaked, "he told me it was a secret. I can't spill it if it's a secret."

  Winston sputtered in laughter. "What happened to that time I told you it was a secret I'd taken Tom out to dinner? Or when I was too hungover to come in because of that killer Halloween party?" Winston bit into another piece of cake. "Or Astrid's entire sex life?"

  The words 'Astrid' and 'sex life' in the same sentence made Lorenzo raise his eyebrows. "I'd like to hear about that one," he teased.

  "You most certainly will not hear about that one," Astrid said, shoving her things into her briefcase. "From anyone that isn't me, that is."

  A distraught Tom looked at Winston. "Did... Did Astrid just flirt with someone? In front of us?" Her childish boss felt her forehead. "You don't have a fever. How's your head? Have you hit it recently?"

  "Let her be," Sally said to their boss. "Astrid's suffered enough at our expense." She turned to her friend and offered an apologetic smile. "Have fun on your evening off! I swear I won't say anything else about the hot, angry lesbian." Her eyes widened and her hands flew to her mouth. The bouquet crashed to the ground, rose petals flying everywhere. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry!"

  Astrid hung her head. "I give up," she muttered. "Come on." She grabbed Lorenzo's elbow and dragged him toward the building's front entrance.

  "By hot, angry lesbian, is there any chance she meant my sister?" Lorenzo asked. "You know she's in a relationship, right?"

  "Yes, and she also might have threatened my life," Astrid shot back. "That's a pretty good reason for me to not pursue her, anyway." They exited through the glass doors and Astrid looked around. "Which one's yours?" She asked, surveying the cars.

  "That one." Lorenzo pointed over her shoulder at a black Yamaha motorcycle. "I brought you a helmet."

  Astrid inhaled heavily. "Thanks for caring about my safety," she said. "I honestly am more shocked it's not like, a horse or something."

  "That's more of Chris's thing," Lorenzo noted. "Come on. The gallery opening starts soon." He ushered her onto the motorcycle, handing her the smaller of the two helmets he'd left hanging on the bike's handles.

  She accepted it, her hands starting to shake as she strapped it on. Astrid wasn't averse to the idea of riding on a motorcycle. She was just averse to the idea of driving around downtown Minneapolis in anything that wasn't a metro bus. Cars weren't really her thing, and she never touched anything that only had two wheels. "Are you a good driver?" She asked Lorenzo.

  "More or less," he replied. "What, is that going to be a problem?"

 
"Only if you kill me," she responded when he sat down in front of her. As he began to rev up the engine, she looked at his waist. "Can I, uh, hold on?"

  "If you don't want to die, that's probably a good idea." Lorenzo allowed her to wrap her arms around his waist. She locked her hands together in front of his chest and felt the planes of his abdomen through his leather jacket. He was a well built as his brothers. The youngest Russo male leaned back into her touch. "You're warm, you know that?" He said, his tone shifting from teasing and annoying to far off and dreamy.

  "Aren't you supposed to be a giant, fire-breathing lizard?" Astrid replied. "How am I warmer than you are?"

  Lorenzo shrugged. "Determination," he offered. "Now, hold on." He hit the ignition switch, and the bike purred to life. Lorenzo turned the clutch and pulled out of the parking spot, accelerating slowly as he merged into the nearest traffic lane. They made it three blocks before hitting the first red light. "How are you doing?" He asked Astrid.

  Her grip loosened. "Fine, I think." She didn't hate it. Being in the open air definitely felt different from being in an enclosed vehicle. "How far is the gallery?"

  "Right off of Nicollet," he responded. The light changed and he accelerated again, turning left onto another street. Astrid tried to enjoy the scenery, noting different restaurants she liked or had always wanted to try. When they passed Hell's Kitchen, she made a mental note to herself to take Christian there sometime. He might like the intricate theme.

  Before long, Lorenzo was pulling into a parking space. A red reserved sign stared at them from the pavement. As if reading her concern, Lorenzo said, "Don't worry about it. Favor from the owner." He got off the bike once she let go of his body. She had to admit to herself holding him had made the journey far more pleasurable. He helped her off the bike and, once their helmets were off, guided her into the gallery. "May I?" He asked, placing his hand on the small of her back.

  "Just don't go telling Sally," she replied. "Why d'you call her anyway?"

  "Your aunt said your best friends worked with you," Lorenzo explained. "I just wanted to see if Sally had any..." He paused, trying to find the right words. "Suggestions for me."

  "Right," Astrid said.

  The gallery entrance was a small, clean white room. A security guard sat in a wooden chair next to the entryway. "Mr. Russo," he greeted Lorenzo. "Is this your plus one for the evening?" The dragon nodded. "Enjoy the night then." The guard rose and opened the next door for them.

  "Thank you," Astrid said to the guard as Lorenzo pulled her through. "What's the theme of the evening?"

  They stepped into the gallery and Lorenzo smirked. "Ever watched Jurassic Park?"

  Astrid nodded, unsure of the connection. Then she followed his gaze, spotting an amber sculpture in the form of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. "Oh my god," she said. "That's amazing!"

  Lorenzo was taken aback. "Really?" He asked. "You like it?"

  Astrid couldn't take her eyes off of the statue. Every detail was carved into the dinosaur with care, from the tiny etchings of the scales to the smooth claws and teeth. "I was a dinosaur kid," she said. "I liked fossils in general. We found a lot of them in our backyard. Not necessarily dinosaurs, but some cool shit." She moved on to the next dinosaur, an amber Brontosaurus. "Where'd they come up with this?"

  "The owner commissions various artists to complete his challenges. Sometimes they're really specific, like this one." Lorenzo guided her away to a smaller scene in the corner. As they moved, his fingers spread out on her back, radiating heat. Astrid tried not to let the heat rise to her face but failed as she felt the warmth between her legs. She was a little pale, thanks to her father, and she blushed easily. Lorenzo leaned closer to her when they got to the scene. "If you're friends with the owner," he said, "you can bend the rules a bit."

  She looked over the scene. Small amber dinosaurs were positioned over a green field, with plants made from jade covering the ground. "I'm guessing this is yours," she surmised.

  "I'm a florist by trade," Lorenzo shrugged. "I can dabble though."

  "There he is!" A booming voice tore their attention from Lorenzo's sculpture. A large man in a sleek coral suit approached them. "The man of the hour. Glad to see you here, 'Enzo!"

  Lorenzo and the man hugged. "Couldn't have done any of this without you, Donny."

  "That's what you always say," Donny snorted. He turned his attention to Astrid. "Glad to see you've finally made a friend who doesn't smell like fertilizer," he teased Lorenzo. "Donovan Brown, but my friends call me Donny. I own Ambrosia."

  Astrid, who was sometimes an absolute idiot, realized she didn't even know the name of the gallery she was in. "Astrid Pfeiffer," she introduced herself. "I helped write a will for Lorenzo's grandmother. We met at her funeral."

  If Donny was fazed by her comment, he didn't show it. "I'll take that over the last one 'Enzo brought here. Where d'you meet him again? At a swinger's party?"

  "No, that was Cassidy," Lorenzo sighed. He tried to look away from Astrid's growing grin. "I met Lara at a lesbian bar. Bachelorette party for a mutual friend."

  Donny chuckled. "Sorry man, just tryin' to mess with you. I'll let you two enjoy the rest of the showing." He turned and spotted another one of the artists. "Hey, Brin! How you doin', girl?"

  Lorenzo tried to drag Astrid as far as possible from Donny. "I can't believe he just did that," Lorenzo muttered, embarrassed.

  Astrid shrugged. "Hey, you called Sally to get dirt on me. It's only fair your friend dishes it out." She looked over another one of the sculptures. "Hey, was it LUSH?" Lorenzo looked at her in confusion. "The bar you mentioned."

  "Oh. Yeah, it was. Not really my scene, but it also wasn't my party, you know?" He stopped to look over a piece depicting an amber Sabretooth tiger.

  "I bar tended there when I was in college," Astrid said casually. "Not my scene either, but good pay."

  They moved on to another statue. "I didn't know you could mix drinks," Lorenzo said. "I'm impressed."

  There's a lot you don't know about me, she wanted to say. Instead, she shrugged and said, "A lot of people bar tend through grad school. You know, bar tend before your pass the bar."

  He snorted. "Is that really what you're going with? It was kind of bad."

  She knew it. She didn't care.

  They wandered through the rest of the gallery and finally ended up in the front. Lorenzo said goodbye to his friend, narrowly avoiding a confrontation with another artist who, as he later explained to Astrid, was an ex.

  "We really didn't end well," he said as they stepped inside a nearby café. "They wanted a house and kids. I wanted space. Doesn't really work well together."

  Astrid nodded. Though she hadn't had too many relationships in the past, there was one that had lasted for a while and ended because of a similar issue. He'd wanted her to follow him up to Toronto so he could finish his degree. She just wasn't about to uproot her entire life and follow a composer to Canada. "I get it," she said. "Sometimes there are things you can't overlook."

  They placed their orders and nestled down in a booth in the corner. Their conversation had changed back to his art, and Lorenzo was still chatting about the carving he had to do to get the sculpture right. Astrid zoned out for a moment, trying to figure him out. He was much less of an asshole now he was talking about his art. It was like there was a light radiating off of him, getting brighter the more he gushed about his work.

  Come on now, you're sounding like Nova.

  "This is yours," he said when the barista came by with their drinks. "Are you still there?

  She nodded, warming her hands with the coffee. "I'm just thinking."

  "What about?" He sounded genuinely curious.

  Astrid watched him bring his cup of tea up to his mouth. She was thinking about a lot of things, many of which included him. Why he was interested her. Why his family was interested in her. Being an Alice still didn't cut it. The brothers' interest went beyond that.

  But what she went with was, "So are y
ou dragons that can turn into humans, or humans that can turn into dragons?"

  Lorenzo coughed into his tea. "That's what you're wondering about?"

  "Yeah," she nodded. "I'm curious."

  He looked around. "The first one," Lorenzo said as he pulled up his sleeve. Dark blue scales adorned his forearm, shining under the café lights. "My ancestors came to this world ages ago. We're what some would call 'dragon shifters'. We come from a unique realm where the dragons had the ability to shift into other beings. It made it easy for us to assimilate if we were forced out of our homes."

  "Were you?" Astrid asked.

  His gaze hardened. "It's not really a subject I want to talk about on a first date."

  "Oh," Astrid snorted, "so this is a date?"

  Just like that, Lorenzo was back to his old self. "I did say I had to even the score out. Can't let the twins have all the fun." He winked before taking another sip of his tea. "Are you okay with that?"

  "I..." Astrid actually wasn't quite sure. Lorenzo wasn't horrible my any means, nor were her brothers. She just didn't know if she was ready to be dating. "If it is, which it might be," she started again, "I'd like to take things slow. I'm going to tell your brothers the same thing if they try to ask me out again."

  "Naturally," he nodded. "I wouldn't want it any other way."

  With the premise of possibly dating one of Russos on her mind, Astrid thought back to something Irene had said to her. "Can y'all even date someone who isn't a dragon? Don't you have a thing about producing an heir?"

  Lorenzo chuckled. "Yeah, I wouldn't be too worried about that. It's hereditary."

  "So not only would my child be falling into other dimensions, they'd be a fucking dragon," Astrid concluded.

  "Are you saying being an Alice is genetic?" He inquired, leaning forward on the table.

  Astrid pondered her answer. "Sort of," she finally said. "My mom's side is a little different. From what my aunt told me, my family members have gifts. My grandma could see spirits, which I guess explains why she refused to move into that retirement home when I was younger." Grandmother Gray made a fuss about all the old dead people. Astrid, who'd been at least six at the time, thought her grandma was just complaining about the other old people. "And then there's Nova. She's an Empath."