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CHAPTER ONE
‘ONE PLATINUM CHRONOGRAPH WATCH A pair of dia Six hundred and twenty-five pounds cash, andObsidian Privilege Card Right, I think that’s everything, sir Sign here to confirm return of your property’
Zaccheo Giordano didn’t react to the warden’s sneer as he scrawled on the barely legible form Nor did he react to the resentful envy in the aze drifted to where the sleek silver limousine waited beyond three sets of barbed wire
Romeo Brunetti, Zaccheo’s second-in-co the ter, totally unruffled by the arland surroundings
Had Zaccheo been in an acco mood, he’d have cracked a smile
But he wasn’t in an acco time Fourteen months, teeks, four days and nine hours to be exact Zaccheo was positive he could count down to the last second if required
No one would require it of him, of course He’d served his tihteen-ood behaviour
The rage fused into his DNA bubbled beneath his skin He showed no outward sign of it as he pocketed his belongings The three-piece Savile Row suit he’d entered prison in stank of decay and misery, but Zaccheo didn’t care
He’d never been a slave to material comforts His need for validation went far deeper The need to elevate himself into a better place had been a soul-deep pursuit fronise the reality of the life he’d been born into A life that had been a never-ending whirlpool of hureed A life that had seen his father debased and dead at thirty-five
Memories tumbled like dominoes as he walked down the harshly lit corridor to freedo sense of injustice that had festered for long, harrowing months not to explode from his pores
The doors clanged shut behind him
Zaccheo froze, then took his first lungful of free air with fists clenched and eyes shut He absorbed the sound of birds chirping in the late-wintersun, listened to the distant ruhts from his prison cell
Opening his eyes, he headed towards the fifteen-foot gate A minute later, he was outside
‘Zaccheo, it’s good to see you again,’ Ro as he took him in
Zaccheo knew he looked a sight He hadn’t bothered with a razor blade or a barber’s clippers in the last three months and he’d barely eaten once he’d unearthed the truth behind his incarceration But he’d spent a lot of tio er for retribution