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CHAPTER ONE

I LOVE MY line of work People bitch and moan about their careers but not me

Clients task et it done I don’t run an empire I don’t employ anyone full-time I only have myself to watch out for and that’s the way I like it

This job earned o and I’ve been dishing the dirt on corrupt arseholes, playboys and spoilt little rich girls ever since

I didn’t set out to be a private investigator It’s a job that chose me when my family needed it most and it turns out I’m a natural If there’s dirt, I’ll find it

And right now, that dirt is sitting across the softly lit room from me

Only this kind of dirt I cannot dish

It crosses a line that even my skewed moral compass cannot abide

‘Coives?’

I raiseat me from the other side of the bar ‘Where’d you come from?’

‘We’re short-staffed tonight I’ out’

‘A bit beneath you, wouldn’t you say?’

‘Nah, I kind of enjoy it’

He scans the darkened corners of the roo out, and barely raises a brow And ould he? This is his life day in, day out This is his club—Blacks—co to the British elite The upper crust A circle to which I once wholeheartedly belonged and noouldn’t piss on if it were on fire

These people have h to pay for the exclusive reeoes within these walls—within reason—and no one on the outside is any the wiser Including et—her—tells me there’s more to Coco Lauren than what the world sees What the press witnesses And that’s what I need to tap into, to expose, if I’et what I need and deliver what my client demands

‘Jesus, you need so by the look of you’

I barely acknowledge his observation Truth is, what I need is soets her to step out of line, outside of this safe haven where I can’t say anything without co my friend’s business

He backs up and snatches a bottle fro theives?’

The truth will only piss him off, and I’m not about to lie, so I stay quiet and his eyes narrow, his powerhouse of a fraid If he wasn’t my oldest friend I’d think he was about to punch me

‘You’d better not be here on the clock’

‘Hey, easy’ I raise ht to be—because he’s right I never come in here ‘The twisted secrets of this place are safe with me’

He continues to studyhat he knows of my work and what he knows of ree to disagree As far as I’et