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I dash to the junk drawer, my trembling hands having trouble opening it. Once I do, it’s short work grabbing the business card and reading over the peculiar contact information. There’s a single sentence written on it; all I have to do is recite it out loud.

Fear washes through me. If I do this, there’s no going back.

My gaze sweeps over the kitchen.It’s already too late to go back.

I squeeze the card in my hand. Taking a deep breath, I do as the business card instructs.

“‘Bargainer, I would like to make a deal.’”

Chapter 1

Present

A file folderdrops to the desk in front of me. “You’ve got mail, bitch.”

I lower my mug of steaming coffee from my mouth, my eyes flicking up from my laptop.

Temperance “Temper” Darling—swear to God that’s her name—my business partner and best friend, stands on the other side of my desk, a coy smile on her face.

Temper drops into the seat across from me.

I kick my ankles off my desk, reaching across it to drag the file closer to me.

She nods to the folder. “This one’s easy money, girl.”

They’re all easy money, and she knows that.

Her eyes drift around my cupboard-sized office, the twin of hers.

“How much is the client offering?” I ask, propping my feet up once more on the edge of my desk.

“Twenty grand for a single meeting with the target—and she already knows when and where you’re to intercept the target.”

I whistle. Easy money indeed.

“Rendezvous time with the target?” I ask.

“Eight p.m. tonight at Flamencos. It’s a fancy-ass restaurant, FYI, so—” her gaze drops to my scuffed up boots, “you can’t wearthat.”

I roll my eyes.

“Oh, and he’ll be there with friends.”

And here I was looking forward to getting home relatively early.

“Do you know what the client wants?” I ask.

“The client believes her uncle, our target, is abusing his guardianship of his mother, her grandmother. The two are going to court over the issue; she wants to save some legal bills and get a confession straight from the horse’s mouth.”

Already, a familiar exhilaration has my skin beginning to glow. This is the chance to potentially help an old lady out and punish the worst kind of criminal—one who preys on his own family.

Temper notices my glowing skin, her gaze transfixed. She reaches out before she remembers herself. Not even she is immune to my glamour.

She shakes her head. “Girl, you are a twisted motherfucker.”

That is God’s honest truth.

“Takes one to know one.”