Chapter 1
Miles
“That’s so great, and thanks again for the extra marshmallows,” I say, a big smile on my face as the waitress places the hot chocolate down on my table next to my pile of papers, laptop, and cell phone. “And I promise I won’t be here until 4:00AM again. Well, I’lltrynot to be here that late…”
“You work too hard,” the waitress replies as she smiles and saunters back to the counter where one of the regular late-night patrons is waiting for a fresh coffee to keep them awake deep into the early hours. “Trust me, rest isgooood!”
“I know, I know,” I holler back, my raised voice drawing eyerolls from the old-timer playing chess against his buddy over by the corner. “Sorry. I’ll be quiet now!”
I manage to get a quiet smile out of the old-timer, and I watch for a moment as he gets back to his game. It might not seem like much but knowing that the diner is a place where people of all ages and background can come to and live their lives peacefully is a big deal to me.
Growing up in a suburb that bordered a small city on one side and the coastal countryside on the other, I always felt safe andsecure. It would have been easy for me to fall back into that life after I graduated, but I knew that I wanted to at least try and help as many other people as I could feel that same sense of security as I had always known.
I know, I know… tough ask.
But I like nothing more than a challenge!
I think everyone, no matter who they are, has a right to feel safe. I guess you could say that this probably explains my career choices. But enough of the serious stuff for a moment, I’ve got a steaming-hot drink to admire…
“Ooooh,” I whisper, my eyes wide.
I take a moment to admire the four marshmallows—pink, baby-blue, white, and yellow—before they melt into the piping hot drink. I might be a twenty-nine-year-old lawyer with a sideline in investigative work, but that doesn’t mean that I still don’t love all the cute stuff I did as a kid.
Marshmallow-covered hot chocolate? Hell yeah.
Cute and cuddly stuffies? Oh yes.
Cartoons, coloring, and hanging with my besties? I’mthere.
So while my career might be super-serious, I definitely haven’t lost touch with my fun side. In fact, it’s this very side of me that I cherish just as much as anything I achieve in my work.
But right now though, I’ve only got one priority.
Delicious hot chocolate or not, I’ve got work to do. And if I don’t get my head in the game and put my mind in top gear, I might actually end up still being at this diner until 4:00AM again. Andwith an early start planned for tomorrow morning, that’s the last thing I need.
The kind of investigative work I do all comes from a burning desire in me to expose people who do bad things. I know life isn’t simple as saying that some people are good and some are bad—I’ve worked for long enough as a lawyer to know that this simply isn’t the case. Nearly everyone has a reason for doing what they do. However that doesn’t mean that people can do what they like and not expect to face the consequences.
And that’s where my law firm comes in—and in this case,me.
I wanted to put my legal skills to good use rather than working as a corporate lawyer and helping big companies avoid their responsibilities. So with that in mind, I found Knox & Rain Law, a firm who champion justice for all and have a big emphasis on proactive investigation.
Put it this way, my work at Knox & Rain is very different to what it would be if I worked at one of the big city-slicker law firms. We might have a similar kind of office in the city, but that’s about as far as the comparisons could ever go.
Anyway…
Right now I’ve got my case files open, and my targets set on a shady underground organization, one which seemingly thinks it can operate totally outside the law without a care in the world. In fact, in my recent years of diving into vigilante gangs, cartels, and mercenaries, I don’t think I’ve come across an organization that is so far outside of what could be considered legal.
What I’m talking about here is a high level operation involving global locations, military grade tactics, and the kind of stealththat wouldn’t look out of place in the world’s most competent Black Ops projects.
There’s something different about this group. I’ve researched and had dealings with mercenary teams in the past, and I know how dangerous they can be. I also know that they would sell their souls for an extra dollar on the fee too. But this group… that’s not the vibe I’m getting.
I’m still digging and doing my due diligence, but so far I haven’t come up with any hint of shady dealing or double-crossing. All I’ve managed to find out is that they’re ruthless, never miss a shot, and have somehow managed to evade any kind of legal presence hanging over them for year after year after year.
I know that they move at the highest of high end clientele. I’m talking political, billionaire, A-list celebrity figures. This organization doesn’t fool around with street fights and local turf wars, that’s for sure. I also know they kill people at the drop of a hat. And it’s for this reason that I know they need to be brought to justice.
All this tells me that serious sums of money are involved too—which is yet another factor that leads me to think that I’m dealing with a group of people who think they’re so far above the law that the law doesn’t even exist to them.
And there’sno wayI can let that slide.
