Page 9 (1/2)

Chapter One

Zoe Brook strode into the exclusive strip club, hidden away beneath a discreet sign on a side street in an otherwise upscale Manhattan neighborhood, like an avenging angel on the warpath at last

It had taken alrasp

At last

She paid no attention to the dull-eyed bouncers aved her through the doorway, much less the plastic smile of the hostess as she swept past the welcome desk There were very few clients at this hour of the —10:17, last she’d checked—and thatfor in the dimly lit, too-loud space, dotted here and there with the requisite poles and a handful of sleepy-looking dancers eking out halfhearted perforloom

Not that her quarry wasany attempt to hide

Hunter Talbot Grant III, one-tiolden boy, dumb jock extraordinaire and current professional fuckup, sprawled on a plush booth in the corner of the otherwise sparsely populated club, neck deep in mostly naked women Zoe’s lips thinned as she took in the scene, which was as distasteful as she’d expected The woled on each side of him, they shimmied in front of him, they writhed for his pleasure as if his table was its own stage and Zoe, dressed in her usual sleek sort of sheath dress and a tailored coat against the winter chill, earing ether

“Goodthe otten our nine-thirtytoday”

It wasn’t exactly a surprise that someone who currently ranked as the Most Hated Celebrity in A on it Hunter Grant was the disgraced sports figure du jour, wealthy beyond measure and disreputable by choice, and strip clubs such as this one were his natural habitat Pig was redundant

“And you see entirely too many clothes”

His voice was a rough growl, deeply ance, which ith his very big, undeniably i with strippers But he aze as if they were alone and he was entirely sober, and there was suddenly a certain hue, that ht