Dark Nights by Kitti Bernetti Read Free Book Online Page A

at work. Hot-desking was one of the company’s policies so even though she had an office of her own she could work wherever she chose. She had been astounded Seb hadn’t sacked her on the spot when he found she had been scamming him but he obviously knew he had enough of a hold over her for her not to do him any more wrong. At lunch time, instead of eating at her desk as usual, she’d opted ever since that fateful day to take lunch out at one of the many cafes in the square mile. 
    She loved the City of London, ever changing, history oozing out of the very cracks in the pavement. She could walk the streets that Pepys walked, see where the great fire had started, and marvel at the fabulous buildings designed by Wren, architect of St Paul’s Cathedral. Such masterpieces were interspersed by modern structures which made their mark like the gherkin which always reminded Breeze of a massive cigar emerging up and piercing the skyline with such audacity it was even visible from her bedroom window high up on the hills of Crystal Palace. Sometimes on a clear day, she took the lift up to the top floor of Seb’s skyscraper headquarters just so she could look in the direction of the house that meant so much to her. It gave her peace to look towards the hills of Crystal Palace and think of her mother reading in the wonderful old conservatory that had been restored with the help of Breeze’s previous scam. Her sister grew orchids there, perfect in their symmetry. Her mother deserved the comfort it afforded her, especially after bringing up two girls on her own, and defending them from their father’s reckless gambling.
    Breeze had scammed in a dozen places, following carefully chosen temp jobs, gathering a thousand here, fifteen hundred there all carefully milked and never had she been discovered. Each time she had found the money to repair a roof or mend the sash windows. Her mother and sister had been so grateful and had admired her so much. Twinges of guilt stung her but she drove them away. She was the only breadwinner in the house and it was a house that had fallen into dire neglect under her father’s hand. She had only ever stolen to order, only ever when she had had to, to avoid their home falling around their ears and always she had managed to get away with it. But now, with Seb she had felt the net closing in. Resentment welled up in her but also respect. Not only did he know his company inside out, but he had laid a careful trap for her. The two of them were as resourceful as one another and like a sly fox admiring a rival fox’s tactics, she had to admit a sneaking regard for the man who had trapped her.
    Breeze wandered down to The Jamaica Wine House in St Michael’s Alley. Dating back to 1652 she loved the place with its little mahogany partitions which formed tiny rooms within rooms where she could sit anonymously drinking her coffee. At lunchtime it was murder but taking a late lunch the little booths were quiet. She ordered her coffee and as she waited for it at the bar counter, noticed Richard Waters, Seb’s assistant slide into one of the booths, looking around him like a rat scared of a cat. Breeze had never taken to Richard. He followed in Seb’s wake and picked up his every word like a beggar snuffling up crusts at a king’s table. He had wheedled and engineered himself up the corporate ladder and she had heard rumours of people he had treated badly on the way up. Never a good policy she thought as you may well encounter those people on the way down. Sebastian Dark was intelligent and quick but he couldn’t watch every company employee and Breeze had a feeling Richard had a heart as black as night which he hid from public view. 
    When, out of the corner of her eye, she caught the rotund figure of Mr Vanhoffer, so recently defeated by Sebastian Dark, she suddenly had a burning desire to know what on earth the unholy alliance of Richard Waters and Mr Vanhoffer could be up to, hidden in the darkness of the