How to Fake It in Society

Nico had had a wonderful night, just him and Titus in a room together. It was the next morning, as soon as he’d headed downstairs, that things had started to go wrong.

Eve had grabbed him wordlessly in the hall and dragged him into the mews behind the house, where Alma stood, tense and tear-stained, with two large men. One held a knife too near her neck. It seemed that Jacky Gaskin wasn’t waiting for his money with patience.

“Take that knife from her throat,” Nico said with more calm than he felt. “Do it now.”

“It’s her throat or yours,” remarked a seedy sort of man leaning against the wall. “Want to volunteer?”