Black Daffodil (Trevor Joseph Detective series) Read Free

He shouted to one of the girls inside. ‘We need a tray of tubes out here, now!’
    ‘Want another of my special presents?’ Mike slobbered over Kelly’s neck.
    ‘Thanks, but no thanks, Mike. One a night is enough.’
    ‘Your loss, my gain.’ Offended by her rebuff, he moved away from her.
    ‘There are friendlier tarts on offer,’ Lloyd moved towards Lucy.
    ‘Not for people who are working off a favour to me,’ Damian snarled.
    ‘You’ll get it first thing in the morning, Damian,’ Lloyd pleaded.
    ‘It had better be good …’
    ‘It’ll be perfect.’
    ‘Straight A?’
    ‘Guaranteed,’ Lloyd said emphatically.
    Damian grabbed the well-endowed muscular girl who emerged from the living room with a tray of gleaming blue and red vodka-filled test tubes. He took the tray from her, and handed one to Kelly. ‘Drink it,’ he ordered when Kelly shook her head. ‘This is a party not a bloody funeral.’
    Kelly upended it in her mouth and made a face as she swallowed.
    ‘Who said you could go?’ Damian thrust the girl who had brought the tubes at Lloyd. ‘Lloyd, if you’re not straight A grateful in the morning, you’ll be out on your arse tomorrow afternoon.’
    ‘I’ll be grateful, Damian.’
    Damian grabbed Lucy’s breast through her transparent blouse and tweaked her nipple before sliding his hand under her mini-skirt and pushing it up to her waist. He slapped her bare buttocks. ‘You, Lloyd here, bouncy bouncy. Make it special, but not too special. He’s got a hard morning’s work ahead of him.’
    ‘For you, Damian darling, anything.’
    Jake noted Lucy’s subservience and insincere tone. From the deference accorded Damian by all the working girls who frequented his parties, he’d suspected for months that Damian had more than a casual interest in the local parlours. Darrow senior was rumoured to be a billionaire. He certainly didn’t deny his only son anything, but, apart from his casinos, Eric Darrow was cagey about his business ventures.
    Damian had a big mouth but, whether from ignorance, or fear of offending his father, he never spoke about his father’s affairs. The only business Jake had heard Damian discuss was the meteoric film career that awaited him when he graduated from film school and the embryonic agency he had started a few months ago, to ‘help’ budding musicians and actresses at their school. It wasn’t lost on their tutors or fellow students that the only people on Damian’s books were female. And he wasn’t the only one of Damian’s friends who was wary of asking questions. If half the rumours in circulation about the Darrows were true, father and son had the same respect for the law as they had for their enemies; and, according to legend, a few of those had found their way to the bottom of the Bay in concrete boots.
    Lloyd pushed Lucy inside. He stopped to watch Cynara and Mira. Stark naked, both were undressing volunteers from the rugby teams.
    ‘What you doing, misery guts?’ Damian demanded of Kelly.
    ‘Taking a beer break,’ she said, defensively holding up her can.
    ‘You’re not here to take a break. You’re here to entertain the guests.’
    ‘Which she’s just fully and nobly done, my liege.’ Jake gave a full Shakespearean bow.
    Kelly wished Jake hadn’t lied. It was the first she’d seen of him at the party and she sensed Damian knew it.
    ‘Glad you’re satisfied, Jake. I’m not.’ Damian closed his fist over Kelly’s wrist. A ‘bang’ resounded from the living room. Lloyd and Lucy had disappeared and the tail end of the nude conga Cynara had formed had knocked over a bin of empty wine bottles. The conga dissolved in a heap of naked limbs.
    Kelly eyed the prospective dancers. The men were laughing but those whose eyes weren’t already glazed by alcohol were hyper, high on testosterone and the chemical cocktails she had seen being handed around. She knew from experience they would take their pleasure viciously – like Damian.
    ‘Do we