Free Cold Deception by D.B. Tait

not interested in anyone that way.” He threw his arm around Dylan’s shoulders. “Come on, let’s get some lunch. You know my wife is threatening to invite you to one of her famous dinner parties?”
    Dylan started at his boss in horror. “No! No. You can’t let her do that.”
    “Not up to me, son. Ever since she convinced herself she played successful matchmaker for Jared and Suzi, she’s got it in her head she needs to make sure all the single officers under my command get the benefit of her skills. I’d start dating someone if I were you.”
    Dylan grimaced. He’d been out of the dating game since Melanie’s death. Although they’d split up months before she died, he couldn’t bring himself to enter into that part of his life again. Better to have an occasional weekend in Sydney, pick up a woman wanting sex and only sex, and forget about anything else. He was bad luck when it came to anything more intimate.
    “It’s not that easy,” he muttered.
    “It never is. Not even after thirty years of marriage.” He paused, a ruminative frown on his face. “Might be a good idea to call up Taylor and Hunt’s files. See if there’s any paperwork that might be useful. You never know. O’Reardon might’ve stuffed something up. Come on, food awaits.”
    Dylan followed Pringle out of his office and thrust away thoughts of smooth, creamy skin and haunted eyes.

Chapter 5
    “How’d you go Gaz? Did you pick up the stuff?”
    “All in the basement, boss. Good quality too. That new bloke down at Fairfield knows what he’s doing.”
    Angus O’Reardon regarded him with distaste. Gary was becoming a problem. He’d let himself go, allowing alcohol and gambling to rule his life. He was drunk already and what looked like food stains, probably from the meat pies he was so fond of, trailed down his shirt.
    O’Reardon didn’t let anyone or anything rule his life. Once you allowed an external force to dominate you, you were fucked. Time and time again he’d seen men lose their focus and control because they’d given their power away. He’d almost done it himself, getting lost in the joy of inflicting pain on others, seeing their fear and vulnerability. But he’d pulled back before he ruined his life. No, instead of being the instrument of pain, he let others do his work.
    “Good. Get the others onto it. Had a call from out Canowindra way. Some blokes out there looking for some product. We should be able to do a run by the end of the week.”
    He turned back to the paperwork on his desk and frowned. His legitimate business interests needed his attention. Something didn’t add up between the amount of alcohol they’d ordered in and what they were selling. He was being ripped off and he had a fair idea by who. Idiot. No one got away with conning Angus O’Reardon.
    “Sure, boss, I’ll get onto it. Rez is in town looking for some extra cash. You know he’s going around with that Taylor girl? Julia’s sister.” Gary hesitated, as if deciding what more to say.
    “Yeah?” He didn’t have time to listen to one of Gary’s pathetic stories of big-noting himself with the locals, although anything about the Taylor girls was worth listening to. He rustled his papers and turned on his computer. He’d have to give some thought about what to do about old Gaz.
    “Ran into Julia at Wentworth Falls a few days ago. She’d just got out. Was with that dyke her mother lives with.’
    A sliver of unease trickled down O’Reardon’s spine. So she was back. Didn’t necessarily mean anything. She made her choices for God-only-knows-what reason ten years ago. She’d never said anything about that night. In fact, she’d never said anything much about the whole matter. He was grateful she’d gone a bit loopy because it gave him the chance to look after another aspect of his growing business interests. Thankfully, he shut down that particular stream when he realized it was too risky. And frankly, even for him, distasteful. That