Free The Mak Collection by Tara Moss

five hundred feet before lodging in the pines. Both parents died before the wreck was discovered. Catherine was being baby-sat at home. She was five.
    Makedde sat cross-legged on the hard wooden floor, placed the jewellery box in her lap and opened it. It was small, and its contents few. Some thin necklaces, silver and gold, were tangled inside. A pair of delicate, diamond stud earrings, and a turquoise and silver ring were jumbled underneath. But it was the thick diamond ring that immediately caught Mak’s attention.
    She fished the ring out. It was a chunky men’s style, with a pattern of diamonds set in its square design. The gold was smooth and unmarked. It couldn’t have belonged to Catherine’s father; it was too new. Where else would she get a ring like this?
    The lover.
    The lover’s ring. A souvenir. She turned the ring over and looked inside its band. She couldn’t believe her luck.
    JT.
    The initials were engraved on the inside of the ring. She recalled the notepad message she had seen when she first arrived.
    JT Terrigal
    Beach res
    16
    14
    Makedde slipped the ring on her thumb. It was solid proof of the relationship, but she was no longer sure that she cared to share it with Detective Flynn. She placed the jewellery box on her bedside table and leant her favourite photo against it. Makedde’s face smiled out from the photo, standing beside a happy, living Catherine.

CHAPTER 10
    He licked his lips distractedly, one hand flexing slowly while the other held the photograph.
    Makedde Vanderwall.
    Makedde.
    Mak.
    She was the blonde in the photograph. Beautiful. Special. She was the one who’d written the letter. The one who had found his handiwork at the beach. Her eyes were light, although from the photograph he could not tell if they were green or blue. Her nose was slim and straight, her body curvaceous, and she was so familiar.
    And her skin. Her skin looked so…perfect.
    Utterly perfect.
    He was annoyed that he couldn’t tell what her feet looked like from the photo. She was cut off at the hips. But she looked so tall standing next to Catherine that he convinced himself she was wearing high, vermilion stilettos. He just knew her feet would be as perfect as the rest of her.
    Her familiarity drew him in; she was magnetic, more special and important than any of his other girls.
    Makedde was the one.
    He traced his finger slowly over the face of the photograph. Destiny brought the dark-haired whore to him. Destiny brought Makedde with her.

CHAPTER 11
    Makedde held a black skirt in front of her at the full-length mirror, trying to decide what to wear to The Space nightclub. She cocked her head to one side and eyed the hem.
    Too short?
    If she wore opaque stockings with it, the skirt would be fine. With a miniskirt and her shimmery, deep blue top, she would blend into the clubbing atmosphere. She slid dark stockings over her bare legs, careful not to catch them on her nails, and pulled the skirt over her hips. To complete the look, she chose a pair of comfortable, mid-heeled boots that laced up to her calves. She threw a coat on, checked her pockets for cash and switched the lights off. Venturing into the night alone made her a little nervous. She would have liked a good can of Canadian Bear Spray to carry with her, but that was illegal in Australia. She’d have to rely on quick thinking or a wicked snap kick.
    Makedde followed the thundering dance music from almost a block away, arriving outside The Spaceclose to midnight when things were just starting to heat up.
    The hip and nocturnal had come out of the woodwork, rowdy and ready to play. Leather, PVC, micro-minis and fish-nets appeared to be the uniform of the moment. Mak felt pretty tame in her carefully chosen apparel.
    A queue of about thirty clubbers snaked away from the entrance. As soon as Makedde joined the end of the line, a tall hulk of testosterone with a buzz cut called her up to the front. After glancing around to confirm that it was indeed