Payback

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. Copyright © 2023 by Assemble Content LLC Cover design by Elizabeth Connor. Cover images: running man on bridge © Silas Manhood; running woman © CollaborationJS / Trevillion; NYC skyline by Matteo Colombo / Getty. Cover copyright © 2023 by Hachette Book Group, Inc. Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights. Grand Central Publishing Hachette Book Group 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104grandcentralpublishing.comtwitter.com/grandcentralpub First Edition: May 2023 Grand Central Publishing is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Grand Central Publishing name and logo is a trademark of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher. The Hachette Speakers Bureau provides a wide range of authors for speaking events. To find out more, go to www.hachettespeakersbureau.com or call (866) 376-6591. Grand Central Publishing books may be purchased in bulk for business, educational, or promotional use. For information, please contact your local bookseller or the Hachette Book Group Special Markets Department at [email protected]. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Allen, Nancy (Lawyer), author. Title: Payback / Nancy Allen. Description: First edition. | New York : GCP, 2023. | Series: Anonymous justice ; [2] Identifiers: LCCN 2022057848 | ISBN 9781538719190 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781538719206 (ebook) Subjects: LCGFT: Detective and mystery fiction. | Novels. Classification: LCC PS3601.L4333 P39 2023 | DDC 813/.6--dc23/eng/20221212 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022057848 ISBNs: 978-1-5387-1919-0 (trade paperback), 978-1-5387-1920-6 (ebook) E3-20230329-NF-DA-ORI Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46 Chapter 47 Chapter 48 Chapter 49 Chapter 50 Chapter 51 Chapter 52 Chapter 53 Chapter 54 Chapter 55 Chapter 56 Chapter 57 Chapter 58 Chapter 59 Chapter 60 Discover More Acknowledgments About the Author Also by Nancy Allen Navigation Table of Contents To Randy Explore book giveaways, sneak peeks, deals, and more. Tap here to learn more. Prologue Whitney Only two weeks prior, Whitney Novak had never seen the inside of a jail. She’d read about incarceration in the media and in fiction, of course. Watched news coverage on TV. From that exposure, she had assumed she understood the challenges a person might face in jail. There was the essential loss of liberty, obviously, and the horror of being confined without the power to come and go at will. She knew inmates encountered violence, from fellow prisoners and guards. And she understood that incarceration robbed individuals of their dignity as well as their bodily autonomy. What she hadn’t anticipated, though, was the smell. The dormitory where Whitney was housed at Rosie’s—the Rose M. Singer Center for women on Rikers Island, New York—had a stink that was almost indescribable. In the lockup facility she shared, the mingled funk of forty-nine other unwashed inmates hit Whitney’s senses like a blow from a truncheon. The dorm held women of all ages, sharing five toilets and a couple of sinks, with limited access to basic toiletries or laundry. She still hadn’t adjusted to the stench. It was a price she had to pay for her decision to join the group. As Whitney huddled on the narrow bed assigned to her, she reflected on the association that had landed her in Rosie’s. She had lots of time to think about it. She wasn’t going anywhere. Months ago, she had been invited to join a group. A circle of talented misanthropes. Each one had his or her personal issues. Not long ago, there had been nine of them. But she only knew where four of the others were right now. As Whitney took shallow breaths through her mouth, she did a mental tabulation of the membership. Steven was a medical doctor who had stumbled into drug addiction. In recovery, or so he claimed. Rod battled PTSD, a product of his military service. That went with the territory. But in a fight, Rod was the man you’d want on your side. His girlfriend, Millie, was a drama queen who bitched about her anxiety disorder like it was a mark of pride. Whitney had her own quirk. She was a gambling addict—bad enough to ruin a stellar career in finance. Before she landed at Rosie’s, she’d been working hard to turn it around. Trying to stay out of casinos, to avoid scratching that itch. The final member of the group was Kate Stone. They had all been handpicked by a powerful figure, brought together for a worthy mutual goal: to deliver justice when the legal system slipped up. When the courts let people slip by without consequences for their actions, their group stepped in, wreaking swift, efficient payback. Sometimes it was personal, other times it was a matter of principle. It was a heady undertaking, a satisfying quest. The fellowship. The power. Whitney had sincerely enjoyed it. The group association had involved a gamble, and Whitney was drawn by the thrill of the