Playing Dirty

PLAYINGDIRTY A gripping crime thriller you won’t want to put down DAN LATUS Frank Doy Book 11 Joffe Books, London www.joffebooks.com First published in Great Britain in 2023 © Dan Latus This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The spelling used is British English except where fidelity to the author’s rendering of accent or dialect supersedes this. The right of Dan Latus to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. We love to hear from our readers! Please email any feedback you have to: [email protected] Cover art by Jarmila Takač ISBN: 978-1-80405-934-0 CONTENTS Love Free Bestselling Fiction? Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Chapter Twenty-Eight Chapter Twenty-Nine Chapter Thirty Chapter Thirty-One Chapter Thirty-Two Chapter Thirty-Three Chapter Thirty-Four Chapter Thirty-Five Chapter Thirty-Six Chapter Thirty-Seven Chapter Thirty-Eight Chapter Thirty-Nine Chapter Forty Chapter Forty-One Chapter Forty-Two Chapter Forty-Three Chapter Forty-Four Chapter Forty-Five Chapter Forty-Six Chapter Forty-Seven Chapter Forty-Eight Chapter Forty-Nine Chapter Fifty Chapter Fifty-One Chapter Fifty-Two Chapter Fifty-Three Chapter Fifty-Four Chapter Fifty-Five Chapter Fifty-Six Chapter Fifty-Seven Chapter Fifty-Eight Chapter Fifty-Nine Chapter Sixty Chapter Sixty-One Chapter Sixty-Two Chapter Sixty-Three Chapter Sixty-Four Chapter Sixty-Five Chapter Sixty-Six Chapter Sixty-Seven Chapter Sixty-Eight Chapter Sixty-Nine Chapter Seventy Chapter Seventy-One Chapter Seventy-Two Chapter Seventy-Three Chapter Seventy-Four Chapter Seventy-Five Chapter Seventy-Six Chapter Seventy-Seven Chapter Seventy-Eight Chapter Seventy-Nine Chapter Eighty Chapter Eighty-One Chapter Eighty-Two Chapter Eighty-Three Chapter Eighty-Four Love Free Bestselling Fiction? The Joffe Books Story Also by Dan Latus A Selection of Books You May Enjoy Glossary of English Usage for US Readers Love Free Bestselling Fiction? Join our mailing list and get a FREE Kindle book from a bestselling author every week! Click here to join our mailing list and also get a free box set of short stories! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @joffebooks Chapter One Thank you for choosing this book. Join our mailing list and get FREE Kindle books from our bestselling authors every week! CLICK HERE TO GET MORE LOVELY BOOK DEALS ‘And that’s it?’ George Reagan said. ‘That’s all you can tell me?’ The other man nodded and looked away. He was afraid to say anything more. The consequences of doing so were unpredictable, life-threatening even. He had a fervent wish not to spark an outburst of the terrible temper he had seen on so many occasions. George Reagan stood at the window, looking out across the city to the place where the cranes were working on his new high-rise hotel. When work had first started, the groundwork that is, it hadn’t been possible to see anything at all from here. How he had longed to see the structure rising, and when growth finally had got going visibly, he had watched closely and ached to see the building tower over the neighbouring apartment blocks. Now it did. All these many months later, the hotel dominated the skyline and, from a distance at least, the building looked to be complete. It was the one physical, coherent thing he could claim to have created in his life, and would prove to be a permanent testimony to his career and life as head of the family business. No one would ever be able to take that away from him. Certainly not Oscar! Thought of his bloody nuisance of a brother made him scowl for a moment. Oscar agreed with nothing he did or proposed, including the hotel project, which he wanted stopped. Oscar always wanted things done differently, as if on principle. He had come to be a real Trojan horse, the enemy within. George knew that fundamentally Oscar wanted to be in charge of the family business, and had long believed that he should be. Well, that was not going to happen. Not on his watch! Kid brothers, eh? Who needed ’em? The new hotel came back into focus. Just look at it now! It had a roof and walls, sunshine was reflecting off a thousand glazed windows, and at the edge of the area where he knew the car park to be, he could even see the newly installed flag poles. Six of them, in a row. How he looked forward to seeing flags on them, all flapping in the breeze from the ocean. He knew what flags would fly there, too. One for Reagan Enterprises, the Reagan family business empire. Then one each for the city of Puerto de la Cruz, the island of Tenerife, the Kingdom of Spain, the European Union, and even the dear old United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Perfect. Everywhere that mattered to him covered. * * * But it wouldn’t be for a little while yet, he thought with a sigh — if ever, if what he’d just been told was to be believed. The way things were going, Oscar might well get his dearest wish, and see the hotel stopped and abandoned. Well, to hell with him! Over my dead body will that happen. He turned and moved away from the window, to glower at the man on the sofa on the far side of the room. ‘So what you’re telling me,’ he snapped, his anger mounting, ‘is that we’re fucking bust! That it, Ed? That what you’re telling me? That my brother is right, and has been all along?’ Ed Davy, accountant for Reagan Enterprises, shook his head. ‘I never said that, George.’ ‘You might as well have done.’ ‘George, calm down. Please! Remember, I’m just the messenger. I can’t help it if you don’t like the message.’