Author(s): Bosco, Alix

Thriller

When he lifts his arms to point the camera at me, the shirt bunches around the muscles of his biceps and his shoulders. 'What's this about? Who sent you?' 'There's a simple message: back off.' The photograph has printed. He holds it up, shakes it dry and looks at it appraisingly. 'Not bad,' he says, turning the photo so I can see it. I look at myself, smiling at the camera, reflexively. 'This is for you,' he says, giving it to me. 'Keep it handy, so you can show the plastic surgeon what you used to look like.' When a rugby star, who began life on the toughest city streets, is murdered in the arms of a beautiful celebrity, it seems to be an open and shut case of a drug deal gone wrong. But Anna Markunas, legal researcher for the prime suspect's defence team, begins to uncover a far more sinister truth - a truth that could destroy everything and everyone she cares about most and could, ultimately, destroy her.