Chapter 1
Charlotte
T his had to be either the best or worst idea I’d ever had.
The jury was still out on which it was going to be.
I sat in my car, watching the stream of people coming and going from the warehouse that was ablaze with light and sound. Usually, it was illegal raves I came to bust up with an army of cops at my side, not a highly organized underground fighting racket.
In the daylight, I went by the name Detective Charlotte Croft, but out here in the wilds of Melbourne’s seedy underbelly, I was just Charlotte or Charlie for short. If anyone in that building found out I was a cop, I’d be gutted from head to toe. Cops were not welcome in a place like this.
What had brought me here, then? Truthfully, it was part insanity and part desperation. I needed a big break to get my stalled career moving again or just give up and drown.
I’d joined the Victorian Police right out of high school at eighteen and had excelled through the ranks…all the way to detective by twenty-five. It was young, but I’d earned it—an impressive feat considering the whole force was one big boys club. I’d endured my fair share of crap from drunken idiots during my time on the beat and more than a fair chunk of it at the station. Making detective hadn’t stopped any of it. In fact, it had just gotten worse. I constantly had to prove myself or fall behind into irrelevance, and irrelevant cops got the shit cases. The hypochondriacs and the crazies that wore tinfoil hats. The high profile drug busts and murder investigations were handed to the men with the biggest balls and being a chick…apparently I didn’t have any. Not even any of the metaphoric ones.
Being a female detective was harder than walking the streets on a Saturday night, which is how I found myself outside of the most notorious underground fighting racket in the whole of Melbourne. Hell, the whole of Australia. The Underground was dripping in bad news. Busting this open would be the best thing my career had ever seen. Fuck, it would be the best thing to happen to anyone’s career.
Too bad I was conducting this investigation off book and without backup. If my boss found out I was here unsanctioned…my head would be on the chopping block. I already knew what would happen if I pulled this off. The risk seemed justifiable to me.
Getting out of the car, I joined the stream of people that were filing into the place that was known as The Underground. Fitting name, considering what it was.
Inside, the warehouse was pumping.
The moment I stepped within the walls, I was transported to what felt like another planet. The Underground was a place like no other…and attracted a crowd to match.
Bookies were taking bets, punters were lining up around the cage that was nestled amongst a ring of bleachers, the bar was packed, and I stood in the middle of it all…absolutely awestruck. The level this operation was being run at was unbelievable. There was no way this could go on without a good chunk of the force being paid off. Not only cops but politicians, lawyers, the Melbourne Fire Brigade. Big money rolled around this place. It had its own bloody economy.
If I was going to crack open The Underground and expose it for what it really was, I had my work cut out and then some. What in the bloody hell was I thinking?
There had to be at least four hundred punters crammed in here, and that wasn’t including staff and fighters. I couldn’t believe everything I was seeing. I didn’t know if I should be mesmerized or appalled. The further I ventured into the warehouse, the more my eyes were opened. I decided it was a little of column A, and a little of column B.
I stood out with my tall stature and pale blonde hair, and people turned to look as I passed. Noticing a few groups of women done up in makeup that was an inch thick and tops that clung tightly to their artificial breasts, I began to understand why. There was a kind of woman that frequented here and it was neither
Charlotte
T his had to be either the best or worst idea I’d ever had.
The jury was still out on which it was going to be.
I sat in my car, watching the stream of people coming and going from the warehouse that was ablaze with light and sound. Usually, it was illegal raves I came to bust up with an army of cops at my side, not a highly organized underground fighting racket.
In the daylight, I went by the name Detective Charlotte Croft, but out here in the wilds of Melbourne’s seedy underbelly, I was just Charlotte or Charlie for short. If anyone in that building found out I was a cop, I’d be gutted from head to toe. Cops were not welcome in a place like this.
What had brought me here, then? Truthfully, it was part insanity and part desperation. I needed a big break to get my stalled career moving again or just give up and drown.
I’d joined the Victorian Police right out of high school at eighteen and had excelled through the ranks…all the way to detective by twenty-five. It was young, but I’d earned it—an impressive feat considering the whole force was one big boys club. I’d endured my fair share of crap from drunken idiots during my time on the beat and more than a fair chunk of it at the station. Making detective hadn’t stopped any of it. In fact, it had just gotten worse. I constantly had to prove myself or fall behind into irrelevance, and irrelevant cops got the shit cases. The hypochondriacs and the crazies that wore tinfoil hats. The high profile drug busts and murder investigations were handed to the men with the biggest balls and being a chick…apparently I didn’t have any. Not even any of the metaphoric ones.
Being a female detective was harder than walking the streets on a Saturday night, which is how I found myself outside of the most notorious underground fighting racket in the whole of Melbourne. Hell, the whole of Australia. The Underground was dripping in bad news. Busting this open would be the best thing my career had ever seen. Fuck, it would be the best thing to happen to anyone’s career.
Too bad I was conducting this investigation off book and without backup. If my boss found out I was here unsanctioned…my head would be on the chopping block. I already knew what would happen if I pulled this off. The risk seemed justifiable to me.
Getting out of the car, I joined the stream of people that were filing into the place that was known as The Underground. Fitting name, considering what it was.
Inside, the warehouse was pumping.
The moment I stepped within the walls, I was transported to what felt like another planet. The Underground was a place like no other…and attracted a crowd to match.
Bookies were taking bets, punters were lining up around the cage that was nestled amongst a ring of bleachers, the bar was packed, and I stood in the middle of it all…absolutely awestruck. The level this operation was being run at was unbelievable. There was no way this could go on without a good chunk of the force being paid off. Not only cops but politicians, lawyers, the Melbourne Fire Brigade. Big money rolled around this place. It had its own bloody economy.
If I was going to crack open The Underground and expose it for what it really was, I had my work cut out and then some. What in the bloody hell was I thinking?
There had to be at least four hundred punters crammed in here, and that wasn’t including staff and fighters. I couldn’t believe everything I was seeing. I didn’t know if I should be mesmerized or appalled. The further I ventured into the warehouse, the more my eyes were opened. I decided it was a little of column A, and a little of column B.
I stood out with my tall stature and pale blonde hair, and people turned to look as I passed. Noticing a few groups of women done up in makeup that was an inch thick and tops that clung tightly to their artificial breasts, I began to understand why. There was a kind of woman that frequented here and it was neither
Similar Books
