Jeraldine Derego

“So why the hell am I letting him kiss me? And why the bloody hell am I kissing him back?”
― Becky Wilde, Bratva Connection: Maxim

“Saskia groaned again. She threw back her bed covers, the last vestiges of sleep leaving her. It would be evening in Lyon. Clarissa would be expecting to hear from her. A call-in at least once every 24 hours was part of several protocols Clarissa had established. The instruction at the end of the conversation, “Give the dogs a pat for me”, reassured Clarissa that all was well. Leave the words out, replace any one of the words in the sentence with another or not place a call in a 24-hour period, and Clarissa would alert authorities. In her younger years, Clarissa had served in the British army. Her experiences in those years had caused the trauma she now lived with, though she used her expertise by teaching her three partners basic self-defence, how to operate firearms and how to wield weapons. She also programmed their watches and phones to enable her to constantly track their whereabouts, explaining, “I want to know that my three charges are safe”.
Another protocol was to always check accommodation venues for listening devices. Saskia did this before calling Clarissa.
“Clarissa. Ça va?”
“What have you to report?”
― Miriam Verbeek, The Forest: A thrilling international crime novel

“Then wake up my sweet,  wake up knowing that your future is to be happy, and that your heart will heal.”
― Barbara Sontheimer, Victor's Blessing

“Ackx must have owed him big time,” Q said in his drawly Clint Eastwood voice. “A favour like that doesn’t come cheap.”
Bonnyman spat into the fire. “A favour like that is only made between psychosis and a lust for power.”
― Frank Lambert, Xyz