Shame on Me by Tara Sivec
CHAPTER 1
Do I look okay? Am I showing enough cleavage?”
Lorelei stares me up and down, and in an uncharacteristic move from my slightly uptight best friend, she reaches out and unbuttons the top button of the already-plunging neck of my halter vest. I was almost popping out of my top as it was. Now I’m going to have to hold my breath to keep the girls contained.
“There, that’s better. Let’s go.”
As we walk side by side into Sean O’Casey’s Irish Pub, I put on my game face. Tonight, I’m not Paige McCarty, world-renowned model; I am Paige McCarty—man bait. My best friends Lorelei Warner and Kennedy O’Brien and I own our own private investigative firm called Fool Me Once Investigations, which was started after we were all screwed over by the men in our lives.
My ex—he threw away our entire life savings on his gambling habit. Do you want to know how I found out that Andy had a gambling problem? I had just found a pair of Christian Louboutins that were TO DIE for. Seriously. Black slingbacks with a peep toe, silver spike embellishments, and a black bow with spikes right by the toe. I almost cried. Actually, I did cry when all three of my credit cards were declined when I took the shoes up to the counter to pay for them. Maxed out. Over the limit. No more shoe purchases that day, or maybe ever. I figured it was just some sort of mistake until the snotty store clerk handed over the phone when she called the credit card company. Six hundred thousand dollars’ worth of debt. I know I have a slight problem when it comes to buying shoes, but not a six-hundred-thousand-dollar problem!
I confronted Andy that night when he got home from work, and the weasel broke down sobbing in the middle of our living room. He racked up that much debt in just three short months. Three months of flying to Vegas and Atlantic City when he was supposed to be in Silicon Valley at software conferences.
Lying sack of shit.
But right now, I don’t have time to think about how much I still want to strangle my ex, because I have a job to do. I have a cheating husband to catch in the act. A man by the name of Matt Russo.
“All right, so according to his file, Matt is a graphic designer and his wife, Melanie, says he’s been spending too much time away from the house and not enough time with her.” Lorelei fills me in as we walk through O’Casey’s.
Lorelei has been doing some light surveillance of him the past few weeks: staking out his place, following him to work—that sort of thing. Since his wife swears she’s seen texts from another woman on his phone, and he’s been extra secretive around her lately, it’s time to up our game. Lorelei never saw him doing anything suspicious like sneaking out at lunch with his arm around a bimbo.
And this is where I come in: the bimbo.
“I already hate the bastard and I haven’t even met him. Why do men feel the need to lie? If you’re not happy, just tell us. We’ll help you pack,” I complain.
My heels click on the floor of the pub as I make my way over to the bar. Tonight I’m wearing one of my favorite bait outfits: a nice little ensemble I like to call “my eyes are up here, moron.” My top is a gray pinstripe halter vest: completely backless and held together in the front with just four tiny buttons. Well, three buttons now, thanks to Lorelei. If I make sure not to take deep breaths, my all-natural 34Cs should stay put.
“I see him—over there at the end of the bar, nursing a beer,” Lorelei says quietly next to me.
My gaze zeroes in on our subject and I take a moment to watch him unnoticed. He looks exactly like his picture in the file. Black hair, short on the sides and messy on top; dark stubble around a jaw that I can’t deny is a little delicious to look at; and a pair of black, trendy glasses perched on his nose. My ex wore a pair of those glasses. He didn’t need glasses, but he thought they made him look cool.
They didn’t.
Matt is wearing a blue-and-white-striped button-down with a navy blue V-necked sweater over it with a pair of khaki dress pants. Nerdy chic. Super. It’s like someone packaged up Andy and stuck him in this bar just for me. Remind me again why I picked this job instead of the easy subpoena delivery that Lorelei got?
“Wow, he looks a lot like Andy,” Lorelei says, stating the obvious.
“I know. Don’t remind me. I kind of want to slam his face into the bar right now.”
Lorelei pulls a small Nikon camera out of her purse and checks the zoom lens.
Shame on Me
Tara Sivec's books
- Shame on Him
- Shame on You
- A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
- A Vision of Loveliness
- Abdication A Novel
- Already Gone
- Armageddon
- Blood Gorgons
- Bonnie of Evidence
- Buried (A Bone Secrets Novel)
- Confessions of a Call Center Gal
- Conservation of Shadows
- Constance A Novel
- Deadly Deception
- Death on a Pale Horse
- Death on the Pont Noir
- Diamond Girl
- Domination (A C.H.A.O.S. Novel)
- Dragon's Moon
- Elimination Night
- Every Contact Leaves a Trace
- Extinction Machine
- Fight Song A Novel
- Fire Stones
- Gideon's Corpse
- Gone to the Forest A Novel
- Harvest Moon
- Hitman Damnation
- Honey Pie (Cupcake Club)
- Honor Student
- Honor Thy Teacher (Honor Series)
- Honor Thy Thug
- Invasion Colorado
- Kind One
- Light on Lucrezia
- Lionheart A Novel
- Montaro Caine A Novel
- Moon Burning
- Moon Underfoot (A Jake Crosby Thriller)
- On Dublin Street
- Once Upon a River
- One Good Hustle
- One Minute to Midnight
- One Tiny Secret
- One Week
- Operation Caribe
- Operation Sea Ghost
- Pandemonium
- Perfection
- Poseidon's Arrow
- Reason to Breathe
- Reasons I Fell for the Funny Fat Friend
- Reasons to Be Happy
- Reunion at Red Paint Bay
- Second Hearts (The Wishes Series)
- Secret Reflection
- So Gone
- Sometime Soon
- Son of Destruction
- Suspicions
- The Antagonist
- The Bone Bed
- The Diamond Chariot
- The Falcons of Fire and Ice
- The Exceptions
- The Infatuations
- The London Blitz Murders
- The Only Exception
- The Persona Protocol
- The Ribbon Weaver
- The Saxon Uprising-ARC
- The Second Virginity of Suzy Green
- The Tudor Plot A Cotton Malone Novella
- The Wonder of Your Love
- The Wrong Path
- Theodore Boone The Accused
- The Con Man (87th Precinct)
- Unintended Consequences - By Marti Green
- Unintended Consequences - By Stuart Woods
- Walk on the Wild Side
- You Don't Want To Know
- You Only Die Twice
- Zone One
- The Abduction
- The Adventures of Button Broken Tail
- SIX MONTHS_(A Seven Series Novel Book 2)
- The Blackstone Chronicles
- Blood from a stone
- Blood on My Hands
- Blue noon
- The Blood That Bonds
- The Body Of Jonah Boyd
- Bone Fire
- Boneshaker
- The Bone Chamber
- The Bone Fire_A Mystery
- The Bone Palace
- Butcher Bird_ A Novel of the Dominion
- By Reason of Insanity
- Border songs