The Ties That Bind Read Online Free PDF

too?’
    The blood rushed to Luke’s cheeks.
    ‘You remember the night we met, when we had that conversation and we made that amazing connection? You remember what I said about Serena, that I loved her but there was no investment ? Well, I want to invest in you, Luke. I’ve fallen for you. I don’t see any point in lying. I know you feel the same. You’ve opened my eyes to everything I’ve been missing. The least I can do is give you somewhere decent to live. Give up that gallery job that keeps us apart all week and be a full-time writer. I’ve got more than enough money for two of us.’
    Of course he said yes, although even as the thought of having unlimited access to Jem thrilled through him, the word transaction briefly blazed across his mind.
    Telling Viggo wouldn’t be a problem. Luke was sure he would barely notice.
    At the maisonette, he was in his usual lotus position on the sofa with the laptop balanced on his knees. The sitting room was strewn with gossip magazines and blockbuster novels.
    ‘Could you afford to cover the rent on your own now? Jem’s asked me to move in.’
    ‘Wow, that’s quick,’ said Viggo, blinking. ‘Yeah, I can make rent all right. Your money’s just a top-up really. But can you afford it? A mortgage on somewhere like that must cost two, three grand a month, easy. You’ll never be able to keep up.’
    Luke’s voice dropped to a mumble. ‘He says I won’t have to contribute and he’s going to give me an allowance.’
    Viggo’s eyebrows disappeared under his hair. ‘Like a patron,’ he said. ‘What does that make you, then?’
    ‘I know how it sounds but it’s a great opportunity for me to buy enough time to really do something worthwhile .’ He hadn’t meant it as a dig, or not consciously, but Viggo interpreted it as such, and shifted indignantly in his seat.
    ‘I think,’ said Viggo primly, ‘that you are no longer in a position to lecture me about selling out. I’m a whore because you don’t like the work I’m doing, even though I’m working sixteen-hour days. But you live with someone just for the money, so you can pick and choose what you write. You can treat it like a hobby , and you still think you’ve got more integrity than me?’
    ‘Where’s all this come from, Vig?’ said Luke, bewildered. ‘I hoped you’d be happy for me.’
    ‘I am,’ said Viggo, not looking up from his screen.

Chapter 5
    ‘Are you sure this is a good idea?’ It was the day of Luke’s first meeting with Len Earnshaw and Jem had been drumming his fingers nervously on various surfaces all morning. ‘I’m worried about you, going off to fraternise with criminals.’
    ‘For God’s sake Jem, I’ll be fine.’
    ‘How do you know that?’
    ‘I just do,’ said Luke, gathering his keys and wallet. ‘I always have been in the past. Trust me?’ Jem nodded, then caught Luke’s hand and held it uncomfortably tight. Luke gave an answering squeeze of reassurance, pulled his fingers away – enduring a short sharp friction burn – and left.
    But Jem’s concern was catching and Luke turned the conversation over and over as he waited for the bus. Working undercover was one thing; on previous journalistic assignments, Luke had always felt that because he was operating at a remove from reality, a similar insulating layer existed between him and risk. This irrational feeling of invincibility had, in the past, been bolstered by the presence of an editor, someone who would call to check on his progress and who could, in an emergency, marshal the resources of the commissioning publication. Books, though, were different. He didn’t even have a publisher lined up, which meant that he was walking the wire without a safety net for the first time. On the bus ride across the city he tried to think of a time when he had ever felt seriously threatened by an interviewee, and was vindicated when he could not recall a single incident. Confidence displaced the anxiety Jem had planted and