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- Herausgeber: Keyla Damaer
- Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
- Sprache: Englisch
They promised success. They delivered pain.
Sixteen girls vanished. One common link: a cosmetic surgery clinic. Private investigator Lauren Kutyna is hired to find answers, but the deeper she digs, the more dangerous the truth becomes. Caught between corrupt corporations, a shadowy conspiracy, and the enigmatic Detective Hunter, Lauren must unravel a web of deceit before she becomes the next victim. The scars of perfection run deep, and the price of beauty may be too high to pay.
Discover the dark side of beauty now.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025
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Contents
Title
Scars of Perfection
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Acknowledgments
Guide
Contents
Scars of Perfection
Book 1 of the
The Vigilante’s Code Series
Keyla Damaer
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places, events, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living, dead, or otherwise, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. I really mean this. Totally not you.
This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorised use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express permission of the author.
I write in British English. Colour and leant aren’t typos. It’s the funny way Brits spell the words.
That said, even if several sets of eyes looked for errors (aka horrors), you may still find typos. Some kind souls have reached out to me to warn me about them, and I promptly corrected them. You can do the same here: https://keyladamaer.com/report-an-error
Other kind souls who had an opinion about the story have left reviews. I thank them all and you for snatching a copy of this story. Feel free to leave a short, honest review.
Copyright © 2025 Keyla Damaer
All rights reserved.
SCARS OF PERFECTION
CHAPTER ONE
Market day on Areth, the oldest Europa’s colony, was always a sensory assault. The wind carried the scent of native spices offered by the vendors, mingling with the earthy aroma of fresh bread from the colonial bakeries. However, colours remained muted compared to Earth, despite the colossal orbital mirror, reflecting a portion of the distant sun’s energy. Under its daylight, the market sprawled across the stone-paved plaza.
Lauren Kutyna pulled her hat low, shielding her face from the security cameras—the same cameras she’d used to track her quarry here. The Lark family’s recordings, a grainy image of Gisara meeting the woman hours before her disappearance, had been Lauren’s starting point. Facial recognition software had identified the woman and showed the market as a recurring location the woman visited. Her quarry was the only lead in this labyrinthine case of the missing girls.
Because apparently kidnappers loved their fresh produce too.
Sixteen girls, all between seventeen and nineteen, vanished without a trace from various corners of the solar system. A parent’s worst nightmare, and for Lauren, a pay-cheque. Every credit earned was another step closer to bringing down the bastards at Astra Corps who had tried to kill her and destroyed her career. Money for her ship upgrades was only the start towards revenge.
The local authorities of the different places of origin of the girls had hit a wall, and their investigations were stalled by jurisdictional nightmares and bureaucratic red tape.
According to Lauren’s intel, her target was a broker, a facilitator for those seeking things best left unseen. Her clientele ranged from petty thieves to high-ranking officials with secrets to bury, and Laren was trying to get close enough to her to place a tracker.
Suddenly, the woman veered off the main thoroughfare, disappearing down a narrow alleyway.
Because, of course, they never ran toward the well-lit, populated areas.
Lauren pushed through the crowd to follow. She reached the shadowed entrance of the alley, where the stench of stale urine and rotting garbage assaulted her nostrils.
Lovely. The universal constant: no matter which celestial body you were on, back alleys always smelled like a dumpster’s armpit.
The passage stretched before her, empty. Her quarry had disappeared. Or so it seemed.
Without hesitation, Lauren’s hand darted beneath her jacket to grip her stun gun as she advanced deeper into the alley.
Something shifted in her peripheral vision. A shadow where there shouldn’t be one moved against the natural fall of light from the skylights above. Before taking another step, a boot caught her wrist in a precise strike, sending the stun gun clattering across the ground.
This was so spectacularly not going according to plan.
Lauren tried to create distance, but the narrow alley confined her movement. A right hook whistled past her as she dodged. The wind of its passage ruffled her hair. She countered with a quick jab. The woman swatted it aside like her fist was a fly.
They crashed together in a flurry of movements. The woman struck again, a lightning-fast combination of punches that Lauren barely deflected. Each block sent shockwaves through Lauren’s forearms. This was no amateur, but someone who’d spent years in combat training, more years than her.
‘SSPF, freeze!’ a voice boomed down the alley.
Not now.
The woman’s eyes flashed as she delivered a devastating strike that sent Lauren crashing hard against the unforgiving brick wall. A sharp pain shot up her head, and by the time her vision cleared, the woman had vanished down a side passage, and a tall, broad-shouldered officer in the standard-issued Solar System Police Force uniform loomed over her. His face was carved from granite with a strong, square jaw, a straight nose, and eyes that were as blue and cold as Europa’s ice before terraforming.
‘Hold still!’ the officer said, pinning her wrists behind her back.
The movement sent a searing pain that radiated through her arms and into her shoulders.
