Rain pelted against the glass of The Vintage Vault, but inside, the air was thick with the heavy scent of old leather, vintage wool, and decades of dust. Megan didn’t mind the clutter, she loved the quiet hunt. What she hadn’t anticipated, stepping out of her damp navy canvas Toms to try on a simple pair of red ballet flats, was how quickly a quiet afternoon browse would spin completely out of control.
One misplaced step. Two thin soles. A workday spinning completely out of control.
Megan thought she knew what bad luck felt like, until a chaotic morning commute turns into a nightmare of bare feet, missing shoes, and public wardrobe failures. Pushed to her limits in a bustling office where appearances are everything, every step she takes feels like a high-wire act over a floor of sharp gravel and cold porcelain.
When a late-night mishap with an industrial copier room vacuum leaves her stranded, stripped of her composure, and trapped under the quiet gaze of the office janitor, Megan’s day goes from embarrassing to outright dangerous. Blackmailed into walking the halls in thin, glove-like emergency flats, she quickly realizes that her biggest slip-up isn’t just losing her footwear, it’s underestimating how far someone
will go to keep her under their thumb.
Sensory, tense, and relentlessly fast-paced, Slip-Ups is the ultimate tale of vulnerability, office power plays, and the chaos that ensues when the ground beneath your feet completely gives way.
“A deep dive into hidden secrets, internal drama, and psychological suspense…”
Available now on Kindle Unlimited, eBook (£2.99), and Paperback (£7.99). Grab your copy today and let me know what you think!
The heavy metal door of the copy room swung shut behind Megan with a dull, hydraulic thud, cutting off the vast, empty expanse of the third-floor office. Inside, the air smelled sharply of warm paper, hot metal, and the bitter, metallic tang of leftover ink powder.
Megan leaned forward over the massive, industrial-grade copier. Her dark brown hair, pinned up loosely with soft tendrils framing her face, fell slightly forward as she aligned the first of her six claims documents against the glass platen. She smoothed the paper down with her fingertips, her dark mini-skirt riding up slightly as she bent over the control panel. She could feel the delicate weave of her black pound-shop tights, thin and taut against her legs, keeping out the slight chill of the room.
The steady, glowing green light from the copy machine’s display screen illuminated her face in the quiet space. Outside the doorway, the lingering hum of the building seemed to fade into nothingness, leaving her entirely alone among the stacks of archive boxes and heavy paper shelves.
She pressed the large green button.
Clack-whirrrr.
A bright beam of white light swept slowly beneath the glass, casting long, sharp shadows across the room. Megan kept her palms resting on the edge of the machine, watching the mechanical scanner move, completely unaware of the heavy footsteps quietly approaching the doorway behind her…
Imagine being stuck in a box cart on Bonfire Night while a local gang starts auctioning off your shoes to passing strangers… ”Penny for the Guy? Or twenty pounds for her shoes?” A chilly autumn night, a prank gone way too far, and a very uncomfortable walk home.
My new dark, atmospheric short novel Mishaps and Missed Steps is OUT NOW in Large Print!
The rain streamed sideways down the glass of the late night bus as it lurched along the brightly lit road. The engine hummed a low, hypnotic rattle through the empty floorboards.
Megan sat near the back, relaxed into the vinyl seat with one leg crossed over her knee. At first she was completely engrossed in her phone, then Megan placed it in her coat pocket, she was totally unaware, or pretending not to notice, the pair of eyes fixed on her from two rows back.
He sat motionless in the dark, shadowed by the flickering fluorescent overhead light. He didn’t care about her face, his eyes were locked straight on her feet.
She was wearing her signature fabric flat shoes, sleek, supple, and completely flat, built for running, if she ever needed to. The midnight-black fabric was scuffed just enough at the toe to show they saw real use, fascinated with the matte-black fabric next to her soft fleshy ankles that gleamed faintly under the streetlights passing outside. To anyone else, they were just sensible, stylish footwear for a dark night.
To him, they were the ultimate prize.
He knew what was stitched into the lining of the left sole. A micro-encrypted drive containing names, drop sites, and enough blackmail to sink half the city before dawn.
The bus jolted over a pothole, and Megan shifted, tapping the heel of her flat shoe rhythmically against the metal floor grate. The soft, deliberate tap-tap echoed through the empty bus, a taunt or maybe a warning.
As the automated chime announced the next stop, he slowly unbuttoned his coat and stood up, keeping his eyes firmly on those black fabric shoes as he stepped into the aisle.
Some secrets are buried for a reason. Others are far too dangerous to resist.When desire crosses the line into obsession, trust becomes a luxury you can’t afford—and the truth might just destroy everything.A dark, pulse-pounding tale of passion, betrayal, and high-stakes suspense.Coming soon to Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.
Megan knows that every choice leaves a trace, and every step tells a story. To the untrained eye, she is just another striking presence in the crowd. But for those who know how to look closer, from the poise of her stance to the subtle elegance of her gait, there is an intricate web of mystery waiting to be unraveled. This is just the beginning of her journey. Megan’s full story is coming soon. Stay tuned for the official Amazon pre-order link right here to find out what she’s hiding.
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