Chancing an improbable stretch of sobriety, unlicensed P.I. Duck Darley has proven himself stronger than the temptations that loom in the seedy underbelly of New York City. But the familiar urge to tear it all apart lingers like garbage in July when Layla Soto, a sharp-tongued Park Avenue teenager with a family as screwed up as his own, presents a twisted missing-persons case he can't refuse...
Layla saw her billionaire father get abducted by two enigmatic women in the tallest residential tower on earth, and suspects her grandmother, a Chinese social climber on husband number three, orchestrated the act to eliminate her only son. Duck agrees to investigate the hedge funder's disappearance, if only for the rush of a new thrill-and an excuse to reconcile with Cass Kimball, his black latex-clad former business partner who nearly got him killed...
As the unlikely duo becomes immersed in a high-stakes ransom linked to the international drug trade and the most powerful criminals alive, surviving means trusting no one. Because how long can a person live on the edge before falling?
