The Firm Hand of the Law Page 5

  She didn’t bother yelling and she certainly wasn’t going to wade into the fray. Without a second thought, she grabbed a fire extinguisher and aimed it at the brawling men. A few quick blasts soon broke them up, white clouds billowing into the air as the band and patrons who were too close scurried back to avoid the spray.

  It was all over before the bouncers came lumbering in. Her doormen were not the fastest, but they were the most effective. They could flatten troublemakers all night long if there was any need for it. Of course, they only worked Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. The rest of the week, she handled any issues on her own.

  When she turned around, Gareth was there. As usual, he did not look pleased. “You should stay out of fights. Let your security deal with them.”

  “You should stay out of my business,” she snapped back. “I can handle myself,” she insisted, “and my customers.”

  “And I can handle you,” he reminded her. “I’m about to handle that little ass of yours nice and long and hard if you don’t behave.”

  He was speaking in a low growl which only she could hear, thankfully. There were plenty of eyes still on her though, and more than a few curious looks. They were starting to make a scene of their own.

  “Let’s talk about this later, alright?” She turned and walked away from him, leaving him to glower after her.

  Taking refuge behind the bar, she spent the rest of the very long night on her feet, serving drinks and listening to the band play. Gareth melted way at some point. Where he’d gone she didn’t know. She was just glad that he wasn’t hassling her directly anymore.

  Unfortunately, closing time rolled around and the last stragglers were soon helped out the door. The floor was swept and mopped, the bar was sanitized, and out back the dishwasher was humming along, puffing out clouds of steam. Lily dragged herself upstairs, more than ready for bed.

  Gareth met her at the door with a curt look. “You didn’t eat all night.” He seemed annoyed by the fact, as if her not eating somehow might have made him hungry.

  “I was busy.” She slumped down on the couch and looked up at him with tired eyes. “Can you just cut me some slack, please?”

  “Let me make something clear,” he said, taking a seat on the couch. “Until this case goes to trial and the people who need to go to jail do in fact go to jail, your little ass is mine.”

  Lily rolled her eyes. “You always get this personally involved? You always make sure the people you’re trying to use eat right and get enough sleep?”

  “You’re something of a special case.”

  “No,” she said firmly, “I’m not.”

  “You are,” he replied. “Now get something to eat before you go to bed.”

  “You have to stop bossing me around,” she sighed. “I’ve been keeping myself alive for a long time. I don’t need hints and tips from you.”

  “Eat something.”

  She wasn’t really all that hungry, but he was being insistent and she didn’t have the energy to argue. He took pity on her as she sat slumped on the couch and by some magic managed to turn the spaghetti bologna into a toasted sandwich. It tasted even better that way, with extra cheese caught between the bread and the bologna.

  “Oh my God,” she said, her voice muffled with food. “This is amazing.”

  “Good,” he smiled, and for a minute, he was extremely handsome. When he genuinely smiled, his whole face transformed. She felt a little tickle in her tummy, a bolt of attraction which made the whole situation stranger than it had been.

  Glad for the sandwich, she ate in silence, feeling somewhat uncertain of herself. It wasn’t all that often she felt a physical attraction that strong, and she’d never felt it for a cop before.

  “How long are you planning on hanging around for?”

  “As long as it takes.”

  “Uh-huh. I mean, how long are you planning on being in my apartment for?”

  He shrugged and smiled again, handsome enough to break her heart. “Well, you’ve eaten now, so I guess I can get home to my bed without worrying you’ll fade out before morning.”

  Lily was surprised at the pang she felt when she realized he was leaving. His presence had been an unwelcome, unwanted intrusion, but now that he was going, some part of her wished he was staying. It had been nice not to be alone, even if it was for twelve measly hours.

  She showed precisely none of those feelings, nodding over the crumbs of her sandwich. “See ya.”

  “Good night, Lilith.”

  Nobody called her by her full name. A frisson of excitement trickled down her spine as he said it in his deep, masculine tones. Then he was gone, the only evidence of his having been there the lingering scent of bologna sandwiches.

  She went to bed that night calmer and less concerned than she had been in a long time. A weight had been lifted, a weight she didn’t even know she had been carrying. Instead of being terrified at the knowledge the police were onto the operation being run out of her bar, she felt relief. The jig was up. She’d been caught, and hell, the guy who caught her was so confident he’d walked right out of there and left her to her own devices.

  Lily had never really had much of a male influence in her life. Gammy had chased off her father before she was born. She’d had boyfriends, sure, but nobody anything like Gareth. Nobody as self-controlled or as confident as him. Nobody with the nerve to spank her, that was for sure.

  Chapter Three

  Friday and Saturday passed quickly in a blur of drinks and drunks. She didn’t see Gareth, but she sensed that he was around, watching, keeping an eye on things. The light feeling stayed with her all that time. She caught herself smiling for no reason, day dreaming about the man with the strong right hand.

  On Sunday, she went out to the home to visit Gammy. Gammy was kept in a kind of luxury only she could take for granted. The home was more like a resort complex than anything, complete with spa pools, lap pools, tennis courts, petanque, bowls, croquet, and more. Neat nurses in starched uniforms tended to the patients around the clock. Gammy had a room up on the third floor, overlooking the pool. The sun streamed in through the open doors, warming the place to a comfortable temperature. But that didn’t stop Gammy from huddling in an oversized blanket and blasting the heat while keeping the doors wide open.

  Looking at her, it was hard to believe that the scrap of the woman with white hair and milky blue eyes had once terrorized the underground. She seemed so innocent and rosy cheeked, just another old woman. She was sharp as ever though; her eyes held intellect that was not fading one bit with age.

  “How are you, Gammy?” Lily pressed a kiss to the old woman’s cheek and sat down nearby, letting Gammy scrutinize her clothing. Gammy liked women to look feminine. The only time Lily put on a dress was when she visited. She was wearing a pink dress with a flared skirt and a yellow sash. She felt like a Christmas tree ornament, but it seemed to please Gammy.

  “The nurses are stealing my pillows,” Gammy announced. “They’ll pay for that.”

  “I am sure they will,” Lily agreed. She was not just humoring Gammy; she was fairly certain that the nurses would end up paying one way or another.

  “You look happy,” Gammy noted, not sounding particularly pleased. “What’s on your mind then? Some man, I’ll warrant.”

  “Actually,” Lily said, “yes, I think I have met someone.”

  Gammy’s lower lip reached almost all the way to the underside of her nose. Her scowl was so deep her eyes almost disappeared into her wrinkles. For a moment, she didn’t look human so much as irritated potato. The expression passed after a minute or two, after a deep sigh. “Just as long as he’s not Italian or a cop.”

  “Yes, Gammy,” Lily said dutifully. She had no intention of telling Gammy the full scope of the situation. Her frail constitution would never stand it. Gammy was a person of the past, of an age where smugglers were rakish, handsome gentlemen who showered her with gifts of silk stockings and fine bourbon.

  A picture nex
t to her bedside table revealed her to almost be Lily’s doppelganger, a fine woman with a slim build, hair cut rebelliously short, but looking glamorous in a sequined flapper dress and low heels. A long cigarette holder was clasped between her fingers. She looked into the camera with an expression that was simultaneously playful and deadly serious. A hard look to pull off, but the cute smile was belied by the arch of the brow and the serious set of her gaze.

  The rest of the visit was spent listening to Gammy talk about the old days, when Rusty One-Eye fell into the river and Jimmy Four-Toes had to jump in and save him. Lily had heard the story many times before, but she listened dutifully anyway, even though she could probably have told it herself.

  “My show is coming on,” Gammy said, ending the story abruptly. That was her unsubtle cue that the visit was over for the moment. Her shows were very important and nobody, not even visiting grand-daughters, could be suffered to interrupt them.

  Lily left Gammy in peace. She was wandering haphazardly through the nearby park when she found herself unexpectedly not alone.

  “Well, don’t you look pretty,” Gareth’s voice purred out from behind some climbing morning glory. He stepped out, wearing a blue polo shirt and blue jeans—casual clothing that did nothing to stop him from looking like a police officer. He could have been wearing a tutu and he still would have looked like a cop.

  “What are you doing here?”

  He threw his arm about her shoulders and lead her down the garden path with easy charm. “Just checking in on my favorite criminal.”

  Lily shot him a dour look. “What do you want?” She did not care for the way he spoke to her sometimes; there was a hardly veiled implication which strongly suggested he thought she was a member of a lower class.

  “Any word on shipments?”

  Lily laughed. “As if I would tell you. You’re going to have to do your own dirty work, officer. Go through the trash. See if there are any clues in the garbage.”

  “You’ve got an attitude today,” he noted without any real concern. “I think someone has forgotten the situation she’s in. I think someone might need a sore bottom.”

  “I think someone might need to go fuck himself,” Lily replied in the same condescending tone. “You think you flipped me because you made me a sandwich.”

  “I think I flipped you because you don’t have any choice in the matter,” he said, his arm leaving her shoulders. A second later, a hard slap landed against her bottom, forceful enough to lift her onto her toes for a moment and make her squeal in shock.

  “If you hit me again, I’ll have your balls—”

  She didn’t get to finish the threat because Gareth had taken her by the arms and pulled her close. His mouth descended on hers in a crushing kiss which momentarily took her breath away. His lips worked against hers, demanding entrance to her mouth. She tried to deny him, but her body overruled her objection and soon his tongue was plundering her mouth while she clung to him with carnal vigor.

  “What the hell did you do that for?” She was breathless when he broke the kiss, but she had to voice an objection on principle at least.

  “Had to shut you up somehow.” He winked down at her, rakish and handsome. He didn’t seem like a police officer, and she doubted Gammy would pick him for one. There was nothing clean cut about Gareth. There was nothing safe or predictable about him.

  “I’m not your rat,” she said. “I’m not telling you a damn thing.”

  “Fine, then I won’t be able to say you cooperated when this goes to trial.”

  “If it goes to trial. You don’t have the evidence you need. If you did, you wouldn’t be making my life miserable. I thought you said you knew everything.”

  “I know enough to have your behind thrown in jail for a long time.”

  “Not the point,” she smirked. “The point is, you need me. So maybe you better think of some better strategies for getting me on your side.”

  Gareth did not seem impressed by her smirking resistance. “I don’t need to cut deals with you,” he said as he slapped her bottom hard. She saw it coming and tried to dance out of the way, but didn’t make it out of range in time. His hand caught her cheeks with a stinging slap which made her squeal.

  She slapped him back but found his ass cheek about as forgiving as the rest of his body. He was hard like iron. Smacking his ass hurt her hand a hell of a lot more than it hurt him, she was pretty certain of that. It didn’t stop him retaliating though, his hand swept through the air and caught her hard across the lower part of her right cheek with enough intensity to make her squeal and swear.

  “That’s not fair!”

  “You hit, you get hit back.”

  “You hit harder than I do.”

  “So maybe you should think about keeping your smart mouth closed and your hands to yourself and being a good girl.” He dropped his arm around her shoulders again as he spoke, a casually possessive gesture which made her blood boil.

  Ducking out from under his half-embrace, she planted herself in front of him. “Leave,” she said. “Gammy will be done with her shows soon, and I don’t want her seeing you.”

  “You want me to leave? You give me information. Tell me when your next shipment is due.”

  “No.”

  “Then I guess I’m meeting Gammy.”

  Shaking her head, Lily tried to think of a way to get him gone. Gammy was going to go wild if she realized a cop had crashed Sunday afternoon tea.

  “Fine,” she said. “Next drop date is Wednesday, two a.m.”

  He cocked his head to the side, his blue eyes sharp and keen. “You wouldn’t be making something up to get rid of me, would you?”

  “You won’t know until Wednesday,” she smirked. “Now get out of here.”

  “If you’re lying to me, I’m going to whip your little ass so hard you won’t sit for a week.”

  “That’s harassment and abuse.”

  “Is it? Maybe you should report it to someone who cares.”

  Oh, he was an asshole. He frustrated her like no other man ever had. Sure, she could avoid the punishment by giving him what he wanted, but intimidation didn’t sit well with her.

  “Think about your options,” he warned, turning and walking away. Finally alone, Lily took out her phone and did what she should have done in the beginning. She typed a text.

  HEAT IS ON.

  Her thumb hovered over the send button. If she pushed it, Jasper would find out what was going on. The drops would stop, her revenue would dry up, and Gammy would have to leave the home. If she didn’t push it, she became Gareth’s rat, beholden to him and his punishments.

  She stood there for a long moment, trying to make a decision. Finally, with a long sigh, she deleted the text and returned her phone to her pocket. Things were getting complicated.

  Doing her best to forget about her problems, Lily went to see if Gammy wanted to play checkers.

  * * *

  Gareth was feeling bad. He didn’t often feel bad, and he wasn’t sure what to do with the feeling. Lily was right, he was bullying her. He’d bullied hundreds of people in his career. It came with the territory. It was the best way to get things done in a world where people didn’t do the right thing unless they were forced to.

  Unfortunately, he liked Lily, and it was obvious that her involvement in the criminal underworld was largely beyond her control. She’d inherited the mess. But she wasn’t exactly leaping at the chance to get out of it. Probably didn’t realize that there was a world beyond crime for her. And maybe there wasn’t. The people at the other end of the chain were the type to cut ties and burn drop points to the ground. Lily was in danger. That was why he was keeping so close, and that was why he was putting the pressure on. The sooner this was over, the sooner she could be safe.

  He kept an eye on her for the rest of the day, noting that she wasn’t doing the usual in and out visit of duty. She genuinely liked her grandmother, in fact, it seemed as though her grandmother was the only person she did r
eally like. A life of crime was a lonely one. She probably couldn’t share her life with anyone really. Criminal acquaintances didn’t make good friends and straight people, well, they wouldn’t be able to connect with her.

  Tapping the steering wheel impatiently, Gareth tried to plan his next move. There was no drop on Wednesday, that was almost certain. And that meant there was going to have to be a consequence for the lie. She could do with a damn good spanking or three, but he really didn’t want to have to keep whipping her butt every time they met.

  Things were getting complicated. He should be maintaining distance, but the situation was forcing him to stay close, and staying close was leading to an attachment which was definitely inappropriate. Teasing aside, he’d liked the way she felt under his arm. He liked her fire and he loved her bravery. He was not an easy man to stand up to, but she stood up to him at every turn. On a professional level, it was irritating. Personally, he loved it.

  But she would still have to be punished, and soundly at that. How was he going to handle the little brat this time? There were three days for him to make a decision.

  Chapter Four

  Lily anticipated Gareth’s visit on Thursday. There had been no sign of him Monday and Tuesday, and though she thought she caught a glimpse of him on Wednesday, he had not come to see her. Thursday night though, after the dishes were done and the floors were mopped and she would ordinarily have been switching on the television to catch whatever late night host hadn’t been hoisted out of his job of late, that’s when the knock came.

  She let him stew a couple of minutes before she opened the door. There he was, smoldering with punitive intent.

  God but he was handsome. The hard, rugged lines of his face were always more intense when he had a bone to pick with her. In that moment he could have built a house with his gaze, which nailed her to the floor where she stood.