The Firm Hand of the Law Read online

  He withstood her snark patiently before continuing with his invitation. “I’d like you to come out to dinner with me, Lily.”

  “I can’t,” she said. “I have a bar to clean. Remember that work you told me I need to do now? That honest living? Well, this is what an honest living looks like. It looks like me cleaning this whole place by myself because I had to let the cleaners go.”

  “Clean later,” he said. “Eat first.”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “You are so,” he insisted. She was starting to look far too lean, her skin was losing some of its bloom, and her eyes were dull. She was hungry and she was tired and she was probably depressed. Dinner wouldn’t solve all of that, but it would go some way towards doing something about it.

  “No,” Lily said emphatically. “I am not going anywhere with you.”

  “I wasn’t asking,” he growled. “And if you keep arguing, you’ll be eating out with a sore bottom.”

  “Go fu—”

  He didn’t let her get the word out. Tired of her profanity and tired of her petulance, he followed her into the kitchen, scooped her up over his shoulder and carried her upstairs. Lily went through the usual screaming and flailing process, but he had a firm grip.

  “Easy,” he said, putting her on her feet in her apartment. “I’m trying to do something nice here.”

  “You don’t know how to be nice!” She threw her hands in the air and glared at him. “Everything you do is just fucked up and controlling.”

  Gareth took a deep breath and nodded. Maybe she was right. Maybe he was fucked up and controlling. She point blank refused to look after herself, but if she didn’t want to go out to dinner with him, he couldn’t very well drag her into a restaurant, kicking and screaming. It was a pity, but with the anger and resentment rolling off her, he could tell that this wasn’t just a bratty tantrum. She really was starting to hate him, and he couldn’t exactly blame her.

  “Okay,” he said, shrugging. “You win. I’m sorry I bothered you.” He turned and started making his way down the stairs.

  “Where are you going?” Her still furious face peered down the stairs, her blue eyes curious and annoyed.

  “I’m going to leave you alone,” he said. “Like you want me to.”

  “Oh.”

  She looked disappointed. He waited for her to say something else, but she didn’t. She just stood there looking at him with those big eyes and that empty stomach and he knew he was going to have to play the bad guy one more time in order to not actually be the bad guy.

  “So are you coming?” He arched a brow and gave her one of his authoritative looks that usually sent her into an apoplectic fit.

  “Just… let me get changed.” She darted inside and closed the door.

  Waiting on the stairs, Gareth smiled to himself. They had a date.

  A while later, just when Gareth was considering she might have been lying about getting changed, Lily stepped out of her apartment. She had done more than just change. She had showered, she had straightened her hair, and she had put on makeup. She was wearing a little black dress which fell to her knees in a modest cut, but clung to every curve of her feisty body. Her eyes were gorgeous, highlighted by mascara and shadow in tasteful amounts. She looked sleek and sophisticated; there was no hint of the flailing jean clad hellion he’d wrestled up the stairs almost an hour earlier.

  “Wow,” Gareth said with unreserved approval. “You look beautiful.”

  Her answering smile seemed to be genuine. “Thank you.”

  She was up to something. She had to be up to something. Nobody went from screaming rage to all dolled up just because they’d had a change of heart. Maybe it was all part of her plan for revenge. Even if it was, Gareth didn’t care. He was just glad to be spending some time with her alone in a setting outside the seedy bar.

  Gareth’s favorite date restaurant was an Italian place with the best pasta in the city and a nice, calm ambiance which belied the quality of the food. Lily seemed to like it, almost as much as she liked the appreciative glances of the male wait staff. She truly did look absolutely stunning. Gareth could barely take his eyes off her as they ordered. She was sitting next to him in the booth, which made his appreciative looks a little obvious, but he didn't care. He thought she was beautiful, and he wanted her to know it.

  “So,” he said over entrees, “what made you change your mind?”

  “I was hungry,” she said with a shrug.

  “Mm-hmm. You’ve been hungry for a while. That wasn’t it.”

  “Honestly?” Lily took a sip of her wine and looked at him steadily. “You looked hurt.”

  “I looked hurt?”

  “When I said you were fucked up and controlling. You looked hurt. Like a real person, not a justice-bot sent to ruin everything. And I felt bad.”

  “Ah.”

  “I figured, yeah, maybe you are fucked up and controlling, but you’re trying to help in your own fucked up way. And you’ve cut me a lot of slack. Most cops would have thrown me in jail already.”

  “That is true,” he agreed.

  “And I was hungry,” she added with a cheeky little smile.

  She was absolutely adorable when she was being good. She was always attractive, but that night she was practically glowing. Maybe he had finally gotten through to her. Maybe she’d decided to stop sulking petulantly and actually take the help being offered. That would be a very nice change.

  “It’s nice not to have to fight you,” he said.

  “Fight you?” she snorted. “As if fighting you ever got me anywhere. Besides, why fight dinner?”

  “And the rest of things?”

  “The rest of things is the rest of things,” she replied honestly. “I have responsibilities to my family. I can’t let them down.”

  “You’re keeping your grandmother in a luxury retirement complex,” he said. “I am sure you could save costs there.”

  “Gammy deserves her retirement,” Lily said firmly. “It’s the least she deserves.”

  The least old Millicent Brannigan deserved was a stretch behind bars, but that wasn’t going to happen. She’d fought the law all her life, dragged three generations of her family into an international smuggling ring, and left her granddaughter with a burden that was crippling her day by day. Gareth expressed precisely none of this to Lily. He knew she would not hear a word against her ‘Gammy’.

  “You’re very devoted,” he said instead, glad that their meals were arriving. It was a pasta place, but they’d ordered steak dinners all round, lean proteins and hearty vegetables. Just what they both needed. Lily ate hers as though she were famished, which she probably was given her punitive diet. “You have to take care of yourself too,” he added. “You can’t take care of anyone else if you’re not taking care of yourself.”

  “I was taking care of myself until someone changed things.”

  “I’d argue that point,” Gareth said. “You were still working all hours and not paying much attention to yourself. Most people your age are out having fun.”

  “Most people my age don’t have a bar.”

  “True. You’re very responsible.”

  She swallowed her mouthful and looked at him with a playfully stunned expression. “I think that’s the first compliment you’ve ever given me.”

  “It can’t be.”

  “Nope,” she nodded. “I’m pretty sure it is. You’re usually calling me a brat and things like that.”

  “You are a brat. But you’re also responsible in your own way. That’s how I know you’re going to do the right thing.”

  Lily rolled her eyes. “Enough with the speeches. If you’re going to use this time to try to flip me, then I’m walking right now.”

  “Easy,” he said. “This is not a business dinner. I just want to see you eat.”

  “Liar.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You didn’t ask me out because you want to see me eat.” She pointed her fork at him. “You’re
always doing that. You do something nice and then you try to pretend that you weren’t being nice at all.”

  “I don’t…”

  “Yes you do do that,” she said, before he could deny it. “You are secretly a nice guy. You just can’t admit it to yourself or anyone else.”

  Flattered, Gareth tried not to seem too pleased. “Is that what you think?”

  “Yeah,” she said, “it is. Now shut up and eat your dinner.”

  Oh she was a brat, and she was in dire need of a good spanking. It wasn’t the time for it just then, but he was saving it up for later, when he’d peel up that skirt and slap her cheeks until she cried out for mercy. For the moment, he contented himself with something else.

  He let his hand drift under the table and settle on her bare knee. She gave him a curious look, but did not have any objection. He winked, telegraphing his intentions as he started slowly sliding his hand up her thigh, teasing her with the prospect of pleasure.

  Lily wasn’t shocked of course; she ran a bar, more outrageous things happened every weekend. But she was responding regardless. He saw it in the flush of her cheeks and neck, and the way her thighs parted to allow his fingers to trace their way up to the apex.

  Over the next few minutes he teased back and forth, avoiding her sex but coming as close to it as humanly possible, so close that he could feel her heat. Finally his fingers began to stroke the gusset of her panties. With a soft moan barely concealed with a breathy sip of her wine, she let him tease her pussy until her juices were slickly coating the fabric. Only when he put his fingers under the gusset of her panties and pushed them aside did she let out an audible gasp.

  “Shhhh,” he said. “You wouldn’t want everybody knowing you’re having your pussy fingered, would you?”

  He smiled as her blush grew deeper. She was so wet as he slid between her lips and pressed into her pussy. Penetrated in public, Lily did an admirable job of keeping her composure, but a close observer would have noticed the way her hips were rolling subtly back and forth as two of his thick fingers plundered her pussy.

  Gareth let his thumb brush against the rock hard nub of her straining clit and she came right there at the table, her lips parting in a silent cry. She grasped the edge of the table as her pussy quivered and clamped around his fingers.

  “Feeling better?” He removed his fingers slowly and returned her panties to their proper position.

  * * *

  ‘Better’ was not the word Lily would have chosen. Her legs were quivering beneath the tablecloth, her pussy juices coating her thighs. She was a shameful wet mess, but it felt too good to worry about.

  “You’re naughty,” she said, chiding him. Her further chastisement was interrupted by the ringing of her phone. She would have ignored it, but for the name which was displayed, a name which immediately made her stomach churn with foreboding.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I have to take this.”

  “Go ahead,” Gareth said.

  Lily swiped the screen to answer the call. “Hello?”

  “Enjoying dinner?” Jasper’s smooth tones purred down the line, apparently cordial aside from their stalking overtones.

  “What?”

  “Is it pork? No, it’s steak.” Jasper sounded disappointed. “It would have been ironic if it were pork, given you’re dining with a pig. Oink, oink, Lily. And to think you’ve been turning me down all these years. I didn’t know you needed cuffs and a badge, sweetheart. We could have played…”

  “You’re watching me?” Lily interrupted his flow of creepy consciousness.

  “You closed the bar,” he said. “I was supposed to be doing business there tonight.”

  “Sorry,” she said. “I…”

  “Oh, I know what you’ve been doing,” Jasper’s voice purred down the line. “And I’m afraid that means there have to be consequences.”

  The line went dead. Lily stared at her phone for a split second. “We have to go,” she said, answering Gareth’s unspoken question. “Something’s happening to the bar.”

  “Let’s go,” Gareth said, stuffing a wad of notes under his plate, more than enough to cover the meal and a generous tip.

  She had never been so grateful to be with Gareth in that moment. He didn’t ask questions. He didn’t slow proceedings down by wanting to know the whys and wherefores. He read her expression and that was all he needed to know.

  “What makes you think he was threatening the bar?” Gareth asked the question as they drove, lights on and at full speed back to the bar.

  “He always strikes out at the thing people care about the most. He wouldn’t dare touch Gammy. That means he’s going after the bar.”

  She was right. The Fox and Stoat was well ablaze by the time Lily and Gareth got there. The entire top floor was gone, and the bottom was a towering inferno being battled by firemen with long hoses. Plumes of water were gushing into the charred innards, making some headway, but it was too late. The bar was gone.

  “Is there any chance you were insured?”

  “No,” Lily said, her eyes welling with tears. There was no insurance. There was no nothing anymore. Just charred embers of what had once been her life.

  Her phone rang. She answered it more out of reflex than anything.

  “You got lucky, sweetheart,” Jasper purred. “I don’t need to tell you what usually happens when one of our places is compromised. Have a nice life. Try to stay out of court.”

  The line went dead. With a shriek of rage she threw her phone into the fire. Why have that when she had nothing else? Why have anything?

  “Hey!” Gareth caught her before she could throw anything else. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close, making gentling sounds as she raged against his chest, sobbing at the top of her lungs. Her life was burning. The world was in flames, and she was left in a dress and nothing else.

  “I’m of no use to you anymore,” she sobbed. “It’s done. He’s taken everything. I’ve got nothing left but this stupid dress.”

  “Shhhh,” Gareth said. “It’s okay, you’re not alone.”

  “Yes, I am!”

  “You’re not,” he repeated. “You’ve got me. Now come on.”

  He bundled her back into the car and drove her… somewhere. Lily didn’t know and she was too numb to care. They left the city and started driving through suburban neighborhoods, where normal people lived. It was alien terrain to her. She had always grown up in the bar. Her whole life had been lived in what was now nothing but charred struts and ash.

  “Is this where you live?” She sniffled the question.

  “Mm-hmm, 32 Maple Grove.” He turned onto a tree lined lane so perfect and tidy Lily didn’t quite believe it was real. It looked like something out of a movie set. When he pulled into a drive next to a perfectly mowed lawn bounded by a white picket fence, she couldn’t help but let out a snort.

  “You live in wonderland.”

  “It’s just a house,” he said. It wasn’t just a house. Somebody tended the bed of flowers out the front. She had a flash of him on his hands and knees tugging weeds. It struck her as amusing, and she let out a faintly hysterical little giggle.

  “You’ve had enough for one night,” Gareth said, getting out of the car. She got out of the car too and stood shivering slightly in the cool night air.

  “Here.” He dropped a jacket around her shoulders. It was several sizes too big for her of course, but it warmed her instantly. “You should come inside.”

  “I can’t be inside right now,” she said. Instead she sat down on the porch steps, looking at the dimly lit neighborhood and the bright pin-prick sky which rose above it all.

  “Okay.” He sat down nearby, not too close. He was giving her space, but he was also staying nearby. She appreciated that. Jasper’s people could be looking for her. Or maybe Jasper would be satisfied with having destroyed everything she owned. It was hard to tell. He tended to take a Genghis Khan attitude to business. He was probably busy salting the earth under t
he bar as they spoke. Clutching her arms to her chest and her knees to her arms, she gazed skyward where the stars were suddenly blurry due to the tears in her eyes.

  “I’m going to have to tell Gammy she can’t stay in her home,” she sniffed. “I’ve failed her.”

  “You haven’t failed anyone,” Gareth said, putting his arm around her shoulders. “Bad people do bad things. It’s not your fault.”

  “It is, because I am one of the bad people. I knew the rules,” Lily sniffed. “But I fell for a cop, and now Gammy is going to have to live in a basement or something.”

  “I’m sorry,” Gareth said, holding her close. “I’m sorry this happened.” He pulled her practically onto his lap and cradled her as if she were much smaller than she really was. “I’m going to look after you, Brannigan,” he reminded her. “Now come inside and get some rest. We can start putting things to rights in the morning.”

  Sleep sounded good, if only because it would be a release from her misery.

  Chapter Eight

  The next day, Gareth was kind enough to take her to Gammy’s home to break the bad news. It took Lily a good hour to work up the courage to tell Gammy what had happened, largely because Gammy wanted to know why she was wearing such a short dress, which then took her onto the tangent of communists, which finally circled around to the tragedy of the decline of lama yarn and back to Lily’s inappropriate dress. When Lily finally did manage to get the truth out, it all tumbled out in one awful sentence.

  “Gammy, I’m sorry. The bar burned down. I don’t have the money to keep you here anymore.”

  “Oh my dear,” Gammy said, patting her hand. “I don’t need your money.”

  “You don’t?”

  “No,” she said. “A woman should always have her own money.”

  “But I’ve been paying for all these years…”

  “That was very nice of you, dear. Cookie?”

  That seemed to be it as far as Gammy went. There was no offer of help in return. There was just a cookie, an oatmeal one at that.

  Lily’s confusion grew as she accepted the cookie. “Do you think you could help, in that case?” What the heck had Gammy been doing with her money all these years? That was the question Lily really wanted to ask, but she didn’t dare.