The Firm Hand of the Law Read Free Page B

was going to hurt you, I would have done it by now. Stop making this dangerous for the both of us and get your butt upstairs.”
    There was authority in his tone which made her feel he was probably telling the truth. Only a police officer would be arrogant enough to order someone around the way he was doing. A criminal would have been either more aggressive or much nicer about the whole thing.
    “Go.” His palm landed hard across her bottom cheeks again.
    Lily made her way reluctantly back into the bar and up the stairs to her apartment with the officer at her heels. This was bad. This was very, very bad. Her bottom was tingling, along with her sense of danger. Trouble was in the air, thick as smoke and twice as bitter.
    “Here’s the deal,” he said, sitting her down in the armchair Gammy had once loved. “I’m a detective.” He showed his badge, confirming his identity. “And you’re part of a criminal organization. I think we can help each other out, though.”
    Lily sat back in the chair, giving him the same look Gammy would have, a steely blue gaze which once unnerved an infamous gangster. “Do you have any proof of that? Do you have a warrant to be in my house? Or do you think you can scare me by breaking into my home and intimidating me?”
    “If you want me to get a warrant, we can do things that way. Bring you in on formal charges, make it known to your associates that you just became a weak link in their chain. What happens to weak links, Lily?”
    Biting her lip, Lily felt her heart begin to beat faster. The detective had a point. If anybody found out that the police were onto activities at The Fox and Stoat, things would get very nasty very fast. She wasn’t going to let him know he’d rattled her though. She had to stay strong. Men like him sensed weakness and exploited it. She’d seen it happen a hundred times before and she was not going to let it happen to her.
    “I’ve been arrested plenty of times,” she shrugged. “It’s never been a problem for me.”
    “Tough girl, huh?” He stood in front of her, powerful legs spread shoulder width apart in a stance that was undeniably dominating. His presence was large in the small apartment, threatening, but not in the way Lily was used to being threatened. “Let’s see how tough you are after a night in the cells.”
    “What are you arresting me for?”
    The officer smirked at her, his lips quirking in a way that made the planes of his cheeks become unyieldingly hard. “My brief was to keep an eye on you until I had enough evidence to press charges. It didn’t take very long.”
    “Oh, the two minutes you spent in the bar was long enough, was it?”
    “The ten minutes I watched a known smuggler bring a package containing a tracker into the bar was.” He gave her that hard, dark look, tinged with triumph. “Rex is one of ours. So I suggest you consider having a nice, friendly chat with me on the topic of what we can do for one another.”
    Fuck. Lily let that and a whole string of curse words flow through her mind. Outwardly, she was more composed. “Rex is a scumbag, and so are you. Get out of my house. Now.”
    “If that’s how you want to play this,” he shrugged, removing handcuffs from his belt. “Stand up please, Miss Brannigan. You are under arrest.”
    “For what?”
    “Interfering with an investigation.” He beckoned her out of the chair. “If I have to drag you out of here, I will.”
    There was no sense resisting arrest, but Lily made sure her demeanor conveyed nothing but contempt for the man as she stood and allowed him to handcuff her. His hands were ridiculously large, dwarfing hers as he snapped the cuffs around her wrists and tightened them to a point just short of discomfort.
    Her heart was pounding and her stomach was churning, but she tried to convince herself not to be worried. Even if he had sprung her with a snitch, there was nothing else on site. He didn’t seem to know about any of the real deals that had