The Firm Hand of the Law (13 page)

“The killing comes later,” Lily deadpanned. Laying eyes on him was making her angry. The slick bastard standing in front of her was responsible for every misfortune which had come her way in recent times.

“Oh, I’d simply love to see you try.” The way he said it strongly implied that he genuinely would enjoy that. He was twisted, a man who enjoyed violence for violence’s sake. She would have done well to stay away from him, but her anger would not let her.

“Where are your pants, Brannigan? You need a job?” He leered at her. “Now that the bar is gone, I guess you’re going to have to do something to pay the bills.”

Standing in her panties, Lily couldn’t exactly pretend that she wasn’t there to audition. The disguise had become a liability. It was impossible to be taken seriously without pants on, a fact which both worked in her favor and against her at the self-same time. He was too busy looking at her legs and crotch to be suspicious of her true intentions.

“I always knew I’d have you,” he said, smirking. “I admit, I didn’t think it would be like this.”

Lily opened her mouth to make a blunt reply, but was interrupted by the shrill tones of another woman.

“Jas! Jas! Where’s my money?” A hot blonde came tottering over, still smeared in fluids from a session. She seemed not to notice her musky sheen, nor the stench of dried semen which surrounded her. Lily recoiled instinctively as she approached, giving her the floor. Jasper didn’t seem much more impressed, but his attention was taken by the demanding harridan, who clearly was not going to go away until she got her money.

In the distraction, someone in high heels and very little clothing looped an arm around Lily’s and pulled her away from the danger zone. There was significant strength in the arm, more than Lily expected from the average woman. Closer inspection revealed that it was not an average woman. It was a man in full drag, a giant auburn wig flowing over his broad shoulders, framing a face so well made up that it really did look feminine if one didn’t spend too long looking at the nose and chin.

“You’re Lily Brannigan,” he said in a voice more suited to a plumber than a performer.

“Yeah.”

“You need to get out of here. Now. It’s not safe.”

“Who are you?”

The man did not reply. He took out a phone and made a call, an impressive task given the two inch long nails glued to each of his fingers. “Gareth? I’ve got your girl down here at the studio.”

Lily swore ferociously. Of all the luck, to run into a cross-dressing porn star who knew Gareth. She must have been cursed to have luck that bad.

“Gareth is going to come get you,” the man informed her. “He’s not happy.”

“Of course he fucking isn’t! Why the hell did you do that?”

“Be quiet and wait.”

“Fuck you. Who the hell are you?”

The conversation went on that way for a few minutes, but she was no closer to an answer by the time she was taken outside the lot and delivered sans pants to Gareth’s car. He’d wasted no time in getting there, that was for sure. Instinct told her he’d probably been out looking for her already. Oddly, he didn’t seem as angry as she thought he would be. Something was going on. She just didn’t know what.

“You’re planning on selling your body now?” Gareth asked the question as he followed her in the door to his ridiculously perfect house.

“No,” she said. “It’s… I had a friend there.”

“Oh you do. A friend who wants you to take your pants off when you visit?”

“I wasn’t there to have sex, I promise.”

“Oh I believe you,” he said. “But you’re going to have to do a much better job of telling me what you were doing there.

“It had to do with what happened to my bar.”

“What?”

“I don’t want to say.”

“Why not? I thought you were going to help this investigation.”

“I am, but there’s some things I have to do for myself first.”

“Those things being getting half naked and putting yourself in harm’s way.”

“I just wanted to… do something.” She gritted her teeth. “I wanted to…” The words wouldn’t come out, but she was shaking with anger. She wanted to destroy Jasper. Not take him to court. Not send him to jail. She wanted to take everything he had ever loved and crush it. Her next breath came in a sobbing gasp as she burst into tears of rage and frustration, emotion she hadn’t fully expressed until that moment.

“Come here.” He pulled her into his arms and held her close as she sobbed ugly tears into his shirt. “Listen,” he said, “I know exactly why you were there. Jasper Woodcock.”

Lily pulled away and looked at him askance. “You know about Jasper?”

“Of course we know about Jasper.”

“Then why haven’t you arrested him?”

“Because Jasper isn’t who we want,” Gareth explained. “There are much bigger targets.”

“You have people around him, don’t you?” Lily sniffed. “The queen who pulled me out of there. She was one of yours.”

“Yes,” Gareth said. “We have a lot of people working this case.”

“So… you… you let… did you…” she squinted her eyes at him in sudden suspicion. “Did you know he was going to have the bar burned down?”

Gareth looked at her wordlessly. She felt her heart sink into the open hole in the pit of her stomach. “You knew,” she said, whispering the words hoarsely. “That was why you insisted on going out to dinner that night. That’s why you weren’t even… you fucking
knew
!” She shouted the word at him and beat her fists against his chest.

“We couldn’t stop him without tipping our hand,” he said, grabbing her wrists. “I’m sorry, Lily. I really am.”

“You let him take everything from me!” The sense of betrayal was overwhelming.

“I’m sorry, Lily,” Gareth repeated. “I truly am. If there was another way…”

“There was another way!” she shrieked. “You could have called the fire department. You could have arrested him. You could have taken him to jail! That’s what you’re supposed to do, remember? You’re supposed to put bad guys in jail, not let them burn down my fucking house!”

Her rage was all consuming. She had nothing and nobody. There wasn’t a single soul on the planet who was on her side. Even Gareth was playing games, using her, lying to her.

“Calm down.”

Those two little words were more inflammatory than a barrel of gasoline. Lily erupted into a rage which sent her beyond words and into the realm of incoherent screaming. Gareth had her in his grasp, but that didn’t do anything to stop her. Nothing stopped her except, eventually, herself. She had screamed and cried herself hoarse by the time she calmed down, a weeping mess in Gareth’s arms. He was still holding her, comforting her, being there though he was just as much a villain as Jasper.

“Get off me.” She pulled away. He let her go, keeping a careful watch on her.

“I am not going to help you,” she said, her voice shaking. “I am not going to stay here. I’m going.”

“No you’re not.” He was so calm in the face of her rage. “I know you’re angry. I know you’re upset. But you’re going to stay here, and when you’re ready, we’re going to talk.”

“There’s nothing to talk about. You lied to me. You let him take everything from me. And then you took me to the mall and thought some clothes might make up for it. You think I’m a fucking idiot, some stupid little girl you can spank and punish and use. You’re wrong. You’re going to regret this!”

“I already do.”

His reply was so solemn it stopped her in her tracks. “What do you mean?”

“I regret all of this,” he said. “When this started, it was just another case. But it’s more than that now. You and I are more than that.”

“No,” she said bitterly. “We’re not. Not anymore.”

Chapter Ten

Lily was not going to forgive him easily. Gareth knew that. He had known it all along, but personal feelings couldn’t be allowed to get in the way of catching the bad guys and closing the case. It was all so simple when he thought about it that way, but the reality was nothing was simple. The line between good guy and bad guy was blurred. He was feeling every inch the bad guy as day after day he looked into her tearful eyes and saw her pain, pain he knew he was at least partially responsible for.

She was making frequent attempts to get out of the house of course. He didn’t know where she was planning on going or what she was planning on doing when she got there, but it didn’t matter. She was grounded, locked down for her own safety, which only served to anger her more.

“Let me out!” She screamed the words at him in a hoarse whisper. She’d lost her voice completely on the evening she discovered what was really going on, and it still hadn’t returned because every time they got into a discussion of any kind, she’d wind herself up so much she’d hurt it all over again. Gareth had never heard such vehement expletives strung together in such creative ways before.

“Not yet,” he said firmly. “Not until I can trust that you won’t…”

“Trust!” She almost spat the word. “You don’t get to talk about trust. You’re as trustworthy as crotch rot.”

“You will speak to me with respect,” Gareth growled. “I know…”

“I don’t respect you,” Lily shot back. “You’re a liar and a cheat, and you are just as bad as any criminal.”

He’d had enough. He grabbed the little hellion, dragged her over to the couch, hauled her over his knee and started whacking her bottom. There was no further attempt at discussion. Words weren’t getting through to her, so maybe his palm on her ass would. She was wearing jeans, but those didn’t last long. He pulled them down and pushed her panties up so her cheeks were bare jiggling rounds bouncing with every impact of his palm. He spanked her long and hard without any discussion, swatting her bottom until his hand was tingling painfully and she was bucking with every slap, whining for clemency.

“You’re entitled to your feelings,” he informed her squirming frame. “But you are not entitled to be rude. If you keep this attitude up, you won’t be sitting from now until this case goes to trial.”

“If it goes to trial!” She was hoarse, but her cracking tones conveyed complete derision and lack of faith in the process. He couldn’t blame her for that, but that, like everything else, was no excuse for bad behavior.

The spanking continued, not overly hard but long. He kept the intensity down so as to be able to keep spanking her for longer. The longer she spent over his knee, the more likely she might actually see sense, or at least vent her frustrations more fully.

“There are rules in this house, Lily. And you are staying here so I can make sure you’re safe. That’s the end of it. You can hate me if you like, but you’re going to watch your mouth and you’re going to behave yourself.”

She was silent for a moment, then a big sob escaped her. “I don’t hate you,” she said in those vulnerable, whispery tones. “I hate what you did to me.”

“And I’m sorry,” he said, helping her stand up so he could look into her eyes. “I truly am. I’m sorry your business came second to this case, but my priority was, and always has been protecting 
you.
”

“Because it’s your job,” she said, lowering her lashes.

“It’s my job,” he agreed. “And it’s my privilege.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“I do,” he said, smoothing his palm over her hot cheeks. “You know I care about you, don’t you? You’ve been screaming at me for the better part of a week, Brannigan, but you have to know I care.”

She twisted where she stood, back and forth before nodding. “I guess.”

“You guess?”

“I know,” she admitted. “But…you knew.”

“Mm-hmm, and I’m not asking you to forgive me for that. I’m just asking you to get your temper in check so I don’t wear my arm out tanning your hide.” He smiled a little. “Can you do that?”

Lily bit her lower lip, looking outright adorable as she nodded guiltily. She was so cute with her pants and panties around her knees, the curve of her bottom bare and pink. He stood up and pulled her into the first hug she’d allowed him to give her in what seemed like forever.

* * *

Things settled into an uneasy state of calm over the following days. Gareth was still as overbearing as ever, and she was still grounded, but at least she didn’t have to fight him anymore. She had spent so much time of late being upset that she was quite frankly unable to sustain it.

“Lily!” Gareth called her into the kitchen upon his return from work one afternoon. She had dutifully stayed in the house just like he’d asked her to, curled up on the couch like a faithful hound waiting for master to return. If anyone else had made that comparison she would have been most upset, but in reality it had involved a long, comfy nap. As much as she missed the bar, she did not miss having to work every single hour the good lord sent.

“You want to get back at Jasper?” He asked the question as soon as she walked into the room.

Her answer came without delay. “God, yes.”

“This is your chance. We’re setting up a sting to take him down and flip him.”

“Oh.” Lily scrunched up her nose. “Jasper won’t flip.”

“Everybody flips. The more they have at stake, the quicker they turn.”

“Not everybody flips,” Lily insisted, her eyes narrowing.

“Okay, Miss Literal, not everybody,” Gareth sighed. “Everybody with a bit of common sense or any interest in self-preservation does. You know why there’s so much hate for snitches? Because at the end of the day, everybody is a snitch. Everybody tells when it comes down to it. And those that do hold their tongues? They’re usually the ones who have nothing to lose. Almost nobody truly has nothing to lose.”

He spoke like a man who knew what he was talking about, and Lily was inclined to believe him. Everybody knew bad things happened to snitches, but a lot of the time nobody knew who had snitched in the first place. Maybe Gareth was right. Maybe everybody rolled over if they had enough pressure put on them. She liked the idea of that pressure being applied to Jasper.

“What do you need me to do?”

“His weakness for women is going to be his downfall. Can’t get him on smuggling or tax, but we can definitely get him for solicitation.”