The Firm Hand of the Law (8 page)

“You were a bad girl, Brannigan,” he lectured, “and bad girls get their bottoms spanked long and hard.” He walked across the apartment, his long cock still erect and shiny with her juices as he rifled through the kitchen drawer until he found what he was looking for—a wooden spoon.

“Get up,” he insisted. She whined. She was so close to cumming all she wanted was to feel him back inside her, but that clearly wasn’t going to happen. “Get up, bend over, and touch your toes.”

Lily didn’t know what madness made her obey. Maybe it was just the small chance that if she did as she was told, there would be more sex and less spanking. At any rate, she soon found herself with her hands to her toes, her nose by her knees, and her bottom high in the air as an officer with a throbbing erection walked behind her and pressed the head of his cock back inside her pussy for just a moment before drawing away and slapping her with the flat side of the wooden spoon.

“Ow!” she squealed and straightened up. “That hurts!”

“Down, Brannigan,” he ordered curtly. When she didn’t immediately obey, he put his hand on her lower back, guided her down into a position somewhat approximating the original one and began belaboring her bottom with the spoon. It hurt. Every stroke brought with it a sting and there were a whole lot of strokes, a double dozen at least. She would not have put up with them if he’d not made her, following wherever she squirmed and stepped until she was bent over the back of the couch, her bottom still bearing the brunt of the stingy spoon wrath.

“Gareth!” She wailed his name plaintively. “I’m sorry!”

“Will you lie again?”

“No!” It wasn’t the truth, but it was the answer they both needed to hear. Gareth tossed the spoon away and slid his cock back inside her. What followed was a very thorough fucking which left Lily weak kneed and moaning as her orgasm returned in even greater force. He fucked her through it, stroke after stroke making her body quiver as waves of hot pleasure coursed through. When he came it was just as hard. He pinned her against the couch, her hot red cheeks high in the air as he pumped his seed inside her, holding her still so she took every single potent drop.

“That,” he said, breathing heavily with his cock still stuffed deep inside her, “was a punishment.”

Chapter Five

He’d been right when he said she wouldn’t sit comfortably. Lily didn’t sit at all the next day. The few times she did see fit to lower her posterior toward even the most padded surface she was quickly reminded not to. That was the worst of it, the fact that his hand had burned a message effectively into the future, giving her a reminder which lingered for not one, but several days. There wasn’t a part of her that didn’t feel branded by his touch. Her pussy was sensitive for almost as long as her bottom, but in a much better way. Not a night went by that she didn’t touch herself and remember what he had done with her, to her, for her.

The next drop actually took place mid-rush on a Saturday night. A package was delivered behind the bar and picked up not ten minutes later by two men who looked for all intents and purposes to be the same person, that person being one of Lily’s bar tenders. It was quite an impressive trick really, to mirror the clothing and facial hair of the man who genuinely worked at the bar and had no idea what was going on. To the casual observer, literally nothing had happened. Only Lily knew that she’d sent Trent on a break while the smuggler made a drop, pulled a couple of pints, then handed off to another smuggler, who tossed down a shot of tequila, took the package, and left.

Hiding in plain sight was just one of Jasper’s techniques. He liked to be brazen, and he was good at it. That was probably why Gareth and the rest of the police force were so worried. Jasper was becoming adept at splitting shipments right off the boat. They came in, were broken up into hundreds of smaller packages, and were sent out over the city.

Lily didn’t know what was inside the packages. She didn’t want to know either. Knowing would have made her more of a liability and put her in more danger. As the recipient of the package left the bar, he pressed a wad of hundred dollar bills into her hand. It was wrapped in tissue paper, but she knew what it was. There was a certain weight to ten thousand dollars that had become very familiar over time—payment for three months’ worth of work. Jasper liked to pay quarterly. He ran a tight ship, kept his affairs strictly in order.

Money in hand, Lily slipped upstairs and made for her bedroom, where a little safe in the wall sat behind a picture of Hoboken. This was the most exciting part of the whole thing. This was why she had never tried to get the bar out of Jasper’s ring. There was money to be made. Lots of it. She was practically giggling to herself as she opened the painting door and exposed the hard black box which was the safe.

“And what are you doing, missy?”

She whirled around, caught. The safe was exposed, her payment still in her hand. Gareth was there in the doorway. She didn’t know if he’d been in the apartment all along or followed her up from the bar, but she was not pleased to see him.

He crossed the room quickly, snatched the money out of her hand. “Seems heavy for a night’s takings,” he said, waving her money under her nose.

“Give that back.” She reached for it, but he pulled it away. She let out a little panicked sound and tried to grab it again. All she ended up doing was slamming her body against the hard plane of his to no effect whatsoever. He put the cash into his shirt pocket and buttoned it securely.

“It’s proceeds of a crime. Under civil forfeiture laws I can take this,” he said, sounding every inch a cop. She hated him in that moment more than she ever had.

A wave of helpless anger swept over Lily. “Don’t you fucking dare. I need that money.”

“Right, just like a heroin addict needs their next fix, but that isn’t legal either, and I wouldn’t let a junkie take their H with them.”

Staring at him wide-eyed, Lily couldn’t quite wrap her mind around what was happening. He was stealing her money!

“You have no proof that any crime was committed. You have no proof of anything. You’re just taking my money. I need that!”

“If you feel this confiscation was in error, then you can make an application to have it returned.” The robot talk wasn’t endearing him to her at all. The only thing that would have would be if he gave the money back and left, never to return.

“I fucking hate you!” she growled, her voice rising to a near shriek. It was one thing for him to lurk around her bar, another thing to punish her for lying, but it was quite something else to walk in and take thousands of dollars that didn’t belong to him. It wasn’t cute anymore and it wasn’t fun either. “Give it back.”

“Lily,” he said calmly. “You know this is blood money. You don’t need it. You have a bar, remember?”

“Ever fucking run a fucking bar?” She slipped an expletive in between almost every single word. “There’s not as much money in it as people think.”

“Well, you don’t need to make money this way.”

It was really happening. He was really taking her money. She wasn’t going to let that happen. She flew at him, her hands alternately balled into fists and clawing to grab at the pocket where her earnings had gone.

The struggle did not last long. Gareth grabbed her by the back of the neck and tossed her face down on the bed, pinning her with the weight of his body in a way that did not hurt her, but left her with nowhere to go. She screamed her rage into the coverlet, but nobody cared, least of all him.

“This is for your own good,” he said, holding her down. “You take this money, I have to report that you’re a knowing part of this ring.”

“I am a knowing part of this ring!”

“Not really,” he said. “You don’t know the half of what goes on under your nose. I’ve been watching you, Lily. They run decoy packages by you and ship the real merchandise while you’re distracted.

“Not possible.”

“Very possible,” he growled against the back of her neck. “Trust me when I say, you do not want any evidence of having received money from these people.”

“Trust me when I say that I have to have that money.” She tried to wriggle free, but his grip was firm and his pelvis was a heavy weight keeping her hips pinned to the bed. “You can’t take it.”

“I already have,” he said. “And you won’t be taking any more.”

“Then I’ll let them know that it’s not safe to do their drops here anymore.”

“No, you won’t,” he said firmly. “Right now, you’re a concerned citizen helping us bring down these people. You won’t see a day in jail. If we get enough evidence, you won’t even have to testify.”

Hot stinging tears of frustration were prickling Lily’s eyes. The cash he had in his pocket was supposed to be the next payment on Gammy’s home.

“I need that money,” she repeated, hating the way her voice sounded all watery.

“Would you rather have money, or know that you’re helping to put some very dangerous people behind bars?”

“I’d rather have money,” Lily argued into the bed. “People don’t stay in jail, especially not people like… these people aren’t ever going down. Maybe you’ll take down a few of their officers or something, but you’ll never come close to taking down the people at the head of this—and you know it. They’ll just find new marks and new places to move their stuff. It doesn’t matter what you do, you’re never going to stop this.”

“Well, that’s where you and I disagree,” he said. “And even if you’re right, that’s not going to stop me from doing my job. Every package we intercept is another dent in their bottom line. Make it hard enough for them to make money, and they’ll stop.”

“No,” Lily growled. “All that happens when you clamp down on supply is that the product is worth even more. People are going to get their fix one way or another. When you take a shipment out, all that happens is everyone else gets paid more for their product. You want to fix this problem? Stop stealing my money and find a real way to fix junkies.”

“You’d know about junkies, wouldn’t you?” Gareth purred back. “You’re hooked on this green. Look what you’re doing. Look what you’re saying, and for what? For some paper?”

“Oh right,” she squalled sarcastically. “You don’t need money. You’re too busy being fucking Batman in a leather jacket to care about money.”

There was a pause and a rumbling. It took Lily a few seconds to realize that Gareth was laughing. His body shook atop her, the vibrations of his mirth making the bed move.

“Batman in a leather jacket, huh?”

“It’s not fucking funny.”

“One day you’ll look back on this and see that it is,” he said, his tone becoming irritatingly paternalistic. “I’m going to make the right choice for you this time, and one day, you’ll make it for yourself.”

“Fucckkk off,” Lily swore. “And get the hell off me.”

“If I let you up, you’ll do something silly,” he said. “I’m going to keep you here until you calm down some.”

Lily started struggling again even though it was futile. She couldn’t just lay there and let herself be dominated out of ten thousand dollars. But no matter which way she wriggled, or how much she squirmed, she couldn’t move an inch. Making matters worse, the pressure of his pelvis on her bottom was reigniting the sensation from the spanking, so every time she moved, she effectively punished herself.

“Settle down,” he said soothingly. “This is happening, Lily. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you can move on with your life.”

She responded to his statement with another string of expletives, which he ignored. He didn’t care about her anger. He didn’t care about her swearing. He didn’t care about her struggles. He was just there, enforcing his will. And there was nothing she could do.

It took a very long time for her to calm down. She didn’t know how long, exactly, but she was exhausted when she finally relaxed and let her muscles go limp.

He sensed the point of her surrender perfectly and moved to the side, keeping one strong arm over her waist as they lay on the bed together. The covers and sheets were rucked up and messy thanks to the struggle. She was going to have to make it all over again before going to sleep that night. For some reason, that little fact alone made her cry.

Lily tried to hide her tears, but the more she tried to hide them, the more they flowed. A sniffle or two gave way to all out sobbing into the covers as she curled up on herself.

“Shhh,” Gareth said, rubbing her back. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay,” she blubbered into the messy sheets. “It’s never been okay and it never will be okay.”

Sobs wracked her body as years of tension began to flee. As much as she wanted to stop crying, she couldn’t. She hadn’t cried in so long she had forgotten how wet and snuffly and all around out of control it made her feel. Fighting for breath between sobs, she desperately tried to stop, which only made each sucking breath worse.

“Easy,” Gareth said, wrapping his arms around her body and pulling her close. “Easy now.”

His presence should not have calmed her, but it did. His calm, solid, masculine presence made her feel safe on an instinctual level in a part of her mind that didn’t care about money or any of the modern trappings of the world, but knew that it was safe in the arms of a man.

“I know I’m asking a lot from you,” he said, one hand stroking her hair back from her wet face. “I know I’m forcing even more, but I have to do this, and it is for the best. You’ll see, Lily. When this is all over, things are going to be better than they ever have been.”

She did not believe him, but the primal part of her mind did. That was the part that made her snuggle closer to him and bury her face in his chest. He smelled of masculine musk, and it was that scent which eventually brought her crying to a close.

“You are a bastard,” she muttered against his chest.

He patted her bottom and she could hear the smile in his voice as he replied. “I know.”

Chapter Six

Nine o’clock and the bar was packed. It was very busy for a Wednesday night, but Lily was no longer sure how many people were genuine customers, how many were Jasper’s people, and how many were plain clothes cops. It was ridiculous. She could have cried, but there really wasn’t time to feel sorry for herself. She had to work. She had to work every hour of every day, and even that might not be enough.