“You son of a bitch,” I whispered, my voice thick. I started to shake as I stared at him. I’d let him put his hands on me. His mouth. I'd comforted him. “You monstrous, evil son of a bitch.”
“Cut the shit, Toni!” His green eyes glinted as he glowered at me. Fury practically radiated off him and that only made me angrier. He wasn't the wronged party here.
We’d hadn't exchanged deep, heartfelt words of longing, but I’d…hell. I liked sex. A lot. But I'd never been flippant about it. I’d always prided myself on my discernment when it came to choosing who would share my bed. How could I have been so wrong?
He stalked toward me and shot out a hand, grabbing my arm and jerking me close to him. I didn’t even fight. I didn't have it in me. I was still reeling from the betrayal.
His fingers dug into my arm, leaving bruises as he bit each word off, “Where. Is. She.”
“I don't know.” I stared into his eyes and it was like looking at a stranger. Sick inside, I said, “I like your sister. I would never hurt her.”
His fingers tightened, just a little and he tugged me closer until there was less than an inch between our bodies. “That’s your final answer?”
I just stared up at him. How could he think that of me? Had all of this only been an act?
“Lieutenant.” His voice, so cool and calm now, sounded out of place.
I jerked away and surprisingly, he let me go.
He let me go.
Spinning around, I half-stumbled at the sight of the cop standing there. Her name escaped me. She slid a look from me to the man at my back. There was a curious look on her face. Later, I’d remember it. Later. Much later.
“Go on.”
At first, I thought he was talking to me.
But then the cop looked at me. “Miss Gallagher, we’d like you to come into the station and answer some questions.”
“About what?” I demanded as several uniformed officers swarmed me. One of them took my elbow. I jerked away, even though I knew better. Common sense and logic were taking a backseat to all of the shit going through my head.
“Miss Gallagher,” the lieutenant said, her voice calm. “We just have some routine questions.”
“Then ask them here,” I said. “I answered questions here before.”
“Get her out of here!” Ash bellowed.
I shot him an ugly look.
When I shifted my attention back to the lieutenant, I caught sight of something in her eyes. Regret.
She looked from me to Ash and then back at me.
I knew then that I was in trouble.
Vic's words came back to me. Money doesn’t talk…it sings….
I looked around at the cops circling me, surrounding me. My chest tightened and I could barely breathe. Why was this happening? The question had a tinge of hysteria in it. Was I paying for Vic's mistakes? Again. God forgive me…I loved my brother, but I’d paid for his mistakes enough. Too many judged me by the things he had done. And what Ash had thought he knew about Vic…that wasn’t even the truth. My brother had been innocent. Was innocent. And so was I.
But it looked like that didn't matter to anyone. Who cared if I was some scapegoat because I had a brother who'd done some dumb shit years ago? Nobody, that's who. I didn't have money. My family wasn't important. These cops didn't care if they hurt the people I loved, so long as the ones with money and power got what they wanted. Ash didn't care who got hurt, as long as people did what he told them to do.
Something inside me snapped, and when the cop to my left touched my elbow, I jerked back.
His jaw tightened and he gave me a look I knew too well.
I lifted my chin.
I was done.
The entire room went quiet.
“Miss, you need to get control of yourself and come with me,” he said, his voice flat. He reached out again and I took a step back.
“Yeah? You’ve yet to give me a reason.” I curled my lip and said, “I know my damn rights. You want to take me somewhere? Tell me what the problem is. What’s the damn evidence against me?”
He went to catch my arm again and I smacked at his hand.
“Don't touch me,” I warned. “Unless you have an arrest warrant, don't fucking touch me again.”
“Toni, for fuck’s sake.” Ash’s snarl barely even registered.
“That’s it.” It came from the tired-looking brunette at my side.
When she caught my arm, I acted without thinking. I pivoted and swung, driving my fist into her nose. I heard it crunch, saw the blood spurt out…and then I was thrown to the ground.
I wished it would've been Ash. And I wished I would've done a lot worse to him than just messing up his nose.
Chapter 10
Ash
I felt sick.
As Toni was half-dragged out of the salon, I leaned against the bar service and stared at the blood on the carpet. That was going to be hell to get out.
“Are you okay?”
Automatically, I started to answer, but when I looked up, I saw that Special Agent Marcum was talking to the cop with the bloody nose.
“Crazy bitch,” the officer said, her words thick and distorted.
An instinctive response leaped to my lips and I had to clench my jaw to keep from saying that Toni had warned them not to touch her. It didn't matter what she'd said. They only cared about what she'd done.
A few moments later, the rest of the NYPD gang had been cleared out by Marcum's two agents. One of her people followed the cops outside, eying the bleeding brunette, but Marcum hadn’t budged from her spot by the door.
“Why are you here?” I snapped at Marcum. “Don’t you want to horn in on the action?”
“Sure. When there’s action. But I know guilty and the girl? She isn't guilty.” She hesitated a moment, and then tipped her head at me. “Are you proud of yourself for that set-up, Mr. Lang?” She actually sounded curious.
“I didn’t do shit,” I bit off. “She’s the one who helped somebody – probably her brother – kidnap my sister.”
“Like hell she did.” Marcum rolled her eyes and planted her hands on her hips. “If that girl is any kind of criminal, then I’m Lady Gaga. You tried to throw your weight around with me to get to her, and it didn’t work, so you sicced your boys in blue on her.”
She paused and I just stared at her, refusing to even blink.
“What did you do, call the mayor?”
Something in my face must've given me away, though I didn't know what, because Marcum made a disgusted sound.
“Wow. That’s impressive. I wouldn’t do what you wanted, so you shook your money around and intimidated people into violating that girl's rights.”
“That’s not–” I snapped my jaw shut as a red flush climbed up my cheeks. This was bullshit. It didn’t matter what my methods had been if I found my sister. Period.
But the burn of humiliation did nothing to help the anger in my gut at all. I didn’t want to feel like I was in the wrong here. But I kept seeing Toni’s eyes. I couldn’t wipe away the memory of the betrayed look on her face.
“Just shut up,” I said, shaking my head.
Kowalski was on to something. He had to be. He'd just been cautious when he'd told me there wasn't any actual evidence. But if he hadn't been right, I had nothing. Absolutely nothing. And that was something I didn't even want to consider. I had to fix this. I had to find Isadora. No matter what.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”