Free The Firm Hand of the Law by Loki Renard Page A

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