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.”

From the corner of my eye, I could see the agent moving to the door.

Finally.

Marcum paused. “I hope she’s as tough as she looks, Mr. Lang.”

“Isadora is tough,” I answered automatically.

“Not your sister,” Marcum said. “Toni Gallagher. She better be way tougher than she looks.”

I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. “What are you talking about?”

“In case it’s escaped your notice, it’s Friday afternoon.” She made a show of checking her watch. “By the time they get done processing her, it'll be pretty late. And she punched a cop. Nobody’s going to be rushed to get her arraigned. She’ll be spending some time behind bars. All weekend, to be blunt.”

“What the hell ever. They can set bail on weekends.” I tried not to think about how much that idea bothered me.

Marcum gave me an incredulous look. “I'd forgotten what world you lived in. Judges don’t work weekends. Lawyers might. If a case fits certain, shall we say, criteria, she might be let out on bond. But I can tell you now, hitting a cop? Any kind of assault? That ain’t gonna fly. No matter the circumstances. She’s going to have to see a judge before they even come close to letting her out.”

My gut started to get a little queasy as Marcum studied her slim gold watch, her lips pursed.

“She’ll get through processing in a few hours if she’s lucky. Then she’s got all weekend in holding. She might see a judge on Monday. Tuesday is more likely. Her paperwork will probably get lost. And when she does see a judge, they're not going to do her any favors for bail. Now, I don't know the details of her family's financials, but I think it's safe to say that they probably can’t afford whatever bail the judge sets.” Her dark brown eyes narrowed as she looked at me. “See, she doesn’t know all the big-time important people like you. She’s just a regular person. She’s fucked, in short.”

“Am I supposed to care about that?” The thing was…I did. Even as I said the words, I knew I cared. What the fuck? Why did I care? I’d been thinking about Isadora when I'd called in my favors, but now…

Now, I was just…

Shit.

“Pretty, mouthy girl like that, tucked away behind bars. She’s never had to sit in the holding tank before, I bet. Neither have you, I'm sure.” Her eyes gleamed. “It can get pretty ugly, especially since the cops will probably put her in with some unsavory people.”

“She kidnapped my sister!”

“No, she didn’t.” Marcum’s voice was cold and clear…and so certain.

I was torn between wanting to believe her and not wanting to. If the agent was right, then Toni was exactly who she'd always seemed to be…but that also meant I'd royally fucked things up.

“And here’s the thing, Mr. Lang. It doesn't really even matter how the next couple days play out, because she’s probably going to jail anyway.”

“But here you stand insisting she didn’t do anything.” I snorted. “Some faith in the justice system you have.”

Marcum started to laugh. It was caustic, bitter. It ended quickly though and she shook her head. “Educate yourself on the law, Mr. Lang. She struck a police officer while said officer was carrying out her civic duty. That’s second-degree assault. Granted, there was no arrest warrant, no legal way for the cops to force her to come in. And never mind that, in all fairness, she'd told them not to touch her and they really didn't have a legal right to. Or the fact that she'd probably felt trapped, with no way out.”

Trapped…

Toni had a reason to feel trapped. I’d lured her here. I’d told the cops to wait, then used them to ambush her. I’d set this all up and I had no doubt the cops had received the order to make sure Toni was brought in for questioning.

“Never mind that there was no reason for her to even be here in the first place,” Marcum added softly. “No attorney will ask about that, I’m thinking. Why bother trying to set up a clear defense? There were witnesses. You were one of them. I was one of them.” Her smile went even colder. “I guess she won’t be finishing that degree…ever. She hit a cop. That’s a felony.”