Lee Cross and his brother Stu were walking toward the stadium. Both of them were the sort of men who demanded attention, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise that mine was drawn in their direction. Just behind them were their two other brothers, Liam and Trevor. Liam was the youngest, a baby-faced version of Lee. Trevor was the second youngest, and he was prettier than half the girls I knew. Stu, the one Alexis had dated, was the eldest, and he was handsome in a rough and rugged sort of way.
Before I could give it a second thought, my feet were on the move. I managed to bypass Lee and went straight for Trevor.
“Excuse me a moment, sir, but can I have a word?” I said, placing a hand out for him to stop. He paused mid-stride and eyed me closely, like he knew my face but couldn’t quite pin down where he’d seen me before. The moment he took in my uniform, though, his gaze widened with recognition. Still, he didn’t get spooked and instead flashed me a smile, standing back as Liam arched a brow at me.
“Of course, Constable, what can I do for ya?” said Trevor, his sparkly blue eyes dancing. Was this a game to him? Small hairs suddenly prickled at the back of my neck, like a spooky sixth sense. Glancing quickly behind me, I saw Lee standing mere feet away with Stu.
“Problem, Snap?”
I swallowed, my eyelids fluttering nervously. What the hell was wrong with me? I never got nervous like this when I was working. It was Lee. He had a weird effect on me. For some reason, I grew flushed at the same time my jaw tightened. His little nickname for me was really starting to get on my nerves. I ignored him and turned back to Trevor.
“Two weeks ago, on Friday the twenty-first, between five and five-thirty, can you remember your whereabouts?”
He scratched his jaw, like he actually had to think about it. I’d been in touch with the newsagents where the car he’d tried to steal was parked. I requested their surveillance tapes but, and I knew this wasn’t a coincidence, the camera was angled in such a way that it hadn’t caught him.
“It’s hard to remember such a specific time, you get me?” said Trevor right before Stu stepped up, a hostile slant to his mouth.
“You were with me, bruv, down at the garage, remember?”
“Oh, right, yeah. That’s where I was. At the garage.” Trevor nodded.
I looked between the two of them, still incredibly aware of Lee at my back. He had this way of making me feel entirely seen, like he sensed just how uncomfortable I was under his watch. The thought made me even more determined not to let his brothers away with their blatant lie. I should have known that one of them would give Trevor an alibi, though.
“Is there anyone else who can corroborate this? Any other workers at the garage?”
“Of course there are. The place is closed for the weekend, but you be sure to pop over on Monday, and we’ll get you speaking to some of the boys,” said Lee, coming to stand next to me. I sucked in a small breath and tried to remain in control, which was hard to do, considering I was surrounded by Cross brothers amid a crowd of football supporters. I finally allowed my eyes to meet Lee’s, and the way he was looking at me caused me to swallow thickly.
“Yeah, I’ll, uh, I’ll do that,” I answered, a little befuddled, before looking back to Trevor and Stu. “You all enjoy the game.”
I was stepping away when Stu called after me, “We will, and you tell Lexie I was asking for her.”
Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I gave him a quick nod. Stu was drop-dead gorgeous, but his attempts to win Alexis back were pointless. Her heart belonged to another. Lee’s shoulder brushed mine as he turned to follow his brothers, and I couldn’t for the life of me explain why, but I reached out to grab his wrist.
Steve, Tony, and Keira were just yards away, but the area was so crowded that they’d never be able to see I was touching him. He glanced down at my fingers before his eyes rose to my face, and he looked intrigued.
“Can I talk to you for a second?”
I breathed heavily when his thumb slid slowly along my palm before rubbing tenderly at the inside of my wrist. Withdrawing my hand like I’d just been burned, I saw his lips twitch in amusement.
“What is it, Snap?” he whispered.
“I, uh, I….” Jesus Christ, was I tongue-tied?
“Karla,” said Lee, and he sounded concerned, “are you all right?”
I blushed, unable to help it, before summoning my resolve. “Yes, I’m fine. I’d just like to ask if you could quit with the nickname. It suggests a familiarity we don’t have, and it undermines my position as a police constable. I have a feeling that’s why you do it, and to be perfectly honest, it’s patronising.”
Sticking my chin out, I looked him dead in the eye, and his expression softened. “If that’s how it comes across, then I’m sorry. But I don’t call you Snap to patronise you — I do it because I like you.”
Damn, why did I have to find his honesty so disarming? He looked like he wanted to touch me again, which made me feel the need to move swiftly on. I wasn’t looking directly at him, but somewhere in the vicinity of his shoulder, when I continued, “Anyway, the other thing I wanted to talk to you about is Trevor. If he’s lying — and I’m not stupid, Lee, he and Stu are clearly lying — then he could find himself in big trouble down the line. He seems like a good kid, but you need to teach him to be smart. And I’m not saying this to be cruel — it’s just the truth — but a boy who looks like him in prison? That wouldn’t end anywhere good.”
I finally managed to meet his eyes, and when I did, I was shocked at what I found. For a second Lee looked guilty, his every feature filled with remorse before it was replaced with something that looked a lot like anger. He took a deep breath and ran a hand over his jaw.
“Are we done here?” he asked curtly.
Soberly, I nodded, and he turned and walked away. It was ridiculous that I felt bad about what I’d said, but it needed to be done. Somebody had to remind Lee of the reality of how his family was living, and exactly where it would lead.
When I went to rejoin the others, I noticed Steve looking in the direction Lee had gone.
“Were those the Cross boys you were talking to just now?” he asked curiously.
I glanced at him. “Uh-huh.”
“What have they been up to this time?”
Tony stepped in to answer for me. “Karla and I had a run-in with one of them a couple weeks ago. Found him trying to nick a car. Never caught him, though.”
Steve chuckled derisively. “Well, you wouldn’t.” He paused and eyed me. “You see the two younger ones? You’ll never catch either of them. At least, not on foot. They’re into all that free-running business. Little shits will be halfway down the side of a building before you’ve even stopped to catch your breath.”
“Seriously?” said Tony.
My mind reeled as I remembered Trevor jumping a ten-foot wall like it was nothing. So it was definitely him. Tony and I shared a glance, like we were both thinking the same thing, and my determination returned. Maybe I would pay a visit to Lee’s garage on Monday after all. It couldn’t be that difficult to catch one of his employees out on a lie.
Don’t get me wrong — I wasn’t doing it because I wanted to put Trevor in a jail cell. I was doing it because I thought it might be enough of a scare to get him to start abiding by the law.
Once the crowds had dispersed and everybody was inside the stadium watching the match, Keira and I went to grab some coffees and sandwiches for an early lunch. After that there were a couple of incidents to handle while the game was on, mostly drunk and disorderly behaviour. Sport plus alcohol generally equalled a bunch of rowdy imbeciles.
The game finished 3-1 to Spurs, which meant there was going to be a whole lot of pissed-off Arsenal fans coming our way, including Lee and his brothers. We were controlling the flow in such a way that the fans of opposing teams didn’t mix. Unfortunately, a group of Spurs supporters, not wanting to wait in line, managed to jump one of the barricades. Before we knew it, they’d mixed in with the Arsenal
fans.
I’d experienced a number of riots in my time, but had never actually witnessed the moment that instigated it all. It was amazing how something so small could lead to such chaos. One guy wearing a Spurs jersey knocked into an Arsenal fan, heated words were exchanged, and before I knew it, punches were being thrown. I looked to my left and right, but Keira and Steve were too far off, and they wouldn’t be able to get past the crowd on time. I’d have to deal with this myself.
My hand instinctively went to my baton; I wouldn’t hesitate to use it should things get out of control. It was times like these that I really wished all UK police carried firearms. People generally backed off when you were pointing a gun at them. We had armed units, but the main workforce carried only an extendable baton, CS spray, and a Taser. I tried to use the spray and Taser only when absolutely necessary, and usually the sight of my baton was enough to keep most people in line.
The problem in this particular situation? Alcohol.
Both men were angry drunk, the worst kind, so I knew I was going to have a battle on my hands.
“Hey! That’s enough, fellas,” I called out as one man threw a left hook at the other guy’s jaw. A crowd was starting to gather, gangs of people egging them on. Out came the baton, and an onlooker to my left blew a low whistle. This was where my martial arts training came in handy, because a baton was about the same length of an eskrima stick. It wasn’t exactly ethical, but to a certain level you could adapt the skills.
“Both of you need to back off. This is your last warning,” I shouted with authority. When neither of them heeded my advice, I started to approach. Somebody placed their hand on my shoulder, and I turned swiftly to find Tony standing there.
“Let me help,” he said, and I nodded, allowing him to go ahead of me. Grabbing one guy’s arm and twisting it behind his back, Tony managed to subdue him, while I went straight for the other man. Sliding my baton back in its holster, I pulled out my cuffs.
“Hands above your head,” I ordered, making the mistake of touching his shoulder. He interpreted it as a sign of aggression, too drunk to realise I was a police officer, and swung around. Luckily, I managed to duck quickly and avoid a blow. Seeing he’d missed his mark, he threw another punch, but I was faster. Sidestepping the hit, I grabbed his other arm and locked it firmly behind his back.
“You fucking bitch,” he slurred, struggling in my hold.
“Oi,” Tony shouted, seeing him resist me. “Do as the constable tells you.”
“Piss off!” the drunk spat as I slapped a pair of cuffs on him.
“Stop acting like a twat,” a bystander put in. It didn’t help matters.
The drunk man grew incensed and lunged for the bystander. I was momentarily distracted, and he slipped out of my hold. Still cuffed, he dove forward and head-butted the man, who threw his hands out in an effort to defend himself. A couple of people tried to break up the scuffle, but it only resulted in more fighting. Soon I was standing in the middle of a riot, and I couldn’t see Tony anywhere. My heart rate picked up, my palms growing sweaty. How the hell had things escalated this quickly?
Bodies seemed to be everywhere, and before I could react, somebody ran right into me. I caught myself before I fell, reached for my baton, and ordered several rioters to cease and desist. The thing was, there was one of me and dozens of them, and they completely ignored my instructions. I approached two men, both in their mid-twenties, my baton out. I shouted a warning, but neither of them listened, so I gave one of them a measured blow to the shin. He immediately turned on me.
“Get down on the ground,” I ordered at the same moment he grabbed for my baton. I levelled a kick to his abdomen and he bent over, knees hitting the tarmac. Just as I about to pull out my second pair of cuffs and arrest him, a glass bottle somebody had thrown came sailing through the air, hitting me right on the forehead.
“Shit,” I swore, growing dizzy, and saw the man crawl forward to steal my baton once more. Before he could get away, somebody slammed their foot down on his wrist and I heard a voice threaten, “Drop the stick and fuck off.”
Looking up, I saw Lee, but I was too busy trying to regain my composure to pay him much attention. A second later he was in front of me, his hands on my face. “Karla, are you okay?”
“I’m…I’m fine,” I said as he settled an arm around my waist and pulled me forward.
“No, you’re not. Come on, let me get you out of here. It’s not safe.”
The urge to protest almost bubbled out, but my head hurt too much to speak. Lee’s body heat sank into me, warming my bones. He kept glancing at me in concern as he led me away from the rioting. Seconds later I was standing in a narrow doorway as he crowded me in. I allowed my weight to rest against the wall while he pulled a napkin from his pocket and began dabbing at the cut on my forehead.
He muttered angrily to himself, but I was too out of it to properly listen to what he was saying.
“Where’s Tony?” I finally managed to ask in an unsteady voice.
Lee’s hand paused. “Lanky bastard? Didn’t see him.”
I tried to push him out of the way. “I need to go back and help.”
He stood firm, his hands bracing my shoulders. “You’re hurt. You won’t be any use. Now hold still and let me clean you up.”
I took a deep breath and went quiet. This was probably the closest we’d ever been, and I found myself studying his face. He was concentrating on dabbing the blood from my forehead, so I had a chance to properly take him in. God, he was handsome. There was a hardness to his features, and I felt a strange need to smooth my fingers over the crease between his eyebrows. It seemed like he worried for me, which made those butterflies begin to flutter once again.
My eyes traced the lines of his strong jaw, angled cheekbones, and masculine lips. Then I looked up and found him watching me study him. Those lips I’d just been staring at now curved into a smile. His body moved forward, his heat surrounding me, and against my own will I trembled.
“Oh, Snap, what are we gonna do?” he whispered right into my ear, and I flushed the second his breath hit my skin. The way his weight pressed on me wasn’t unpleasant.
The noise of people shouting and glass shattering rang out, but somehow Lee’s presence seemed to mute everything. All I could hear were his breaths and mine. All I could smell was his soap and cologne. His fingers came to my neck, but my collar was too high for him to be able to access much skin. Still, the parts of me that he was touching were on fire.
“Do you feel dizzy or sick?” he asked, and I shook my head. I’d had a concussion enough times in the past to know I didn’t have one then. Our gazes locked, and I wasn’t quite sure how much time had passed when he asked another question.
“How did you know where I lived?”
“What?”
“The other week you came by my house. How did you know where I lived?”
I tried to think of the least embarrassing answer, because the truth was that I’d gone snooping. “All of your brothers have a record, Lee. Not to mention Stu served six months in Feltham as a young offender. Your address is in the system.”
“Yeah, but you went looking, didn’t you?” His smile returned.
“That’s correct. I went looking right after I caught your brother trying to steal someone’s car,” I told him pointedly.
He quirked an eyebrow like he didn’t believe me. “You’re that quick, huh?”
My throat grew dry. “All it takes is a call to dispatch.”
His chest rubbed off mine, and even through my stab vest I could feel it. “And how did you recognise Trevor? You’d never met him before.”
Christ, was this an interrogation? “He has your eyes,” I blurted without thinking.
This gave Lee pause, and a long silence fell between us, his gaze searching mine. “That’s a whole lot of attention to pay to someone you don’t want to know,” he said finally, throwing my own words back at me, the ones I’d spoken the first time we met.
“Lee,” I pleaded, desperately needing him to back off. “You’re too young for me.”
“Karla, I’m perfect for you,” he countered, right before his mouth dipped in and his lips brushed lightly across mine. It was hardly anything, and yet, every nerve ending in my body came alive. Just as his mouth was about to descend on mine again, I dug my heel into his ankle. He grunted and reared away, leaving me enough space to get by him. Unfortunately, I didn’t get very far. I’d barely taken three steps when Lee caught hold of my arm and pulled me to him, my back to his front.
“What you just did, not advisable,” he breathed harshly.
There was no mistaking the threat in his voice, and a shiver ran through me. Gone was the playful flirtation, and I was reminded once more that this man was bad news.
“Take your hands off me right now or I’ll arrest you,” I ordered, my tone harsh.
Seconds passed, like he was deliberating over what to do. Then he released me, but not before delivering a final statement. “One day, Karla, you’ll understand that me having my hands on you is never a bad thing.”
My skin prickled. It took me a moment to absorb his words, but by the time I turned around, he was already gone.
***
Once I’d managed to regain my sanity after my encounter with Lee, I called in the troops. An hour later we had the rioting under control, a number of people were arrested, and the remainder were emptied from the stadium. The wound to my forehead was superficial, so, thanks to Lee’s clean-up job, I was still able to finish my shift. It was difficult to comprehend the fact that he’d helped me, but I reminded myself it was all an act. He only wanted to bang a cop so that he could brag about it to his mates afterward.
I was just leaving the locker room that evening when I heard somebody ask, “Shit, what happened to you?”