“Okay, so….” Lee’s voice dipped as his eyes travelled over my heaving chest. “I guess the only thing left for you to do is kiss the victor.”

That did it. I couldn’t take any more as I twisted my wrists out of his hold and used my hip bone to break the tenseness in his thighs. Within seconds I was out from under him, walking to the other side of the ring and searching for my towel. Once I found it, I dabbed my brow and slipped out between the ropes.

“Hey, Karla,” Lee called after me. I turned and waited for him to say something. “I know you could have done that any time.” He stopped, not saying any more because he didn’t have to. We both knew what he was inferring. I could have gotten out from under him, but I didn’t because I liked having him on me, and that was the scariest part of all.

***

Chicken noodles were my dreamboat. I tended to get crazy hungry when I was on a shift, so the sight of Tony walking into the station with a bag of Chinese takeaway was like music to my ears, or, I dunno, a beautiful artwork to my eyes.

I was manning the front desk and decided to eat while I worked because the station was a madhouse. Halfway through my dinner, and having dealt with a number of drunks, one prostitute, and a woman who’d had her handbag stolen on the tube, I had a call come in about an illegal rave going on in a warehouse down in Brixton. They needed extra backup because there were hundreds of people there, a lot thought to be underage, and apparently some dodgy drugs were being passed around. It was with a forlorn sigh that I said goodbye to my noodles and hopped in the patrol car with Tony.

“Okay, here’s one for ya,” he began, and I knew I was going to be hit with a brain teaser. Tony and I had a thing for trying to figure them out together. When you worked with someone day in and day out, you came up with ways to pass the time. “If it were two hours long, it’d be half as long until midnight as it would be if it were an hour later. What time is it now?”

I glanced at him, screwing my mouth up in concentration as I repeated the question to myself over and over. The problem was, the more I repeated it, the less sense it made. In the end I just gave up. “Ugh, I’ve got nothing. I’ll have to think about it some other time. Hey, so what’s the deal with these drugs at the warehouse?”

“Little white pills,” said Tony. “Been going around for the last few months and a couple of kids have OD’d. They’re saying it’s E, but it’s not normal E. Tests done in the lab say there’s all sorts in there.”

I shook my head and looked out the window, my gut churning with anger and worry. Teenagers seemed to be willing to put anything into their bodies without a care to the fact that it could kill them. I noticed lights flashing behind us and turned to see an ARV following. My ex, Gavin, was more than likely inside. Fantastic.

“Is that really necessary?” I asked, flicking my eyes to Tony and then back to the van behind us.

“Our informant says the rave is being organised by Tommy McGregor. He’s serious business and his people will likely be tooled up.”

“Oh, yay. So they’re sending us in to get shot at?”

“You’re in a delightful mood today. And no, the armed unit will go in first. We’ll be outside to clean up after.”

As though reiterating his words, the van overtook us. The name of the gangster running the rave kept ringing in my head until I remembered where I’d heard of him before. This was the same guy my dad had been trying to put away, the one he hadn’t been able to pin down. Since Dad tended to work on the more hard-core cases, I was guessing this bloke really was serious business, like Tony said.

Rolling down my window and letting the cold night air waft into the car, I heard thumping music echoing in the distance. We were close. Tony followed the van and turned into a fairly dilapidated area. Lights flashed glaringly from the windows of the warehouse, and I recognised Swedish House Mafia blaring from the building so loudly it was almost deafening.

“Never mind the drugs and the underage drinking — this place looks like it’s ready to collapse,” I said.

“Bloody disaster waiting to happen,” Tony agreed unhappily.

He had two teenage daughters, and these were the sorts of places he tried his best to keep them away from. A number of other police vehicles had already arrived, and I noticed a stream of people, all dressed in club clothes, running out a back exit of the building. The girls wore tiny dresses and skirts that barely covered their backsides, while the guys were decked out in jeans and muscle Ts. Some of them were even going topless, with luminous bands around their arms and necks.

“Hey, turn here and see if we can catch a few of them on their way out,” I said, and Tony swung the car around sharply. They were like ants scattering in all directions. Catching sight of two girls, I noticed they were pulling along a third and seemed to be crying out for help. The girl they were helping looked completely out of it, her head lolling to one side and her hair hanging across her face. I hopped out before telling Tony to go park and that I’d catch up to him.

 “What’s wrong with your friend?” I asked in an authoritative voice as I ran up to the girls and shone a flashlight on them.

“She…she took something. I don’t know what, but she passed out a few minutes ago,” one of them answered, on the verge of tears. I felt a maternal sort of worry for them, because they couldn’t have been any older than sixteen or seventeen.

“Both of you go stand over by the wall while I check her out,” I ordered them.

“You’re not going to call our parents, are you?”

“Your friend might need to be hospitalised, and you’re worried about your parents finding out? You should be glad you’re not in her boat.”

They looked guilty and upset, but they did as I said. I knew they weren’t a bad sort, just misguided. A lot of girls would have abandoned their friend and run for the hills. I took hold of her and checked her vital signs. She was in a bad way. Settling her against my hip, I then led the girls to the front of the building, where a bunch of people had been rounded up. The paramedics were already on the scene, and I handed the girl off to them.

“Her friends said she took something. More than likely it’s those new pills that are going around,” I told the medic before I was called away.

“Sheehan, see if you can get that music turned off. It’s giving me a migraine,” a sergeant ordered me, and I hurried inside the building to see if I could cut the electrics somehow. It was dark inside, and there were still a number of members of the armed unit running around. I hadn’t heard any gunfire, which was a good sign. Maybe this would all be taken care of peacefully. I could understand the sergeant’s annoyance with the music, because it was even worse inside, and combined with the dim lighting, was a little disorienting.

I saw some wiring running along the skirting boards and followed it up two floors, hoping it’d lead me to a power source. I was on the third floor when I sensed movement to my right. Turning, I saw three blokes, one of them heavyset, running down the stairs. They must have been on the top floor and were trying to get outside without bumping into any police.

“Stop right there,” I shouted, but it was likely they couldn’t hear me over the music. And even if they could hear me, I doubt they’d have stopped. I chased after them, my booted feet pounding down the stairs. The two slim guys were fast, but I managed to catch up with the bigger one. We collided, and in his struggle to get away, I had to pin him to the ground, making quick work of cuffing him as I recited his rights. He swore loudly, and one of the guys he’d been with stopped running and turned around.

Time moved in slow motion when I looked up and saw Lee Cross’s blue eyes staring back at me.