Gun Moll by Bethany-Kris, Erin Ashley Tanner

process that she’d been arrested.
    Solicitation.
    A prostitute was
the last thing she was. Besides, she wasn’t buying any of this. It was too
random. There was more at play here than she was being told, there had to be.
Her gaze narrowed when the door opened and the two men who’d arrested her
waltzed in. The ginger-haired one took a seat on the opposite side of her,
while the dark-haired man took a spot leaning in the corner watching her.
    “Ms. Morgan, I’m
Detective Parks. My partner is Detective Keaton,” the ginger-haired man said.
    Melina said
nothing. She simply stared.
    “You’re a very
beautiful woman. It’s easy to see why men can’t help themselves around you,” Detective
Keaton said.
    “It’s not a crime
to be beautiful.”
    “Indeed, it
isn’t.” Detective Parks leaned back in his chair and regarded her with a smirk.
    Melina itched to
put her stiletto through his throat.
    “No. It’s not a
crime to be beautiful, but it is a crime to solicit,” the other detective said.
    “I went to a club,”
Melina replied, unaffected. “Last time I checked, going to a club was in no way
related to soliciting.”
    Detective Keaton
came towards the table and sat on the edge next to his partner.
    “It is when your
patrons include two members of the Pivetti crime family.”
    “What the hell are
you talking about?”
    “Don’t play
stupid. We watched you in action tonight. You’re good. I’ll give you that,”
Parks said.
    “You guys really
need to get out more.”
    Keaton tapped his
partner’s shoulder. “We’ve got a smart aleck on our hands.”
    “Seems that way,
but I bet a night in the slammer will make her talk.”
    Were these fools
for real?
    Melina crossed her
legs. “Threats aren’t going to work on me. I’ve done nothing wrong and the last
thing I’m going to do is let two dimwitted cops intimidate me.”
    “We’ve got you,
Ms. Morgan, if not for soliciting, then you are definitely working for them in
some other capacity. Maybe you’re a mule or a messenger. We’ve been watching
that club for long enough to know what beautiful women like you are used for
inside that business.”
    “This is not The
Godfather . Are things really that slow that you have to result to harassing
innocent citizens?”
    “If you’re so
innocent, make it easy on yourself and be a good citizen. Tell us what we want
to know.”
    Melina would not
have been surprised if flames started shooting from her eyes.
    Be a good citizen.
    They could go fuck
themselves.
    “Why don’t you two
stick this illegal interrogation up your asses? And while you attempt to pull
it back out, let me have my phone call. I’m done talking.”
    Melina turned her
head and refused to look at either of them. She gritted her teeth and closed
her eyes. Yes, she’d just told them a few words, but if they acquiesced and let
her have her phone call, who would she call? Dulcea was out of the question. No
way would her boss want to be within a mile of the cops, especially with them
saying Melina was soliciting at the time of her arrest.
    She had no one to
call.
    Melina was alone
in the world and the hard reality of that was staring her right in the face.

 

     
    “A h, Mr. Maccari, I
wondered which one of Miss Morgan’s patrons would come to her rescue this
evening.”
    Mac turned at the
sound of the weasel-like voice, only to come face to face with a plain-clothes
police detective. Smiling slowly, Mac looked the cop over. Seemingly tired and
worn, the man’s clothes were wrinkled, his shirt sleeves were rolled up to his
elbows, and the top two buttons had been undone to loosen the collar around his
neck.
    Apparently,
illegally interrogating people could make a man exhausted.
    “Patron?” Mac
asked. “I can’t say I know what you’re talking about.”
    “Melina
Morgan—escort extraordinaire. I found it interesting that the Pivetti family is
shelling out the dough for a hooker of Melina’s caliber. That’s quite a